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Father, Forgive Them...
By Gerald A. Honigman
May 31, 2005
For they know full well what they do.
Borrowing and modifying a passage from at least one of the Christian Gospels' versions as to what some of Jesus' last words were on the cross, we can, unfortunately, better understand what is happening to Israel today.
For Jews, Israel--collectively, the Jewish people--has been the suffering servant of the Bible...one of the areas of disagreement with our Christian brothers. Given this, please allow me to proceed...
Once again, the Jew of the Nations, Israel, is on the verge of being forced to become the perpetually suffering servant of Jewish history--and this time largely at the hands of its alleged friends.
No one in the State Department or in the White House can claim ignorance about the extreme dangers that they are setting Israel up for. Arab intentions are well known...even those of the so-called "moderates."
Their darling, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, got elected running on a widely-announced platform for Israel's destruction--but by other "more legitimate" means. He consistently still demands, for example, that Israel accept the "right of return" of millions of alleged Arab refugees so that the sole miniscule state of the Jews will be overwhelmed by Arabs who have been raised on homicidal Jew-hatred.
Blown buses bring bad press--so better to destroy Israel "democratically." These are the moderate, Holocaust-denying Abbas' own words.
And Dubya and the Foggy Folks know this well...
As they know that Abbas and his fellow Arafatians have repeatedly called any negotiations with the Jews a Trojan Horse, designed to win back diplomatically what Arab arms have not been able to accomplish on the battlefield. Diplomacy as war by other means, the Arabs well known, post-'67 destruction in phases plan...which American officials also know quite well.
Abbas, like Arafat, offers only a temporary hudna--a ceasefire--(or less) in return for Israel being forced to return to its 1949, United Nations'-imposed, 9-mile wide armistice line--not border--existence. Those lines were imposed after six Arab nations invaded a reborn Israel in 1948.
As would become the pattern in later wars as well, the UN did nothing to stop the Arabs' initial aggression, but intervened only when the Jews managed to turn the tide. The UN then stepped in to limit Arab losses. That's how Israel gained its rump state status.
Abbas refuses to confront Hamas and others who openly call for Israel's destruction and has promised to integrate terrorists who specialize in disemboweling Jewish babes and grandmas into his armed forces. Going down this same road before, Israeli soldiers were previously murdered by their similar Arab security "partners."
And Dubya and the Foggy Folks know this well too, as they are aware that a quick visit to any of Abbas' Palestinian Authority's websites, maps, textbooks, schools, television or radio programs, mosques, and such will show that the 22nd Arab state that they intend to create--and second, not first, Arab one created within the original 1920 borders of "Palestine" (Jordan created on 80% of the total area)--expects to replace the sole state of the Jews, not live side by side with it.
So, the consequences of what Dubya & Co. are now demanding of Israel--they get quite upset when folks remind them of the obvious analogy with Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain, Munich, Hitler, and the Sudetenland in 1938--fit squarely on their own shoulders.
They know all too well what they do...
Other "friends" sold out that earlier brave democracy to its enemies for at least some disturbingly similar reasons. But how dare those who fear another Munich-style sellout of Israel bring such things up!
On the balance sheet of relative justice regarding distribution of land in the Middle East and North Africa after the collapse of the four century old Ottoman Turkish Empire, it must be repeated time and time again--no matter how upsetting this necessary repetition is to some--that what was to become purely Arab Jordan was indeed created in 1922 out of the original April 25, 1920 borders of the Palestinian Mandate as a gift from the British to their Hashemite Arab allies in World War I. So Arabs have held the lion's share of "Palestine" for three quarters of a century. Most of the almost two dozen states that Arabs already call their own, on over six million square miles of territory, were conquered and forcibly Arabized from millions of other non-Arab peoples in the region...Berbers, Kurds, Copts, Black Africans, and so forth. And for every Arab who fled the fighting that Arabs started, there was a Jew from so-called "Arab" lands who fled in the opposite direction. Etc., etc., and so forth.
After Israel was blockaded (a casus belli), became the victim of other hostile acts, and was once again forced to fight a war for its very existence in 1967, it finally became obvious to many that it should not be forced to return to its extremely vulnerable, pre-'67, 9-mile wide, rump state status so that Arabs could get the first part of all that they want in what was left of "Palestine" after the creation of Jordan. As we have seen, for even the so-called "moderates," all of Israel proper is still the openly admitted second part of this wish list.
After much debate, the final draft of United Nations' Security Council Resolution # 242 was passed, specifically did not call for a total Israeli withdrawal to the fragile '49 armistice lines, and called instead for the creation of "secure and recognized" borders to replace those lines.
During a rare, potentially pregnant moment in terms of Arab-Israeli politics, Dubya, back in April 2004, came close to saying the same thing.
Unfortunately, our born-again President now seems to endorse an abortion of that pregnancy.
