Extremists in Our Midst

Insanity: doing the same think over and over again and expecting different results.—Albert Einstein

Since the handshake on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993—almost 22 years ago—there persists a willingness on the part of some American Jewish organizations to deny that perhaps our “Palestinian” Arab partners are not as interested in peace as they are in winning – a victory that doesn’t include a State of Israel. In candy-filled celebration of dead Jews, the Arabs glory in emulating their Nazi mentors. Amiram Goldblum of Peace Now admitted, “The name ‘Peace Now’ is… a source of embarrassment for me. I can’t even put the movement’s sticker on my car. … I feel people would say, ‘What idiot is driving this car?’ I listen to people who were talking of peace yesterday. … These people don’t understand anything.” Having sold their pliant followers a phony bill of goods, they are too vested in their peace agenda, willfully blinded in their refusal to see reality.

J Streeters, Peace Now-niks and Kool-Aid-imbibing “Pinky Rosenthal” (Moe, Curly and Larry, respectively) would like to believe the fault lies with successive Israeli governments including that of dovish Ehud Barak who, after Camp David 2000, embarrassingly came back to reality. In a speech at the World Policy Conference in December 2011, Barak said, “[Ariel] Sharon evacuated the Gaza Strip and took out every last soldier and civilian, gave instructions to tear down all buildings…so as not to supply any excuse to the Palestinians. And what happened? Hamas fired over 10,000 rockets at Israel.”

What outcome from the disengagement did Barak expect? Hamas touted the Gaza withdrawal as their great victory. Yet, as if Barak wasn’t pathetic enough, after Sharon’s stroke in 2006, Ehud “peace-at-any-cost” Olmert was designated Acting Prime Minister. In New York at an Israel Policy Forum event, Olmert infamously whined, “We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies.” Rousing words of encouragement to homicidal Arab murderers? At another leftist love-fest, Olmert predicted that the pullout from Gaza “will bring more security, greater safety, much more prosperity, and a lot more joy for all the people of the Middle East. [How did that work out?] We want them to be our friends, our partners, our good neighbors [kumbaya]. Friendship is within reach if we will be smart [?], if we will be prepared to take risks [i.e., more dead Jews] … and if we will spare no effort to convince them, not by fighting with them but by sitting with them and talking with them [insert laugh track here] … so the Middle East will indeed become…a paradise for all the world!” [Hamas’ “blessed shahid” hopefuls lined up for their one-way trip to Virgin Paradise, merrily building their tunnels of death, to the tune of “I Love Paris in the (Arab) Spring Time.”]

If history foretells the future, pro-Palestinian uber-leftist Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levi once noted that “everything the Arabs have gained has come about through force… after intense terrorist violence. …The shortsighted Jewish [peace movements] are playing into the hands of Israel’s foes and are in large part responsible for the continuation and extension of the terror.” (Chicago Jewish Star, 12/26/02)

It was Cicero who wrote in 42 B.C.E:

A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from [enemies] within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor… infects the body politic. … A murderer is less to be feared.

Yet today there are still a few loony leftists in our community who are tied for their very lifeblood to the two-state solution fraud, demanding Israel withdraw to indefensible borders which an eloquent dove, former UN Ambassador Abba Eban z”l, dubbed “Auschwitz borders.”

But no worries for Kool-Aid-guzzling Jeremy Ben-Ami, cheerleader for the J Street Obamacrats, who writes,”Israelis will have the opportunity… to tackle the issues of regional peace.” Israel will solve the conflicts of Syria, ISIS, Yemen, etc. Really? He asks, “Will [Israel] take steps to safeguard its Jewish character while remaining a democracy, or will it slide in the direction of deeper isolation, occupation, intolerance and xenophobia? … As they face these questions, they need to hear from the pro-Israel, propeace community here in America. Here at J Street we refuse to let the extremists win.”

After 22 years of broken promises of peace, over 2000 dead Israelis, and Mahmoud “Mr. Moderate” Abbas inciting his Palestinians and blessing terrorists as holy martyrs, Who are the real extremists?

Abbas’ election as president was rigged. When Hamas was finally allowed to participate in the election, Abbas and his band of terrorist hustlers not only lost, but were unceremoniously thrown out of Gaza, while this U.S. administration continued to support Abbas even after including Hamas – a registered terrorist organization – in a unity government.

And then there is “Jiminy” Klutznick, real estate mogul and Peace Now-nik since 1981, the current chair of Americans for Peace Now. You’d think he’d be worn out after 34 years of being wrong so often; but obviously at this point he has too much vested in his Peace Now-ing. APN “fights for democracy and tolerance in the face of extreme right-wing hate violence.” Do his lofty platitudes apply to his Palestinian bastions of democracy and tolerance? The latest poll in Israel (12/9/14) by Khalil Shikaki of the Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research “shows strong Palestinian support for violence and for a new uprising against Israel. …The Hamas militant group would win presidential elections if they were held today.” Democratic? Tolerant? “Jiminy” insists “there is a Palestinian partner who is willing to negotiate,” it’s just that no one can seem to find him! Not to leave his Pal pals hanging, “We now need an Israeli government with the political will to reach an agreement with a Palestinian leadership that can deliver.” Which Palestinian leadership is that? Fatah? Hamas? I guess the Let’s Make a Deal twins, Barak and Olmert, weren’t giving away enough. In 1993, Arafat’s first promise was to amend the Palestinian Covenant. Didn’t happen. In fact, ten agreements later, it still hasn’t happened. “Jiminy” is in real estate; he should know something about signed agreements—except when it comes to his Pal pals.

