The answer to the question of how to resolve the conflicting claims over Palestine has been to partition Palestine into two states. This assumes, however, that the parties only have a dispute over land, but this has never been the case. The conflict has always had political, religious, historical, geographical and psychological dimensions. The international community’s unwillingness to accept this reality has led to the continued fantasy that a two-state solution is possible. An honest appraisal of the historical record indicates it was never possible for one principal reason, the Palestinians have never been prepared to share any part of the land they claim as their own. This irredentism is based in large measure on the view that Jews have no place in the Islamic world – except as second-class citizens (dhimmis) under Muslim rule. No UN resolution or State Department formula will change this reality and therefore it is time acknowledge the two-state idea as presently conceived is dead.
Before readers pigeonhole me as a right-wing extremist, let me lay my cards on the table. In 1988, I wrote in Commentary that Israel should unilaterally withdraw from the territories. My logic was that Israel could not possibly negotiate more secure borders than it could draw for itself. At the time, the main alternative was the Jordan option; however, this wasn’t actually an alternative since King Hussein had given up his claim to the West Bank. Moreover, I argued that Israel would be better off if a small Palestinian state was established in the West Bank surrounded by two large countries that both had vested interests in preventing the Palestinians from becoming a threat.
Even after the disengagement from Gaza I believed this. It was a minority view, but one held by some serious people like Michael Oren. It is true the evacuation from Gaza did not bring peace, but Israel has proved it can address the threat posed by Hamas. Moreover, Gaza was never going to be annexed to Israel so I still believe Israel is better off without having responsibility for nearly two million Palestinians or the need to keep soldiers in constant danger to protect fewer than 9,000 settlers.
The Gaza experience clearly shifted Israeli public opinion to the right. Today, there is little enthusiasm for territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Even those who believe Israel should withdraw from the West Bank do not believe it can be done so long as there is no evidence the Palestinians are interested in peace and a great deal of evidence ceding the area would lead to the establishment of Hamastan.
For some time, I believed the Palestinian people wanted peace but were denied the opportunity by their leaders. Decades of incitement and educational brainwashing regarding the evils of Jews and Israel have had an impact, however, and now poll after poll has found opposition to peace among Palestinians. The joint poll conducted in June by the Israel Democracy Institute and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, for example, provides a devastating dose of reality to left-wing Jews, Arabists and other peace processors.
Here are the percentages of West Bank Palestinians opposed to various proposals for a permanent settlement:
Mutual recognition of Palestine and Israel as the homelands of their respective peoples. The agreement will mark the end of conflict, Israel will fight terror against Palestinians, and no further claims will be made by either side – 58%.
Demilitarized independent Palestinian state will be established in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – 82%.
A multinational force will be established and deployed in the Palestinian state to ensure the security and safety of both sides — oppose 63%.
The Palestinian state will have sovereignty over its air space, its land, and its water resources, but Israel will maintain two early warning stations in the West Bank for 15 years – 71%.
The Palestinian state will be established in the entirety of West Bank and the Gaza Strip, except for several blocs of settlement which will be annexed to Israel in a territorial exchange. Israel will evacuate all other settlements – 69%.
The territories Palestinians will receive in exchange will be similar to the size of the settlement blocs that will be annexed to Israel – 71%.
East Jerusalem will be the capital of the Palestinian state and West Jerusalem the capital of the Israel. – 70%.
In the Old City of Jerusalem, the Muslim and Christian quarters and al Haram al Sharif will come under Palestinian sovereignty and the Jewish quarter and the Wailing Wall will come under Israeli sovereignty – 73%.
Palestinian refugees will have the right of return to their homeland whereby the Palestinian state will settle all refugees wishing to live in it. Israel will allow the return of about 100,000 Palestinians as part of a family unification program. All other refugees will be compensated – 54%.
Large majorities opposed a two-state solution even if, in addition to everything proposed in the prior questions, Israel also agreed to accept the Arab peace initiative; acknowledged its “responsibility” for the creation of the refugee problem; and if free movement throughout Jerusalem, West and East, was ensured.
Put simply, the majority of Palestinians have no interest in peace with Israel under any circumstances. This view is reinforced daily by their leaders’ pronouncements, the incessant terror and incitement, and an education system that teaches intolerance, denies the Jewish connection to the land of Israel, and extols the virtue of martyrdom.
Just to give one example of the disconnect between fantasy and reality, the same week John Kerry was extolling the virtues of the two-state solution and skewering Israel for allegedly creating obstacles to peace by settlement construction, the ruling Fatah party celebrated the 20 most outstanding terrorist operations of all time. As Andrew Friedman wrote in The Jerusalem Report, “to most Israelis, a single glorification of a murder speaks louder than a thousand statements about peace.” Why Kerry or anyone else would expect Israelis to make concessions to people who commemorate the murder of Jews is a psychiatric rather than a political question.
It is truly bewildering how peace advocates can ignore the evidence of intransigence by Palestinians in both words and deeds. Kerry’s vituperative attack on Israel exemplified a reason for America’s consistent failure to facilitate a final peace agreement. The nefarious influence of the Arabists has led Kerry and others to pressure Israel to capitulate without exerting any pressure whatsoever on the Palestinians, and to maintain the fiction that peace can be achieved if Israel would only accede to Palestinian demands.
Given this reality, what should Israel do? Here are the principal options:
Do nothing. Maintain the status quo.
Continue to pursue negotiations for a two-state solution.
Stop or suspend settlement construction.
Withdraw from some or all of the West Bank.
Agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Resurrect the Jordanian option.
Militarily defeat the Palestinians.
Annex some or all of the territories.
