The Old Truisms Are Still True

Something has gone wrong here in Israel.

We seem to have a generation of political and military leaders who have forgotten the truisms of dealing with Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.

“The only thing that the Arabs respect is power” and “If you turn a blind eye to Palestinian behavior, you will end up blind” and “If you offer a Palestinian your finger in peace, he will want to take your whole hand” — all of these were sayings that your humble servant encountered when he first arrived in Israel 32 years ago.

I doubted them somewhat back then, but they all turned out to be true.

Back on June 20th — four and a half months ago — I wrote these lines:

“Your humble servant has been somewhat obsessed in recent days writing about the dangerous “gestures” for peace that our idiotic Israeli government is making to the Palestinians in order to ‘improve their quality of life.’

On June 15, an israelstreet blog entitled “And you wonder why the situation is out of control in Judea and Samaria?” chronicled how the IDF punished soldiers for defending themselves in the Judea and Samaria war zone.

On June 16, israelstreet noted the absurd opening of roads and shops in Hebron, and wondered “Let’s see how long it takes for Jews to be attacked and murdered again in Hebron.”

On June 17, israelstreet noted in “More and More Gestures for Peace” how IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot was initiating a series of “Ramadan” steps which would make Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and all of Israel infinitely more dangerous.”

And so, it has come to pass. 

Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and all of Israel are now all infinitely more dangerous. 

The more we give them, the more they want to kill us.  Is there any truer truism when dealing with the Palestinians?