Trump & Co seem to believe that the prospect of peace and prosperity is plenty to make the Arab Palestinian population instantaneously forget their century-old animosity against the Jews, their decades of indoctrination against Zionism and for seeking martyrdom and murder, and to precede in throwing off the PA and Hamas dictators. Is Trump right?
Well, poverty and a century of national humiliation didn’t do so. Decades of Israeli good will has only been interpreted as weakness and not kindness, it seems. What would make the US peace team so optimistic?
My answer is: they totally ignore Muslim Jew-hatred of centuries. Now the Christian world after Auschwitz had begun to embrace Jews; now the antisemitism of the fifties had disappeared from US public life, they falsely assumed that Jews will be liked everywhere.
Never mind that Israel still is a pariah in the UN. Never mind that most countries want to dictate Israel what to do as if Jews have no moral compass. Never mind that antisemitism is on the rise globally.
Trump and his friends are further so corrupt that they are willing to threaten human survival on the planet for a few easy quick bucks of climate change denial, a new arms race, and promotion of wars. So Trump must have thought that Arab Palestinians can be bought off too. Just give them a lot of money and all will be fine? Not so. Anti-Zionist is rooted in fanatical religious idealism-of-sorts. Religious hatred, just as all bullies, must be cornered and cannot be removed by pandering to the violent.
The Deal of the Century is up against a century of Zionism. The latter is rooted in reality, the former in wishful thinking. The Arab Palestinian leadership will not just call it contronymically sarcastically a [negligible] big deal of the century. They will label it as genocide, mass murder and they and their fellow hatemongers will call up to fresh violence. And the Arab Palestinian population will not resist their violent leaders — to their own prolonged detriment. Nothing new under the sun.
And Saudi Arabia could slightly support it because it is looking to regaining political legitimacy after it executed a Washington-based critic (though it won’t let Israelis visit). Have no illusions about the hostile population of Egypt and Jordan. The Arab Palestinian rejection will not be an exception.
However, just hours away from revelation of the Deal of the Century, I’m sorry to say that I suspect all Arab opposition to be just a tactic to get more and more concessions while the deal really is mainly bad for Israel.
For decades, we gave away so much already in return for almost nothing. Practically, all Israelis want peace so much but more Israeli concessions are expected to be demanded and they will neither give security nor peace.
Netanyahu nor Gantz has a mandate to do this to Israel
My worst fears are coming true. This latest ‘peace plan’ is just like all the ones before: both sides making concessions, of which Israel will be forced and the Arab Palestinian side will done nothing.
Who needs enemies with friends like that? I hope that the Israeli electorate will totally block this charade in our upcoming elections. I’m most disappointed that Bibi, Mr. Security, fell for this nonsense.
The PA ‘only’ needs to reject terrorism and dictatorship to receive a Palestinian State. So, the PA will claim that it has a long-term security cooperating with Israel, doing consistently what it needed to do and again, Israel alone will be accused of not working for peace and blocking a Palestinian State and justice for Arab Palestinians.
And on top of that, again Israel must compromise and Arab Palestinian dictatorial leaders will get bonus after bonus.
After receiving Jordan and all of Gaza, Arabs dictators will now be allowed to also receive 80% of the West Bank as price for never recognizing the Jewish State. As I wrote yesterday, the West Bank is not the issue.
The two basic reasons why this ‘peace plan’ is dead on arrival are:
1. It doesn’t liberate the State of Jordan for the Arab Palestinian People, and
2. it doesn’t oblige the Muslim world to root out antisemitism.
I hope and pray that the Likud will to rise up against this and the party of Liberman to become the largest in the Knesset.
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