Let’s briefly look at each option in turn.
The Status Quo
An assumption often stated as fact is that Israel cannot maintain the status quo. Why not? Israel has administered the territories now for nearly 50 years and nothing has significantly changed during that time to indicate it could not continue to do so for another 50. Yes, the recent UNSC resolution is an example of the frustration of the international community over the persistence of a problem they see primarily as an irritant to their relations with the Arab states. Still, even this latest attempt to coerce Israel has no teeth and will not alter Israeli policy. Moreover, even as countries cast votes for bankrupt and ineffectual political statements, they continue to engage Israel as a member in good standing of the international community.
One problem is that the Palestinians will continue their delegitimization campaign aimed at turning Israel into a pariah and convincing the international community to dismantle the Jewish state. Another concern with the status quo is Palestinian terrorism fueled by hopelessness, incitement and radical Islam. I do not want to make light of this danger, but it is not an existential one and Israelis have proved capable of living with it for the last 50 years and, if necessary, can do so for another 50. Moreover, the idea that terrorism will cease if Israel were to yield to Palestinian demands or reach a peace agreement is wishful thinking; radical Muslims will not rest until the descendants of apes and pigs are driven from holy Islamic soil.
Some argue that “occupation” corrodes Israeli values and exacts a psychological toll on soldiers; however, polls indicate Israelis venerate the IDF, and remain healthy, happy and proud of their country — even after 50 years of administering the territories. This does not mean administering the territories is good for the Israeli soul and continuing to do so indefinitely is not supported by the left or the right.
The bigger problem with the status quo is that it is not static. The Palestinians have adopted the strategy of seeking an imposed solution while Israel continues to engage in “creeping annexation.” In many ways this is the worst of all possible worlds for Israel because the conflict does not end, the disposition of the territories remains in doubt and Israel bears the brunt of international opprobrium.
Continue to Pursue Negotiations for a Two-State Solution
For the last eight years, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate altogether and their positions have not changed in 80 years. Since 1937, the Jews have agreed to divide the land and share sovereignty and the Arabs have rejected the idea. Today’s Palestinians are no more interested in compromise than their predecessors. As the poll data above indicates, the only acceptable solution is to have one state called Palestine that encompasses the West Bank, Gaza and what is currently known as Israel. A wholesale change in attitudes and leadership will have to occur to have any prospect of negotiating a peace agreement. Even then, it is difficult to imagine a reversal of the Islamization of the conflict, and there can be no compromise with jihadists.
Stop Settlement Construction
Despite the ease with which it is possible to prove that settlements are not the obstacle to peace (e.g., did the Arabs agree to peace during the 19 years Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied Gaza and not a single Jewish settlement existed?), President Obama never figured this out, but he is not alone. The obsession with settlements will not go away.
Even when Israel agreed to Obama’s demand for a 10-month settlement freeze and the Palestinians responded by refusing to negotiate, he did not change his view. I’m not sure whether to call that naiveté or just stupidity. Still, his failure to learn anything in eight years was apparent in his last minute UN tantrum. If their statements are to be believed, the incoming Trump officials seem to understand reality and are prepared to act accordingly by rejecting the specious notion that settlements, rather than Palestinian implacability, is the obstacle to peace.
Withdraw from Some or All of the Disputed Territories
Been there, done that. Israel has evacuated approximately 94% of the territory it captured in 1967, which, it could be argued, has already satisfied UN Security Council Resolution 242’s expectation that Israel withdraw from territory. Most people, including all Arab leaders, ignore that 242 also required that the Arab states guarantee the peace and security of Israel in exchange. Israel is still waiting. Israel withdrew from roughly 40% of the West Bank and 100% of Gaza and this did not bring peace; it brought more terror and should have forever buried the myth that if Israel cedes land it will receive peace in return. Like other inconvenient facts, however, the left ignores this one.
Agree to the Establishment of a Palestinian State in Most of the West Bank
Israel already made this offer and the Palestinians turned it down. In light of recent events, however, the threat posed by a Palestinian state has grown. More than 20 years ago, Yitzhak Rabin recognized the danger and, in his final speech to the Knesset before his assassination, he reaffirmed his opposition to the establishment of such a state. Left-wing Israelis and Americans who lionize Rabin ignore his position. Rabin deserves to be praised because he was prepared to make compromises for peace but, as a military man, he understood the risks and rejected the idea of allowing a potential terrorist base to be established on Israel’s border.
Furthermore, as we have seen from the Arab spring, leadership in the Arab world is tenuous given the lack of democracy. If a Palestinian Zionist emerges tomorrow who will sign an agreement on Israel’s terms, it will still be risky for Israel to make a deal because 5, 10, 20 years down the road a radical Islamist or other hostile leader may emerge. Advocates of the two-state solution on the Israeli side talk about a demilitarized Palestinian state, but this is not acceptable to the Palestinians because it would be a significant limitation on their sovereignty. This is another reason why the “solution” is flawed.
Resurrect the Jordanian Option
John Bolton is among the advocates of this idea. He also has proposed that Egypt take over Gaza. Bolton is one of the more clear-eyed analysts of the region, but he is off base in this case. First, Jordan has no more interest under the present king in taking responsibility for the West Bank than his father did. Second, the majority of the population in Jordan is already Palestinian and the demographic imbalance would be worsened by the addition of more than two million Palestinians who have no loyalty to the Hashemites and would like to see Jordan become a Palestinian state. This would destabilize a country now at peace with Israel and threaten Jordan’s pro-Western orientation. As I argued in 1988, turning Jordan into Palestine would create a larger, more dangerous state on Israel’s border than a rump state of Palestine in the territories.
