The Peace Camp and its "World of Tomorrow"
by Atty. Elyakim Ha'etzni
August 14, 00' / Av 13, 5760
In This Article:
1. It's Hard Not to Be Amazed
2. Earlier Signs
3. Importing the Refugee Problem
4. Common Ground
IT'S HARD NOT TO BE AMAZED
After the collapse of the Camp David summit, it is hard not to be
amazed at how the so-called "Peace Camp" continues to adhere to
its fervent religious belief in the promise of peace with our Palestinian
neighbors. All those of the "Peace Camp" who dismiss
Israel's religious-Zionist public as being "messianic," or
"not being in touch with reality," have apparently just been
projecting their own shortcomings on others.
At Camp David, it became abundantly clear that the traditional mantra,
"the Palestinian problem is the heart of the Arab-Israeli
conflict," is, in fact, baseless.
Ehud Barak had to
initiate new, unexpected diplomatic junkets to Egypt and Jordan, in order
to plead with leaders there to agree to allow Arafat to relax his stance
on Jerusalem. Even Arafat himself declared: "I'm not in
charge."
EARLIER SIGNS
Evidence of the pan-Arab "claim" on Israel was evident in 1987;
at a summit in Amman, Jordan, the late Syrian dictator Assad, said:
"Palestine is mine, it is a part of Syria. There was never an
independent state called Palestine." To this, Jordan's late
King Hussein responded: "The appearance of a national Palestinian
identity has developed to respond to Israeli claims that Palestine is
Jewish. But the truth is - it is forbidden to depart from the
national Arab framework." (Ma'ariv 30.11.87)
Zohir Muhsein, Chief of Operations of the PLO's Fateh wing told the Dutch
newspaper Trouw in 1977: "We are careful to stress our
Palestinian identity only for tactical purposes, in order to challenge
Zionism. The establishment of an independent Palestinian state is
simply a new tactic in the ongoing struggle against Israel."
(It is only the Jews, those chiefly threatened by the Palestinian entity,
who are "more Palestinian than the Palestinians." It was Jordan
that felt most threatened by Barak's plan to forfeit the Jordan Valley and
to agree to establish Palestinian-controlled border crossings in the
Valley!)
IMPORTING THE REFUGEE PROBLEM
The blindness of the "Peace Camp" can be perhaps best understood
by Israel's decision to import http://christianactionforisrael.org/files/isreport/julaug00/from tunisia - yasser arafat - a move
that just served to accentuate the refugee problem. What is the
basis of the "Peace Camp's" belief that Arafat would disappoint
- and even rebel - against those in whose name and on whose behalf he
acted for almost 50 years?
In this regard, it is interesting to note the surprise of the kibbutzim of
the secular, leftwing Shomer Hatza'ir movement. Its members simply
fail to comprehend how entire gangs of Arabs - previous owners of the land
on which the Jews' homes are situated - have suddenly appeared at their
doorsteps demanding the "return of their land."
Only a Peace Camp "true believer" cannot see that the AK-47's
provided by Israel to the PLO are now aimed back at us. The believer
has not yet digested the existence of the (Palestinian) Tanzim force or
the steady calls for "Jihad;" he overlooks the open declarations
by the PLO that the peace strategy represents simply a brief hiatus
between periods of violence, and that, for the Palestinians, it does not
constitute an independent and absolute value.
What normal person can ignore what the Palestinians continue to write in
their official press on the ultimate goal of destroying Israel, or what
they continue to teach their children from pre-school on up?
"He did not have to say that," piped Shimon Peres after
reporters cited for him a terrifying quote uttered by Yasser Arafat.
Peres, unfortunately, did not ask himself whether or not Arafat meant what
he said.
COMMON GROUND
In a recent history corner on Army Radio, a noted professor stressed the
elements of religion in Stalinism. If it were not so, he remarked,
how could it be that an entire sector of the very intelligent people
"believed in" Stalin blindly? It is important to note that
many who held this belief were, in fact, Jews. The religious quality
of Stalinism is perhaps best reflected by the following anecdote: Of two
Jewish Communists executed at one point during the Stalin era, one cried
out "Shma Yisrael", the other, a General Yakir, yelled,
"Long live Stalin!"
It is also worthy to note a few striking similarities between the
delusions inherent in Communist thought and the ideology of Israel's
"Peace Camp." Both are supposedly intellectual and
realistic in orientation, and both supposedly despise mysticism. But
both also ironically share qualities of messianism and blind faith.
Leaders of the kibbutzim and urban intellectuals, once champions of the
Marxist cause in Israel, are,
not surprisingly, now at the forefront of the Peace Camp.
There are also similarities between the axiomatic slogans, the mantras:
In former days, man was told, "When you chop down trees, splinters
fly!", in an effort to justify the Russian terror of the early
twentieth century. Today we are told, in an effort to come to terms
with the atrocities of Arafat, "Peace can only be made with
enemies." Both systems of thought claim a monopoly on "the
future." Opponents are "people of the past,"
"reactionaries." The name of a famous Bolshevik newspaper
was "The New Era." Today, the Peace Camp dreams of a "New
Middle East."
After the Camp David collapse, anyone who still dreams of normalization,
of peace with the Palestinians, anyone who continues on the path of
concessions and withdrawals with the goal of achieving the "end of
the conflict," shares a quality with a believing Jew who awaits the
"end of days." And yet, even an avowedly secular person
would admit if the religious Jew's vision did not materialize, no damage
would have emanated from this belief. Such cannot be said for the
Peace Camp faithful, whose beliefs and resulting policies are no less than
a suicidal gamble.
Atty. Elyakim Ha'etzni, a resident of Kiryat
Arba, is a columnist in Yediot Acharonot and a member of the Yesha Council. He was
formerly a Knesset Member from the Techiyah party.
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