Facebook Feed

2 weeks ago

Yoram Ettinger
Purim Guide for the Perplexed 2023: bit.ly/3ZdlxHY ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

2 weeks ago

Yoram Ettinger
אתגר מרכזי לביטחון לאומי: bit.ly/3xkSwh1 ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

2 weeks ago

Yoram Ettinger
US-sponsored anti-Israel UN Security Council statement - acumen: bit.ly/3lVqpCM ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

2 weeks ago

Yoram Ettinger
bit.ly/3xHPCDc הסכמי אברהם – אינטרס ערבי, אמריקאי וישראלי: ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

Land-for-Peace: Punishing Victims, Rewarding Terrorists

The proposed Disengagement is a hybrid of the Oslo Process and the Land-For-Peace mentality, which have been flawed logically, strategically and morally.

 

The Land-For-Peace (LFP) school of thoughts expects Israel to disengage from its scarcest asset – territory, which is 0.2% (11,000sqm) of Arab territory (5.56 million sqm), which is 50% and 30% larger than the US and Europe respectively (not including Iran’s 643,000sqm).  In return, LFP expects Arab countries to accord Israel that which they have yet to share with one another – comprehensive peace, compliance and an end to violence and terrorism. 

 

The logical/moral justification for LFP has been its, supposed, parity: The deeper the peace the deeper the territorial disengagement, full peace for full withdrawal, partial peace for partial withdrawal.  Can one expect such a parity to be sustained during crisis time?  Would the promoters of LFP demand that full non-compliance by the Palestinians would be matched by full retrieval of land conceded by Israel, and that partial non-compliance would trigger a partial retrieval?!

 

LFP has been rarely employed in the international arena, and then under circumstances which are at variance with the Arab-Israeli conflict.  LFP is, ostensibly, designed to advance the cause of justice and peace, to weaken and deter belligerent regimes, to bolster moderate elements in a belligerent society and to compensate intended victims. For example, Germany was forced to dismantle its Nazi regime, to cede land to its intended victims (France, Poland and Czechoslovakia), which were then willing to reciprocate by extending peace.  However, when applied to the Jewish State, LFPeacenicks aim at punishing the intended victim (Israel) and compensating the belligerent (Palestinian Authority).  Thus, they reward a rogue Palestinian regime, undermine moderate Palestinians who yearn for the demise of the “Tunisian PA”, fueling – rather than extinguishing – the fire of Palestinian terrorism. If such a version of LFP were applied to Nazi Germany, the entire Sudeten Mountains would still be under German sovereignty. 

 

LFP has ignored a fundamental tenet of Mideast – and especially inter Arab – politics: Deterrence in face of threat advances security and peace, while restraint and concessions nurture violence and war. In fact, the only attainable (inter Arab) peace has been based on deterrence, which is severely undermined when belligerence is rewarded by territory. Would it be logical to expect Arab countries to treat Israel more gently than they do one another?! 

Disengagement has been perceived by Mideast residents as an expression of battle fatigue, cut & run and cave-in, which have further eroded Israel’s posture of deterrence, adrenalizing the veins of Palestinian terrorists.

 

While the disengagement from Sinai has yielded a peace agreement with Egypt, one should not delude oneself:

*Egyptian school books are employed by the anti-Jewish PA hate-education system;

*Egypt is using Palestinian terrorism, in order to wear down Israel’s resolve;

*Egypt has facilitated the smuggling of explosives, missiles, weaponry and ammunition to Gaza terrorists, and has poisoned Israel’s relations with Africa, the Persian Gulf and the UN.  

*Notwithstanding its deepening poverty and its weak Muslim neighbors, Cairo has been involved in a major campaign of military acquisitions, in order to establish itself as a credible threat to Israel.

One should note that while the demilitarization of Sinai – contiguous to the sparsely populated Negev – provides Israel with some 50 hours early warning time (in case of another Egyptian violation of agreement), a disengagement from Judea and Samaria – contiguous to Israel’s Soft Belly – would accord Israel some 5 hours early warning time.

 

LFP assumes that the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict is territorial in nature, and that Palestinian terrorism has been driven by despair.  However, Arab/Palestinian attitudes toward Israel have been annihilationist (as demonstrated by their official anti-Jewish education, media and clergy systems) and the unprecedented Palestinian terrorism (since Oslo 1993) has been driven by the hope for the deterioration of Israel’s tenacity.   For example, the PLO was established before the 1967 War, in order to do away with the “1948 Occupation” (Jerusalem, Galilee, Negev, Tel Aviv, etc.) and not with the “1967 Occupation” (Judea, Samaria and Gaza).  In fact, Palestinian terrorism has reached its climax as a result of the 1993 Oslo Accord, when Israel snatched the PLO from oblivion in terrorist camps in Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon and Syria, providing the PLO with territorial base (at the heart of Israel), with weaponry, with legitimacy at the White House and with unprecedented hope. Further Israeli disengagement from territory would ignore the lessons of the last 11 years, would inflame Palestinian hope, and would therefore add more fuel to the fire of Palestinian terror, driving the region farther from peace. 

