Israel-Palestine: Is Peace Possible On Obama’s Watch?
The truth is that Israel is not required to make “concessions”. The West Bank was grabbed in an Israeli war of aggression NOT self-defense, and international law requires withdrawal from it without conditions. (As I document in my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, the Arabs did not strike first in June 1967 and were not intending to attack, and Israel’s leaders knew that).
I speculate that the second of two reasons why Kerry seems to think there is no alternative to allowing Israel to annex the West Bank land on which the biggest and most highly populated illegal Jewish settlements are built is that he believes it is necessary to assist Netanyahu to avert, or greatly reduce, the prospect of a Jewish civil war. (The first reason is the Obama administration’s assumed need to avoid an all-out confrontation with the Zionist lobby).
Because of what was said to me in early 1980 by Peres when I was acting as the linkman in a secret, exploratory dialogue between him and Arafat, I have never discounted the possibility of a Jewish civil war in the event of an Israeli government decision to withdraw from much of the West Bank. At the time Peres was the leader of the Labour opposition to the Likud-led government of Menachem Begin and hoping to replace him as prime minister after Israel’s next election. Peres said he feared it was “already too late” for a two-state solution that Arafat could accept. I asked him why. He replied: “Every day that passes sees new bricks on new settlements. Begin knows exactly what he is doing. He is creating the conditions for a Jewish civil war. He knows that no Israeli prime minister is going down in history as the one who gave the order to the Jewish army to shoot large numbers of Jews out of the West Bank.” (In 1980 when Peres said that there were only about 70,000 illegal Jewish settlers on the occupied West Bank. Today there are more than 500,000 with that number rising on an almost daily basis).
I have also retained in my memory what President Sadat said to me in our last private conversation a few months before he was assassinated. He said that ending Israel’s occupation of the West Bank would require a Jewish civil war.
It might also be that Kerry thinks the present Palestinian leadership can be bullied and bribed into accepting the land swap indicated above. Perhaps, but even it cannot accept Netanyahu’s most outrageous preconditions for peace.
One, as indicated above, is his insistence, already endorsed by Kerry for framework purposes, that there must be an Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley, in other words on the territory of what would be in theory a sovereign Palestinian state. Probably to reduce the chances of being blamed for the failure of Kerry’s effort, Abbas has indicated that he could and would accept an international force for a limited period. But that counter suggestion will cut no ice with Israel’s leaders because of Zionism’s Rule Number One – “Never, never, never, rely on any outside force to guarantee Israel’s security.”
Though it goes down well with the brainwashed majority of Israel’s Jews, the assertion by Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon that an IDF presence in the border area between Jordan and the West Bank is essential for security reasons does not bear serious and honest examination. Why not?
Part of the answer is that there is no danger of an attack on Israel by any Arab armies from any direction.
But what about the fear many Israeli Jews have that the border of a Palestinian state with Jordan that was not manned and monitored by Israeli military and other security forces would be open to visiting Arab and other Muslim terrorists, suicide bombers in particular?
This fear, I assert, is grossly exaggerated because the government and security services of a Palestinian state would have the biggest possible incentive to prevent terror attacks on Israel from sovereign Palestinian territory. Why was once explained to me by Arafat.
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