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Middle East Problem in a Nutshell <<
Israel’s Right to Exist
By Henk Kamsteeg
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama met each other at the White House in Washington, the first time since their respective elections.
Although both leaders realized that the diplomatic stakes are very high, they came in with divergent views regarding the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, how to deal with the Iran nuclear crisis, and the linkage between the two issues.
Barack Obama left no doubt that he wants a peace agreement as soon as possible, and the birth of “Palestine” – the so-called “two-state solution”. It is the cornerstone of his governments policy in the Middle East.
The US president is not the only one who believes the two-state solution is the only solution to peace in the Middle East. Pope Benedict XVI also called for a Palestinian state during his recent visit to Israel, and a poll in Israel showed that 58 percent of the Israelis are backing a two-state solution.
Not surprisingly, the UN Security Council unanimously reaffirmed its support for the two-state option, and the European Union is strongly in favor of this as well. EU’s foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, even warned Israel that its relations with Europe “will be very, very different” if it drops the two-state ball. It could mean that there will be a rocky road ahead for the traditionally strong US - Israeli relations.
While most of the media portrayed Benjamin Netanyahu as “hardliner who opposes territorial concessions”, the Israeli leader is a pragmatic centre-right politician. During his two-hour meeting with the US president, Netanyahu made it clear that “not only Israel has to give but also the Palestinians and the Arab countries, not at the end of the process but now. They have to take concrete steps to improve relations with Israel and to begin to set in motion reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world,” he said.
A key question is whether or not Netanyahu appeared to forgo an opportunity to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict. Insiders have said that he doesn’t oppose a Palestinian state, but that Iran and Hamas must be contained rather before than after such a state is established on Israel’s borders.
Barack Obama told the Netanyahu he must stop Jewish settlements and should grasp a “historic opportunity” to make peace with the Palestinians. Afterwards he told reporters that serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would be possible only if Netanyahu ordered an end to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, land that would make up the Palestinian state along with the Gaza Strip. US Vice President Joe Biden also joined the chorus: “Do not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu argued that Israel already dismantled settlements in the Gaza Strip, and that it was rewarded with the takeover of Gaza by Hamas and hundreds of rockets raining on Israeli towns. His spokesman Mark Regev said there are no plans for a full settlement freeze. "The issue of settlements is a final status issue, and until there are final status arrangements, it would not be fair to kill normal life inside existing communities.”
Nuclear Iran
President Obama also had a message for Iran, indicating that the Iranians had until the end of the year to get serious to engage in good faith talks with the US on curbing their nuclear ambitions. “We’re not going to have talks forever,” he said.
Obama really put the pressure on Netanyahu to commit that Israel would not attack Iran before the end of the year, so that Washington’s plans to dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program are not disrupted. That way he is linking the issue of the Iranian nuclear crisis to the birth of a new Palestinian state. It sounded like a stern warning, that if Israel wants US support, Israel has to give up land.
Obviously Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply concerned about Iran’s perceived attempts to build a nuclear weapon, believing the hateful anti-Israel regime might target the Jewish state. And it doesn’t make sense that while sits with a nuclear bomb hanging over her head, the US government says that thwarting Iran’s nuclear program is conditional on progress in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
It seems that Obama’s Middle East policy is based on ideology, not reality. It seems that he does not understand that the Palestinian–Israeli conflict is a separate issue.
A nuclear Iran is not only a major problem for Israel, but it also represents a great threat for the United States and for countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain. To imagine that the US will decide to deal or not to deal with the nuclear problem depending on Israel’s position on the Palestinian issue is quite ridiculous.
It should be obvious to anyone that Iran’s nuclear threat is far greater than Netanyahu’s desire to revive dormant peace negotiations about a two-state resolution with a divided Palestinian leadership that still refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and make concessions to those who seek to wipe them of the face of the earth
Ironically, two days after Obama’s “get serious to engage in good faith talks”, Iran responded with the test-launch of an advanced solid-fuel ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to Israel and even deep into Europe.
Apparently, Iran’s rulers don’t seem to be very interested in the welfare of their own nation and its people. They act like revolutionary crusaders in the name of worldwide Islam. Waging Jihad against those viewed as Islam’s enemies – such as Israel, US and Western Europe – outweigh even the existence of Iran as a consideration, never mind its well-being.
Ayatollah Khomeini said in 1979, “We do not worship Iran; we worship Allah. I say let this land burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.” And Iran’s President Ahmadinejad seems to believe that if he starts a major war to bring chaos in the Middle East, the Islamic Messiah (Madhi) will suddenly appear leading the Islamic warriors to a global victory that will produce Global Sharia so that the law of Islam will rule the entire world.
