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Tamar Adelstein

Here They Go Again!

BS”D

August 18, 2020

Here They Go Again!

The Abraham Accords

Another foolhardy Land for Peace Giveaway!

An Op-Ed from Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel

Last week’s announcement by President Trump that the United States had brokered an historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, dubbed the Abraham Accords, continues to draw accolades from around the world.

And, why not?  The peace agreement is conditioned on the State of Israel relinquishing any plan to apply sovereignty, let alone annexation, over Judea and Samaria, parts of eastern Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley – eternal Jewish homelands that were returned to the Jewish People, miraculously, in the Six Day War.

Another feather in their turbans and caps, Israel’s Arab neighbors and the Super-Powers who support them could not be happier as the day comes closer when they will have regained, without firing a shot, all of the areas they lost fighting Israel in 1967.

UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Gargash made no secret that the UAE-Israel peace agreement had little to do with countering Iranian threats in the Gulf.  The primary achievement, he said, was stopping Israel from annexing large parts of the West Bank for a “long time” and using the suspension to re-open negotiations toward a two-state solution.

It’s not that we have a problem with the State of Israel teaming up with her neighbors for a common good.

Indeed, coalitions that keep Iran from blowing up the world with nuclear weapons are obviously in everyone’s best interests.

As are forming partnerships that share information and ideas, improve economies and the standard of living, and protect and make the best use of vital resources entirely commendable and worth pursuing.

That’s what we call Peace for Peace.

But this “peace” agreement, like the others before it, is no Brotherhood of Man.  This is a lop-sided kinship intended to diminish and weaken Israel’s territory, security, and control of vital resources – no matter how hard Prime Minister Netanyahu tries to convince himself and everyone else otherwise.

The Abraham Accords are couched in the kind of lofty language that makes it hard to contest until the day after when you wake up and realize you’ve been swindled!

Like with the UAE losing no time in announcing their intention to quickly set up an embassy in Israel – just not in Jerusalem.

Considering their unambiguous commitment to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative wherein Israel must “fully withdraw from all the Arab territories it has occupied since June 1967”, why would they?  Auf Weidersehen, Yerushalayim!

In all honesty, though, the problem is not the UAE, Egypt, Jordan or the PLO; they are who they are.

The problem is with the relatively small but powerful group of Israeli politicians, diplomats and Jewish “machers” driven by ideology, fame and deep pockets towarad Land for Peace regardless of the reality that it puts millions of Jews in danger, G-d Forbid!

President Trump got it right when he said, “Israel agreed not to annex parts of the West Bank. It is more than taking it off the table – they agreed not to do it.”

Show us the statutes Mr. Prime Minister that give you and your “team” the right to secretly forge and unilaterally sign an agreement with the UAE under such terms without first bringing it to the Israeli Cabinet and Knesset for discussion and ratification!

To the Chief Rabbinate, leading Rabbinic authorities and Chassidic Rebbeim we ask:  Why are you silent?  Surely you know that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unilateral action flies in the face of Halacha and Pikuach Nefesh!

G’dolei Torah, the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, have an absolute obligation to speak out and amend this terrible situation with the issuance of a clear ruling – again and again if need be, until all understand:

“That the entire Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish nation. It is forbidden to relinquish any parcel of real estate in Israel to a Gentile, no matter how small. 

Any compromise on this is forbidden, even more so when we speak of a city on the border. Today, every single city in Israel has the law of a city on the border. 

The one and only reason for this ruling is the danger [it brings] to Jewish lives, G-d forbid.” (Lubavitcher Rebbe, 1978)

Do we really need a more unfortunate proof that Land for Peace endangers Jewish lives than the renewal by Hamas to balloon bomb Southern Israel dafka 15 years to the date when Israel expelled all the Jews from Gaza?

G-d Willing, Israel’s government will immediately call President Trump to redact the terms of the Abraham Accords but if not then let it fall and new elections be scheduled.

Surely there exist fresh faces with the expertise and ability who are willing to buck the system and break ties with the folly of Land for Peace.

In the meantime, the Lubavitcher Rebbe long ago advised Israeli leaders to nix the fanfare and simply create facts on the ground. Bestowing equitable rights to Israeli citizens living in Judea and Samaria along with resuming chairmanship and decision-making powers over vital resources and security will benefit Jews and Arabs alike.

 

About the Author
I am originally from Buffalo, NY and although I did not have a religious upbringing I always felt a strong connection with Yiddishkeit and Eretz Yisroel. I still get chills recalling the moment the Rabbi announced that Israel had been attacked on Yom Kippur. In the weeks that followed, even though I really didn't understand all the details, I was the one student in my 10th grade Social Studies class who challenged our German-American teacher when he said Israel would be wiped out. Interestingly, the rest of Jewish kids in the class who came from much more Jewishly -oriented homes than I were silent. Years later I met one of them and was astounded to find out how they were all silently cheering me on. On the day the Jews were "disengaged" from Gush Katif, I was stopped in the grocery store (in Buffalo) by a little Jewish lady who whispered to me that she didn't think it was right what Israel was doing. Which just goes to show that there is a vast silent majority of Jews who agree with the Rebbe's approach to peace.