1. President Obama’s September 23, 2009 speech at the UN highlighted the UNization of US foreign policy. Obama reaffirmed a UN-style moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists who systematically and intentionally abuse their civilians as human-shield and target Israeli civilians on one hand, and the Israel Defense Force which is confronted by such terrorism on the other hand. President Obama also reinforced UN-style moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorism and hate education on one hand, and Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria on the other hand. Once again, there was the implicit message that Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria trigger Palestinian terrorism and constitute an obstacle to peace.
2. 133 Jews were murdered in Hebron, Jerusalem, Motza, Safed and Tel Aviv during a rampage of Arab terrorism in August 1929, 19 years before the establishment of the Jewish State, 38 years before the 1967 War and 39 years before the return of Jews to Hebron. 133 fatalities in 1929 – out of a 175,000 Jewish population – are proportionally equal to 4,560 fatalities in Israel or 230,000 fatalities in the USA in 2009!
3. 67 Jews were massacred in Hebron, which caused the evacuation/expulsion of the Jewish community from Hebron. It terminated – temporarily – Jewish presence since Biblical time.
4. The British High Commissioner, John Chancellor, condemned (September 1, 1929) “the atrocious acts committed by ruthless and bloodthirsty evildoers… murders perpetrated upon defenseless members of the Jewish population… accompanied by acts of unspeakable savagery…” Chancellor referred to documented lynching, mutilation, beheading, castration and fingers-cutting, which were committed by Arabs in Hebron.
5. Hebron – the first Jewish Capital named after Moses’ uncle and Jacob’s great grandson – is the burial place of the three Jewish Patriarchs and three Jewish Matriarchs, it was the home of Biblical Caleb and it was one of the Biblical “Refuge Cities” and a “Levitical City.” Some of the Jews, who were expelled from Spain in 1492, settled in Hebron. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University (1777-1800), communicated regularly (in Hebrew) with Rabbi Haim Isaac Carigal from Hebron. A number of USA towns are named Hebron (e.g. NH, ME, CT, NY, NE, TX, UT) as a demonstration of American recognition of its critical role in Jewish history.
6. Obama’s definition of Jewish presence in Hebron as “occupation,” ignores history and fuels Arab terrorism. Obama’s reference to “settlements” as “illegitimate” and an “obstacle to peace,” ignores the September 2005 uprooting of all Jewish settlements from Gaza, which severely exacerbated Palestinian terrorism, triggered the December war in Gaza, paved the road to the Hamas takeover of Gaza and further eroded Israel’s posture of deterrence, thus enticing Arab aggression.
7. Every square inch of land, which was ceded by the Jewish State to the Palestinians, has been transformed into a platform of hate-education and terrorism. The hope of “Land-for-Peace” has been crashed by the reality of “Land-for-Terrorism.”
8. The root cause of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict – as far as PLO and Hamas are concerned – is the existence, and not the size, of the Jewish State.
Moral equivalence has ignored Middle East reality and has rewarded Palestinian/Arab terrorism.
Moral clarity constitutes a prerequisite for strategic clarity, bolstering counter-terrorism and advancing the cause of peace.
