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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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November 26, 2007 Annapolis: It's Not What The Gentiles Will Say... by Gerald A. Honigman
I had my modern day, post-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah Hebrew patriarchs and matriarchs mixed up. I thought it was Golda Meir who stated the above. It was David Ben-Gurion. Lots of serious concerns abound regarding the upcoming gang-up-on-the-Jews summit at Annapolis, organized by a Big Oil-connected, Arabist-dominated American State Department and supported by a President whose family has huge petrodollar ties of its own. Headlines in newspapers repeatedly talk of Arab reluctance to attend. In order to get those Arab "moderates" there, the Jews' arms have been twisted near the breaking point. Arabs aim to relive 1948 all over again. We hear and read constantly about the need for "painful concessions" by Israel. It's fine for Arabs to have a 22-member Arab League, but Abbas and his fellow "moderate" Palestinian Arab participants refuse to recognize a Jewish (as in English, Irish, Danish) Israel. Besides empty paper promises (never lived up to), what painful concessions are Arabs expected to make so that their 22nd state--and 2nd, not first, one in the 1920 original Mandate of Palestine can be created? Arabs demand Jews relinquish their right to the secure and recognized borders, not previous armistice lines, promised by the final draft of UN Resolution 242 in the wake of the Arabs' '67 attempt on Israel's life. And after the Jewish State does this (again requiring a magnifying glass to find it on a world map), Arabs demand Israel's six million Jews (does that number sound frighteningly familiar?) also allow themselves to be flooded by millions of allegedly returning jihadi Arab refugees. That's the so-called Saudi Peace (of the grave) Plan...from a key "moderate" Arab participant at Annapolis. Recall that one half of Israel's Jews were refugees themselves from the so-called Arab/Muslim world and fled for the same reasons their Arab counterparts did...the attack by a half dozen Arab states on a nascent Israel in 1948. Recall, as well, that so many so-called Arab "natives" were newcomers into the Mandate that when the United Nations Relief Works Agency was set up to assist Arab refugees, the very word "refugee" had to be redefined to assist those people. So many Arabs were recent arrivals themselves that UNRWA had to adjust the very definition of "refugee" from its prior meaning of persons normally and traditionally resident to those who lived in the Mandate for a minimum of only two years prior to 1948. Do you really understand what this means? Again, for every Arab who was forced to flee the fighting Arabs started, a Jewish refugee was forced to flee Arab/Muslim lands into Israel and elsewhere--but with no UNRWA set up to assist them. In just one of many examples, greater New York City alone now has tens of thousands of Syrian Jewish refugees and their descendants. And while many, if not most, of France's pre-World War II European Jews perished in the Holocaust, many of France's now newly-endangered post-war Jewish population also consists of refugees from the "Arab" world. As for those "native Palestinians," Arafat himself was born in Cairo, Egypt. Scores of thousands of other Arabs came from Egypt earlier in the 19th century with Muhammad Ali and son's Ibrahim Pasha's armies and many, like Arafat a bit later, settled in Palestine. During the Mandate period after World War I, the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission recorded additional scores of thousands of Egyptian, Syrian and other Arabs entering into Palestine and settling there. Indeed, this influx of Arabs into the land is well documented, but few, except scholars, usually delve into these sources. And too many of the scholars these days tend to have an anti-Israel bias and agenda, so such facts are simply ignored or downplayed. Ready for more Arab "natives"? Early 20th century disemboweler of Jewish babes, Hamas' patron saint, Sheikh Izzedin al-Qassam, for whom its "militant wing" was named, was from Latakia, Syria. He, too, settled in Palestine. It is estimated that for each one of these incoming Arabs who were recorded, many others crossed the border under cover of darkness to enter into one of the few areas in the region where any economic development was going on, because of the influx of Jewish capital. These folks later became known as "native Palestinians." When the subject of refugees comes up at Annapolis, the Jews must shove the other side of this coin into Arab and State Department faces. Jewish refugees left far more valuables and property behind than Arabs, who were stuck by their brethren into camps, did. And Jews didn't have some two dozen other states to choose from, including one--Jordan--which sits on some 80% of the original Mandate of Palestine's territory. We also hear that Syria--still aiming to keep Lebanon as its province and good buddy to Hizbullah, Iran, and such--might also bless Annapolis with its presence...but not unless it's assured that the Golan will be on the one-sided holiday one-sided gift list as well. Last May, Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice attended an international what-to-do-about-Iraq conference at Sharm el-Sheikh. Condi met with her Syrian counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, the first high-level contact in years. While this was recommended earlier by the Baker-Hamilton Commission, it had largely been placed by the Bush administration onto the backburner until a marked change in Syrian behavior was forthcoming. The Syrians or their local stooges have been eliminating one Lebanese patriot after another