Bibi’s bad week

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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu weakened Israel this week. And he did so for no good reason.

 

 

Thursday’s headlines told the tale. The day after Netanyahu bowed to US pressure and announced a total freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria for ten months, Yediot Aharonot reported that the Obama administration now wants Israel to release a thousand Fatah terrorists from prison.

 

 

The Americans also want Israel to allow US-trained, terror-supporting Fatah paramilitary forces to deploy in areas that are currently under Israeli military control. Moreover, the Americans are demanding that Israel surrender land in the strategically crucial Jordan Valley to Fatah.

 

 

And these are just American preconditions for starting negotiations with the Palestinians. According to Yediot, if those talks ever begin, the White House will demand that Israel accept a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza and agree to ethnically cleanse all the areas of Jews.

 

 

So far from winning American support or at least causing the White House to ease its bullying, US President Barack Obama sees Netanyahu’s decision to implement a militarily irrational, bigoted policy of prohibiting Jews from building in Israel’s heartland as a drop in the bucket.

 

 

THE TRUTH is that Israel should not be in the business of negotiating the right of Israeli cities and villages to exist and prosper. The notion that it is acceptable to demand that Jews not be permitted to live in Judea and Samaria – or anywhere else in the world – is not a notion that Israel should countenance.

 

 

That being said, putting the so-called “settlements” genie back in the bottle is a tall order. After all, Israel agreed to place it on the table in the 1993 Oslo agreements and made its willingness to dry out Jewish communities explicit with its acceptance of the so-called road map in 2004. To take Israeli communities off the agenda it would be necessary to repudiate these deals.

 

 

Given what it will take to remove Jewish communities from the negotiations chopping block, it makes sense that Netanyahu has not moved in that direction since taking office. But willingness to discuss these communities is not the same as giving them away for nothing. In discussing the dispositions of these towns and villages, at a minimum Netanyahu should have taken advantage of the fact that the Americans, the Europeans and the Arabs all consider the so-called “settlements” to be the most important obstacle to peace.

 

 

Netanyahu should have capitalized on US Congressman and Obama ally Robert Wexler’s statement from last July that in exchange for freezing Jewish construction, Israel would gain normalized relations with all Arab League member states. Were Israel to see 20 Arab embassies opening in exchange for a temporary freeze in Jewish construction, one could say that Netanyahu’s massive concession was justified.

 

 

But Netanyahu decided to give away this high card – Israel’s ace of spades as it were – for free. Actually, he paid for it.

 

 

The Arabs rejected Wexler’s offer in July. And five seconds after Netanyahu announced the freeze the Palestinians proclaimed his unprecedented prohibition on Jewish building worthless. But then unlike Netanyahu, the Palestinians are playing their cards wisely. Why should they accept his move as sufficient when they know the Americans will demand still more concessions from him?

 

 

And sure enough, moments after Netanyahu’s speech, former senator George Mitchell stood before the cameras in Washington and said that his move is too little to impress the likes of Mitchell and Obama.

 

 

MANY COMMENTATORS claim that Netanyahu’s announcement Wednesday night was his way of balancing his desire to release 450 Hamas murderers from prison in exchange for hostage Gilad Schalit with an equal concession to Fatah. That is, the freeze was required, it is argued, because without a move of this magnitude, the terrorists-for-hostage deal would destroy Fatah completely.

 

 

This view is the quintessence of the notion that two wrongs make a right.

 

 

In an interview with Channel 2 Wednesday night, Defense Minister Ehud Barak admitted that in negotiating Schalit’s release, Netanyahu has gone well beyond former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s offers to Hamas. With Netanyahu and Likud in the opposition loudly proclaiming the truth that any deal with Hamas will imperil untold numbers of Israelis, Olmert didn’t dare accept Hamas’s demand that Israel release its most brutal mass murderers from its prisons. But now that Netanyahu and Likud are in the driver’s seat, they are only too happy to accept what was previously unacceptable.

 

 

By Thursday, it appeared that the Iranians and the Syrians had placed the

 

proposed swap on the back burner. But even if the deal presently being discussed doesn’t go through, Netanyahu’s moves on the issue to date have already weakened the country considerably.

