Likud and PLO: New Realities

On May 8, 2013, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Danny Danon held a press conference (which I had the opportunity to attend) with Arieh King, Director of the Israel Land Fund to discuss Israeli lands around Jerusalem and the need for the government to approve permits and to do so more quickly.

It was during this conference that MK Danon was asked how he felt about the pre-negotiation’s rumor that PM Netanyahu is quietly requesting a construction halt…again?

The Minister quickly and cleverly replied: “We will unfreeze the freeze.”

It was at that moment that I knew that MK Danon was making a stand here and now, publically, and this would be indicative of his future position in regards to negotiating with the PLO.

In light of the recent Likud party vote that took place in late June,  I have penned this commentary which I believe reflects a good portion of the sentiment in the Knesset, whether stated clearly or not by the Prime Minister, and many of the Israeli citizens, as well — there is an undeniable reality that the Israeli People are facing.

Likud and PLO: New Realities

The headlines in the MSM are already calling the newly elected leaders of the Likud party ‘hardliners’, claiming that the Israeli ‘hawks’ have gained power in the government during recent party elections at the end of June. 

The news reads that Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon has become the chairman of the party’s Central Committee and Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin takes over the Likud bureau, both outspoken opponents of the two-state solution with much influence in the newly elected government of Israel. The expected result of the Likud’s vote will be obstacles to any of PM Netanyahu’s negotiations, especially those requiring concessions to the Palestinians.

But, these are not ‘hardliners,’ nor are the majority of the 2,808 members of the Likud Central Committee that took part in the vote. They are ‘realist,’ for they are the ones who see the truth, want to face the truth, and then propose more realistic ideas for sensible solutions. 

‘Hardliners and hawks’ have a connotation of being inflexible, extreme and power-hungry for land expansions…these Israelis display none of these characteristics. Many of the Knesset members were born and have lived in Israel for decades, personally witnessing the continued deceitful and self-defeating tactics of the PLO leadership and they can no longer continue to play the charade.

And what is the charade? Blame and stall the peace negotiations by asking for concessions and demands prior to coming to the negotiating table and blame the Israelis for not conceding to these preconditions as a sign of their good faith. And of course, the world continues to believe that the Palestinian-Arabs really want to negotiate and the Jews are the ones creating the obstacles. This continues to be the biggest lie since the Palestinians were first invented as a People.

Parliamentary Ministers, along with many Israeli citizens, have lived in Israel for all or much of their lives and their first-hand experience, not the one-sided stuff the pro-Palestinian and Arab media has sent out into the public arena, has opened their eyes to reality. Their vote is no longer based on hopes and dreams, nor myths and lies spread by anti-Semitics and Koran followers with the political agenda to eliminate Israel.

These are people who have lived through 4-5 or 6 decades of conflicts with the Arabs and see history repeating itself over and over again, and nothing but hatred for the Jews continues. They see that text books are still given out at Palestinian schools to further the Arab cause of hatred and justify attacks on innocent Jewish people. They hear the words that the Palestinians want peace, but even their children are used as terrorists throwing concrete stones at Jewish drivers on the roads of Israel. They find weapons being stored in the West Bank for future attacks on Jews, but pro-Palestinians continue to pressure the IDF to open all border crossings. They see another PLO leader like Arafat, the past-his-term President Abbas, being corrupt, keeping his people impoverished and frustrated, and not being a genuine partner in peace. They hear air-raid sirens alerting Israeli citizens to run to bomb shelters instead of a call to work together to make the Middle East a prosperous place for all.

The realists of Israel know the truth and finally have come to terms with the undeniable facts. They know that Jews gave up much of the lands designated to become a Jewish state in the ‘Mandate for Palestine’ and got Jordan AND then the Palestinians in the West Bank; they gave up more land for peace and got Gaza; they fought to unify Jerusalem, then gave up the Temple Mount for peace, but got desecration and are prevented from praying there; they were honorable partners in the Oslo Agreement, but Arafat would not sign, and instead retaliated with attacks; they freed over 1,000 Arab prisoners in exchange for one kidnapped IDF soldier and got threats of more kidnappings and killings; they stopped construction for 10 months two years ago and only in the last weeks did the PLO even think about meeting and then demanded the continuation of the ‘no-building’ policy…and there is much more that the world refuses to see.

Today, the rest of the world needs to recognize that the Israelis have lost their patience for games, especially the same ones over and over that always have produced the same result, whereby Israel is the big loser.

Israel must remain strong to protect itself from the PLO and Hamas, not to mention the Sunni-Shi’ite-nonsectarian civil wars raging in Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other pockets of Arab civil conflicts. 

It is a reality in the Islamic world that appeasement is a sign of weakness and all it brings is elation, conviction, fanaticism and confidence in the hearts of the Muslim world that the time is right to annihilate Israel and then take on America.

I can only hope and pray that the new Likud government will continue to be ‘hardline and hawkish” and remain courageous in their efforts to protect the Jewish right to survive and prosper in the only tiny nation meant to be for the Jewish People.