Netanyahu’s recent visits to Egypt and Jordan give the impression that he is prepared to work with moderate Arabs in the region. “The struggle in the Middle East is not a struggle between peoples or a struggle between religions. It is a struggle between extremists and moderates. For the first time in the history of Zionism, there is an alignment of views between the Arab world and Israel. Bringing Arab states into the circle of peace will strengthen Israel and bring security to the Palestinians as well,” Netanyahu said.
Two-State Solution
While nearly the whole world claims "the only solution is a two-state solution," the reality is that the two-state solution is an illusion. It will bring more regional instability. How can there be peace when the Palestinian terror has not first been defeated and the Palestinians do not recognize Israel’s right to exist? The negotiations about the withdrawal of Israel from the so-called “occupied territories” have nothing to do with a peace process. It is negotiating Israel’s own destruction, peace-by-piece.
The day after his meeting with Netanyahu, Barack Obama received a signed letter from seventy-six out of 100 U.S. senators urging him to carefully weigh the risks to Israel’s security before pushing his new Middle East peace initiative, which includes Israel surrendering ancient lands for peace. “We must also continue to insist on the absolute Palestinian commitment to ending terrorist violence,” they wrote. “The more capable and responsible Palestinian forces become, the more they demonstrate the ability to govern and to maintain, the easier it will be for them to reach an accord with Israel.”
However, there is no real leadership on the Palestinian side, and certainly not one ready to concede the demand for the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel or to forfeit control of even part of the Temple Mount (a necessary precondition for a settlement that does not involve the division of Jerusalem). No Palestinian leader, even the most moderate, has recognized Israel’s right to exist as a state or even the existence of a Jewish people.
At a recent meeting in Cairo, Hamas reiterated its refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist. A Hamas spokesman said his movement was prepared to discuss any issue that did not include the three demands of the Quartet (USA, UN, EU and Russia): recognition of Israel, acceptance of all previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians, and the renunciation of terrorism.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has recently sworn in a new government, composed mostly of Fatah party ministers, but Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masi already commented: “This government is illegal and unconstitutional and has the blessings of the Zionist and American administrations. It is an obstacle to the reconciliation talks.”
To this day, the charters of Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian factions, call for Israel’s liquidation. They would never recognize Israel’s right to exist or the Oslo Accords and other agreements between the Israelis and Palestinians.
During his speech at the Islamic Conference Organization in Damascus, Syrian president Basher al-Assad and his foreign minister Walid Moualem called Israel “a major obstacle to peace. There is a pre-existing condition to peace talks…that Israel would first have to withdraw from the Golan Heights.”
Who’s fooling who? They both know very well that if Israel leaves the Golan Heights before opening talks, there will be little or nothing left to talk about.
Israel cannot proceed to a two state solution while at the same time Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, Hezbollah is re-arming itself, Iran’s proxy Hamas is in charge of Gaza, and is increasing its presence among the 2 million Arabs in the West Bank. It is rather obvious any Palestinian state that is established in the near future will be an Iranian-aligned terror state at war with Israel.
A Two-State Solution Isn’t The Arab Goal
The bottom line is that the Arab world wants a Palestinian state for one simple reason: to destroy the State of Israel. Palestinian sovereignty has never been the Arab’s goal. Time and time again, a two-state solution has been proposed. Time and time again, the Arabs have turned it down. But who knows, this time the Arabs will go for it.
Take note of what the PLO Ambassador to Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, said during recent interviews: “They talk about a two-state solution, and when that is achieved…Even Ahmadinejad, leader of the rejectionists throughout the region, said he supports a two-state solution. Nobody fools anybody. With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward. We act according to the phased plan; once we get Jerusalem, we will move on to drive Israelis out of all of Palestine.”
Another speaker, former Jerusalem Mufti Ikrama Sabri, encouraged Arabs living abroad to maintain their dream of “return” to Israel. He said, “We must not give up on the right of return…we will never agree to accept financial compensation. We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn’t gang up on us, because the world is led by people have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons. The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in the light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to process with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all Palestine.”
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Arab Peace Plan
Quartet mediator Tony Blair announced that early June 2009 the US, EU, UN and Russia will unveil a new framework for establishing a Palestinian state. This framework, according to Blair, will be a serious initiative because it has been worked on at the highest level in the American administration.”