 

 

Simply by agreeing to negotiate with Hamas, Netanyahu conferred legitimacy not only on the terror group, but on the act of taking hostages. After all, until Hamas had Schalit, no government in Israel was willing to cut a deal with it. But today, in the interest of making a deal, Israel has allowed Hamas commanders – including Schalit’s captor Ahmad Jabari – safe passage to Egypt where they are feted by senior Egyptian officials and meet with other senior terrorists. In so doing Israel has effectively accepted them as legitimate leaders.

 

 

Netanyahu’s willingness to release murderers from prison also signs the death warrants of countless Israelis. The Schalit-obsessed local media insists that politicians who claim they oppose the deal must be willing to look Schalit’s parents in the eyes and tell them that they will not “do what it takes” to bring Gilad home. But Schalit’s parents and the 450-terrorists-for-one-hostage-swap champions in the media and in the Knesset need to be asked whether they will be willing to look the families of the next IDF hostages in the eye after they are abducted due to Israel’s decision to spring murderers from prison in exchange for Schalit. So too, they should ask themselves what they will say to the families of the Israelis who will be murdered because of this deal.

 

 

Unfortunately, our foolish media elites and their lackeys in the government are incapable of recognizing that the deal with Hamas doesn’t pit the Schalit family against the families of the Israelis that these prisoners already murdered. It places Noam and Aviva Schalit against the families of the still unidentified Israelis who will be murdered by these imprisoned terrorists in the future if they are allowed to see the light of day.

 

 

Even if the current negotiations end in failure, Netanyahu this week made clear that he is willing to conduct a massive release of terrorists in exchange for Israeli hostages. The message has been received by our enemies and they will make us pay for it with interest.

 

 

FINALLY, NETANYAHU’S willingness to spring terrorists from prison in exchange for Schalit weakens Israel’s deterrent posture. This week The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF has commissioned a study to figure out how to tell who has won in an inconclusive war against terrorists.

 

 

It seems a shame that there is apparently such a dearth of common sense in the General Staff that the IDF needs someone from the outside to explain the facts of life to its generals.

 

 

Those facts, for instance, indicate that when you fight a war against a terrorist group that serves as a proxy for enemy regimes, and in the aftermath of the war the terror group takes over the government of its own country and its state sponsors build nuclear arsenals unhindered by your government and the international community as a whole, while your own generals and soldiers are threatened with indictments by UN war crimes tribunals, the terrorists have won and you have lost.

 

 

By the same token, apparently it is unclear to IDF Chief of Ge
neral Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi – who said this week that he cannot wait to greet Gilad at home – that by offering to release hundreds of terrorists for a hostage soldier, he is telling all the thousands of IDF troops who risk their lives every day to arrest terrorists and fight them that they are risking their lives for nothing.

 

 

Why bother staging a middle-of-the-night raid in Nablus where your men are liable to be killed in order to arrest a terrorist if he’s just going to be released from prison within a year or two in exchange for another soldier? In fact, why have an army at all? Perhaps we’d all be better off if we just paid our enemies protection money until they are ready to deliver the coup de grace.

 

 

BUT THEN, perhaps that’s what Israel is doing today. On Tuesday Barak noted that whereas on the eve of the 2006 war Hizbullah had an arsenal of 14,000 rockets, today it has an arsenal of 50,000 rockets. His remarks might have been perceived as a warning that Israel is gearing up to take preemptive action against Hizbullah. But that perception would be wrong, unless what one had in mind was preemptive capitulation.

 

 

On Thursday it was reported that Israel is ready to transfer control over the northern half of Ghajar – the border town that is officially half in Israel and half in Lebanon – to UNIFIL forces. These would be the same UN forces that have done nothing to prevent Hizbullah from rearming and taking over the Lebanese government. These would be the same Italian-commanded UN forces that former Italian president Francesco Cossiga claims cut a deal with Hizbullah according to which UNIFIL turns a blind eye to Hizbullah’s activities and in exchange, Hizbullah doesn’t kill UNIFIL forces.

 

 

Since the 2006 war, the UN and the US have been bullying Israel to give up the northern half of Ghajar. Their pressure has come despite their sure knowledge that the moment IDF forces withdraw from the northern half of the town, it will again become a smuggling capital for drugs, terrorists, Hizbullah spies and ordnance. Barak and Netanyahu apparently are of the opinion that despite – or worse, perhaps due to – the growing dangers emanating from Hizbullah-controlled Lebanon, it is better for Israel to seek to curry favor with the UN and the US than to take the steps necessary to defend the country from Hizbullah.

