How to end the 'occupation'
Yitzchak Klein - who was in my class in Boston until he moved out and eventually made aliya in high school - has some interesting ideas of how to end the 'occupation.' ISRAEL'S CURRENT policy does need to change. A year ago, trying to accommodate American policy seemed to be the path of wisdom. That's no longer true. Israel needs to make clear to the Obama administration, and more importantly to other, broader constituencies in the US, that it simply cannot afford to allow any American government to become the agent whereby Palestinian and Arab demands are forced upon it.Hmmm.
Israel needs an aggressive new policy to combat the Palestinians' efforts to delegitimize it. Simply adopting its policies to conform to Palestinian demands will not accomplish anything. It needs to assert its rights and the justice of Zionism, and attack the legitimacy of the Palestinians, their policies and their positions. This requires a significant new investment of thought, funds and manpower in a form of warfare that has hitherto largely been neglected.
Israel's activities in the legitimacy wars need to be backed up by a new policy toward the Palestinians. It should invest significant funds and effort in achieving separation from the Palestinians as soon as possible. The "occupation" should be ended. Israel should build roads and fences to join together Palestinian inhabited areas in Judea and Samaria and isolate them from Israeli areas, including settlements and other territories whose retention is regarded as vital. Palestinians and Israelis should never have to meet, and while Israeli forces will have to continue to carry out missions in the residual Palestinian areas, none should be stationed there.
Finally, Israel should do something soon to puncture the current Palestinian narrative of the conflict. One thing it could do is to hold a referendum in some of the Arab-inhabited neighborhoods of Jerusalem: Do the residents wish to be transferred immediately to the control of the Palestinian authority - losing their Israeli identity cards and the right to work in Israel, visit Israel or enjoy its social services - or to continue as they now are? The result will almost certainly be gratifying, and put an end to the mantra of "a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders whose capital is Jerusalem."
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:03 AM
2 Comments:
Agreed. If the Israeli government simply "drifts along", it will be forced by the world to accept a Palestinian state whether not or it has made peace with Israel and whether such a state is really in Israel's interests.
Its time to stop accommodating Palestinian demands and time to assert the legitimacy of Zionism and Israel's rights as a Jewish State. Bringing the occupation to an end unilaterally is more important than fruitless "proximity talks" that go nowhere. Israel must take the initiative or it will be forced into a dangerous position its people don't want.
The real question is whether the Israeli government has the courage to do what needs to be done. Time is not on Israel's side.
I thought you might find this interesting from 'Jewish End of Days' :
July 4, 1776
July 4, 2010
Barbecue and fireworks? Not for the Jews of 1776. That’s because in 1776 the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz fell out on the 4th of July.
This amazing fact further demonstrates that, at its foundation, America is Esav.
But how can America be Esav? When I say it, even religious people can’t understand. After all, America has been a unique haven for the Jewish people for over two hundred years. America has been by far the kindest gentile nation to the Jewish people since the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.
Brotherly Love
When Yaakov was faced conflict with Esav when he returned to E”Y from his sojourn with Lavan, he beseeched G-d to save him from Esav, crying out, “Rescue me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav, for I fear him lest he come and strike me down, mother and children.” (Genesis, 32:12).
Our Sages point out the redundancy in the language, “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav”. Why, they ask, does the Torah need to state “brother’ and “Esav” – by stating “brother” or “Esav” alone I could deduce the other – why did the Torah state both?
The answer is is that Yaakov was asking G-d to save him from 1) Esav when he acts like Esav, i.e., like a murderous oppressor; and 2) from Esav when he acts like a “brother”, with kindness.
For the first 2000 years of our exile, as we sojourned through Europe, Esav acted like Esav to the Jewish people, wantonly oppressing and murdering us throughout the centuries. There was no doubt, especially for religious Jews, that Esav was Esav.
But then we came to America. And suddenly, Esav was not the Esav the religious Jews were familiar with. We were welcomed and embraced, and allowed to fully participate in the economy and establish flourishing Torah institutions. We now had our first experience with Esav acting as a brother. (As for those who might contend Spain was also such a place, it is not the case because the golden age of Spain occurred while the Moor/Muslims occupied and ruled it).
And because America is the Jewish people’s first collective experience of “Esav acting as a brother”, many people don’t recognize it for what it is. Most religious Jews relate to Esav as a murderer, but not a brother. That’s why its hard for folks to comprehend and accept that America is a portion of Esav. Its hard to recognize something when one has no prior experience of that thing.
But, in fact, its very true that the love of Esav has led to a great destruction of the Jewish people in terms of assimilation, physical and spiritual. In a very real sense, Esav in his American manifestation, is loving Jews to death.
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