Jimmy Carter is back in the Middle East saying that "there's no doubt on my mind that the American president wants to have full and cooperative relationships with Syria, and that involves the lifting of sanctions in the future and that also involves the appointment of an American ambassador to Damascus". He is suggesting that the key to improving relations between the US/Israel and Syria is summed up in this statement "I hope that we can see a rapid renewal of peace talks between Israel and Syria concerning the withdrawal of Israel of the Golan Heights". What could be wrong with that? What is wrong with this thinking and using this as a peace doctrine is that every source and authority on the Golan Heights will state that it is a place that was captured by Israel in 1967. How was it captured? IN WAR! Why does Carter insist (along with so many other anti-Israel thinkers) that peace can be achieved, steps can be advanced, relations improved if Israel just gives up land? I am just going to take a few moments here and vent on this preposterous thinking.
First of all, land captured in war becomes the land of the nation that won the war. If you want it back, the nation that lost must fight for it. Here are some examples of that:
The 13 colonies (residents fought Great Britain for the right to rule and setup their own government) This became the United States of America - should we give back that land to England?
Texas - the residents for Mexico off to claim the land and it became a part of the US. Should Texas give it back?
Germany took many countries during World War II - they gave them back only because fighting ensued and they lost.
Iraq took Kuwait - they were forced to withdraw from Kuwait only because they lost that war and surrendered the land.
In the case of the Golan Heights, prior to the 1967 war that pitted Egypt, Syria and Jordan against Israel, Syria used the Golan Heights to launch rocket attacks into Israel. Israel was the victor of the war (also know as the "Six-Day War") and established control over the Golan Heights. This was their land due to winning and taking over this place that had been used to attack them. If Syria really wanted that land back, the historical move would be to attack Israel in attempt to push them back and resume control. The internationally recognized method is not funding terror in an attempt to get the recipient to cower back and surrender. Granted, many nations use covert operations in countries to get them to surrender in areas where diplomacy has failed, but law-abiding nations do not target citizens in these covert acts. Crossing that line is where terrorism begins.
The second part is this - what is the purpose? Syria may say that will help relations, but how does giving a small section of land to a nation (especially one that is a strategic military site) show goodwill? Israel has constantly given land back that has been received through acts of war (they only occupy 10% of the land that was captured during the war with Lebanon in 2006) and it has not caused the terror to stop breaching their borders. Why should they expect anything different? It may just be a small peace of land, but for Israel, it is a slice of land that gives them an immense defensive advantage against any more attacks from Syria. Could this be one of the reasons Syria wants it back?
Israel has every right to the land that has rightfully become their property. No peace agreement should ever have Israel giving up that land. If these truly were peace talks that have both sides giving, what does Syria give to Israel if Israel gives land? Syria is not giving land back or money - it must be peace. Common sense would conclude, if Syria is giving peace, they must now be partaking in actions which have no grounding in peace towards Israel.
Hezbollah has just today followed up Israel's friendly gesture (the release of enemy combatants - more in the next article) with the statement that they have the ability to launch rockets against any point in Israel. The leader of this terrorist group, Hassan Nasrallah, told Arab television station, Al-Jazeera, this in a recent interview that is scheduled to air soon. His comments were, "Even in the months of July and August 2006 [during the war with Israel] there was not one place in occupied Palestine that we could not reach, every point and every corner. I stress that we can do this today as well." These comments were made during a time when the Hezbollah militants have been identified as they moved their rocket launching systems into civilian districts of southern Lebanon. This is being done to prevent Israel and the UN from identifying these trouble spots and taking appropriate actions against them as allowed by the UN. These actions by Hezbollah mirror what they did last year during the conflict with Israel. Throughout that war, they continually protested to the targeting of civilian quarters by Israeli aircraft. Israel maintained that they had no choice as Hezbollah had hid their rocket sights amongst the common populace. These rockets are not ones which one might think of at the mention of the word. These are small, mobile rockets with small range and limited accuracy. They are easy to hide in neighborhoods. This continues as Israel is forced by the world opinion to watch.
My view on the leader's comments can be demonstrated through the following analogy: When someone wants to protect their home from intruders, they look at the options of survellaince and observation before them. They can buy an entire visual survellaince system and have it installed throughout the house and grounds, which would incur great expense, or they can avail themselves of a much cheaper, almost equally effictive method. They can go to a store and purchase multiple signs that say that the house is protected by a security system and they can install inexpensive "dummy" cameras on the exterior of the house. Through this "installation", criminals may tend to not put to test the sincerity of these signs and pass on by the house. This is what Hezbollah is doing with Israel. Even in the war last year, when they had this so-called caoability to hit Israel everywhere, they never employed this even in the face of taking mass casualties through the Israeli offensive. History shows us that terrorist organizations never need a reason to strike a people, beyond the disconnected logic that they piece together in their own minds. As a result, if they want to attack a people, they will do it, and most often without forewarning. Nasrallah's comments on their firepower capabilities strike me as nothing more than saber-rattling in an attempt to prevent Israel from making a move against their increasing buildup of potential aggression. Israel has enough military strength to flatten Lebanon, and Hezbollah knows it. So, they choose the next best thing to having mass weaponry - saying that they have mass weaponry.
A new textbook came out over the weekend to be used in Israeli schools. This textbook is a stab at making the Arab populace in Israel (20%) feel more comfortable and a part of the culture than they do now. As a result, the book teaches the 8 and 9 year olds that read it that the founding of the nation of Israel was a "catastrophe" - found in the word "Nakba". This word has formerly been a no-no to use as it was coined by the Palestinians as their term for the 1948 founding of Israel by the Jews.
