America demands Israeli concessions for peace, Israel stubbornly refuses to relent under the pressure. The President tells Israel to withdraw from the lands it occupied in the war; the Prime Minister doggedly attempts to deflect the pressure and hold onto as much as possible. The Israeli public backs the PM; coalition members and opposition parties castigate American interference and lopsided behavior against Israel.
The American administration threatens economic punishment should Israel not fall into line. The administration faces significant criticism for this not only from Jewish groups like the Bnai Brith, but scathing attacks for its conduct by congress.
The President, of course, is Dwight Eisenhower, and the year is 1956. The war was the 1956 Suez-Sinai War between Israel and Egypt, and the concessions referred to are the Sinai and Gaza Strip, to be vacated with no preconditions. The Israeli PM is David Ben-Gurion.
The similarities to today’s Israeli-American feud are striking. Obama demands; Netanyahu, bolstered by his hawkish government, refuses to give in to all his demands. No doubt the circumstances of the 1956-1957 crisis, as well as the 1975 diplomatic scuffle over the Sinai between Kissinger and Yitzhak Rabin both weigh heavily in the heart and mind of Bibi Netanyahu. Direct confrontation with an American president is the last thing he wants.
But a lot has changed since 1956 and 1975. Israel today is far larger, more developed, and less dependent on America. Bibi’s anxiety is misplaced. Israel in 1956 had just under 2 million citizens, in 1975 less than 3.5 million, but today well over 7 million. While American aid made up nearly 20% of the Israeli government’s budget in as late as the 1980’s, today it makes up only about 4-5%.
While Israel used to be heavily debt-ridden, today its net debt (about $30 billion) is smaller than what is owed to it (about $60 billion), and most of the money owed to Israel is from the US federal government. US loan guarantees, which were used as a means to coerce Israel not only in 1956 and 1975 but also during the Bush-Shamir spat in the late 80s/early 90s, now are essentially meaningless. Israel has a massive surplus of foreign currency and already owns nearly $60 billion of America’s debt.
In 1956 David Ben-Gurion refused to capitulate to Eisenhower’s demands for half a year, until a compromise was reached in which Israel ceded the Sinai and Gaza in exchange for UN forces in both areas and explicit US promises regarding Israeli access to the Gulf of Aqaba. Though the decision was certainly a far cry from Ben-Gurion’s November 1956 speech pledging to retain both the Sinai and Gaza, it marked the first time that an Israeli Premier would stand toe-to-toe with an antagonistic American administration and not be the first to blink.
Eisenhower’s administration led the UN in condemning Israel and threatened to orchestrate international economic sanctions against Israel. Israel, it was estimated, could survive for 12 months in such a scenario, before collapsing in the face of sanctions. Ben-Gurion was certainly aware of the intense pressure Eisenhower faced from congress, which refused to support his legislation as long as the specter of sanctions loomed over Israel.
If Ben-Gurion could stand up against Eisenhower for at least a compromise, Netanyahu is in a far better position to stand up and give Obama nothing. With his coalition partners Lieberman and Eli Yishai giving him full support and Likud MKs demanding no concessions, the only question is, will Netanyahu have the prescience to not only remember 1956, but see the advantages Israel now has.
Showing posts with label Israeli settlements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israeli settlements. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Israeli Leftists: The New Terrorism
As tiny Israel confronts ongoing and growing hatred by Arabs both within and outside of the state, another enemy rises up to challenge the Jewish state. This foe has openly allied itself with anti-Semitic Arab rioters and terrorists, and has even at times explicitly promoted terrorism and murder of Jews.
Sadly, this new anti-Semitic threat is from Jews themselves. A small but noisy group of far-left Israelis of Jewish origin has taken the state of Israel – and the Jewish people – into its sights.
Represented by organizations hiding behind pluralistic-sounding slogans and titles such as “Peace Now” and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, these inciters to violence are little more than fascistic hooligans aping the Brown Shirts of the Nazi party in Germany before Hitler came to power.
Denied the right to expel Jews from their legally owned property in east Jerusalem by even the generally leftist Israeli court system, these vandals and thugs of the fascist-left now use harassment, riots, and violence to try and ethnically cleanse the Shimon HaTzaddik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jews.
Recently a mixed group of Arabs and leftists assaulted one Jewish home in the area, even going so far as to fire bullets at the house. When the perpetrator of the crime was arrested, the leftists of Peace Now and the ACRI actually protested the arrest.
Now, this Saturday night these same leftists have formed a mass rally outside of the Jewish homes with thousands of Arabs, in a demonstration of at least 3,000 people.
Such events do not occur in a vacuum however, and incitement from prominent figures like Zev Sternhell has thrown gas on the fire of leftwing fascism. Sternhell, a researcher of the roots of fascism is himself a practitioner of fascistic anti-Semitism and a bona fide Judeo-Nazi. He has openly praised the murder of Jews living outside of the Green Line and encouraged Arab terrorism there against Jews.
Given this background, it’s hard to condemn the 2008 attack on Mr. Sternhell with a pipe bomb which left the professor lightly injured.