 

 

This is the depressing message that Netanyahu and his merry band of ministers have communicated to the world this week. In the hopes of appeasing the unappeasable Obama administration, the government has adopted Obama’s anti-Semitic policies against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. To win points with the imbecilic, unaccountable and irresponsible local media, Netanyahu has jeopardized the lives of untold numbers of Israelis by expressing his willingness to free hundreds of terrorist murderers from prison. And to placate the pro-Hizbullah UN, Israel has decided it is willing to further strengthen Hizbullah.

 

 

The mind reels at the thought of what next week may bring.

 

 

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

 

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19 Comments

  • Marcel 11/27/2009 at 13:42

    Israel has been defeated by the peace process .
    This is what Israel’s enemies see as they pick the bones clean of any remaining meat with the help of Israel’s treacherous betrayer America.Egypt,Jordan ,everyone is in line with their sharp knives to finish off the stupid suckers for no peace.
    The yoke of elusive peace Israel allowed the US to place around it’s neck has turmed into the noose that chokes Israel; to death and yet there is no one in Israel with the sanity to cut the rope loose.How did Israel become a nation of idiots,fools for no peace.
    They did it by ignoring God’s way to peace (Exodus 23:27-33) and whoreing after their replacement god and his Road Map
    The evil empire America Babylon has made sure that only weak and beggardly Jews would become Prime Ministers in Israel after Shamir.They also made sure to always restrain Israel and keep them from ever defeating another Arab army ever again. This is why Egypt is so well ‘supplied’ militarily as Hezbollah infested Lebanon is also now so well supploied by the most advanced US weapons. The faithless idiots of Israel still see their god as good and not the evil haSatan he has morphed into.
    Blind fools who stand for nothing always easily fall for anything and everything ,and that is faithless Israel today with another slick,spineless,liar who leads the nation into the mouth of hell with his head held high.
    This is due to the naive and gullible gene Israel suffers from which makes it a sucker and loser when it comes to any peace process.
    You had better get back to and stick to war and soon if you are to survive.
    The phony speech maker and loser at heart Netanyahu and his fellow loser Barak have outdone all previous Israeli appeasers and capitulaters to their gods in Washington. The days of faithless,secular Jews ruling over Israel has come to an end because whatever is left of Israel will not survive with idol worshiping Jews who ignore HaShem and follow after lies and delusions of peace.
    Thank God that there is hope for Israel as He will soon cut the US noose around Israel’s neck free.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nUrw_Oeg28

    Reply
  • Philip Safran 11/27/2009 at 15:05

    Caroline you have criticized Nethanyahu in the past but have always finished by saying he cannot be thrown out of office or bad people will come in. You did not say that this time. Have you finally had enough of his betrayal policies. I know he was a guest at your wedding and you are fond of him, but he has betrayed people like you who supported him.
    The building freeze and expulsions are basically a matter of punishing our own people to please our enemies (whether in Ramallah or Washington DC). Although it is clever for Israelis such as Peres who hate committed Jews who make up the core of settlers to say they are sacrificing when they are really sticking it to their enemies. If they wanted to show how conciliatory they are they should give up parts of Tel Aviv. In fact if ethnically cleansing Jews from Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem are not enough they could start killing Jews. Not as far fetched as you might think. The Altalena was such an action. In Amona they put a kid into a coma. In the lead up to the Gush Katif disaster there were people bragging about breaking the bones of their opponents. We are at a very dangerous and in some ways awful part of Jewish history and Bibi is part of the problem not the solution.

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  • Charles Smyth 11/27/2009 at 19:06

    This would tend to affirm one’s suspicions that the Israeli administration is so determined to be smarter than salt in a wound, that the inevitable failures only avoid being catastrophic because Israel’s enemies are too internally divided, to be sufficiently effective.

