The Unfairness of it All

What chance is there really for peace to develop between the Arabs and the Israelis? I ask not to be a wise-ass, but to make a viable point. The answer depends on who you ask. On the Israeli camp, they are divided between what they hope could happen and what reality has told them won't happen. And on the Arab side, the division is between subjugation of the Jewish enemy or outright ethnic cleansing.

There are numerous truthful websites that tell the historically accurate history of the creation of the State of Israel. So repeating it all now will just take up too much time. But for a good read on Israel's supposed occupation of Palestinian land, Professor William Jacobson (from Legal Insurrection) has posted The historical fiction of Israel’s “occupation”. It's definitely a must-read.

But let's say you are new to this issue and want to know who to believe. On one hand, you can look around and see what has been going on in countries with large Muslim populations. Recent riots in Sweden, soldiers beheaded in the streets of London, civil war in Syria, Boston Marathon bombing, continued sectarian violence in Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, and nuclear ambitions in perhaps the most unstable and dangerous country in the world, Iran.

It isn't Israeli Jews that are blowing up people. It isn't Jews killing Christians at will throughout the Middle East. It isn't Israeli Jews who are perpetually angry and homicidal. You won't see a Jew saw off someone's head, or eat his heart on video.

So one one hand, one sode has proven to be less than human when it comes to getting along with the neighbors.

One of the stupidest arguments I hear from the uninformed masses (usually, it's those who are protesting for leftist causes) is that Israel is an apartheid country. Aside from these people needing a dictionary, they also need a serious civics lesson on just how Israel can be like South Africa, when the State of Israel openly allows free elections (and has numerous Arab members of the Knesset), allows for Arabs to join the military and allows Muslim women to dress as modestly as they want. In Israel, any Muslim can receive permission to worship where he wishes and can build his own Mosque, should he desire.

By contrast, Jews are not allowed to enter Saudi Arabia, nor are Churches allowed to be built. Christians in the Kingdom and not allowed to congregate, much less open a church. Of course, unlike in Saudia Arabia, Israeli and Arab women are equally allowed to drive a car - with or without a male companion.

So who is the Apartheid state?

Since the end of the 6-Day War - a war that was forced upon the Israelis when Gemal Nasser and Hafez Assad decided to mobilize on the Israeli border in preparation for an attack - Israel has been forced into negotiating away land for a promise of peace. The blueprint was created by Israeli Prome Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. For his troubles, he was soon assassinated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. While we in the west look at Sadat as a man of peace and his death a tragedy, we no longer look at his assassins with any disgust or distrust,

Since the end of that war, Israel has made numerous concessions that eventually led to the Camp David Accords, where PLO leader Yasser Arafat was offered what he claimed to have wanted. Of course he accepted it at the ceremony. But Arafat had another plan and that was to start up a second Intafada.

If looked at closely, it would appear that the whole world is upside down. The center of this has been the Middle East for the last 50 years. Ever since Israel was victorious in the Six-Day War, she has lost consistently in the court of public opinion. While she was the new, underdog nation, Israel was the darling of the political left. But once she was forced to use her strength - to avoid annihilation - she lost that underdog status and began the left's public enemy #1.

Only when Israel concedes and gives away land  - for the scant hope for peace - does the left begrudgingly accept her legitimacy. No other nation in the world has had to face such a war of lawfulness, nor such a widespread campaign of misinformation and vicious slander. Of course, much of this is due to the fact that the Arab lands control OPEC and the majority of oil worldwide. Due to the need for cheap crude, many nations bow to the will of the Saudis and their allies (and in the case of Iran, their enemies, as long as they are Muslim). In addition, the largest bloc f nations in the UN is the Islamic bloc, which automatically gives voice to over 50 countries in their fight against the tiny Jewish nation.

The obviously solution would be for the Arab nations to accept Israel and her right to be a Jewish nation. After all, there are 22 Muslim nations and no one seems to have any issue with that. But that would mean their scapegoat would disappear. As long as they have a common enemy the blame all the world's problems on, they keep the focus off of their failed governance.

In the past 35 years - since Begin and Sadat sat together - Israel has returned the Sinai, Gaza, southern Lebanon and the governing rights of a majority of Samaria (the West Bank). Each time for the Palestinian promise of peace. And for what? Not only is there still no peace, the Palestinians still refuse to even accept the land that isn't in dispute. There is no "State of Israel" on any Palestinian map and the textbooks (that, by the way, are funded by Israel and the United States) still call for the removal of the "Zionist identity", while calling Jews the "children of apes and pigs." As long as the Arabs continue to incite their children to hate Jews and consider Israel to be illegitimate, there can not possibly be peace in the Middle East.

Sadly, while the Obama administration knows this, they continue to placate to the idea of peaceful coexistence between Israel and the Arabs. To his defense, Bush wasn't all that much better. In appearance and reputation, Bush was far more friendly to the Jewish people. But in reality, the only real difference is Obama is far weaker in stature. Bush and Obama were both friendly to the Arabs (Obama's bow and Bush's embrace of the Saudi king).

Until we have a leader in America who isn't afraid of upsetting the politically correct and (America needs you, Harry Truman!) telling the Arabs to play fair, nothing will be done to solve the Mideast problem. Israel has given about all she can give. It's clear to anyone with a brain (and without an agenda) that Abbas and the Palestinians have no desire to negotiate what they feel will eventually be given to them. In the mean time, the Arabs of Samaria and Gaza will continue to live in squalor. There's a reason no other Muslim nation took in the refugees of the 1948 and 1967 wars. By leaving them to starve in refugee camps, they continue to fester the hatred they need to delegitimize Israel.

That doesn't leave much to be hopeful. But it's certainly unfair.