Realism About the Arab-Israel Conflict
Richard...@verizon.net
This is written entirely by Prof. Steven Plaut. It is a realistic
statement of the factors. I would have indicated the Arab motive,
which is religious.
1. The Arab world has never come to terms with Israel's existence
within
ANY set of borders whatsoever and is still seeking the annihilation
of
Israel and its population.
2. ANY Palestinian state, regardless of who rules it, will produce
escalated violence, terror and warfare in the Middle East, and
neither
stability nor peaceful relations. ANY Palestinian state will seek
warfare
with Israel and not solutions to the economic and social problems of
its
citizens.
3. The only reason Arafat and the PLO ever wanted control of the West
Bank
and Gaza Strip was to use them as bases for attacks on Israel. This is
the
only real use to which they will be put by any future Palestinian
state.
4. There is no alternative that will stop the bloodshed and war in
the
Middle East other than the adoption by Israel of an unambiguous policy
of
R&D, that is, of Re-Occupation and Denazification of the West Bank
and
Gaza Strip. Every other alternative proposal for stabilization and
pacification is delusional.
5. Denazification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip must be based partly
on
the programs of Denazification imposed on Germany and Japan by the
Allies
after World War II, but in part must be different. Such
Denazification
policies will have to stay in place for decades. There is no other
way by
which Israel can prevent the daily massacre of its civilians by
Palestinian terrorists.
6. The bulk of Palestinians have lived outside Israeli "occupation"
for
years, and their "liberation" from Israeli "occupation" only produced
Nazification, terrorism, mass murders, and violence. Their
pacification
requires re-imposing of open-ended martial rule upon them by Israel.
7. The instability of the Middle East is not caused by Israeli
occupation
of Palestinian lands but by PLO occupation of Israeli lands.
8. There was never in history an Arab Palestinian state. There is no
justification whatsoever for one now (other than perhaps in Jordan).
9. The Palestinians have no legitimate claim to the right to set up
their
own state. It is doubtful whether they ever did have such a right, but
-
even if they once did - they forfeited it thanks to decades of
terrorism,
savagery, mass murders and barbarism.
10. Palestinians are Arabs. The Arabs already rule 22 states. There is
no
reason why they should be entitled to a 23rd state, and creation of a
23rd
Arab state, "Palestine", in the West Bank and Gaza will escalate
Middle
East violence and world terrorism.
11. The Palestinians are not and never were a "nation". They are not
even
a tribe. They are a branch of Arabs with only minor and secondary
cultural
differences that distinguish them from Syrians, Lebanese or
Jordanians.
12. The Middle East conflict cannot be resolved through endless
exhibitions of niceness and restraint by Israel. Israeli niceness,
restraint, and goodwill gestures are interpreted by the Arab world as
weakness and as signs that the Jews, like Paul McCartney's Band, are
on
the run.
13. The Palestinians are not "mistreated" by Israel, but ARE poorly
treated by the Palestinian Authority. The treatment of Arabs by
Israel is
a thousand times better than the treatment of Arabs by Arab countries.
14. The only Arabs in the Middle East with any semblance of civil
rights
are those who live under Israeli rule.
15. If the intifada "uprising" were in fact a product of oppression
and
mistreatment of Arabs by a government, then Israel should be the only
country in the Middle East that does NOT have an intifada.
16. Oslo has radicalized and Sudetenized most Israeli Arabs, who now
identify with and openly support Arab parties and politicians who
call
openly for terror violence against Jews and the destruction of Israel.
17. There exists no set of concessions by Israel that would result in
the
Arab states coming to terms with Israel's existence.
18. There are no Arab democracies and no support for democracy among
significant minorities within the Arab world.
19. Israeli assassination of Palestinian terrorists is in fact a
substitute for retaliation in kind against the Palestinians for
bombings
of Israeli children and other civilians. The alternative to such
assassinations is bombings of Palestinian civilians.
20. Israeli settlements are the "mine canaries" of the Arab world.
There
is no reason why Jewish civilians should not be free to live in peace
within Arab countries truly seeking peace with Israel, just as Arabs
live
at peace within Israel and within the United States. The attitude of
the
Arab world in general and of the Palestinian Authority in particular
towards such "settlements" is indicative of their attitudes towards
Israel
and Jews in general. If the Palestinians are NOT seeking peace with
the
Jews, and indeed they are not, then the real problem is that Israel
has
built too few settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
21. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does NOT deal
with
Islamist terror through wholesale massacres of the people in whose
midst
the terrorists operate.
22. There is an inverse relationship between the material comfort of
Arabs
living under Israeli rule and political moderation. The better off
they
are in a material sense, the more violent and radical they are. More
generally, Arab radicalism and terror are positively correlated with
comfort and education and wealth. Bin Laden and his people are
filthy
rich. There have been no undernourished Palestinian suicide bombers.
Many have been college students.
23. Palestinians endorse terrorism and violence against Jews by
near-universal majorities.
24. Israeli Arabs endorse terror and violence against Jews by large
majorities. They also support bin Laden and the Hizbollah.
25. There are no visible Palestinian public figures who oppose
violence,
terror and Islamist fascism. There are no Palestinian "moderate"
leaders,
only a few Palestinian fascists who speak English well and elegantly,
like
Hanan Ashrawi.
26. There is not and never has been a Palestinian "peace movement" nor
a
Syrian "peace movement".
27. Syria has no legitimate claim to the Golan Heights. Its claim to
the
Golan is far less legitimate than German's claim to Alsace and
Lorraine.
28. The PLO, and not just the Hamas, is itself very much a
manifestation
of Islamist fascism and was founded by Islamist fundamentalists. Its
head, Abu Mazen, is no more "moderate" than the heads of the Hamas
and
Islamic Jihad.
29. Asking Arafat to arrest the terrorists is a bit like asking Osama
bin
Laden to arrest those responsible for the September 11 attacks on the
US
or asking Hitler to take steps against those who invaded Poland. It
is
all part of the Oslo era of mass delusion and make-pretend.
30. Peace cannot be achieved through pretending that war does not
exist.
31. The Israeli Left is responsible for the bloodshed in Israel. The
Israeli Left rescued the PLO from oblivion in the early 1990s, armed
it,
and allowed it to become entrenched in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem. The Israeli Left is as wacky as is the pro-Taliban, pro-
Saddam
campus Left in the United States. It is today as anti-Israel as the
US
far Left is anti-American.
32. Ehud Olmert and his crew have yet to detach themselves from the
pipe
dreams and denials of reality imposed on the country by the Israeli
Left,
those that produced the Oslo debacle. They continue to insist they
favor
creation of a Palestinian state.
33. The only peaceful terrorist is a dead terrorist.
34. Israel cannot restore the credibility of its military prowess
through
"signaling," but rather only through using that prowess and putting
its
military might to actual use.
35. Unilateral withdrawal by Israel produces massive terrorist
aggression. Anyone nursing doubts should contemplate what Israel's
2000
withdrawal from Southern Lebanon produced in the summer of 2006
(4/20).