Israel has, since its inception, struggled against Arab hatred. Perhaps it’s time to address the growing hatred on the part of Judeo-Nazis and leftwing fascists like Sternhell, the ACRI, and Peace Now.
Sadly, this new anti-Semitic threat is from Jews themselves. A small but noisy group of far-left Israelis of Jewish origin has taken the state of Israel – and the Jewish people – into its sights.
Represented by organizations hiding behind pluralistic-sounding slogans and titles such as “Peace Now” and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, these inciters to violence are little more than fascistic hooligans aping the Brown Shirts of the Nazi party in Germany before Hitler came to power.
Denied the right to expel Jews from their legally owned property in east Jerusalem by even the generally leftist Israeli court system, these vandals and thugs of the fascist-left now use harassment, riots, and violence to try and ethnically cleanse the Shimon HaTzaddik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jews.
Recently a mixed group of Arabs and leftists assaulted one Jewish home in the area, even going so far as to fire bullets at the house. When the perpetrator of the crime was arrested, the leftists of Peace Now and the ACRI actually protested the arrest.
Now, this Saturday night these same leftists have formed a mass rally outside of the Jewish homes with thousands of Arabs, in a demonstration of at least 3,000 people.
Such events do not occur in a vacuum however, and incitement from prominent figures like Zev Sternhell has thrown gas on the fire of leftwing fascism. Sternhell, a researcher of the roots of fascism is himself a practitioner of fascistic anti-Semitism and a bona fide Judeo-Nazi. He has openly praised the murder of Jews living outside of the Green Line and encouraged Arab terrorism there against Jews.
Given this background, it’s hard to condemn the 2008 attack on Mr. Sternhell with a pipe bomb which left the professor lightly injured.
Israel has, since its inception, struggled against Arab hatred. Perhaps it’s time to address the growing hatred on the part of Judeo-Nazis and leftwing fascists like Sternhell, the ACRI, and Peace Now.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The Arabs In Israel: Laws and the Leftists Who Distort Them
Leftists and Israel-haters (or PC anti-Semites as they are more accurately known), both inside Israel and out, both Mosaic in origin and not, have long decried Israel’s construction of Jewish housing in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as being “clearly illegal”, citing the 4th Geneva Convention as their source. They claim, as leftists will, that the text bans what they hold to be an immoral act of an occupying entity in occupied territory; that it is illegal for the occupier to build communities in the occupied territory. But is this really banned by the Geneva Convention?
First, it’s important, since this is the JEWISH Conservative and not the Atheist-Postmodernist-Moral relativist Conservative Blog, to point out what Judaism says about the situation. The Book of Numbers (33:52-53) clearly commands: “then ye shall drive out ALL the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. And ye shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein; for unto you have I given the land to possess it.”
Unlike other references throughout the 5 Books of Moses to the conquest of the Land of Israel, the command given here does not mention the 7 Canaanite nations which dwelled there at the time. That is because, as the classical biblical commentator Ohr HaChaim pointed out that these verses refer to any foreign elements inhabiting the land, not merely Canaanites. The Land of Israel, as stated repeatedly throughout the Bible, belongs to the Jewish people and to no one else. Occupying the whole of the country is not only not problematic in Judaism it is a commandment, just as it is a commandment to “drive out ALL the inhabitants of the land”.
That is because those foreigners who occupy the Land prior to the establishment of Jewish sovereignty will never accept Jewish control over what they consider to be their land. Thus, the verses after the commandment to conquer Israel warn: “But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell”.
But for those who worry about a Geneva Convention that Israel signed in good faith, it’s relevant to point out what it actually states. The section in question, Article 49 of the 4th Convention, states as follows: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. The implication is clear. An occupying power cannot force its own citizens out of the country into occupied territory, as Germany did to its Jewish citizens in World War II. But this says nothing about building homes and allowing citizens to buy them, and it is typical liberal dishonesty to say that it does.
Another point of equal importance; there is almost no basis for claiming that the West Bank is even occupied territory, since the only inheritor of the previous legitimate possessor (the British Mandate) is the State of Israel. Palestine never existed as a country and is not a claimant, and Jordan, from whom Israel captured the land, was an illegal occupier.
That is the sheer depth of the lie: not only is Israel not occupying the West Bank, even if it were, the construction of settlements would not be illegal. Not only that but the same Article (49) quoted by the anti-Israel crowd against the settlements states that occupying powers may legally evacuate or remove all occupied peoples for security or military needs. This even applies to “Protected Persons”, that is people who are protected by the Geneva Convention by virtue of their nation’s signing the agreement. But the residents of the West Bank are, by and large, not nationals of any such state and therefore do not even fall into this category, giving them no protection whatsoever.
This is just one more example of the outrageous lies and distortions of the leftist anti-Israel clique, who turn truth completely on its head.
First, it’s important, since this is the JEWISH Conservative and not the Atheist-Postmodernist-Moral relativist Conservative Blog, to point out what Judaism says about the situation. The Book of Numbers (33:52-53) clearly commands: “then ye shall drive out ALL the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. And ye shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein; for unto you have I given the land to possess it.”