As for the idea of Egypt taking over Gaza, that is not going to happen. The last thing Egypt wants is to be responsible for nearly two million Palestinians when it cannot take care of its current population. Hamas is also allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and would strengthen the Islamist threat to the government, which would not be in Israel’s interest. The situation in Gaza is actually much like the one I advocated for the West Bank in 1988; that is, a small, weak entity that is surrounded by powerful neighbors with interests in ensuring it does not become a threat.
“Defeat” the Palestinians
This is the idea of another of the most astute observers of the region, Daniel Pipes. Once again, this is a rare case where I disagree with his assessment. He makes a good point when he argues that peace can only be made with enemies that have been defeated, but his prescription for victory will not succeed because it is not sufficiently ruthless. Pipes calls for “a policy of commensurate and graduated response.” Minor transgressions, he says, merit moderate reactions while more serious actions should trigger more severe consequences.
Though his examples are different, Israel already has a similar policy to what Pipes advocates. His suggestions, such as taking money from the PA to repair damage caused by “martyrs,” burying terrorists anonymously or seizing weapons from PA security forces used against Israelis are not going to coerce the Palestinians to accept Jews, Zionism, and Israel.
No, to defeat the Palestinians Israel would have to apply the Powell Doctrine, which says that “every resource and tool should be used to achieve decisive force against the enemy…and ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate.”
Israel would have to be prepared to kill every terrorist with little regard for collateral damage; the Air Force would have to bomb refugee camps and other targets that would result in thousands of casualties rather than hundreds. The United States did not flinch from killing tens of thousands of Iraqis to defeat Saddam Hussein and is unapologetic when bystanders are killed in drone strikes (never mind examples such as the Allied bombing of Dresden or the US use of the atomic bomb). Israel would have to be equally callous to “defeat” the Palestinians.
Israel has been unwilling to follow Powell’s guidance because the public would see the action as disproportionate and immoral, the international community would condemn Israel and the United States would force Israel to cease military operations before total victory out of moral indignation and fear of Arab/Muslim reaction. Israel has learned the hard way in battles with the Palestinians and Hezbollah that it does not have the same freedom as a superpower to use decisive force and therefore cannot militarily defeat the Palestinians.
Annexation
Israel could have annexed the West Bank at any time in the last 50 years but has not done so. “Right-wing” prime ministers who supposedly believed in “Greater Israel,” such as Begin, Shamir and Sharon never did it. Netanyahu is vilified and accused of being an extremist; yet he is the one who agreed to withdraw from parts of the West Bank in the 1990s and has gone farther than Rabin ever did in stating a willingness to accept a Palestinian state.
The reason none of these men annexed the West Bank is well known: Israel cannot remain a democratic, Jewish state if it assimilates 2.7 million Palestinians (2013 CIA estimate). Some argue the demographic argument is bogus, that the Palestinian population is much smaller, their birthrate has declined and many have or will emigrate. Meanwhile, the Jewish birthrate has increased, Aliyah will accelerate as global anti-Semitism worsens and the Palestinians will not become a majority in Greater Israel. It’s a straw man, however, as the Palestinians need only become a sizeable minority to change Israel’s character. Today, the third largest party in the Knesset is the Arab Joint List. Imagine what would happen if that number doubled or tripled – Israeli Arabs could hold the most seats.
For these reasons, I do not believe Israel should annex the entire West Bank, but it should begin a gradual, strategic absorption of parts of Judea and Samaria. The idea is not as radical as it might sound. In fact, the respected Institute for National Security Studies in Israel recently released a similar plan.
The Way Forward
While the international community insists the settlements are an obstacle to peace, they actually can serve as a catalyst for peace. I believe this is the reason the Palestinians entered the Oslo talks. “The Palestinians now realize,” Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij said in 1991, “that time is now on the side of Israel, which can build settlements and create facts, and that the only way out of this dilemma is face-to-face negotiations.”
The Palestinians continued to talk until President Obama took office and gave them the false impression that he would force Israel to stop building settlements without their having to make any concessions in return. When Mahmoud Abbas concluded that Obama was too weak to coerce Israel, evident to him by the president’s inability to convince Netanyahu to freeze settlement construction in Jerusalem, he decided to seek international support to impose Palestinian terms on Israel. Obama’s refusal to veto the latest Security Council Resolution calling settlements illegal and labeling Judaism’s holiest places in Jerusalem “occupied territory” kept Abbas’s strategy in play, but the election of Donald Trump should derail this approach for at least the next four years.
This creates an opening for Israel to use annexation as a lever to pressure the Palestinians to negotiate before the area for a potential state shrinks further. It’s unlikely to succeed because, as I argued at the outset, the Palestinians will not accept any compromise that involves coexisting with a Jewish state. The current leadership will remain obstinate and continue to seek international help in destroying Israel. Still, the opportunity for independence will be available should they undergo a radical transformation.
President Trump can make an important contribution to disabusing the Palestinians of the idea that Israel can be forced to capitulate to their demands by fulfilling the promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. embassy. This would send a clear message that the Palestinians have no legitimate claim to the city and will never have a capital in Eastern Jerusalem.
There is still a compromise that would allow the Palestinians to claim “Jerusalem” as their capital, one that Abbas acceded to in negotiations with Yossi Beilin in 1995. Abbas agreed to establish the Palestinian capital in Abu Dis, a stone’s throw from Jerusalem and, in fact, the Palestinians constructed a building for a future parliament there. This is not ideal for either side since it places the Palestinian capital so close to Israel that terrorists could pose a threat to Israel’s capital, and the compromise doesn’t fulfill the Palestinian dream of controlling East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Nevertheless, the Palestinians should be told this is their best option. To further hammer home the point that Jerusalem will not be divided, Israel should complete the long-delayed E1 project to connect Ma’ale Adumim with the capital.
