The Day After\u2026<\/p>\n
by Gerald A. Honigman<\/p>\n
As I was walking my two-year old Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Tess (Contessa for your royals out there), along the ocean this morning, I found myself daydreaming. Not being able to fish today, I just admired the clear, calm ocean and felt sorry for myself for having my son, Jonathan, and my fishing trip cut short by rain the other day. I don\u2019t get the boat out often\u2026yet we do need the rain (but why then!?!?)<\/p>\n
Well, in a semi-trance brought on by Mother Nature, I started to think \u201cwhat ifs?\u201d as Tessa took me for a walk. Like many Labs, she flunked out of obedience school.<\/p>\n
So, here\u2019s the picture generated by my neurons on this Florida summer day\u2026<\/p>\n
Israel carried out new elections later this summer. Olmert and his pathetic crew have been given the boot, and a mixture of old and new faces have come to the fore. <\/p>\n
A depressed Israeli public, thirsting for peace and tiring of war, finally woke up in August and realized that both parties in a conflict must want peace for it to occur. The painful truth–obvious to some, but avoided by too many others–finally sunk in: The only long-term \u201cpeace\u201d their Arab enemies have in mind for Israel is the peace of the grave. Makes no difference whether it\u2019s the State Department\u2019s alleged Arafatian Fatah good cops or Hamas bad cops.<\/p>\n
Olmert\u2019s opposition ran away with the election.<\/p>\n
The day after taking office, the new Israeli Prime Minister made a phone call to Fatah\u2019s Abbas. Olmert, pressured by the American President, and Secretary Rice and her Foggy Folks, had released hundreds of millions of dollars in tax funds, eased security restrictions, and so forth to prop up Abbas in the wake of Hamas\u2019 Gaza victory. Abbas and his staff were now called to a meeting with the new Israeli leadership.<\/p>\n
Previous, concrete, one-sided concessions by Israel in return for Fatah\u2019s promises had only led to the shedding of more Jewish blood–and Arabs laughing at the Jews falling for their Trojan Horse and destruction in stages traps due to pressure from, ironically, their American best friends.<\/p>\n
But, those days were now gone. Baruch HaShem.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the new Prime Minister\u2019s steadfast position as expressed during his meeting with Abbas\u2019 crew:<\/p>\n
\u201c My Arab colleagues–colleagues, not friends–for up \u2018til now, you have not been friends\u2026<\/p>\n
We both know the game that you have been playing for decades now. We Jews may have appeared ignorant, but we were squeezed to behave this way–as you well know and have taken advantage of many a time.<\/p>\n
Those days are gone. <\/p>\n
You have just received additional hard, concrete concessions from us as further gestures of good will and a sincere hope for a better future for both of our peoples.<\/p>\n
The ball is now in your court.<\/p>\n
There will be no more concessions from us until we see concrete evidence that you have decided to pursue a true peace–not your so-called hudnas, designed only to buy time to further strengthen yourselves
\nin pursuit of your openly-admitted real goal of our destruction .<\/p>\n
So, along these lines, we demand that you place Israel on your official maps. It\u2019s not there now.<\/p>\n
We demand that you monitor, very carefully, the imams in your mosques who collect salaries from you and preach the slaughter of Jews, along with your teachers, newspaper editors, commentators, television stations, and so forth. <\/p>\n
We demand that you remove the textbooks from your schools which, along with your children camps and so forth, only teach your youth how to hate–not how to get along with Jews who finally have in one, tiny resurrected state, where their ancestors have lived for thousands of years, what you Arabs have almost two dozen of. This is urgent, and a true test of your willingness to accept us as neighbors and not as fools.<\/p>\n
We demand that you crack down hard–which you have refused to do up until now–upon those among you how find glory in murdering our innocents. You have the means to do this, but not the will. What does this say to us, from whom you expect more and more concessions?<\/p>\n
While one half of our people fled Arab lands–were refugees (but with no UNRWA to help , as you Arabs received)–after the attack Arabs launched upon our tiny, reborn state–much of the other half had just undergone the nightmare of the Holocaust, which you, Abbas, claim never occurred. <\/p>\n
