Standing up against the world

In 1948, just days before David Ben Gurion declared Israel an independent state, General George Marshall, a charismatic hero of the Second World War and the US Secretary of State sent Ben Gurion an ultimatum – an ultimatum demanding the postponement of the declaration of independence and acceptance of a U.N. Trusteeship. They then imposed a military embargo on the region, even though Britain continued to supply arms to Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.  They threatened that Ben Gurion’s declaration of independence would trigger a war that would doom the Jewish people to another holocaust. They threatened the Jewish people for their own good.

But Ben Gurion didn’t flinch. He stared down the threats and he stared down the demands. He stated that as much as he desired the friendship of the US, there were limits on which he could not compromise.

He stood up for his people – and defied the world. And if he had yielded and given in to the world’s desire and if he had stood aside and conceded to the world’s demands and if he had listened to those outsiders who said they knew better… well… there wouldn’t be an Israel today.

Ben Gurion’s declaration didn’t cause another Holocaust – it prevented one.

Today, many years later, there are those who are using the same tactics to threaten Israel.

As usual, the Palestinians threaten the end of the peace process, one that doesn’t exist anyway. This is the same threat they make every time someone builds a toilet in their backyard, or packs a tin of pickles, or when Israel kills one of their terrorists.

John Kerry, not to be outdone, quickly said there’d be an explosion of violence if the embassy move was made. He advised the incoming administration not to do this. Unfortunately for him, people stopped listening to this failed diplomat years ago.

The theme of their threats are all the same – things will get worse.

Things will only get worse.

This is the politics of emotional blackmail and fear. If Israel does this… there will be violence. If Israel does that… there will be violence. If Israel does… anything… there will be violence.

But looking around, there is already so much violence already. 4 young soldiers were murdered by an Arab terrorist the other day who decided that killing Jews was more important than raising a family. He was bathed in the hatred that the Palestinian Authority blast from their TV stations and their megaphones and their pulpits every single day – a hatred that the world has failed to condemn and even finances. It is a hatred that grows and festers, because no one will hold them to account.

Are we to say that those soldiers’ deaths are ‘acceptable’ as we don’t want to make things worse? Are we to say that the stabbings that occur against women and children and all innocents are ‘acceptable’ too?

Because no murder should ever be acceptable.

John Kerry and the UN and Barrack Obama will have you believe that Jews building homes in their ancestral homeland is the cause of the violence in the Middle East and the main reason for the lack of peace. They’ll tell you that if they would just get out –  peace will follow. They say that all the palestinians want is a State of their own.

But like the father who prefers to kill Jews than raise his family, the Palestinian leadership prefers to destroy Israel rather than create a country for themselves.

There is no country on earth who desire peace more than Israel, but peace cannot come at all costs. There are limits that cannot be compromised.

The Arabs don’t care about Jerusalem.  They don’t care about refugees. They don’t even care about settlements, because to them the whole of Israel is a settlement.

They care only because among the vast lands of Arabia, there exists a sliver of a country that doesn’t belong to them, but to the Jews.

The history of Israel is about difficult decisions that at most times, defies world opinion. It defies world desires and it defies world demands. But those decisions are not made to be difficult – they are made because if they weren’t made, Israel’s independence and future would suffer.

World bodies are trying to wipe out Jewish history, but those difficult ‘unpopular’ decisions that are often made are truly the ones that keep it alive.