Israel should also immediately annex the so-called “consensus” settlement blocs of Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, Gush Etzion, Modiin Elite and Givat Zeev, which constitute approximately 4% of the West Bank and are home to two-thirds of the settlers. Given their size, no Israeli government would ever agree to dismantle these communities. During this transition period no new settlements should be constructed and new building should be restricted to natural growth.
The Palestinians will scream, but in prior negotiations they acknowledged these blocs would ultimately be incorporated into Israel so this would not prejudge the outcome of any future talks. Such a move is also consistent with the 2004 Bush letter to Sharon recognizing that facts on the ground needed to be taken into account in any discussion of territorial concessions. The aim of this step would be to force the world to accept the reality that Israel will never relinquish these areas and to increase pressure on the Palestinians to negotiate.
If the Palestinians refuse to talk or recognize the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their homeland, Israel should formally annex the Jordan Valley. This area, 75 miles long and 9 miles wide, extends from the northern Dead Sea in the south to the Green Line south of Beit Shean in the north, and is viewed across the political spectrum as essential to Israeli security. Approximately 60,000 Palestinians live in the area — most in greater Jericho – and they could be offered citizenship without jeopardizing Israel’s Jewish, democratic character.
Another pause should follow to give the Palestinians yet another chance to open negotiations. If they remain obdurate, Israel’s leaders should consider annexing additional areas in Area C where they exercise full control under the Oslo Accords.
Yes, this is creeping annexation, but it can be stopped at any time by a negotiated agreement. The world may blame Israel for the growth of settlements, but the real culprits are Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. If Arafat, for example, had accepted Begin’s autonomy offer in 1979, a state would inevitably have evolved and the number of Jews in the West Bank would have been frozen at 10,000. Similarly, construction would have ceased if the Palestinians had agreed to subsequent Israeli peace offers. Settlements have grown because of Palestinian rejectionism — and the situation will only get worse for them.
What will be left for a Palestinian state?
It depends on negotiations. Israel could reverse or modify some of the steps outlined here if it receives the security guarantees it needs. If talks never take place or result in an agreement, the Palestinian Authority, which currently controls roughly 40% of the West Bank, and is home to at least 98% of the Palestinian population, can declare independence. It will not be fully independent, however, because Israel (and Jordan) will continue to take whatever steps are required to ensure its security, including preventing the importation of sophisticated weapons and conducting cross border counterterror operations as needed. Similarly, Gaza could declare independence with similar restrictions imposed by both Egypt and Israel.
Ironically, the Palestinians could have two states instead of the one foreseen by proponents of the two-state solution. In the unlikely event of Palestinian reconciliation, a corridor could be created between Gaza and the West Bank as envisioned in the Clinton parameters.
Meanwhile, Israel should also take measures to improve the lives of Palestinians. A certain number of Palestinians, 100,000 in previous negotiations, could be allowed to immigrate and become Israeli citizens. More entry permits to work in Israel should be issued and other incentives proposed by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, such as building a seaport for Gaza, could be offered as carrots for Palestinian cooperation.
Unless Palestinians radically change their attitudes they will reject any proposal that requires coexisting with Israel. This will leave them with a shrunken Palestinian state with limited power and the possibility for a larger state permanently closed off. This will not satisfy the Palestinians or the international community, but it will become a fait accompli. It may be difficult to accomplish in the next four years, but Israel’s best chance of achieving this “solution” is to take advantage of having a friend in the White House.
Dr. Mitchell Bard is the author/editor of 24 books including the 2017 edition of Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict; The Arab Lobby, and the novel After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.
@ Edgar G.:
@ mar55:
Caroline Glick, Diva of Second Thoughters?
You may recall I reposted Caroline Glick’s Latma TV parody, “The Three Terrors” https://youtu.be/qKPmGMJ5sew
and then mentioned that one only gets the full humor, if one remembers what it parodies
http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2014/07/16/330751895/how-the-three-tenors-sang-the-hits-and-changed-the-game
Well, it just occurred to me that to really get the full irony here in all its bitter-sweetness, you have to ask what made Ms. Glick think of this roughly twenty years later. Well, she probably saw it on TV at the time. OK, So that, in turn, begs the question, “what might have she been doing in 1994 when the three tenors performed live for one of the biggest world audiences in history — watched by a billion people world wide and the biggest fund-raiser in public television history, (though now probably mostly forgotten.)”
Does it not?
“From 1994-1996, as an IDF captain, I served as Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this capacity I was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians.”
http://carolineglick.com/caroline-b-glick/
Now, watch it again.
@ Edgar G.:
@ Edgar G.:
a
@ mar55:
xxx
Tha picture is priceless….my recollections only go back farther because I likely am much older, but in Ireland where I grew up we had little chance to see the great singers, only the 2nd and 3rd grade from England. The caretaker’s collection was a real blessing and we were all entranced sometimes until 2 a.m. Yes I liked Amelita,,, also Tebaldi, I heard Pons, and even old recordings of Schumann-Heink, Madame Patti and Nellie Melba…so many I’ve forgotten their names, but they were all the best of their times. I preferred Gigli to Caruso. The argument about them was all the rage as I was growing up and naturally we took sides.