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  • Bill K. 11/28/2009 at 10:49

    Netanyahu has been as much a disappointment in his second term as Prime Minister as he was in his first. Netanyahu is no naïve multi-culturist. He has been around the block so to speak. He wrote a book on how to deal with terrorism: Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic And International Terrorism. This makes it all the more puzzling how Netanyahu can acquiesce to the mind numbingly stupid and destructive directives being issued from Washington that directly contradict the principles enunciated in his book.
    Unfortunately Netanyahu lacks conviction and the moral fiber to stand up to the increasing demands for Israeli self-immolation. Peace in the Mideast will not come about through the zero sum game the rest of the world is pushing on Israel. The partial or complete destruction of Israel will not mean a better life for the Palestinians as morally repugnant as this concept is. The destruction of Israel would mean the destruction of the Palestinians.
    What undercuts Netanyahu, Obama and all leaders in the West are the deadly tenets of altruism, i.e. the strong must sacrifice for the sake of the weak. In this case the productive and military powerhouse that Israel has made itself, though economic and political freedom, must willingly put itself in thrall to whining, mooching, murderous Palestinians simply because they are weak. Obviously this would be a monstrous injustice.
    The cure for this injustice is simple: refuse to be the victim. Refuse to be the sacrificial goat. Denounce the unearned guilt that the rest of the world is trying to burden Israel with. The Palestinians alone are responsible for their plight and they are the ones that are in need of reform.

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  • DaveP 11/28/2009 at 11:22

    I’m surprised that Israel interprets negotiating offers as signed and sealed contracts. Israel should make an offer subject to concessions from the other side. If no such concessions are made within a time frame, or further demands are made, then the initial Israeli offers lapses, and the game restarts from square uno.
    Israel should make this its negotiating MO, especially when dealing with Arabs, and what seems to be a pro-Arab and pro-Muslim man in the White House.

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  • Ron Grandinetti 11/28/2009 at 13:16

    Caroline I know as much as you have and want to support PM Netanyahu, your heart is with Israel first and foremost.
    Israeli leaders have to come to grips with the fact that the US president along with his administration is no friend of Israel and continuing to pacify the US government and other nations is not in her best interest.
    It’s not enough to have to contend with radical Islamic neighbors who want to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map Israel should not be treated as a second class citizen by her so called allies.
    Again, a strong PR program is needed in the US to inform Americans the real perils Israel faces
    By now I trust liberal American Jews have awaken by this community organizing acorn Muslim president and realize his actions towards Israel are not acceptable.
    Time for all Americans, Jew and non-Jews to let our congress know this administration has to stop interfering in Israeli affairs with respects to her territorial rights.

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  • Perfected Democrat 11/28/2009 at 15:20

    Ehud Barak seems an incredibly enigmatic character, as Israel’s most decorated soldier; and since he’s certainly academically and intellectually capable. But he must be, not unlike American Jews who are diehard Dem Party loyalists, more loyal to his, though maybe only “moderate”, still over-riding sense of left-wing political ideology than to the considerably more important issues which you regularly address in this blog. Then, again, there is something increasingly insidious about American left-wing Dem Party politics since Carter, thru Clinton, and now Obama; especially in their treatment of Israel on the world stage. I have to conjecture that Bibi is caught between the proverbial rock (Obama) and a hard place (Ehud Barak and his essentially left-wing political orientation and company). It’s easy to say to Bibi “just say no”, but it’s likely that Obama is engaging in an unparalleled level of “confidential” threats and subterfuge which Bibi must feel he has to accomodate; while Ehud the hero in battle, seems obviously a coward and fool in their world of negotiations and man to man geopolitics, since Clinton. A little solidarity would go a long way, but don’t count on it when it’s most important. The left has demonstrated that time and time again in history. Their loyalty is, first and foremost, to their smug and shallow ideology, as well as personal political ambitions. There is something sometimes perversely pretentious (ie. the left-wing that orchestrated the destruction of the Altalena and her crew), and self-destructive about the human condition, unfortunately Israelis are not immune. The only recourse is to relentlessly expose the truth, and to confront the popular press which enables this pathetic circus.

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  • Perfected Democrat 11/29/2009 at 3:31

