By Ron Jager–
Spending Thanksgiving in Long Island made me proud to be a former New Yorker. Despite the distance, the level of concern and regard for the suffering the people of Israel are enduring, is heartwarming and a mind opener. No self-blame, no irrational Jewish morality that blames the Jewish victims, no twisted logic that never holds the Palestinian Arabs accountable for their murderous behavior while clearly blaming Netanyahu and the current government of Israel instead. No demand that Israel continue to abide by the rules of the “Oslo peace process” and allow Israeli’s to be sitting ducks waiting innocently for the next stabbing or road terror. The overwhelming majority of those I spoke with understood without any doubt or hesitation or need to apologize, that the current terror wave is just another stark reminder that the incessant demands by the Israeli left and their American supporters that Israel should make more concessions to give peace a chance is utter nonsense.
Whether religious or secular, you hear the same voices unified in their demand that Israel get tuff and do what is necessary to end the terror wave. Netanyahu and the government he leads elicit hope rather than blame. The Palestinian Arabs and their ideology of accepting nothing else than the demise of Israel are seen correctly as the fuel that has ignited the insatiable urge to go out and stab, shoot and run over any Jew they can get near. Once again, the Palestinian Arabs have shown their inability to let go of their pan-Islamic shackles that have prevented their political emancipation over the past century. All of this is as clear as daylight for my many hosts here in Long Island yet remains far removed from the collective understanding of so many Israeli’s who choose to blame Netanyahu.
This being said, many in Israel and her supporters throughout the world are still left wondering how the Netanyahu government will cope with the dilemma of ending the wave of terror. If on one hand the government acts to make it more difficult for the Palestinian Arabs to kill Jews by limiting their access to roads and Jewish communities, the government will be widely accused of apartheid-like oppression. If the government does nothing as President Obama has continued to urge, or take measures in order to “build confidence,” they will not only will have rewarded the Palestinian Arabs for murder but will make it easier for the wave of terror to continue and escalate. So the dilemma remains; can the Netanyahu government ignore all of these wider considerations and simply squeeze the Palestinian Arabs until they cry uncle.
According to this kind of logic, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip should have been eradicated after the first missile was fired on Israel years ago, yet two wars later, Israel has chosen to enable Hamas to continue existing as a political and territorial governing entity. Let me be perfectly clear, should Israel choose to, Israel can overrun and regain control of the Gaza Strip in less than in less than 72 hours, so the issue is not one of military strengths and capability. Even if this kind of scenario results in hundreds and thousands of Palestinian Arabs killed and wounded, the bloody death toll would be a minor consideration. There seems to be other wider strategic considerations at work that might explain what is perceived by many supporters and foes alike, mainly, that Israel is refraining from ending the terror whether it be in the Gaza Strip or in Judea and Samaria, out of weakness and political hesitancy.
From the leftist perspective, tough security measures are “counter-productive” and sow the seeds for more terrorism. They will claim that it is in Israel’s interest to leave Judea and Samaria so as to separate Israel from the Palestinian Arabs in order to preserve Israeli democracy. They demand a unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria knowing full well that this would only create another larger and more dangerous version of the Gaza terrorist state created by Ariel Sharon’s 2005 pullout from the strip. Since the first obligation of any government is to defend the safety of its people, all of these Oslo inspired retreats have been proven again and again over the years to empower terrorists and wet their appetite for more Israeli withdrawals.
The answer to these competing perspectives is more obvious than it would seem. Over the years as the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) has become a basket welfare state basing its very existence on handouts from the State Department and the European Union, no real public services or infrastructure were established or provided for the Palestinian Arabs that were supposed to be the primary beneficiaries of this outside budgetary funding. Instead Israel provides employment for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arab workers; electricity, water, and other vital services are all provided by Israel. Israel and the Palestinian Arabs have become more intertwined and interdependent than ever before. As the movement of Israeli’s industrial and residential expansion creeps eastward beyond the green line changing the demographic reality in Judea and Samaria, with Jews expecting to reach one million residents by the end of the decade. During this transitory period, the Palestinian Authority will lose any semblance of legitimacy in the eyes of the very people that they are representing. Filling the political void will be Hamas and their Islamic ideology, having fueled the current terror wave. An absolute majority of terrorists have come from East Jerusalem and the Hebron area, both hotbeds of Hamas, with the P.A. having little if any influence on these Arab residents.
Sooner, rather than later, the terror wave will come to an end, signaling as well the end of the Palestinian Authority. With Hamas replacing Abu Mazen and his corrupt bureaucracy, not one word of condemnation will be uttered by Obama, or the Europeans. Hamas will not be hampered by any human rights organizations as they execute and throw P.A. officials and supporters off the 15th floor, as they enthusiastically did the last time around. Israel couldn’t have done a better job herself. With Hamas at the helm, Israel will be able to respond forcibly as a sovereign state should and end the nascent Palestinian Arab terror state . The great majority of Israeli’s and their American supporters will have no qualms about destroying the terror infrastructure of Hamas. The silent majority of Palestinian Arabs will weigh in with Israel and opt to strengthen this interdependency. Netanyahu is a statesman of historic proportion, knowing full well, that the current terror wave, despite the high price in loss of life, will enable Israel to emerge stronger, united, and invincible in the eyes of her many future adversaries in the Middle East. For this, Netanyahu should be vindicated and not blamed; we all owe him our gratitude.