who dared oppose Damascus's own vision for Lebanon. Good evidence points to Syria as being the haven for both Saddam's missing WMDs and "militants" crossing the border into Iraq as well. So, Washington has good reason to maintain distance. The New York Times report about Rice's May meeting quoted American officials as stating that they do not plan to trade away Lebanon for Syria's help in Iraq. As State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, put it, "The Lebanese people have no better friend than the United States." Sounds good, correct? But here's the problem, and what Syria'a presence at Annapolois 2007 is all about... The State Department has long known what carrot of choice would be used at the proper moment--and it ain't Lebanon. As I had written often much earlier, despite Syria's deadly hegemonic attitudes and actions towards what it sees as its Lebanese "province;" despite appalling treatment of Kurds, native Jews, and others; despite support for terrorists undermining Iraq's attempt at democracy; despite the great likelihood that many of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction found their way to Syria; despite Damascus' support of major terrorist organizations whose aim is the destruction of the Israel, giving safe haven to those organizations within its own borders; despite its record as mass slaughterer of any and all who dissent, author of the infamous "Hama Solution;" etc., etc., and so forth...up until now, America would have been squeezing the Jews--not the Syrians-- if circumstances were just a bit different. You see, as with the "Palestinian" track, it's Israel--not Lebanon--who the Foggy Folks have in mind as the main collective sacrificial offering. Not long ago, Israel suggested, itself, that it wanted to resume negotiations with Syria--the nation which, along with Iran, used Hizbullah two summers ago in a proxy war against Jerusalem. The Foggy Folks themselves demanded that the Jews not do this. The time was not yet ripe as far as the State Department was concerned. To hell with what the Jews felt their own, on the scene/in the bull's eye interests required. But now, despite some temporary progress, with things still a mess in Iraq, it's time to bring out the icing on the cake as far as Syria is concerned... Former Secretary of State James Baker III pledged to Assad I, butcher of Damascus, during George I's administration, a total Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Unlike the Sinai, which Israel ceded to Egypt after the '67 War for a peace treaty, there's no hundred mile or so sand trap separating Israel from Syria. It's all down hill from the Heights into Israel proper (as it is a stone's throw from Judea and Samaria--the "West Bank"--as well). Dubya made Baker, Bush close family friend (whose law firm represents the Saudis and other Arabs as well), his Special Middle East Envoy. Baker has worked behind the scenes for decades--among other things, taking good care of all of his and his buddies' lucrative Arab petrodollar connections and has a most definite Jew problem as well (not that he's unique, especially in the circles he hangs out in). He's the guy behind the famous "F___ the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway" quote. Note that upon the breakup of the Ottoman Turkish Empire after World War I, the Golan was part of the original 1920 Mandate of Palestine until Britain and France did some imperial trading. The territory had changed hands often throughout the centuries. Jews also had a long history here. Recall how Syria used the Heights to rain death and terror on Israelis below prior to the 1967 War--which it also largely instigated. In 1973, Israel was attacked on its holiest day,Yom Kippur, from the Syrian side of the Heights. This time, the combined Arab assault almost succeeded in Israel's destruction. Today, the Syrians have even better weaponry and the same murderous intentions as far as Jews are concerned. It is likely that Israel recently destroyed a North Korean Nuclear facility in Syria recently as well. Guess who that was meant for? Not long ago, an Israeli Prime Minister offered, as was done after 1967, an almost complete return of the Heights in exchange for true peace. The exception would cover a tiny stretch of land protecting Israel's water sources. Think about what usually happens to such land when others are attacked from it. Are the victims that generous and understanding in the aftermath of wars launched from those territories aimed at their very destruction? Think about how much territory--including land acquired by the United States far away from home--has changed hands this way... Israel currently controls the passes Syrian tanks would use to roll down hill to kill Jews. From the Golan, Israeli artillery can send Assad II and friends a calling card if need be. Right now Syrian artillery and gunners can't do this anymore to Jews. And right now Israel is assured that an enemy sworn to its death will not be in control of its water supply. That's what's at stake with Syria attending Annapolis. Etc., and so forth... So, the bottom line--what Ben-Gurion and many of us have been saying--is not what the Gentiles will say, but indeed what the Jews will do...despite the horrendous pressure Israel will come under from its "friends' as well as its enemies. "Wandering Jews" did not suffer and yearn for two thousand years for Israel's Prophetic rebirth, only to witness a weak-kneed Israeli leadership cave in at Annapolis to those who still seek--one way or another-- the destruction of the Jew of the Nations. Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. Visit his website at http://geraldahonigman.com/.
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What The Jews Will Do.
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