VERY Trivial Trivia…I recall once going to the theatre to see (I think?) Il Trovatore, or maybe Cavalleria Rusticana…?) the tenor, Webster Booth, was on his knees singing, and couldn’t stand again without help on each side. Until then, I was enjoying it immensely….. John McCormack was THE big attraction at the opening of a theatre my late father had bought, and he came out very drunk on the stage, sang (almost) 2 songs, leaning precariously against a thoughtfully placed podium, the curtain then rang down quickly….and …..that was that for the night….
Show business was certainly NOT show business on that night..
Throw in Yossele Rosenblatt and Gershon Sirota and then I’m happy. I have many tapes of both. I was steered to Sirota by his Dublin niece and we were close friends. We still regularly correspond. A nephew of his became the English popular singer Lee Laurence…
@ Edgar G.:
Your recollection goes much further than mine. Many of the famous opera singers of the time I heard my grandmother mentioning them. Amelita Galli-Cursi some old scratchy recordings ‘ I Puritani, La Sonnambula mostly Bellini Operas.
Rosa Ponselle. According to my grandmother when she heard many of the Opera singers from the 50’s Her comments:
Nowadays any old rag it is called a shirt.
More contemporary singers like Maria Callas and my favorite
Renata Tebaldi whose warm and phrasing made her performances always enjoyable.
I have recordings from Caruso and a picture of my father on Caruso’s lap when my father was three years old.
Although a fine voice not one can compare with Pavarotti. What made Pavarotti so special was his perfect diction. Clear and any aria delivered as a poem.
I’m not familiar with Irish tenors. Richard Tauber I have hear him on records. Allesandro Moreschi a counter tenor?
There is a base I enjoy because he is a great performer on stage. Ferrucio Furnaletto.
Your operatic knowledge is more extensive than mine and it covers singers from the 1800’s.
For circumstances beyond my will I left the country and home where I had spent my childhood when I was twenty. Left all the comforts of home including the old recordings belonging to my grandmother and parents. I had never seen a picture of Amelita. Going to the Met I always park the car at Lincoln Center Garage and enter through the lower level taking the elevator to the side parterre boxes where my subscriber seat is located. The side parterre boxes are the same price and even less expensive than back orchestra tickets. Before the last renovation at the left of the lower level entrance it was a big portrait of Amelita Gallicurci. What a surprise!
Going to deliver my daughter at her school in Maryland we passed by Rosa Poncelle’s house. A big estate with a couple of horses on the back lawn. It is amazing leaving NYC, going through Delaware and, as you enter Maryland and Virginia. Instead a two car garage. People own a four horse barn.
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!
Sebastien Zorn Said:
xxx
I remember Joseph Schmidt….. The caretaker of the shool almost next door to our house collected all the male/female famous singers and we would go to listen to so many of them, He was a REAL collector. My recollection..from over 60 years ago is that they called Schmidt “The Pocket Tenor”..
Also Richard Tauber (on film as well)….. and Amelita….also Castrato Allesandro Moreschi, a very old cylinder very scratchy and unique. His voice was full of “echos”… I also heard him on a radio programme and still have the tape somewhere.
mar55 Said:
xxx
The greatest of the great voices lost to alcohol was undoubtedly John McCormack. His head voice was unparallelled, especially in “I Hear You Calling Me”.
Just listen to it on Youtube. I’ve heard Yussi Bjorling and many of the greatest opera singers, and all were excellent although each was different, but McCormack’s silver-bell-like tone and breath control, especially as lyric tenor, was unequaled. Every Irish tenor since, has tried to copy him, without success.
@ mar55:
What about all the liberal Generals? Just google: Israel’ s liberal generals. You won’t believe the stuff that comes up. Everything from praising the Iran Deal to saying diplomacy not force is the answer and that the violence is in part a reaction to “settler violence.” Talking about Abbas as though he were an ally and worrying about whether he will continue to be able to contain the violence. Moreover, publicly contradicting their commander-in-chief! It’s a miracle Israel wins with these undisciplined, naive, defeatist clowns in charge. Bjorling was my father’s favorite. He said he loved his bell-like tone. His other favorite was Joseph Schmidt.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
When all the Arabs declared war against Israel, we never imagined the IDF will capture Jerusalem. We do not know G-d’s way. With the things the way they are now we are at war. Just lighting a cigar could ignite another war.
Our troops had to fight in Gaza with one hand or in some cases two hands tied behind their backs. Our casualties
the result of fighting against vermin without a speck of decency. No morals no ethics. Fighting a war against deceitful degenerates.I hope next time our troops will fight to win. Obliterate the enemy. We could occupy all the territory and annex it. Make it quick before the enemy could react.
Giving anything to these savages is like throwing margaritas to the pigs.
Another great voice lost to alcohol. Jussi Bjorling.
who reads any of the above? other than the writers. does one honestly think pres fuzzy wuzzy has someone who reads this stuff or nutunyahoo have a reader of these comments. dr Sherman and ted do read and sometimes respond. nutunyahoo will still talk tss, he will have incoming pres defer moving embassy. except trump may override nutunyahoo just to tell the bullies its my way or the bye way. if nothing else he will have his amb work out of west JERUSALEM, be neat if he did a recall of passports and birth cirt. to add JERUSALEM, ISRAEL. he needs to set the tone within 48 hours after that the terrorists have him by his and your nuts.
You are a person that knows how the Muslims respond and to what they respond. Herd reactions. Hyena like lives.
Entering a Muslim village and or shops are experiences on a dreadful reality. Of course do so at your own risk.
After tens of thousands of analytical BS publications, the bottom line has not changed since I arrived a short time after the YK73 War.
We cannot ever live in any type of proximity with such entities. Any and all actions in that context must be for total effect. And we must win all such actions in an irrefutable fashion.
