I am sure that many of you have heard about the 'selfie' above, which was taken at the Miss World pageant, and includes Miss Israel (left) and Miss Lebanon (second from left). I am sure many of you have also heard that the image caused a scandal in Lebanon, leading Miss Lebanon to accuse Miss Israel of 'photobombing' her, and to release a revised image in which Miss Israel is cropped out.
Jonathan Tobin is spot-on in arguing that the entire spat over this image is a 'Middle East for Dummies' moment, and shows why despite all of the efforts of hundreds of diplomats over tens of years, there is no peace in our region.
The exchange encapsulated the essence of why peace in the Middle East has eluded generations of diplomats.
The problem between Israel and Lebanon, which is a more cosmopolitan
place than many other Arab countries, isn’t a matter of borders or
disputes over settlements. Many Lebanese may hold grudges about Israel’s
intervention in their civil war and its occupation of a portion of that
country that ended in 2000. But any umbrage about that must be tempered
by the knowledge that the dispute was caused by the willingness of the
Lebanese to let the southern portion of their country be used as a
terrorist base of attack by the Palestinians, who operated a state
within a state in the south, for many years. The same is true now of
Hezbollah, which embroiled all of Lebanon in a pointless and bloody war
against Israel in 2006 because of their cross-border terror raids.
Nor are the Lebanese particularly exercised about Israeli settlement
policies or the plight of Palestinians in Hamas-run Gaza. Indeed, the
Lebanese are, as a result of their own experiences with armed
Palestinian militias and terror cadres during the civil war, even less
sympathetic to the Palestinians than Israelis.
The problem is a spirit of intolerance and rejection for the idea of a
Jewish state no matter where its borders might be drawn. That is a
hatred so deep that it can’t be bridged by creative diplomacy or
gestures of goodwill, such as those that infuse international events
like the Miss Universe contest.
It is a cliché for contestants at such competitions to say they wish
for world peace when asked for their opinions about the issues of the
day. But what happened to Miss Lebanon illustrates that the divisions of
the Middle East run so deep and are so primal that no amount of global
hooey like a beauty contest is enough to make the Arab and Muslim world
forget about their antipathy for Israelis.
For the next week, at least, 'everyone knows' that it's Abu Mazen who doesn't want peace
Israel's Channel 10 reports that two hours before the announcement of the Hamas-Fatah unity pact, Prime Minister Netanyahu had agreed to hold 'talks' on borders and a 'settlement freeze.'
Aides to the prime minister are denying the Channel 10 report.
According to Channel 10, while Netanyahu refused Palestinian demands to explicitly present his position on borders,
he did give consent to his government's chief representatives in the
negotiations - Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and attorney Yitzhak Molcho -
to present maps on which both sides would then proceed to sketch the
contours of the political boundary that would separate Israel and a
yet-to-be-created Palestine.
The prime minister also agreed to a
freeze of all new construction in the Jewish settlements of Judea and
Samaria, though he insisted that Israel would complete all construction
that has already been initiated, according to Channel 10.
The
Palestinians, for their part, responded that on the ground the public
would not be able to differentiate between a freeze of new construction
and the continuation of old project, rendering the offer moot. Aides to
Netanyahu denied that the premier agreed to any freeze, according to
Channel 10.
...
Just two hours after Israel suspended diplomatic talks with the
Palestinians over Wednesday's Hamas-Fatah reconciliation pact, Netanyahu
said he will "be there in the future if we have a partner that is
committed to peace."
Netanyahu's comment came in an interview with
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, after the seven-member security cabinet
decided unanimously Thursday afternoon following a six hour meeting in
Tel Aviv to suspend current talks with the Palestinians.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder says that the American government now 'gets it': Abu Mazen doesn't want peace.
“This is one of the times when people realize what’s really
happening and there is no question about it,” Lauder said. “How can
Israel negotiate with an organization that wants its destruction?”
Lauder, who is well connected with many world leaders, said the
overwhelming sentiment among his contacts was support for Israel.
“Last
night I was calling around from country to country, group to group,
also within the US, to see what’s happening. There was no one I came
across that said, ‘You know, it’s a good thing.’ Even the most left[-
wing] groups.”
...
Everybody, he asserted, “believes that the Israeli people want peace
and that the Palestinian people want peace, and more and more they
realize what the real problem is. I don’t think President Abbas could
have made a stronger signal that he didn’t want peace.”
...
Israel’s reaction should be firm, but the Netanyahu administration
should also handle the issue of the end of the current round of
negotiations “delicately,” Lauder added.
“It is also important how
Israel handles it,” he said. Israel should “reiterate what Hamas
stands for and then say something to the effect that Israel is very
disappointed.”
“It shows very much, I think to everybody, that at
the end of the day the Palestinians really didn’t want peace, and what
they really want is the UN to give it to them. They don’t want to
negotiate, and I think the key thing is the politicians get it.”
They supposedly 'got it' in 2000-01 too when Bill Clinton told Arafat that he had made Clinton's peace efforts a 'failure.' That 'getting it' lasted about a week. Don't expect this one to last longer.
MK Nitzan Horowitz
(Meretz), Meretz Knesset candidate Michal Rosin and Meretz leader Zehava
Gal-On gathered under a staircase in Meretz MK Ilan Gilon's home
Monday, after a siren went off during an anti-war forum hosted by the
party and attended by residents of the south.
Gal-On said that
true security can only come as a result of a negotiated agreement, and a
land incursion can "trap Israel in the Gazan mud and bring a high price
in human lives."
Really? Do we have 'true security' with the Islamist regime in Egypt thirty years after Camp David? Do we have 'true security' with Jordan 18 years after we signed a treaty with them, and will we still have it if the Muslim Brotherhood replaces the house of Hussein? Do we have 'true security' with the 'Palestinian Authority' 19 years after Yitzchak Rabin stood on the White House lawn with Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton?
No. We have security with none of them. All of them would like to wipe us out, and would do so in a New York minute if they are ever - God forbid - given the opportunity.
Does France have security from Germany today? Does England? Does Belgium?
Does South Korea have security from Japan today? Does Russia? Does the Phillipines?
What's the difference? The difference that World War II was fought until there was a winner and a loser. The winners have security. The losers surrendered.
We will have security - and therefore peace - when we trust in God enough to fight the Arab terrorists to the finish. When they see they cannot defeat us, we will have both peace and security. When we come cowering for peace because we are tired of fighting, we will have neither peace nor security.
True security as a result of a negotiated agreement? Name me one time in history that it's happened.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