Caroline Glick reported in one of her outstanding Jerusalem Post columns that acting on behalf of Obama, Jordanian King Abdullah urged the Arab League to update the so-called Arab peace plan from 2002. That plan, which calls for Israel to withdraw from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights and accept millions of foreign Arabs as citizens as part of the so called “right of return” in exchange for “natural” relations with the Arab world, has been rejected by successive Israeli governments as a diplomatic subterfuge whose goal is Israel’s destruction.
By accepting millions of so-called “Palestinian refugees,” Israel would effectively cease to be a Jewish state. By shrinking into the 1949 armistice lines, Israel would be unable to defend itself against foreign invasion. And since “natural relations” is a meaningless term both in international legal discourse and in diplomatic discourse, Israel would have committed national suicide for nothing.
Millions of foreign Arabs claim descent from Arabs who fled the fledging Jewish state during the War of Independence. They claim they have the right to return to the areas that their grandparents and great grandparents abandoned. If realized, we all know by now that such a scenario would turn Israel into a de facto Arab state.
Jerusalem
The preservation of Jerusalem as the political and spiritual capital of the Jewish state is vital to Israel’s existence. It has been said that Jerusalem and the Jewish people are so intertwined that telling the history of one is telling the history of the other. For more than 3000 years, Jerusalem has played a central role in the history of the Jews, culturally, politically, and spiritually, a role first documented in the Scriptures. This sharply contrasts the relationship between Jerusalem and the Islamists who artificially inflate Islam’s link to Jerusalem, and the war for control of Jerusalem and its religious sites is far from over.
The Israel-based Islamic Movement recently led ‘Nakba Day’ rallies to mourn the creation of the State of Israel. Sheikh Khamel Hatib predicted, “The sun of Zionism will set as the sun of an Islamic state rises, while Sheikh Raed Salah told crowds that next year, Israel’s Muslims would celebrate ‘Nakba Day’ in Jerusalem, “the capital of the Palestinian state, saying, “We’ll live here, or die as Martyrs”.
Responding to declarations by Benjamin Netanyahu that “United Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” and “Jerusalem has always been, and always will be, ours,” and “It will never again be divided or cut in half. Jerusalem will remain only under Israel’s sovereignty”, the US State Department said that the future status of the Holy City would be determined by direct negotiations. “Jerusalem is part of the final status. Israelis and Palestinians have accepted to resolve its status through negotiations. We will back their efforts to arrive at a settlement.”
Joel C. Rosenberg, bestselling author of many books, including The Ezekiel Option, Epicenter and Inside The Revolution, said, “Jerusalem is and should be the eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Diving Jerusalem will not make peace. Rather, it would send a message to every Radical Islamic jihadist around the world that Israel is weak, that the Jews won’t even defend the sovereignty of their own capital, that there is ‘blood in the water’ and that it is time to strike Israel and wipe her off the map. Dividing Jerusalem would trigger an apocalyptic war in the Middle East the likes of which the region has never seen.”
The time of confrontation between God’s sovereignty and the rulers of this world is coming. Jerusalem, the city of the great King, will be the instrument of God’s judgment on the nations that come against Jerusalem (Zech.12:1-9). Jerusalem will be a cup of staggering, a cup of wrath coming from the God of Israel who says, Drink,be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you” (Jer. 25:15-29). The promise of the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled (Gen.12:1-3), with resulting glory for Jerusalem and the whole of Judah.
God Chose Israel
In the meantime, Israel must learn that it cannot acquire the Promised Land, the land of the fathers, by its own abilities and strength. Israel has neither the right to grasp the land for itself nor the right to give it away, because it is God’s land. “It is a land the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it” (Deut. 11:12).
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” will the land and people be restored (Zechariah 4:6). Jewish humanism, religiosity, and intellect must bow and confess that a city without God will crumble from evil and corruption from the inside. All effort is in vain without the LORD (Ps.127:1,2).
God chose Israel. Resisting Him has only brought Israel unbelievable suffering and judgment throughout the ages up to the present day. Self-reliance has no place among God’s people. They can only turn and cry out to the One who is able to bring peace to this land because it is His land. God Himself declares in Ezekiel 36 that the restoration of His people in the Promised Land serves the restoration of His honor, for the sake of His holy name, “Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
The message of doom and gloom from the beginning becomes a message of hope in the end. Despite “wars and rumors of wars” – the God of history is faithfully working out His redemptive purposes unhindered by the faithlessness of men. Ultimately Israel will survive – against all odds and in spite of the threats from with and without – but only through the Grace of God.
But right now, things don’t look good.