There is only one plan broached by Ted which includes a functional methodology to address once and for all the facts.
For a long while now ALL my comments end up in “moderation”. Mostly for a while. Neither Ted or I has been able to ascertain why. I wish this one good luck on its return to life.
@ mar55:
I agree in principle. But do you believe that Israel will forcibly evict all of the Arabs all at once? If so, I am all in favor. But, protecting Jewish lives and the Jewish heritage is paramount. They have repeatedly tried to destroy the very sites they are claiming for their own. We must protect our heritage and our people first. Area C is almost entirely Jewish and all of our holy sites are there. Nationalizing and securing it should be immediate. Jews aren’t currently allowed by law to set foot in areas B and C. That must change. We must replace them. But if we just go into the middle, our people will be lynched. We must take over running them, reinstitute the occupation, and gradually pry off neighborhoods along the edges, moving ever inward. We can adjust the speed with which we do this to the terror attacks. Every terror attack must be met with expropriation and annexation. One house, or one neighborhood at a time. We need to stop dealing with this as a criminal justice problem and start dealing with it as the war that it is. One people against another. Jews against Arabs. Over who will be master of the Jewish homeland. It’s us or them. Zero Sum Game. That’s why liberals are always behind in the war on Terror. Terror is a tactic. This is a war. Wars are between peoples or classes, ideological wars as say, Sunni vs. Shia or in an earlier period Cambodian Pol Pot vs. Vietnam or China vs. Soviet Union, take on the characteristics of a war between peoples even when in the same country, ethnic group or class. If possible, the Arabs should be evicted from Area C, but will the Court-ocracy permit this? Not to mention the factional crazy quilt of Parliament with it’s low threshold proportional representation. These people voted down a death penalty for terrorists by an almost unanimous vote!!! And that’ s when they agree on something. They can’t even manage to throw an Arab terrorist accomplice out of the Knesset, it’s starting to look like. You have to work with what you’ve got, finagling where necessary. Oh, and they have no interest in managing Israel. They are just about destruction for its own sake. They have said over and over that they don’t care what happens to the place after we are gone or who runs it or what arab country it belongs to. They don’t lie in Arabic. They never have. We hear what we want to hear. And they will say anything in English or any other language. There is a pertinent opera anecdote. Miklos Gafni, the Hungarian tenor, who was billed as the next Caruso but ruined his voice early on with poor technique, was taken by his manager to see a famous singing teacher who pronounced, “you have a voice like an angel but you sing like a pig.” Going down in the elevator, Gafni turned to his manager and said beatifically, “Did you hear what he said? He said I have a voice like an angel!” See, that’s all he heard. Case closed. Though in that case, nobody died. Just a promising career and a golden voice.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I do not care what any resolution says. All Jewish sites are Jewish and we should take them over and send the invented people to the sea. Enough lies.
Rachel’s Tomb is Jewish. I do not care if you take them one by one or all at once. Once is done it is done and that is that.
Where is Yamit82?
When you do things little by little it give the enemy time to lie some more and time to assess whet they are going to do next. All at once is done and it is about time the Arab countries take these Tunisians larvae and accommodate them. They cannot manage even a pop corn box. How dare they to think they could manage Israel. Anything they touch it turns into dust. Why haven they fixed or make a workable water system.
They keep getting everything for free and, by giving stipends when they are in jail we ae supporting their families. If they are out of work the best option to support your family is to become a terrorist. Take it all at once and no more discussion. Put all the tanks along the borders.
Do not give them the opportunity to attack from behind. Israel has great surveillance from the skies.
Nationalize everything. They do not use water anyway. They cannot hide. Their foul smell would not allow them to hide.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
(cont.)
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/i-was-baruch-goldsteins-friend/2014/02/28/0/
The best disincentive to terror in the short run is to implement a gradual dispossession of the entire arab population through various “legal” mechanisms, each time evicting arabs from neighborhoods bordering Jewish neighborhoods and replacing them with (heavily armed) Jewish families. One family at a time. They don’t have to be guilty of anything. Macchiavelli argued that actually it is more effective to go after the innocent. This will create hostility towards the terrorists amongst their own people. The only basis for negotiation will be the speed of the dispossession and whether any assistance will be given towards relocation. But, it must be an implacable juggernaut to be effective. Every terror attack must be answered with the dispossesion and replacement of the terrorist family plus one contiguous innocent family in a bordering neighborhood. The terrorist home should be nationalized and simply rendered permanently empty for the duration. An empty lot. Time to take hostages and make examples.
What about the Jewish Holy Sites? They need to be incorporated immediately. Otherwise, It’s fine to apply civil law gradually starting with Area C, and extending to the rest as the Arabs are gradually ” gentrified” out, but all of Judea and Samaria belong to Israel. Period. Non-negotiable. Gaza can wait but shouldn’t be ruled out permanently. Incidentally the “Powell Docrine” is really the Sherman doctrine, “Throw everything you have at the enemy and keep moving.” Good sense. There needs to be a paradigm shift away from the notion of “civilized” war. War isn’t civilized. It should be gotten over with as quickly as possible otherwise more will die. Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved Millions of lives that would have been lost in a protracted conflict. There is a classic Star Trek episode that, indirectly deals with this very issue even though it seems to be arguing for more of the fruitless “peace” negotiations. But listen carefully, it’s not. It’s arguing giving them a real choice. Real peace. “Or utter destruction.” We’ve never put that on the table, have we?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Armageddon
speech at end of episode
https://youtu.be/yKmUd0zHW4w
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/76144/attacks-jewish-worshipers-holy-sites/#qUDS0UFIJqr0R6UZ.97
http://jcpa.org/article/the-palestinian-authority-and-the-jewish-holy-sites-in-the-west-bank-rachel%E2%80%99s-tomb-as-a-test-case/
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/51910/unesco-declares-rachels-tomb-cave-of-patriarchs-muslim-holy-sites-jerusalem/#HGlY32X2L2x4JOBQ.97
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/218379/judea-and-samaria-are-israel-ronn-torossian
@ Joy Moss-Rendell:
xxx
Are you crazy in gantzen, or just normally mashugga. Why should WE give THEM handsome compensation….for what….all the heinous murderds and atrocities they’ve committed….eh..?? We are merely a laughing stock to them. They don’t legally OWN a single scrap of Eretz Yisrael. Their title deeds, if they indeed paid the Ramallah forgery ring to produce them, are not even good to blow one’s nose on. (You see that I can be delicate when addressing a lady).