But perhaps Mr. Peace Now is at his most devious when he heroically boasts, “It was Peace Now that tipped off the world to what others were ignoring: … a plan for construction of a new settlement in East Jerusalem – Givat HaMatos. That move came on the heels of the takeover of seven properties by settlers in Silwan, an ancient Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.” Mr. Peace Now is not stupid—just deceitful. It is not in East Jerusalem—a purposely inflammatory phrase— and it never was ancient Arab land. Working to block construction of low-cost homes for poor, Jewish Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, the ignoble Mr. Peace Now must take great pride in his discrimination against fellow Jews.

But even more deceitful is his reference to the “takeover of seven properties in Silwan.” I guess it was a real estate conundrum for “Jiminy” the real estate mogul. He knows Jews purchased the properties legally, yet he deliberately terms it a “takeover,” intentionally misleading his supporters while asking for their money. Playing on the ignorance of his Peace Now supporters, honesty doesn’t seem to be in his playbook of cheerleading for his Pal pals.

And then there is “Pinky” the Opinionator –”Mr. Pollyanna,” who doesn’t like Bibi. “If only Bibi would stop being so difficult …” and according to his foggy crystal ball, “We all know what the ‘final solution’ will be.” Really? But what upsets “Pinky” is that Israel’s good friends, the “surrender monkeys” of Vichy France, voted yes to a virtual Palestinian state. Mon Dieu! Perhaps he’s overlooking that France is currently scared out of its multicultural wits!

But”Pinky” is certain—just as he was about Oslo and Arafat—that “all Israel has to do is recognize reality, … make reasonable compromises [like Gaza], understand that a Palestinian state is not only inevitable but in Israel’s best interest [Come again?], get on the right side of history [Is that Muslim/Arab history for non-believers?] … recognizing that Jerusalem should be Palestine’s capital too.”

It sorta takes your breath away when an Orthodox Jew, not affiliated with Neturei Karta, advocates dividing Jerusalem to “share” it with a bunch of depraved terrorists. For “Pinky,” Arafat was never the obstructionist; and Abbas looks so darn credible in his impeccably tailored Armani, as he denies the historic Jewish connection to the Land. After so many years and so many columns devoted to his illusory peace, is the reality that difficult to comprehend, or is the fraud too difficult to accept? Ever faithful to the demography-fabricators of the Left, “Pinky” clings to the canard of the “demographic time bomb” conclusively debunked by American demographic researchers. “Pinky” puts more stock in the lies of our enemies than in the rigorous analysis by American and Israeli demographers confirming today a 68 percent Jewish majority from the river to the sea, excluding the cesspool of Gaza. “Pinky,” the weekly preacher of good news for the Jews, grudgingly dismisses the good news about the 450,000 Jews in Judea/Samaria growing lots of Jewish families and having lots of Jewish babies. Yet, if Jeremy, “Jiminy” and “Pinky” are so enamored of a two-state solution transferring Jews out of Judea/Samaria, are they equally willing to transfer to that virtual Palestinian state all the Arabs currently residing within the green line?

Surprisingly, there came a clarion call from a former leftist-turned-realist. His profundity makes me smile. Rabbi Danny Gordis writes:
… One can already hear the lip smacking, the self-congratulatory satisfaction of those who believe that in helping to force Israel’s hand, they’re doing Israel a favor. …A North American Jewish woman said to me, “I’m working to make Israel better.”

Really? The hubris of the certainty was astounding. Are you sure that Israel is “better” when it has both less land and 170,000 rockets pointing at it? Are we sure that Israel is “better” when settlers, some of whom represent the most vibrant, selfless form of Zionism, will be told that their project is to be abandoned? … Are we sure that a move to the never-recognized pre-1967 lines will not then lead to a push to the once-recognized 1947 lines? One day, we are likely to have only choices even worse than the ones we have today. … (“A Dose of Nuance: A tale of Too Many Certainties” – 2/6/14)

I am kvelling! Menachem Begin would have been proud.
“Auschwitz borders,” incitement of terrorists, dead Jews … These things don’t seem to bother Moe, Curly and Larry (Jeremy, “Jiminy” and “Pinky”). Putting Jewish lives in the crosshairs is no big deal. Yet, in the words of a U.S. War College General who analyzed Israel’s minimal security needs, “Any American Jew who talks about giving up the West Bank is no friend of Israel. And any Israeli who talks about giving up the West Bank is suicidal.” Your call: U.S. War College analysis versus the vacuous, peace-mongering quisling triplets: Who are the real extremists? Is reality really that tough to grasp?

Shabbat Shalom, 02/13/15 Jack “Yehoshua” Berger