By shedding the courage to stand by the explicit or implicit implications of his earlier statements, Dubya sets back, rather than enhances, the cause of peace between Arab and Jew in the Middle East. He renews Arab rejectionist dreams by insisting that the Jews remain forever vulnerable and exposed. The destruction in phases plans Arabs have had for Israel, ever since their pre-'67 plans for quick destruction proved a failure, are now proceeding nicely.
Recall that, standing next to Sharon, who became convinced--despite the many arguments that could be made against this--that a Gaza withdrawal was in Israel's best interests (along with some similar moves elsewhere), Dubya stated earlier, before the whole world, and during his run for reelection that Israel should not be expected to return to the '49 armistice lines (his own words) and should not be expected to be overwhelmed by an alleged "return" of millions of Arab refugees.
If Arabs finally understood that, as in other conflicts, a territorial compromise would have to be arrived at here as well, then perhaps--while still a long shot--they would finally get serious about ending their perpetual war with the Jews.
But that was before the November 2004 presidential election.
Unfortunately, Dubya now appears to have been playing some pre-election politics to solidify his key Evangelical supporters in what was forecasted to be a close election.
It worked. I voted for him this time...despite my trepidation over his polluting financiers and such.
But now that he has been reelected, and with little or nothing to lose since he can't run again, it seems that his family's huge oil ties, the influence of close family friend and former Secretary of State "_ _ _ _ the Jews they don't vote for us anyway" James Baker, and a heavily Arabist State Department are converging to sweep Israel's concerns under the rug.
These days, instead, we get a constant barrage of statements from both Dubya and his Secretary of State that Arab state #22 must be no bantustan and must have contiguity and such. Neither of them seem to care about what any of this means for the Jews. The call by Resolution# 242 that Israel's '49 armistice lines should be replaced with "secure and recognized borders" is never even mentioned any more.
How, for instance, will the miniscule, sole state of the Jews remain contiguous itself when Gaza is connected to Judea and Samaria (only recently in history renamed the "West Bank")? Look at a map and, if you can manage to find Israel without a magnifying glass, try connecting Gaza to the West Bank. Now see what this does to Israel. And this can be said regarding other areas as well.
So, when considered in light of the President's evident deliberate amnesia regarding the public letter he gave to Sharon in April 2004, which the latter then used to justify his unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, this amounts to nothing less than a sellout of his former position. And it completely nullifies Sharon's arguments as well.
There is to be no quid pro quo regarding Israel getting the protective buffer elsewhere envisioned by 242. And the Gaza withdrawal will indeed likely send the message that "terrorism works" (Lebanon II) and will serve only as a precedent for forced Israeli withdrawals elsewhere to the '49 Auschwitz lines.
Remember the ads Dubya ran against John Kerry for doing such things?
But there he stood at the White House on May 26, 2005, next to Abbas, virtually--if not actually--flipflopping, and proclaiming to the entire world that the '49 armistice lines were the reference point for negotiations and that any deviation must have the approval of the Arabs themselves--those same Arabs whose "moderates" even still insist that Israel within the '49 lines must disappear. Big chance of Israel gaining any increased buffer separating it from those who seek to blow up its kids this way...
And Dubya and the Foggy Folks know all of this too.
This is the same guy who supposedly once noted that some Texas driveways were longer than the width of Israel at its waist, where most of its population and industry are located. And, again, keep in mind that for caving in to all that their would-be executioners ask for, all that the Jews can hope for in return is a temporary cease fire--a hudna--not peace.
The Arafatians have been quite honest about all of this.
They call their plans for the Jews the "Peace of the Quraysh," modeled after the temporary pause Muhammad allowed with that pagan tribe until he gained the strength to deal the final blow.
That the Foggy Folks expect this of the Jews is no shock. They opposed Israel's very right to exist from the get-go. But we were told that Dubya knew better.
Shame on any and all who would shove this down Israel's throat...no matter who they are. And shame on Israel's leaders if they cave into this as well. Many a red-blooded American heart is feeling anguish over these developments right now.
Shedding more crocodile tears, a la the Holocaust, and expressing sympathy over more dead and victimized Jews is not the ticket in a post-Auschwitz era.
Empathy for live ones is what's needed...not applying hypocritical double standards to the Jew of the Nations. But evidently this is too much to ask of even our own nation's leaders, let alone others.
Those who wage war and manipulate and topple governments and who have acquired territories thousands of miles away from home in the name of their own nations' security interests can't seem to figure out that Israel--surrounded by nations still sworn to its demise--also has some crucial security concerns that need to be taken far more seriously.
Returning to the New Testament of my Christian friends, the story is told of Jesus being sold out for mere shekels of silver.
Jews now ask, what is the Suffering Servant--Israel--once again being sold out for...knowingly, and by those claiming to be friends.?
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