In the aftermath of President Obama's re-election, what was will be and what will be is nothing new. The recent gambit at the UN is nothing more than static noise. The Palestinian Arabs never miss an opportunity to bite their nose to spite their face, and who as usual is cheering for them; Jewish liberals are leading the pack. J Street and Open Zion are the first to demand that Obama get tuff with Israel.
Extremist Islamic organizations like Hamas attack Israeli homes by firing thousands of missiles at civilian targets, hoping that Israel will retaliate and cause civilian Palestinain Arab casualties to be broadcasted all over the world. Hamas as policy uses Palestinian Arab civilians as human shields. Yet Jewish Liberals remain silent.
Despite the branding of the Palestinian Arab Authority as "moderates", they attack Israel at every international forum, demonizing and libeling Jews as foreign intruders with no connection to Jerusalem. The Palestinian Arab Authority repeatedly rejects peace offers (including one offer of a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of Gaza). Yet Jewish Liberals remain silent.
Instead of sitting down to negotiate, these so-called Palestinian "moderates" go behind Israel's back to international bodies already hostile to Israel such as the recent UN maneuver with the single goal of avoiding direct negotiations with Israel that might place the Palestinain Arabs in the embarrassing position of having to flee from another Israeli offer of Palestinian Statehood. Yet Jewish Liberals remain silent.
The Netanyahu governments as well as all previous Israeli governments over the past two decades have all publicly accepted the diplomatic peace process based upon a two-State solution. The Palestinian Arabs had committed themselves in the Oslo Agreement to negotiate with Israel as a condition of the Palestinian Arab Authority’s existence, and for the last four years they have refused to sit in direct negotiations with Israel choosing instead to cast aside their earlier commitments just the same as Hamas has refused to abide by commitments made by their predecessors in the Palestinian parliament. Yet Jewish Liberals remain silent.
The Palestinain Arab Authority is constantly being provided incentives to walk away from any direct negotiation with Israel and this is basically what is involved in this current proposition before the General Assembly of the United Nations. The Palestinian Arabs refuse to fully accept and understand that peace cannot be achieved unless they unconditionally accept Israel’s right to exist, if there is going to be any hope of achieving that peace.The resolution before the General Assembly of the United Nations only reinforces and makes it less likely that the Palestinian Arabs will walk away rather than accept the need for direct negotiations with Israel. The Europeans should have behaved in a principled manner and rebuff the UN upgrade as a clear violation of the Oslo Accords, but of course they didn't. Yet Jewish Liberals remain silent.
During the past week, the Netanyahu government reminded the world and his country’s critics that Israel isn’t willing to lie down and accept the false narrative about Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem that was swallowed whole at the United Nations last week. The E1 decision by the planning commission sent a necessary signal to the Palestinian Arabs that they shouldn't believe their own propaganda and be deceived by their triumph in the General Assembly. Finally, Jewish Liberals refused to remain silent.
Cries of joy by Jewish liberals were heard in the corridors of the Upper East and West Side to finally get tough with Israel and her "provocations" ; this was followed by calls to action against Israel. Suggesting touch diplomatic sanctions against Israel by the EU, calls for the Obama Administration to "shake off the diplomatic daze that has plagued it for the past several years with respect to Israel, and follow the EU’s example" as suggested by Laura Friedman in The Daily Beast's Open Zion website, and lets not forget calling in America's Ambassador to Israel, or economic sanctions (a kind word for embargo and boycott), or voting against Israel in future UN resolutions.
In 1974 Arafat was wildly applauded by the General Assembly as he proclaimed that Zionism is an ideology that is imperialist, profoundly reactionary and discriminatory. Jewish Liberals applauded. In 1988, Arafat declared the establishment of a Palestinan State, and Jewish Liberals applauded. Last week, Mahmoud Abbas, the unelected leader of the Palestinian Authority, a man who denied the Holocaust in his doctoral dissertation and denies the link between Jews, the land of Israel, and Jerusalem upgraded the status of the PLO at the UN and Jewish Liberals applauded.
American JewishLiberals want to see Israel punished, yet applaud Abbas for his unilateral breach of the Oslo Accords and the hateful, racist speech he made at the UN. These Jewish Liberals should call up their Arab friends and suggest to them that if they want to find contiguous land for their future Palestinian state, they better sit down pronto with Israel right now and talk borders before all of Judea and Samaria fills up with settlers and reaches one million Jews beyond the green line within the coming decade. For some reason, I can't hear their applause.