 




Videos

The post-1967 turning point of US-Israel cooperation

Israeli benefits to the US taxpayer exceed US foreign aid to Israel

Iran - A Clear And Present Danger To The USA

Exposing the myth of the Arab demographic time bomb

US-sponsored anti-Israel UN Security Council statement – acumen

*The US’ co-sponsorship of an anti-Israel UN Security Council Statement reflects the return of the State Department’s worldview to the center stage of US foreign policy-making. This was the first time, in six years, that the US enabled the UN Security Council to act against Israel.

*This is not merely a worldview, which is highly critical of Israel, as has been the case since 1948, when Foggy Bottom led the charge against the re-establishment of the Jewish State.

This worldview has systematically undermined US interests, by subordinating the unilateral, independent US national security policy (on Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian issue, etc.) to a multilateral common denominator with the anti-US and anti-Israel UN and international organizations, as well as the vacillating and terrorists-appeasing Europe.

*It has sacrificed Middle East reality on the altar of wishful-thinking, assuming that the establishment of a Palestinian state would fulfill Palestinian aspirations, advance the cause of peace, reduce terrorism and regional instability; thus, enhancing US interests.

*However, the reality of the Middle East and Jordan and the rogue Palestinian track record lend credence to the assumption that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River, yielding traumatic ripple effects, regionally and globally:

^Replace the relatively-moderate Hashemite regime with either a rogue Palestinian regime, a Muslim Brotherhood regime, or other rogue regimes;
^Transform Jordan into a chaotic state, similar to Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which would be leveraged by Iran’s Ayatollahs to intensify their encirclement of the pro-US Saudi regime;
^Convert Jordan into a major arena of regional and global Islamic terrorism;
^Trigger a domino scenario into the Arabian Peninsula, which could topple all pro-US, oil-producing Arab regimes;
^Imperil the supply of Persian Gulf oil, which would be held hostage by anti-US entities, catapulting the price at the pump;
^Jeopardize major naval routes of global trade between Asia and Europe through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal;
^Intensify epicenters of regional and global terrorism and drug trafficking;
^Generate a robust tailwind to US’ adversaries (Russia and China) and enemies (Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS) and a powerful headwind to US economic and national security interests.

*The State Department assumes that Palestinian terrorism – just like Islamic terrorism – is driven by despair, ignoring the fact that Palestinian terrorism has been driven (for the last 100 years) by the vision to erase the “infidel” Jewish entity from “the abode of Islam,” as stated by the charters of Fatah (1959) and the PLO (1964), 8 and 3 years before the Jewish State reunited Jerusalem and reasserted itself in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

*Aspiring for a Palestinian state, and viewing Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria as an obstacle to peace, ignores the Arab view of the Palestinians as a role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism, corruption and treachery. Moreover, the State Department has held the view that the Palestinian issue is the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a central to Arab interests, which has been refuted by the Abraham Accords. The latter ignored the State Department, sidestepped the Palestinian issue and therefore came to fruition.

*The State Department overlooks the centrality of the Palestinian Authority’s hate education, which has become the most effective production-line of terrorists, and the most authentic reflection of the Palestinian Authority’s worldview and vision.

*The State Department has also taken lightly the Palestinian Authority’s mosque incitement, public glorification of terrorists and monthly allowances to families of terrorists, which have documented its rogue and terroristic nature (walk), notwithstanding its peaceful diplomatic rhetoric (talk).

*The State Department’s eagerness to welcome the Palestinian issue in a “red carpet” manner – contrary to the “shabby doormat” extended to Palestinians by Arabs – and its determination to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state, along with its embrace of Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood, have been interpreted by rogue regimes and organizations as weakness.

Experience suggests that weakness invites the wolves, including wolves which aim to bring “The Great Satan” to submission throughout the world as well as the US mainland.

Support Appreciated

 




Videos

The post-1967 turning point of US-Israel cooperation

Israeli benefits to the US taxpayer exceed US foreign aid to Israel

Iran - A Clear And Present Danger To The USA

Exposing the myth of the Arab demographic time bomb