There are 3 topics that I want to cover in this post, each of them with 2 or 3 articles relating to it.
The first topic might well be called "The Liberal Case for Israel". Indeed, that is actually the title of a book written by the author of our first article. Of course, if you want his full argument, you'll have to buy his book (I don't have it, either, sorry), but the article gives you some of the main point. If you consider yourself liberal (as I do, too, despite what you may think!), you should definitely take the time to read this piece.
The second article is a first-person account of how Israel and the IDF (the Israeli military) were actually helping Gaza during the recent war and actively facilitating the transfer of civilian goods to the Strip. This article was written by an American-Israeli soldier who was actually part of that particular operation, and her story is a compelling one, another must-read!
Our second topic has to do with the history, beliefs, and goals of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and their daughter organization, Hamas, in Gaza.
The first article on this topic is an important read because it give some of the history of the Brotherhood. What most people probably don't know is that it was funded at its beginnings by Nazi Germany! And much of its strength early on came from its campaigns to get the Jews out of both Egypt and Palestine. All of this, of course, was LONG before there was any Jewish state. This is a really important antidote for those who are constantly starting history when Israel fires back in self-defense.
The next article on this topic talks about the Brotherhood's recent power grab in Egypt, but the important thing is to look to the future, in this case. The West is desperate to view the new regime in Egypt as somehow moderate and representing democratic ideals. But this is FAR from the reality. It's true that Morsi's edicts have elicited a lot of protest in Egypt, but it is not at all clear that this will seriously deter him, especially since the U.S. is continuing to send him PLENTY of aid! So, make no mistake about it, folks, the Muslim Brotherhood WILL be fighting against nearly everything that we mean by democracy, sooner or later. They know that they have no hope of destroying Israel in the near future, and, for now, the peace treaty is very much to their advantage. But their long-term goal of destroying the Jewish people and their State has not changed and is highly unlikely to change.
Our last article on this topic is fresh from today. Hamas held a big 25th anniversary celebration in Gaza and once again proclaimed their determination to completely eliminate Israel. Just another reminder (they come nearly every day these days!) that Hamas is NOT becoming "moderate" in any way!
Now we turn to our last topic. After all that we have learned about Hamas and its Muslim Brotherhood parent (not to mention its radical Iranian supporters!), you might think that all of this would be viewed with great alarm in the liberal, democratic countries, and that a whole range of efforts would be made to curb and defeat them. But no! Instead, it seems that the greatest threat to peace is building houses, or even just PLANNING to build them!
The first article on this topic is humorous as well as dead accurate: The Deadly Israeli House! Read it, and weep at how completely confused the world's priorities have become.
Our last article talks directly about the "E1" area. This is the area where the government has just announced approval for the construction of many new homes. It's currently completely empty (except for a police station) and has been since time immemorial, and it's located between Jerusalem (the capital of Israel) and Maalei Adumim, a beautiful Israeli city located a little further east. All reasonable proposals for final boundaries between Israeli and an "Palestinian" state that might be established have assumed that this area would be in Israel, even though it was illegally occupied by the Kingdom of Transjordan from 1948 (when they seized it, along with the rest of Judea and Samaria and the Old City of Jerusalem, in a war of aggression) until 1967 (when it was liberated by Israel in a war of self-defense).
Perhaps the one topic that unites ALL of these is that the conflict between the Arabs and Israel is definitely NOT about boundaries. Instead, it's a conflict between forces that have repeatedly sworn to completely eliminate the Jewish State (and kill the Jews, too, it must be noted!) and the attempts of Israel to defend itself. Nothing has fundamentally changed during all these decades except that Israel now has the power to prevent its own elimination.
No comments:
Post a Comment