So you go wanting to give them “generous compensation”….another LIberal Jew who thinks more of others than of her own Jewish People. Everything Israel has, was hard-worked and suffered for.
So if YOU want to give them “generous compensation”…then YOU take it from your own bank account…. With Arabs, just like after the 1948 War, when UNWRA came along, you’d find a recipient called Ibrahim Ben Yussuf, then a while later (so that you don’t remember him) a Yussuf Ben Ibrahim… and so on, that’s what they did to UNWRA as well as flooding in from outside toe country.
Get it into your head once and for all… AN ARAB CAN’T BE TRUSTED IN ANYTHING BUT TO SWINDLE AND KILL JEWS.
So few folks really know about Muslims and the Koran that guides these Islamic Terrorist supporters like Abbas and his mob of Haters. Study the Bible and Read the Koran, it is there in black and white, Good vs Evil, Love vs Hate, Creativity vs Crude Weapons to maim Women and Children.
Nothing whatsoever distinguishes the so called “Pal”, Muslims living in Israel from any Sunni Muslim anywhere in the world! Therefore stealing the name “Palestinians” solves no problem but claims to create something that is not justified in any way form or shape, legally or illegally.
@ Bear Klein:
There was never an Arab-Palestinian State in The Land of Israel and there will never be – face it., once and for all
The Ottoman land records of Palestine confirm that the Arabs did not own land, they were sharecroppers. Over 90% of the land was owned by the government the balance was owned by absentee wealthy Arabs from Lebanon who sold it to the Jews at premium prices.
It is time to implement population transfer for all the Arabs, especially for those who create violence, riot and attack Jews and anyone else. They could be relocated to the homes and the 120,000 sq. km. of land owned by the million Jewish families, expelled from Arab countries or Jordan.
YJ Draiman.
Tell the White House official to return occupied Texas and other states to Mexico and the rest of the United States to the Indians.
The Jews have a history with Israel going over 4,000 years. The Americans have only a few hundred years of occupation and deliberate destruction of the Indians. This applied to the European countries and Canada plus others.
YJ Draiman.
The Arabs have already an Arab Palestinian state which is on Jewish land over three times the size of Israel, east of the Jordan River; it is called Jordan where 80% of the populations are Arab Palestinians and the Arabs in Judea and Samaria have a Jordanian passport. The Arabs received after WWI over 12 million sq. km. – 5 million sq. mi. with a wealth of oil reserves. They want the Jews out.
Oslo accords are null and void. Israel must dismantle the Arab PA and include Judea and Samaria as a continuous part of Israel. Transfer Arab population to Jordan, Gaza and to the homes and the 120,000 sq. km. the Arab countries confiscated from the Million Jewish families they expelled who now reside in Israel.
The Arab PA promotes and educates its children and the masses to hate, commit terror and violence. Every concession and compromise has increased terror and violence. It is time to stop the delusion of peace with the Arabs. The local Arabs in Greater Israel have one goal, and that is to take over all of Israel and get rid of the Jews; nothing else would satisfy them. The local Arabs seem to love being abused, persecuted and manipulated by their corrupt leaders, and blindly follow their deceptive and destructive propaganda.
Israel needs to build at least 100,000 housing units per year in Judea and Samaria for the next 10 years; Israel also needs to build 3 superhighway connecting Judea and Samaria to Israel with improved security and cameras.
Construct military bases in Judea and Samaria to protect the people and the country.
Israel also needs to build 50,000 housing units per year in greater Jerusalem and build additional roads and highway in and from Jerusalem. Promote high tech industry and develop Atarot Airport in the outskirts of Jerusalem for more airline connections.
Israel must also build a minimum of 15,000 housing units in the Galil and 15,000 housing units in the Negev every year for at least the next ten years and expand the infrastructure, roads and highways. They have to expand industry and commerce, provide incentives to enhance the desire of people to live in the Galil and the Negev.
Construct military bases and local agencies in Judea and Samaria to protect and help the people and the country.
YJ Draiman
Local Arabs is the description of the Arabs in what was formerly known as the region of Palestine, which is the Land of Israel.
It is an insult and it is promoting the perpetration of a fraud by calling the local Arabs nothing else than local Arabs. Prior to the mid sixties they were called Arabs all of a sudden they woke up one morning and decided in order to promote their fraud and deception to assume the title the Jews had since the Romans renamed the Land of Israel Palestine and Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina.
YJ Draiman
There will never be a second Arab-Palestinian State West of the Jordan River; they have Jordan which is Jewish territory.
If the U.S. was conquered by various nations over a thousand years plus and than some outside forces helped Americans defeat the occupiers and regain its sovereignty and set up the American U.S. government again, would you consider the Americans as occupiers.