This textbook has been praised by the Education Minister of Israel as "a development whose time is overdue." This endorsement by such a high-ranking Israeli person has sparked more of a outcry as other government persons demand the dismissal of the the Minister. This attempt to placate the Palestinians by inserting part of their propaganda on the existence of the "Zionist" State will do nothing but confuse the Jewish boys and girls who are forced to consume this along with their own view of the establishment of Israel. Young people of this age are at an impressionable point in their lives and to teach them this in school only sends this message - "if someone continues to bully you, compromise and adopt their view as your own, but do not push your own view as it may cause for more hurt feelings on the part of the bully."
The education of the children of any nation is a sacred trust. It was through education that Marxism was propagated so effectively and so it will be through the educational system in Israel that will bring about Israel's greatest challenge - before, they have had to only be concerned with the fighting and bombers from without; now, Israel's educational system has handed the Israel of tomorrow to the Palestinian people due to a different enemy - the enemy of the passive pen.
In a bold move, Israel has declared that they will step up their attacks against Hamas if the rockets do not stop. They have stated that no one, not even the Palestinian Prime Minister, is exempt from these threats. Israel has suffered casualties and property damage in the ongoing onslaught of Kassam rockets. As a result, they promised that if one child or woman dies in these attacks, they will come after the Palestinian elected leaders. Hamas has responded with a threat of their saying that, if Israel does follow through on these statements, they will retaliate with "unprecedented" force. As they made this statement, they continued their attacks on Israeli soil. Israel needs to enforce this demand they have made and follow through with it. This is not a typical assassination attempt of a political leader - this is taking action against the very person that is ordering these attacks. This is not simply a case of a political individual condoning a practice through silence; these Hamas leaders are giving the instructions and orders which the militia arm of the government is carrying out. Hamas is a rogue group, one which never should have been voted into power to begin with. However, seeing their aggression and anger at Israel as of late, it is no wonder why their own people cowered under and voted for these people. It is never an advantageous position for a country when the group of people who are looking to take power run on a platform of military aggression. It is one thing if reasonable diplomacy has been attempted (ie. USA and Iraq, or even Iran) when speaking of making military movements. However, when the only "diplomacy" that has been attempted is summed up in phrases similar to "get out of this country", that makes for some very precarious ground to tread. Israel may suffer political, diplomatic and personnel losses if they carry through on this ultimatum, but they will lose more now (and in the future) from the repercussions of letting empty warnings again fall to the ground.
In Palestine, tensions are easing between the rival political parties, Hamas and Fatah, as they test a ceasefire that has been established. This does not bode well for Israel, however, as these two parties unite in their fight against Israel. It has always been Fatah's policy for diplomatic negotiating with Israel as opposed to guerrilla warfare (at least that is the policy on paper). Hamas has always vocalized their displeasure with paper diplomacy by their constant rocket and suicide attacks. With these two factions reunited, Fatah gets to have Hamas do their dirty work as they sit back and decry the violence that goes on. Hamas does not mind being the "bad-guy" in this situation as they have claimed suicide attacks done by Hezbollah as their own. In their mentality, the only thing better claiming someoneelse's attack for their own is carrying it out themselves. Following this ceasefire is a pick-up in rocket attacks against the Israeli town of Sderot. Israel's Prime Minister Olmert has declared that "Hamas will pay" if these attacks do not cease. He has told the Hamas-led government that if they do not cease in these terrorists attacks, Israel will have no choice but to intensify the retaliations against them. Hamas has not yet replied to this warning. It is my opinion that Hamas will not back down as they do not view their actions as acts of aggression but of retaliation in answer to the "Zionist occupation". Also, if they were to cease, it would tell their fanatical supporters that they do not have what it takes to defeat the enemy. They consider their personnel losses as more martyrs for the cause. Israel should definitely step-up their attacks and not worry about the global response to it. Israel is attacking military and terrorist targets as opposed to the civilian establishments that have been targeted by the Hamas terrorists. Hopefully, we will continue to see Israel's authorities taking a strong stand against their Arab oppressors.
Mizab Bashir, a 25-year old translator, was indicted today in Jerusalem on many counts involving intelligence gathering and developing plans towards assassinating the Prime Minister and many other key political officials. These murders were intended to avenge the deaths of Palestinian militants. Bashir worked as an aid worker for the organization Doctors Without Borders, a position that he has held for six years. It was not until last year that he was granted an Israeli travel permit that enabled him to cross the border of Palestine and enter Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem, he had done much in the way of reconnaissance work and intelligence gathering as he planned for and plotted future terror attacks. He made a mistake, however, when he started staking out a building that he thought was an Israeli government building but was actually the US Consulate. This soon led to his eventual capture on April 19th.
This situation should highlight many things in Israel's favor. One, Israel allowed this man and the humanitarian organization he worked for free access into and out of their country, in spite of the fact that he was an Arab. Also, he had been allowed to work in Israel for over a year before being captured. It was during this time that he became skilled in hand to hand combat and other measures that would fit him towards the action of taking out a high-ranking government official when the situation presented itself. Thankfully, Israeli forces where on top of their security game, as always, and were able to apprehend this man before any serious harm was done. That they were able to single him out and prevent any act of terror from occurring is a tribute to their own intelligence program. It should give the Prime Minister reason to rest safely knowing that the team of people protecting him are some of, if not the, finest fighters in the world.
