Posted on 04/13/2002 5:59:12 PM PDT by dighton
Too bad the Eurotrash seem to pay his thinking no heed.
Well, that would require, uh, thinking, I guess. (But that's a knee-jerk response.)
What I cannot believe is how quickly anti-Jew/Israel thinking has gone so public. Scary. And the coalition between the "Palestinians" and the Left... scary.
And the rest? Scared.
The Canucks and the Euros have been invaded by the enemy, as we have. They think that their quickly hoisted white flags won't ever share the flames currently engulfing the Star of David and the Stars and Stripes at various venues around the globe. I do not think they're right.
The whole world is demanding that Israel just cease to exist and boy are they pissed that the Israelis just refuse to roll over and die.
[Ed Note: As the violence in Israel continues to escalate, it is hard to put things in perspective. The plans that are now being proposed by Saudi Arabia's Prince Abdullah are almost identical to the offer put on the table by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, and yet no one has cared to remember this. The following article from the Jerusalem Post1 is an excellent summary of the current situation in the Middle East.]
* * *
An internationally recognized war is being fought against terrorism everywhere on earth, except in one place. Here, one rationale after another is found for "evenhandedness" while Israelis are murdered in a deliberately terrorist, unprovoked and totally unnecessary war. Once upon a time, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a good basis for a peace deal; it has been pushed down the memory hole. Now Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah needs merely to mutter a few nonbinding words to an American columnist and he becomes the prince of peace.
Here's how the BBC, which considers itself to be the world's most accurate news source, explains the offer: If Israel returns to the 1967 borders, the BBC says, all Arab states will offer it full diplomatic relations, the recognition of Israel's right to exist, and secure borders. But that's not all: The plan would also give Israel sovereignty over the Western Wall, a land swap between Israel and a Palestinian state, and the dropping of the demand for a Palestinian right of return. In short, we are inaccurately told that the entire Arab world, including Arafat, is now ready to accept the Barak plan (though the fact that Israel proposed something along these lines almost two years ago is not mentioned in this report or in other coverage).
Why, then, doesn't Israel grab this wonderful "opportunity"? The BBC gives three reasons: Because it rejects "giving up all the Golan Heights; a Palestinian political and administrative presence in Jerusalem, and dismantling of all Israeli settlements in Golan, West Bank and Gaza." It also suggests this is because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is such an extremist.
In other words, all Israel's hesitations come from its greed to retain territory that doesn't belong to it. There's no mention of such concerns as a well-grounded disbelief in the actual generosity of the Saudi proposal; the suspicion that it is a public relations gesture to make Israel look like the bad guy and get Arafat out of his current corner; and, the fact that the proposal has no provision for a cease-fire. Once the upcoming Arab League meeting ends - after an Arafat speech accusing Israel of genocide and probably without endorsing the proposal in any but the most limited way - Arafat's forces will still be staging terrorist attacks while the whole world congratulates him on his new moderation. (Imagine Prince Abdullah offering to have the Arab League get the Palestinians to impose an immediate cease-fire: Sharon would be pushing Arafat onto the plane to attend the summit.) But even that isn't all.
The main Israeli concern after 18 months of terrorism and hatred against it is: After Israel makes concessions, will Arafat or the Arabs actually implement the Saudi plan and live in peace? Arafat himself tells us he cannot control the violence, so if he won't or can't take responsibility now, why should we believe that would change? The BBC is not worried about this, or about the possibility that some regimes might oppose the Saudi plan. "Iraq, Iran and Syria might be expected to be the main dissenters," it says, "but it is possible that these states might see the plan as a serious opportunity for a comprehensive and just regional agreement."
So now we know: Saddam Hussein is the moderate who wants a comprehensive agreement if he could only find it; Iran, contrary to daily statements by its leaders, seeks a just compromise and not Israel's extinction. According to this view, Sharon is the extremist, and Barak with his peace plan never existed at all. Reality has been recast with Abdullah playing the part of Barak and Sharon playing the part of Arafat. Given such distortions, it's hardly surprising that a moderate Palestinian reader recently wrote me a polite letter explaining the real problem: that Israelis are totally uninterested in Palestinian rights and aspirations.
This view is unfortunately typical of Palestinians, Arabs in general, and many people in the West - when the clear truth is that 80% of Israelis have been ready for a Palestinian state and a large majority would have accepted the Camp David or Clinton plans of 2000. Palestinian rights and complaints are presented and discussed every day in Israel's media, as well as in classrooms and conversations. You won't find an equivalent in the Arab media. Israel's real problems remain:
So why, in the face of this evidence, are so many in the West convinced that unilateral Israeli concessions will persuade the Arabs that Israel is sincere? Maybe, after eight years of Israeli effort and almost two years of Arab terrorism and incitement, Israelis first need convincing that the Arab side is sincere.
I doubt it was a surprise to Team Bush. They must have sat down on 9-11 and asked themselves, what is Saddam's game plan here? I don't think it was hard to figure out.
The Europeans are scared of their Muslim populations, scared of what perceived slight might turn them from shooting up kosher butchers to shooting up targets of more, shall we say, concern to the general population. When the war with Iraq starts, we'll find out.
That's really funny -- did you write all that?
I'm from Indiana, and it sounds we have a lot in common with Alberta!
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