The negotiations are not meant to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian clash; all they are intended to achieve is Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, while leaving the conflict to fester.
By Moshe Arens, HAARETZ
[It is most surprising that Haaretz published this article]
If you thought the agreement being hammered out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is meant to bring to an end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you have another think coming. Nothing of the sort. Even if the agreement is signed and sealed the conflict will continue. Israel will continue to be slandered by the Palestinians and their supporters, who will continue to demand more territorial concessions and the “right of return.” There will be calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions, as well as acts of terror against Israel.
The negotiations with Abbas were held in secret. The public was been given the impression that an attempt was being made to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that if both sides were prepared to make difficult and painful decisions, the decades-long conflict could be ended.
But any clear-thinking person surely asked himself how this could be achieved by negotiating with Abbas, who at best can claim to represent no more than half of the Palestinians, without the participation of Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. One could only suppose that at some point a deus ex machina would be invoked that would solve this problem. Presumably, the partners to these secret negotiations — Kerry, Netanyahu, Abbas and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni — surely fully aware of the problem, had something up their sleeve, a rabbit to be pulled out of the hat at the last moment.
Now that the pressure is mounting to bring the talks to a conclusion, the cat has been let out of the bag, and by none other than U.S. President Barack Obama, at the Saban Forum in Washington two weeks ago. It turns out that the negotiations are not going to bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All they are intended to achieve is the withdrawal from Judea and Samaria of the Israel Defense Forces, while leaving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to continue to fester.
A peace deal, Obama explained, ”is going to have to happen in stages … if we can create a pathway to peace, even if initially it’s restricted to the West Bank, if there is a model where young Palestinians in Gaza are looking and seeing that in the West Bank Palestinians are able to live in dignity, with self-determination, and suddenly their economy is booming and trade is taking place … that’s something that the young people of Gaza are going to want. And the pressure that will be placed for the residents of Gaza to experience that same future is something that is going to be I think overwhelmingly appealing.”
So spake Obama. And there you have it. Of course, there is no deus ex machina. There is only the pious hope that after an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, Hamas in Gaza will begin to throw kisses rather than rockets at Israel.
This kind of reasoning sounds alarmingly familiar. When the IDF withdrew from the south Lebanon security zone in 2000, betraying its ally, the South Lebanon Army, to our everlasting shame, it was argued that Hezbollah would cease its terrorist activity against Israel and simply become another political party in Lebanon. When the IDF withdrew from the Gush Katif settlement bloc in 2005, uprooting 8000 Israelis from their homes in an unprecedented violation of the rights of Israeli citizens, it was argued that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would be satisfied and that peace would come to southern Israel. Now the same bait is being held before Israel’s nose again. Withdraw from Judea and Samaria, and the Palestinians in Gaza will find peace with Israel “overwhelmingly appealing.”
To erase any possibility of a misunderstanding, the foreign minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, minister, announced: “Any deal inked between the Palestinian Authority and Israel would be nonbinding on the Palestinian people … the Palestinian negotiators are illegitimate and do not represent the Palestinian people.”
@ yamit82:
Well enough put.
But what “victorious party” is there to speak of here?
yamit82 Said:
” Let loose the doys of war”.
yamit82 Said:
” One generation is cut down,and another springeth up”
Say no to peace: WAR NOW!!! I reject the popular presumption that Peace is good, as a fallacy. Historically there has never been a Long term effective Peace.
History has shown that very peace treaty is eventually violated or becomes irrelevant and in the end all positive conditions resulting from peace are reversible.
A Formal peace with Arabs works against Israel. How under a peace accord with the Palis and Arab States could Israel prevent the Saudis, Jordanians amd gulf States already pumping money into Israel, to buying out land rights and real estate in Jewish areas? Israel can prevent much of their investment intentions today because they are enemies But at peace with Arabs, how would Israel prevent Saudis from channeling tens of billions of dollars into Galilee and Jerusalem real estate?
BB and others almost concluded a peace treaty with Syria for the Golan and land up to the The Sea of Galilee. It broke down due to Israeli unwillingness to give them access to our water supply. Looking back what would Israel do today considering the situation in Syria if BB and our Peace agreement fools had succeeded in divesting from the Golan? Not only BB and the left were pushing for a Golan for peace agreement with Syria most of our senior military and security heads favored such an agreement and even campaigned for it in public. So much for popular wisdom and myopic self deception.