    So the news today, Ehud Barak signed orders to proceed w/ some developments; reminding us that he is a loyal administrator for the state, what more could a mature person ask for? In conjunction I was feeling guilty about suggesting that Mr. Barak was a coward and fool in negotiations; especially because I was ready to affirm those negotiations, if an immediate and authentic settlement was made then and there. How naive, in retrospect. The fact that those compromises were suggested in the context of those moments does not imply that Israel is obligated to offer them again. I do apologize here Mr. Barak. It may be more complicated when you’re actually trapped for a week with a hopelessly left-wing idealist POTUS; and a repulsive little political opportunist and viscious gangster; when coming away with nothing at all seems a failure. Fast forward to today, and the ramifications of releasing a dozen dedicated Jew killers among another thousand rock throwers and dubious characters, for a prisoner exchange; who may well murder a dozen innocent people; and Israeli leadership is actually serious about this exchange. Mr. Barak cited the Talmud recently about required submission to the state. Abu Mazen, Barak Obama, the U.N. and company remind me that the bottom line is really about assenting to judenrein, submission to Islam, and their deception in its promotion. It’s astonishingly dishonest how so much of the moderate-left world, as well as the MSM, gloss over these issues. No apologies, ever, for saying that…

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  • Y. Ben-David 11/29/2009 at 5:43

    Caroline-
    I must commend you on your willingness to break with Netanyahu after you have stronly supported him in the past. This contrasts with the Makor Rishon newspaper’s editor-in-chief Amnon Lord, who while opposing Oslo and the destruction of Gush Katif, wrote a peace pointing out how “it will be to Israel’s strategic advantage to freeze the settlements and release the HAMAS terrorists”. All he was doing was repeating the nonsensicle arguments the Left has been giving for years advocating that Israel adopt suicidal policies. I was really surprised someone as intelligent as Lord would sell out his views all because of some sort of misplace loyalty to Netanyahu. I don’t even really think he believes what he wrote.
    We are in difficult times. I hope you will keep bringing your clear voice of sanity to the Jewishy people and their friends around the world.

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  • fxmeaney 11/29/2009 at 16:07

    Appeasement, appeasement.
    Obama cannot be appeased. He shares the Muslim world’s hatred of Israel, as is obvious to any casual observer. There is no hope for support from the White House as long as he is in power.
    Israel has to be strong to the point of belligerance. Against Iran and, in a different way, against the White House.
    The real story of Obama’s betrayal of America’s historic support for Israel is not being told in the American media, the leftish views of which coincide with Obama’s view that it is the existence of Israel that is the cause of turmoil in the Muslim heartland.
    Many Christians, in addition to Evangelicals, support Israel and they, with others, hopefully can change the occupant of the White House before he visits disaster upon Israel.

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  • Marc Handelsman, USA 11/29/2009 at 17:40

    Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is under enormous pressure from the Obama administration to surrender Yesha to the PLO. The Prime Minister has reached a turning point where he can become a great man or just another weak premier. If the Netanyahu administration attempts to evict Jews from Yesha, it might result in civil war, and mutinies within the IDF. Because of Netanyahu’s predecessor, Israel lost Gaza, its respect, and Arabs sense weakness. Mr. Netanyahu must realize that Israel cannot surrender any more territory, and release convicted murders from its prisons.

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  • Marcel 11/30/2009 at 8:12

    I thought Israel defeated their enemies in war after war but Israel is the first nation in the history of the earth to act like and be treated as the defeated loser after defeating their intractable foes.
    SURRENDER Israel’s surrender That is what the peace process is all about.
    DEFEATEDAnd that is how Israel’s leaders act assuming that they will gain respect by caving to all the demands of friend and foe.
    Somehow Israel accepted the role of the defeated nation in peace talks with those Islamic nations they defeated and their proxy Arabs now called Palestinians.
    Playing the part of the loser and abused underdog has not worked to Israel’s benefit as the left and right of Israel expected.
    They ignored the first commandment of the International community ; No pity for Israel but much,much pity and money for their enemies.
    “In 2008,” the State Department boasted this summer in a press release, “the U.S. was the single largest national donor to the Palestinian Authority . . . committing more than $600 million in assistance . . . .”
    Things are seriously upside down for Israel and it’s past time for a major shift because this approach is a major disaster for only one nation.
    It’s time to make it a disaster for Israel’s enemies instead.