Despite this, our leaders cracked down on those some perceived to be Jewish hardliners in the fight for Jewish survival. The ship Altalena, was sunk and Jews killed fellow Jews right after the nightmare of Auschwitz to see to it that there would be just one unified command.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an important lesson for you here, Abbas, and you\u2019d best learn it.<\/p>\n
Our patience with Arab self-centeredness–others, besides yourselves, are entitled to their slivers of justice in this region too– has worn out as has our willingness to cave in to the pressure of the world\u2019s oil-addicted hypocrites.<\/p>\n
So, here\u2019s what\u2019s expected next\u2026<\/p>\n
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, in the wake of the \u201867 War we were forced to fight after being blockaded at the Straits of Tiran ( a casus belli) , etc., once again, for our very survival (before we were in Sinai, the Golan, Gaza, back in Judea and Samaria, and so forth) called for the creation of \u201csecure and recognized borders\u201d to replace those ridiculous armistice lines which made our state a mere stone\u2019s throw wide after 1948.<\/p>\n
Given all the above, we realize that you still refuse to recognize us within our pre-\u201967 armistice lines\u2026let alone anything more. <\/p>\n
Even worse, after you expect us to cave in to a retreat to those lines–in opposition to 242–you then expect us to accept being flooded by millions of jihadi-raised alleged refugees–whom you caged in camps, and who were created as a result of your own aggression–while we took in more of our own Jewish refugees fleeing what you call \u201cArab\u201d lands into our sole state about the size of America\u2019s New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Knowing this, we are thus forced to come up with our own solution.<\/p>\n
We will never return to our 9-mile wide existence again. Get used to that–for your own good\u2026regardless of what your State Department friends may be telling you.<\/p>\n
We learned Gaza\u2019s lessons well–though were not shocked at what occurred after our withdrawal over two years ago. It just brought your terror closer to our main population centers. <\/p>\n
Wise up, Mahmoud\u2026<\/p>\n
We have the means to flatten you, literally, and are approaching the time when this will indeed become a real option. Nations at war have done what\u2019s needed to be done to achieve victory in the past\u2026and their very existence was not on the line. Ours is\u2026The dispute with you has never been about how \u201cbig\u201d we are\u2026but that that we \u201care.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Gaza will be obliterated if Hamas attacks us, you will be held accountable as well. At least Hamas has been straightforward with its genocidal intentions towards us. This makes your own deception only more dangerous. Among other things, it is designed to win massive amounts of Western support. Anyway, your Fatah and its affiliates have as much or more of our blood on their hands as Hamas. You just play the game better. <\/p>\n
No more games, Mahmoud\u2026<\/p>\n
We will draw a new set of lines unilaterally. Again, you don\u2019t offer us a true peace even if we caved in to all of your suicidal demands.<\/p>\n
Our nation will never be nine miles wide again.<\/p>\n
The previous 1949 armistice lines–drawn up where the fighting halted after your invasion of us in 1948–were never meant to be permanent borders, as America\u2019s UN representative, Ralph Bunche, pointed out at the time. Most of our people and industry–as you well know–are confined to a zipper-sized coastal waist, 9-16 miles wide. <\/p>\n
We will double the above width\u2026which still makes us a rump state.<\/p>\n
Any additional state for Arabs–your 22nd–will not come at the expense of the security of the Jews\u2019 sole, tiny nation. And this will indeed be the Arabs\u2019 2nd, not first, state in \u201cPalestine.\u201d Jordan emerged after 80% of the original 1920 Mandate was handed over to Arab nationalism in 1922. The original maps are available for all to see. If you don\u2019t like it because some Arabs came from elsewhere as Transjordan\u2018s rulers, what are we to say? We Jews have come from both here but also from many \u201celsewheres\u201d as well. Should we thus demand dozens of Jewish states instead of our one? Yet, that\u2019s your game\u2026<\/p>\n