Our problem is that these fools never admit or learn from their errors and fallacious concepts. They even double down as if to prove they are still correct and are willing to make even more dangerous concessions for agreements. They seem not to understand or at best ignore that a formal peace agreement shields the Arabs from preemption by Israel allowing them to stockpile over time enough cheap weapons like missiles till they consider the time is right for an all out attack against us.
Peace with Arabs is obscene, as it cedes the Jewish land of paramount religious importance. It would be an historical anomaly without precedent: victors don’t give away the land annexed from conquered aggressors. The peace is economically futile. Most importantly, the peace puts Israel in grave danger of an Arab military buildup leading to a future devastating war where we have lost most of our current advantages.
“War solves nothing, and peace also solves nothing; in the long run, nothing solves anything. But within reasonably short time frames, wars are remarkably effective: Germans were stopped by war, and so were Arabs on multiple occasions. The Israeli war on Palestinian terrorism stopped the two Intifadas. Peace, on other hand, changes nothing but only formalizes the facts established by war. After the Germans were utterly defeated, peace ensued regardless of whether a peace treaty had been signed. After Israel defeated Syria, there was peace even without a peace treaty. War changes facts, and peace is only the name for the resulting change.”
As Keynes remarked, “In the long run we’re all dead.”
The cold hard inescapable fact is that as long as the pals think they can get rid of the Jews there will be no peace. There can be no real peace for generations, only the management of conflict. This management must be structured to facilitate the requirements and interests of the Jews rather than be governed by the narrative of providing “justice” to the enemies. The Israeli left has bought into the narrative of providing “Justice” to the enemies at the expense of the Jews. They are dangerous to jewish existence. The enemy must be treated in occupation worse than the Germans and japanese. Their morale must be completely broken before they can be rebuilt. It’s too bad the Jews, especially the Israeli left are delusional. The minority of the Israeli left dictates the entire narrative of the conflict. They are financed by foreign interests and as such are defacto agents of foreign interests: a 5th column with an agenda that aids the enemy. Viewing the pals as enemies rather than as peace partners is a realistic perspective that is repeatedly authenticated. The peace agenda should be abandoned indefinitely and a war posture established.
Israelis are not being sold real peace – even Prime Minister Netanyahu admitted that under the best of circumstances, it would be a cold peace.
And the Palestinian Arabs reject recognizing Israel as the Jewish State and they refuse to allow Israel to maintain a long-term IDF presence in Judea and Samaria to ensure any peace deal will hold.
As Barry Rubin has jokingly phrased it, “If you have a conflict, you can get to keep that conflict.”
A peace deal predicated on giving away more Jewish land for nothing will not bring about peace but the exact opposite.
And a peace agreement reached with only half the Palestinian Arabs is bound to fail. Don’t be surprised if the only person who really believes serious progress was made is US Secretary Of State John F. Kerry.
Its all liable to blow up in his face.
Well put. The question is why are Israeli leaders colluding in this sham? My only hope is that these talks were originally designed with the knowledge that they would fail so as not to distract jihadis from Sunni Shia war. That they would result in cosmetic progress but basically maintain the status quo. My only second perspective is that everything was agreed prior and that the current “talks” are a show put on to unveil the agreements already agreed upon. This second perspective is based on news released last spring from pal sources indicating a ten year phased agreement with details already in place on all the issues.
ALL two-state plans are fatally flawed because they propose a sovereign state that would
– not be a viable independent entity
– oppose the existence of a Jewish state
– be led by terrorists dedicated to the destruction of Israel and become a global center of terrorism
– not resolve the claims of right of return and refugee issues
– intensify and compound existing dual-loyalty problems for Israeli-Arabs
– leave unresolved issues relating to Jerusalem and the “settlements”
– become allied and cooperate with rogue regimes and terrorists
– continue to support hate education in schools and mosques
– support anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic organizations globally
– arm with conventional and unconventional weapons
– create endless territorial, water, and resource disputes
– lead to violence, war of attrition and a major conflict
– create demographic problems between the sea and the river
– lead to demoralization and the decisive weakening of the State of Israel
Unforunately … he is right.
Half the problem is in Gaza.
Israel cannot negotiate with half a state.
If Gaza is a separate entity … IT MUST BE STATED NOW!
I am not in favor of a TSS. Just pay them to leave J&S.