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  • Perfected Democrat 11/30/2009 at 13:40

    Arutz Sheva today:
    “Barak said that the intent of the international community in 1947 was to create two states for two peoples. He added that in addition to trying to bring the U.N. General Assembly’s 62-year-old recommendation to fruition, there were a number of additional matters that showed the Labor party to be a central force in Netanyahu’s coalition.”
    Check out the map of the 1947 proposal, which is where Obama and the U.N. community want to go with this, and which the American and Israeli left is champing at the bit to accomodate: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/1947+UN+Partition+Plan.htm
    In the context of 1947 demographics and technology it might have seemed plausible… but the arabs rejected it. Sixty plus years later the equations have changed significantly, which is why the Israelis are not obligated to make the same compromises today (similarly for the Wye and Oslo agreements). The arabs did the Jews a favor by rejecting it then, because today it’s a strategically indefensible position. With 50,000 plus Hezbollah missles now aimed at Israel, and a probable well organized arab enemy column within Israel, Ehud Barak should know better. Instead he appears to be a man with an inflated sense of security, probably because of his own personal military accomplishments. It is very apparent that Israel is a casual throw away item for the international left; especially the American Dems and the Obama crowd who give cheap lip service to Israel’s security, while setting the stage for an arab invasion which will make all of Israel’s previous wars pale by comparison; and if the Israelis somehow, again, pull through it, then the left will simply fault them for the ensuing death and destruction with accusations of “disproportionate force”. All the while, the crassly dishonest MSM, with their left partisan and oblivious audience, and the American Dems with there new found influence and position, gloss over these realities while propounding momentary self-serving fantasies. Exemplary is Obama’s pathetic new Anti-Semitism Czar Hannah Rosenthal (along with Rahm Emmanuel): http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/11/the_state_departments_myopic_n.php

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  • Torn Jewish Democrat 11/30/2009 at 22:24

    I have a lot of respect for Caroline’s unquestionable support of State of Israel and her “no holes barred” straightforward journalistic style. And I do agree that Israel is facing an existential crisis – not of metaphysical but quite practical nature imposed on her by her numerous enemies.
    I do NOT think though that her constant blaming of Obama administration (which DOES deserve quite a bit of blaming except LABELING as “Anti-Semitic” and “100% pro-Arab”) and mainstream American Jewish organizations like Anti Defamation league or Union of Reform Judaism as “leftists” and “anti-Israel”. We (Jewish people) may and are disagreeing on many things – including on what is the best for survival and long term security of Jewish state. Some of us a taking very conservative approach like Caroline and most of this audience – I respect that. Some of us veer to far into “progressive” agendas – which often (unfortunately) conflicts with Israel’s interests – like J Street, Americans for Peace Now etc. VAST majority tough is “caught” in the middle – we do want Israel to survive (by crashing its real enemies if necessary) and prosper – but necessarily by hard-pressing “no concessions to Arabs and Obama” approach based on assumption “those who are not with us are AGAINST us”. That just make people more divided, not united to help Israel, as I see it. Instead of borderline offensive message for ALL major parties in the very complex conflict that Caroline concludes her post with:
    “This is the depressing message that Netanyahu and his merry band of ministers have communicated to the world this week. In the hopes of appeasing the unappeasable Obama administration, the government has adopted Obama’s anti-Semitic policies against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. To win points with the imbecilic, unaccountable and irresponsible local media, Netanyahu has jeopardized the lives of untold numbers of Israelis by expressing his willingness to free hundreds of terrorist murderers from prison. And to placate the pro-Hizbullah UN, Israel has decided it is willing to further strengthen Hizbullah.
    The mind reels at the thought of what next week may bring…”
    I would refer to this article in Jewish Forward newspaper which I really find well balanced:
    http://www.forward.com/articles/118783/
    “A more organized dysfunction exists on the Israeli side. After a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, there’s still no consensus among the public or the elites about what price Israel would or could pay politically to end its conflict with the Palestinians. Israeli politics right now isn’t so much about vision and strategy on the peace process as it is about survival in terms of both coalition politics and against the threat of a potentially nuclear Iran.
    In Benjamin Netanyahu, we have someone who is of great capacity but also in conflict. On the one hand, there is Bibi the politician, suspicious and survival oriented; on the other, we have Netanyahu, who wants to be a great prime minister leading Israel to peace with the Arabs and out of the shadow of an Iranian bomb. There’s no indication that this ambivalence will resolve itself in favor of the broader visionary anytime soon. Indeed, this ambivalence reflects the uncertainty and confusion that exist in the Israeli public at large”.
    So, can we just TRY to RALLY together to make sure that Israel lives rather than toss accusations and blame at biased media, corrupt UN (which is true), our own governments and friends? I would surely hope so…

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  • Marcel 12/01/2009 at 7:15