I will take it a step further. Many Americans who were displaced by the occupying forces in America were forced out of their homes and returned to the U.S., would you consider them occupiers or people returning to their homes.
If Mexico which had numerous wars and battles with the U.S. decided to fire thousands of rockets against the U.S., would you tolerate it or you would demand your country respond with extreme force at all costs, no holds barred and stop this rockets and terror attacks against Americans and women and children.
YJ Draiman
The Arabs in The Land of Israel are illegal squatters. Illegal intrusion. Illegal Trespass
The tongue has no bones, but is strong enough to break a heart. So be careful with your words.”
In all the Arab/Muslim countries there are maybe 500 Jews left with the exception of Morocco. But Israel has over one and one quarter of a million Arabs who live there in peace with all the benefits all Israelis receive. The Arabs have a Supreme court Justice in Israel and many Arab members of the Israeli Parliament, there are also Arab mayors and Arab Political parties. Can you show me any of this type of treatment of Jews in the Arab/Muslim countries? On the contrary, the Arab Muslim countries terrorized and expelled over a million Jewish families who lived there for over 2,700 years and confiscated all their assets, including personal property, businesses, homes and over 120,000 sq. km. of Jewish owned Real Estate for over 2,400 years (which is 6 times the size of Israel and valued in the trillions of dollars, they also took Jewish territory east of the Jordan River which is Jordan). Most of the million expelled Jewish families were resettled in Israel, and today comprise over half the population. The Arabs received over 12 million sq. km. after WWI with a wealth of oil reserves. The Arabs/Muslims controlled and occupied Spain for over 700 years, how come they do not demand Spain as Arab/Muslim territories.
The U.S. is fairly a new country in the past 250 years. All that occurred after Americans killed most of the American Indians who are the indigenous people of the Americas. The Americans fought numerous wars against Mexico and its occupiers and now claim Texas, California, etc. as their country. The same applies to numerous European countries and other countries throughout the world that have taken territories from other nations and now claim it as theirs. The Jews have a history with The Land of Israel going back over 3,000 years, two Jewish Temples with continuous habitation.
YJ Draiman
Dr.Martin Sherman has been saying this for years in one form or another and has given the only solution that has made any common sense and equally fair to both Israel and the Pals.
Martin Sherman has been working untiringly to educate us all. He has understood the main problems involved in maintaining a Jewish majority Israel and at the same time recognising the humanitarian problems of those Arabs who are labeled ‘Palestinians’ and are actually denied citizenship by their native countries.
Both Israel and the International community should adopt the opportunity for a solution to those Arabs called ‘Palestinian’ that they may finally be patronised with their countries of origin along with handsome compensation and thus becoming respected members of the International community with citizenship being returned to them. A wrong being rightened.
xxxx
I am totally against the suggestions in the article that Israel takes in 100,000 Arabs nor even a single Arab. This 100.000 would soon turn into 200.000 by the Arabs importing wives or husbands from the rest of the Arab world, and the Jewish benevolent attitudes…. too many damned things that they should be very wary of. Then they would produce huge amounts of children and, regardless of the monogamous law, would have unregistered multiple wives. Just NOW, they’ve discovered that in the Negev alone, there are 30,000 ILLEGAL Bedouin who drifted in, a large proportion of whom have multiple wives, and are flooding the whole area with excess children with the resources totally inadequate for such numbers, especially illegal numbers….. The probablr]e result is that they will just sit down and refuse to move….like the Black “Hebrews”…(don’t forget them) who are also increasing mightily with multiple wives, without penalties of any kind.
Remember…… these are “un-reconstructed” Arabs of the most primitive sort. Then…they can make as many promises, and treaties as they wish, but will keep none of them. Even if they stand on their heads 16 hours a day and beg with their feet, they are NOT to be trusted …NEVER…they have always given AMPLE reason for keeping them far away.
And the thought of making them promise to be good, and inducting them into the Army with full IDF TRAINING curdles my blood. It’s a heinous sin to place a weapon if the hands of a single Arab, and especially to TRAIN HIM…. We have suffered too much from them over hundreds of years to ever trust them even slightly. Right under our noses they are able to slip forbidden items past the eagle eyes of IDF or prison guards. We see evidence of this almost every day. Laws passed by the Knesset are rarely carried out…..except against Jews. And who can guarantee that the Jewish guards and other liason, can’t or won’t be BRIBED, as OFTEN does happen……
In other words there are far too many reasons NOT to have anything to do with the Arabs than to treat with them, unless the result is that they go far, far away fro m Israel, and STAY THERE.
As Meinertzhagen (I like that guy) said, “they are poor soldiers but good thieves and assassins” He probably also added “liars”….
97% of arabs in Israel, Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not indigenous to the area. The majority of the 3% that are, are actually forcibly converted and arabized Jews. We can go further and say that arabs are not indigenous to any area outside the Arabian peninsula and technically speaking the Mizrahi Jews are actually indigenous to those areas. There have been Jews in Syria since the time of King David, in fact some of those Syrian Jews are descended from Jews fleeing mohammed’s conquest of hejaz.That’s right Medina, or Yathrib is a Jewish city as are Khaybar and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Also Jews have lived in North Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and the rest of the Middle East since the time of the Babylonian Exile. Let’s go even further according to Halakhah: the East Bank of the Jordan River, parts of the Sinai Peninsula, Central Syria, all of Lebanon, and a small part of Turkey are also part of Eretz Yisrael. So the arabs better shut up before we start placing all our LEGITIMATE claims!
Soft peddled open doors to a “shrunken” state for the invented people must not be considered.
There is no option for any such state whatsoever.