The Advocate
By Herb Denenberg, The Bulletin
Monday, May 18, 2009
Answer these questions and then prepare to learn that logic, reason, decency and rationality has departed from those who now claim to be peacemakers:
Should nation A grant statehood to a group (we’ll call it group Z) dedicated to the demolition of nation A?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z that will not accept nation A’s right to exist?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z whose president glorifies suicide bombers and makes heroes of suicide bombers who are in the business of blowing up babies, women and children in nation A?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z whose president proudly displays a map of nation A that omits the name of nation A from the map and instead labels it as the land of group Z?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z when 75 percent of its members reject nation A’s right to exist?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z when 64 percent of its members support continued terrorist rocket attacks against civilians in nation A, and by a margin of two to one believe if group Z gets statehood, it would be a terror state?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z whose media regularly promote killing Americans?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z when 65 percent of its members support al-Qaida, the terrorist group?
Should nation A grant statehood to group Z whose Parliament speaker has said, “Kill the Americans to the last one.”
I posed this as a hypothetical to expose how preposterous and unreasonable the proposal is for the two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s easier to see the proposal when stripped to its bare bones. The two-state solution might make sense some day, but now is not the time. When group Z isn’t intent on exterminating nation A and are prepared to live in peace, that would be the time.
The hypothetical removes some of the miscellaneous baggage from the issue, and makes crystal clear the sheer lunacy of the two-state solution at this time. Israel is nation A, and the Palestinians are group Z. This two-state solution is now the accepted wisdom of the Obama administration, Arab states, the international community and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It is a no-starter on its face.
The two-state solution is in fact a no-state solution for Israel. When you consider the facts as catalogued in the questions at the beginning of this column, you have to conclude that a two-state solution now would be nothing but a suicide pact for Israel.
In fact, there are other facts not even included in the questions, which make the suicide nature of the two-state solution even more painfully apparent. Here are those other proposals that go along with the two-state solution, which is in fact an Arab initiative that seems to have been adopted by the Obama administration. You would think that Israel would be a party to a parley between the Obama administration and Arab nations that decides the fate of Israel.
First, the two-state solution calls for Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 war borders. Those borders are clearly indefensible, and would make Israel vulnerable to any attack and would assure that its defense would be impossible.
Second, the two-state solution calls for a “just” solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. Those are code words for letting all of the Palestinian refugees who left during the 1948 conflict, which the surrounding Arab nations started by their unprovoked aggression in violation of the original U.N. determination of a two-state solution.
The return of all these refugees would mean that the essential Jewish nature of Israel would be destroyed, and the Jewish minority in Israel would be subjected to the edicts of an unfriendly and even genocidal majority.
If the two-state solution sounds as bad as anything can get, there’s more. The U.S. and the Arab nations are now trying to tie any united front against Iran, and its development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, with a two-state peace with the Palestinians. The idea is that before anything can be done to Iran, we have to make Israel commit national suicide via the two-state solution.
Cutting through the phony rhetoric, giving up Israel to a suicide peace plan is simply an attempt to appease Iran. That appeasement would only be viewed as a sign of weakness by Iran and would make it more intractable. As Investor’s Business Daily (May 18, 2009) points out, “As always, appeasement always fans the flames of evil.”
In other words, the Obama administration and the Arab nations are giving Israel two alternative paths, both of which lead to Israel committing suicide. It can agree to a two-state solution and assure its own destruction, as its borders will be indefensible and as it will be giving citizenship to a demographic group now dedicated to its destruction. Or it can reject suicide via the two-state solution, and instead elect suicide by Iran — with the apparent approval of the U.S. and the Arab nations — and Iran’s development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction … which it has repeatedly announced it will use on Israel. Iran and its genocidal madness should be the top U.S. and world priority, as it is a threat to world safety. It should not be used as a bargaining chip or an appeasement attempt to sell a totally unreasonable Arab peace plan.
The U.S., the Arab states and the “international community” are trying to shove the suicidal two-state solution down Israel’s throat, as if it is the only way to go. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not even meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until he agrees to pursue Palestinian independence and freeze construction of West Bank settlements. All these demands are premature when the Palestinians will not even stop their terrorism, their suicide bombings, their incitement to violence and hate carried out by their government-controlled media, mosques and schools. They promised to stop all that terrorism in accordance with promises made 16 years ago. How can Israel be expected to make all kinds of concessions in advance and come to the peace table, when the nation is still under siege by endless terrorism and endless incitement to violence and hate? Remember what prior concessions have achieved for Israel — more suicide bombings, rockets aimed at civilians and terrorism.
The first step is for the Palestinians to stop their war to destroy Israel.
I’ll give the world a good alternative to the two-state solution. For starters, end Palestinian terrorism and incitement to hate and violence against Israel. Then peace will be possible in all kinds of variations, including the two-state solution.
It continues to get worse. Now meet Vice President Joe Biden, who has an almost perfect record of being wrong on virtually every foreign policy issue during his decades in the Senate. He even opposed the liberation of Kuwait and was willing to cede the Middle East to then dictator Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Now he’s telling Israel that any action against Iran would be “ill-advised.”
Iran is threatening to incinerate Israel with nuclear bombs and missiles and Vice President Biden says self-defensive measures would be ill-advised. Apparently the vice president thinks being subjected to nuclear incineration is the way to go. Yes, poor Vice President Biden can’t get anything right, and perhaps Hugh Hewitt, the talk show host, is right when he gave him the nickname Slow Joe. He’s not slow. He’s intellectually stopped dead in the water.
There are other sorry aspects with this peacemaking by President Barack Obama, the Arab nations and the international community. They are willing to impose a peace treaty on Israel. Peace treaties are supposed to be negotiated by the parties to the conflict and not by other nations or international organizations. Also peace treaties have to be negotiated between parties that want peace. How do you negotiate a peace treaty with a group that is dedicated to your destruction?
Israel has already discovered what happens when you turn territory over to genocidal, terrorist enemies. They continue to try to destroy Israel. That’s what happened when Gaza was turned over to the Palestinians, and that’s the history of peacemaking with the Palestinians. And that’s all a two-state solution would deliver — a better platform for continuing the Palestinian war against Israel. The Palestinians have a long, unbroken record of rejecting peace and going for violence and terrorism.
This all seems quite obvious to anyone who considers it. Yet it has escaped the Obama administration, the Arab nations and the international community. But the agreement by the international community doesn’t make it right.
There’s a battle going on over the imposition of the suicidal two-state solution on Israel. You can join the battle by letting the president know where you stand by calling the White House comment hotline at 202-456-1111 or the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414. You can also reach your congressman by calling members of Congress at 202-226-3121. Be patient when you do, because the White House lines seem to be busy most of the time. You can also try to influence public opinion by calling talk shows and writing letters to the editor.
What’s most surprising about this is that too many seem to be indifferent to the coming Iranian development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the danger that creates for the world, and its plan for Holocaust II for Israel, and the same seeming indifference to the imposition of suicide via the two-state solution.
The best indictment of the two-state solution comes from the Zionist Organization of America and its president Morton Klein. Mr. Klein has a record of being right on target for many years on issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I credit the ZOA for that and have supported its work. But it will take more than that to stop Iran, whose bombs will be directed at America after they are directed at Israel.
And it will take more than that to prevent Holocaust II via Iran or the two-state solution. Does the world really mean “never again?” You decide, and perhaps do something to get the right answer before its too late.
Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a longtime Philadelphia journalist and consumer advocate. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences. His column appears daily in The Bulletin. You can reach him at [email protected].
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