Arabs caught on our side of the new border will be offered Israeli citizenship in return for a loyalty pledge. If they mess up, they risk being expelled to your side of the new border. The same will go for our own Israeli Arab citizens–some of whom have indeed been acting treasonously. We will deal with the latter as other nations would. They are the freest Arabs in the region. <\/p>\n
As Jews, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Copts, Berbers, black Africans, and so forth live in \u201cArab\u201d states, some Arabs will live in a Jewish State. If this is too much to ask of them, then they will be ejected. We Jews won\u2019t apologize for wanting in one state what your Arab brothers mostly conquered and created for themselves in some two dozen others.<\/p>\n
What you do on your side of the new border is your own business\u2026as long as it doesn\u2019t negatively impact upon us. Create that second \u201cPalestinian\u201d Arab state (however you define it, since most of your folks were newcomers–settlers–from other states as well after World War I), confederate with Jordan\u2026whatever. <\/p>\n
Just be a good neighbor\u2026<\/p>\n
If you are, you will find us meeting you far more than half way on the road to a better life for your children as well as our own. We have lots to offer to friends\u2026<\/p>\n
But we will offer far more than has been dished out in the recent past to enemies as well. <\/p>\n
Violence from territories you control will be responded to exponentially. Just ask America\u2019s former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, about his own Doctrine regarding such things. Hopefully, you\u2019ll see to it that it doesn\u2019t have to come to this.<\/p>\n
While you, of course, are free to reject what I\u2019m laying out here today, please understand that we are serious about the ball being in your own court right now\u2026regardless of Secretary Rice\u2019s (and the President\u2019s?) short-sighted threats to us. If they materialize, they will likely backfire during the next, upcoming American elections. The American people largely know \u201cwhat\u2019s up\u201d now as well.<\/p>\n
Know also that we are prepared to take cuts in American aid and support if that\u2019s what\u2019s required to not cave in to our own suicide. And we will not be a part of your openly-admitted, \u201cdestruction in phases\u201d plans for us any longer.<\/p>\n
So, make your decision\u2026<\/p>\n
Will it be a true peace among neighbors–with all that can truly blossom from it–or your continued quest to see and seek justice through Arab eyes only?<\/p>\n
The choice, Mahmoud, is yours. <\/p>\n
Be honest and present this realistic compromise to the Arab Street, for they elected Hamas as they elected you earlier when you–one of Arafat\u2019s chief lieutenants–also ran on a platform for the destruction of the sole State of the Jews.<\/p>\n
As always, our hands are extended in friendship. <\/p>\n
But the time for your excuses is fast running out.<\/p>\n
You will have six months to earnestly begin the measures we laid out here that are designed to create an atmosphere of acceptance that you have ignored up until this very moment in time. You\u2019ve received billions of dollars in aid over the years. What has been lacking is the will to do so. <\/p>\n
While you can\u2019t do anything about that unfortunate past, you can take steps towards a better future.<\/p>\n
Be honest with your people before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
We Jews waited too long for the resurrection of Israel to see it destroyed. Please understand and convey what this means for those who have the latter in mind.<\/p>\n
After six months, if we have seen no concrete, positive changes, we will treat the territories you control in Judea and Samaria (renamed by British imperialism, only in the last century, the \u201cWest Bank\u201c) as we will deal with those now under the control of Hamas. When you ruled Gaza, we were continuously attacked anyway. Other nations would have never put up with what we have already been doing for so long without taking massive action. Be advised\u2026It\u2019s coming. Olmert and his head-n-the-sand, inept folks are out.<\/p>\n
Please don\u2019t make it come to this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Day After\u2026 by Gerald A. Honigman As I was walking my two-year old Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Tess (Contessa for your royals out there), along the ocean this morning, I found myself daydreaming. Not being able to fish today, I … Continue reading