Yaakov Kirschen, the Dry Bones cartoonist, was here recently, and I would put what he said this way: 95% of the debate about the Middle East conflict focuses on 5% of the problem:
We are obsessed with the Palestinian Arabs.
Israel is threatened far more by Iran, Syria and Hizballah than by Hamas and Fatah. The radicalization of Egypt — it will soon be Islamist or radical nationalist — is a source of concern. The entire Arab world, 22 nations of 350 million people, plus Iran, plus Turkey, do not agree that there should be a Jewish state in the Middle East, and some of them are doing their best to put an end to it.
The root of the conflict is not the borders between Israel and ‘Palestine’, nor even whether or not there is a ‘Palestine’. It is the fact that the Arab world — actually, most of the Muslim world — does not accept a Jewish state in the Middle East, never has, and it seems never will.
The Palestinian Arabs with their nakba myth, their absurd escalating demands, their culture of cruelty, violence and death, their alternation between whining that they are victims and perpetrating murder, their position as an object of worship by the antisemitic Left — all of this is a sideshow, albeit an ugly one.
But when Barack Obama makes a speech or Tom Friedman writes an article about the Middle East, their remarks about Israel are all about its conflict with the Palestinian Arabs.
Because of this misplaced focus, it’s possible for Obama to say that an agreement between Israel and the PA — in which Israel gives up land and security, of course — is urgent. Actually, as Barry Rubin says, this is the worst time for Israel to make concessions:
But remember that this is all part of Obama’s wider theme: It is in Israel’s interests to make a lot of concessions as fast as possible so that the Israel-Palestinian conflict will end and then Israel (with reduced territory and a new hostile, much bigger, neighbor!) will be more popular in the world and more secure in the Middle East.
Huh?
The moment when Israel is about to have three radical Islamist neighbors is not the time to make concessions to a fourth, half-Islamist, half-radical nationalist one.
This seems so obvious, but it’s a point that’s always missed. And the reason is that people think that it’s all about big, bad Israel and the poor Palestinian Arabs. In reality, the Palestinian Arabs are mostly an excuse, a club to hit Israel with.
The conflict is much broader than that. And if you look at the big picture you see that Israel is not the bully it’s made out to be. And you see that if you want to calm things down, you need to go to the source of it, which is in places like Iran and Syria — not Jerusalem, Ramallah and Gaza.
If I could, I would make Obama, Friedman, et al, all go up to the blackboard and write this 10,000 times:
The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism. The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism.The root of the conflict is Arab/Muslim rejectionism…
Technorati Tags: Israeli-Arab conflict
The root of the conflict is existential. It won’t be settled by dangerous Israeli concessions.
Right now the world is a dangerous place. No responsible and sane Israeli leader would contemplate making dramatic concessions in these circumstances.
This is the responsible and prudent course of action for the Jewish State to follow for the future. The country can survive withering editorials and irresponsible criticism. It cannot survive placing itself in imminent jeopardy.
Everyone is enjoined to remember the Jewish people will not get a second chance. They must preserve their national sovereignty at all costs.
As Gold Meir once noted, “better a bad press than a good epitaph.”
The major point of this piece is extremely important . But there is little sign that negotiations will be getting under way despite President Obama’s urgings. The signs are rather that the Arabs will along with the statehood move at the U.N. either renew violence or try to pressure though soft violence i.e. marches to the border, and civilian protests of various kinds.
What seems to be coming then is more active conflict. This is what we must be preparing for.
The head of the EU just said in an interview that they back Obama’s initiative (surprise, surprise), and that if Israel won’t go along – I think his words were, “remain stubborn” – then the EU will take ‘political action’.
Eyes open, powder dry…
It will likely explode into a war this fall. One thing is for sure: The Palis won’t come out of this “ahead”. Obama and the EU, they claim to have the interests of the Palis at heart, but they are only driving them into their graves.