August 16, 2002

"Peace with the Terrorists"

Hamas says it is prepared to sign a cease-fire agreement. A leftist friend of mine called to share this news. When he realized I didn't share his enthusiasm, he became incensed. "You don't trust them. That's why we can't make peace," he said. My friend is a fool, and there are many others like him. The issue was never about terror in Israel. It's about killing and  maiming, and more specifically, the Arab lust for Jewish blood.

Think about when Arafat's cronies murdered Jews at prayer in Istanbul, athletes in Munich, diners in Paris, passengers aboard international planes. Bin-Laden, Arafat's colleague and a Hamas partner, brought his evil all the way to the shores of the United States barely a year ago. What Hamas really means is quite clear. It will temporarily agree not to send killers into what it considers Israel, but will continue to murder within the borders of the West Bank and Gaza.

I am not a right wing extremist who is willing to die for every inch of land, but there are many of us for whom every stone and grain of sand in the land of Israel is cherished and sacred, and we would support concessions for a genuine peace. Peace agreements require partners. Arafat and the others have failed to meet the criteria for partners. They choose terror against  Israel, Jews, and innocent people everywhere instead of life for their own people. They steal the bread out of their own children's mouths by using international aid to stash millions in secret accounts in Swiss banks.

President Bush has made Arafat's removal from power a lynchpin of American Middle East policy. Were there any integrity left in Europe and at the United Nations, Arafat would have already been brought to trial for his thirty years of war crimes that pale next to those of a Milosovec.

We will soon be the victims of a propaganda push. Some of our own people will contribute by saying, "Palestinians only want what is rightfully theirs," and the propagandists will justify the worst terror ever known. Can we negotiate with terrorists who send their own sons and daughters to death as long as Jews are killed? Can any rational American agree to talk with Osama bin-Laden? The United States rightfully attacked Afghanistan and
will soon send the full force of its military might to Iraq, without a moment's discussion with Sadaam.

More than six hundred Jews have been murdered since Arafat declared a war of terror against Israel. Without alternatives, Israel has defended herself, and in the process, killed many more Arabs. Unfortunately, women and children were among them, but there is no moral equivalence here. We don't blame police for doing their job. The Israel Defense Force is Israel's police, and although it occasionally errs, it is morally required to do its job of protecting and defending, just as New York's police and firemen did their jobs on September 11.

My leftist friend forgot the old adage, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." At the end of our conversation he asked, "Will there ever be peace?" I assured him there would, but only when we as a people stop worrying about what the rest of the world says.

We should learn from our past. There was never a moment when Jewish suffering was not the result of our own fragmentation and dissension. Jews at peace with each other represent an immutable force. A divided Jewish people is vulnerable to attack and terror. Our enemies know exactly which buttons to push. They play the left against the right, and one side of Israel's green line against the other. No one should be deceived that Tel Aviv or Haifa is safe. If Hamas attacks Gush Katif or Psagot today, it is only because its schedule of terror has left the rest of Israel for another day. The Arabs will not limit their attacks to the West Bank and Gaza. The last twenty-two months saw the brutal hand of terror as far away as Los Angeles. We can only wonder if the terrorists thought the El Al ticket counter in Los  Angeles was in the West Bank.

Shabbat Shalom