    ‘So, can we just TRY to RALLY together to make sure that Israel lives rather than toss accusations and blame at biased media, corrupt UN (which is true), our own governments and friends?’
    The reason the guilty do not appreciate the ‘name calling’ is that it shakes up their sick world and causes them to feel unease about their immoral decisions.
    Their pride is their only guiding light and you offend that pride when you say it like it is ,Caroline.
    They always try to mute the sound and right judgment which the truth always demands.
    Israel’s in deep trouble exactly because it has compromised too often instead of holding firm.
    I am reminded of how Goldstone had the gall to claim he was a Zionist.
    If it walks like a duck it’s it’s duck my dear demented democrats who side with evil and against Israel.
    The brainwashed among us are troubled that writers like Caroline still think in terms of right and wrong.
    In their delusional world everyone is right and no one is wrong.
    Even their god Obama of the godless left is using ‘name them and shame them’ to try and pressure his greedy banking partners to help refinance loans of homeowners going into foreclosure.

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  • Perfected Democrat 12/01/2009 at 8:53

    From the Forward (to which I also subscribe):
    “Abbas, a good, well-intentioned man, is caught up in a dysfunctional Palestinian national movement that, 50 years after its creation, still lacks a cohesive strategy to achieve Palestinian national aspirations.”
    That’s a pathetic laugh… Abbas (Fatah, Hamas lite), bank roller for the Munich massacre, big etc., is a dedicated arch enemy of Israel and the Jews, and that arab’s strategy has always only been, and will never be other than the destruction of Israel; preferably by violence to satisfy the arab sense of pride, but subterfuge (al taquia)if required. The so-called peace process is a sham, it always has been (fool me once, fool me twice…). Muslim politics and religious dogma will never allow it to be otherwise, that’s simply the facts of life. The MSM and the Obama Dems, as well as the entire left-wing world community are guilty of crass dishonesty and betrayal by omission of the facts and historical context. 50,000 Hezbollah missiles plus with a littany of masked butchers preparing to massacre Jews (ala Hebron 1929 and Hitler’s foremost ally al-Husseini). Get real, rally around that… While I’m a Jew, this Christian link has some excellent background: http://focusonjerusalem.com/WhoisMahmoudAbbas.htm

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  • Harry O. 12/04/2009 at 4:39

    Surrendering land in exchange for diplomatic recognition by Muslim states does not seem like a good idea to me. Diplomatic recognition can be easily granted and just as easily withdrawn, in response to future “Israeli aggression and other crimes”.
    Diplomatic recognition is best received when the grantor is anxious for it to be accepted.
    Remember Daniel Pearl.

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  • Tomer Elias 12/04/2009 at 5:18

    I think our main problem is the our lack of patience which is something we should learn from our enemies since they have to much of it.
    We all know that the Palestinians will never take advantage of the 10 months given to them by Netanyahu,we also know that Hamas will play games with us on the agreement on how and who will be released for Gilad. Why can’t we wait and see what happens? why are we so quickly going against whats going on before seeing how things turn out? why can our enemy wait decades but we don’t have the ability to let things fold out for even a few days before we can understand and find a new way that will lead us to the path of victory.
    We won’t be able to reverse whats been done but we can affect what will happen after the 10 months past and thats where are focus should be. For Israel to be strong it needs a strong leader and for a leader to be strong he needs the support of the people. So instead of fighting and protesting about Netanyahu’s actions right now that we know won’t really have any effect but maybe reducing the american pressure for a while. We wait and see what happens from there, we make sure that once the 10 months pass our leadership will start showing that giving the Palestinians means nothing and they don’t want peace. Also if Hamas blow this opportunity to get Gilad back we start taking from them also and the first to suffer have to be the terrorist murders they want so badly to be freed.
    Caroline you always talked about how things would have been much worse if we had a Left wing leadership or Livni. How is now different from any other time ? Why won’t the current events in the future reveal to us how much Netanyahu has done to prevent something much worse from happening? Can’t we be patient and let him go on with this plan see how everything goes and then decided on what should be done next of at least wait and see how Netanyahu uses the Palestinian failure?
    The western world believes in fairy tales so maybe by showing them the truth that fairy tales aren’t true we can finally get the support we truly need to end this.

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  • DaveP 12/05/2009 at 20:12

    Its bad policy to sign agreements or memos of understaning with the enemy, or its agents, while still at war.

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