Unlike other references throughout the 5 Books of Moses to the conquest of the Land of Israel, the command given here does not mention the 7 Canaanite nations which dwelled there at the time. That is because, as the classical biblical commentator Ohr HaChaim pointed out that these verses refer to any foreign elements inhabiting the land, not merely Canaanites. The Land of Israel, as stated repeatedly throughout the Bible, belongs to the Jewish people and to no one else. Occupying the whole of the country is not only not problematic in Judaism it is a commandment, just as it is a commandment to “drive out ALL the inhabitants of the land”.
That is because those foreigners who occupy the Land prior to the establishment of Jewish sovereignty will never accept Jewish control over what they consider to be their land. Thus, the verses after the commandment to conquer Israel warn: “But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell”.
But for those who worry about a Geneva Convention that Israel signed in good faith, it’s relevant to point out what it actually states. The section in question, Article 49 of the 4th Convention, states as follows: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. The implication is clear. An occupying power cannot force its own citizens out of the country into occupied territory, as Germany did to its Jewish citizens in World War II. But this says nothing about building homes and allowing citizens to buy them, and it is typical liberal dishonesty to say that it does.
Another point of equal importance; there is almost no basis for claiming that the West Bank is even occupied territory, since the only inheritor of the previous legitimate possessor (the British Mandate) is the State of Israel. Palestine never existed as a country and is not a claimant, and Jordan, from whom Israel captured the land, was an illegal occupier.
That is the sheer depth of the lie: not only is Israel not occupying the West Bank, even if it were, the construction of settlements would not be illegal. Not only that but the same Article (49) quoted by the anti-Israel crowd against the settlements states that occupying powers may legally evacuate or remove all occupied peoples for security or military needs. This even applies to “Protected Persons”, that is people who are protected by the Geneva Convention by virtue of their nation’s signing the agreement. But the residents of the West Bank are, by and large, not nationals of any such state and therefore do not even fall into this category, giving them no protection whatsoever.
This is just one more example of the outrageous lies and distortions of the leftist anti-Israel clique, who turn truth completely on its head.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Morally vs Ideologically Bankrupt
Since Netanyahu’s election as Prime Minister in February of 2009, Obama and his cronies have delivered a constant pressure upon Israel to agree to a total freeze on construction of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu, always the spineless one tried to compromise on the issue: a partial building freeze in the West Bank (allowing for natural growth, which was never clearly defined or explained) and the completion of projects already underway. The result was last week’s building freeze declaration, which, in theory, was to ban only those projects which were not yet begun and were not part of the 500 units approved recently for construction.
Let’s count the charges against the Netanyahu gov’t:
1) Nixing approval for new units in both the West Bank and Jerusalem even before the 10 month freeze, aggravating one of the worst housing crises in Israeli history.
2) Violating its own restrictions on the extent of the building freeze, banning even the recently approved units and even illegally confiscating (read: stealing) building equipment.
3) Proceeding with the freeze despite the fact that it will cost the economy an estimated 500 million dollars, further deteriorate the already difficult housing situation, and get in return absolutely nothing.
Netanyahu spinelessly uses the freeze – and the damage it does to Israel, especially to struggling young families – so he can feel more at ease talking to Obama. But the settlement movement is just as bankrupt as Netanyahu. Since the founding of Gush Emunim, the core of the settlement movement, in 1974 the settlers and their allies inside the Green Line have been unable to formulate a comprehensive plan which would ensure the survival of their enterprise. Their answer to every problem or crisis is to build more; more houses and more settlements. When the demographic threat to the State of Israel crystallized in the 1980s they offered no solution (like some form of population transfer to encourage Arab emigration), and so eventually were subjected to the disastrous Oslo process in the 1990’s and the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. The mainstream settlement movement and the Israeli government are two heads of the same bankrupt coin: one morally lacking, the other, ideologically.
Let’s count the charges against the Netanyahu gov’t:
1) Nixing approval for new units in both the West Bank and Jerusalem even before the 10 month freeze, aggravating one of the worst housing crises in Israeli history.
2) Violating its own restrictions on the extent of the building freeze, banning even the recently approved units and even illegally confiscating (read: stealing) building equipment.
3) Proceeding with the freeze despite the fact that it will cost the economy an estimated 500 million dollars, further deteriorate the already difficult housing situation, and get in return absolutely nothing.
Netanyahu spinelessly uses the freeze – and the damage it does to Israel, especially to struggling young families – so he can feel more at ease talking to Obama. But the settlement movement is just as bankrupt as Netanyahu. Since the founding of Gush Emunim, the core of the settlement movement, in 1974 the settlers and their allies inside the Green Line have been unable to formulate a comprehensive plan which would ensure the survival of their enterprise. Their answer to every problem or crisis is to build more; more houses and more settlements. When the demographic threat to the State of Israel crystallized in the 1980s they offered no solution (like some form of population transfer to encourage Arab emigration), and so eventually were subjected to the disastrous Oslo process in the 1990’s and the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. The mainstream settlement movement and the Israeli government are two heads of the same bankrupt coin: one morally lacking, the other, ideologically.
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