Come to think most of those who want a Palestinian state probably are aware of these Palestinian monuments.

http://www.onejerusalem.org/sign.php

ATTEND :: Itamar Massacre Memorial @ Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, NYC — March 17, Noon

Dear Friend of Israel,

Join in a community-wide memorial service for the five members of the Fogel family who were brutally murdered this past weekend, while asleep in their home. We must not be silent! We must demand justice for the victims.

TIME: Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at 12:00 Noon
PLACE: Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, 125 East 85th Street (Park-Lex), New York City

My favorite Golda quote is the one about the nation everybody keeps mentioning:

There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.

A brilliant quote which I nevertheless find fit to amend by extending it to the present tense as well. A falsified narrative has taken over, and it needs to be fixed. The very term “settler” as applies to the Jews of Judea and Samaria and Gaza is part of that narrative. It should be noted, however, that the Arab-language media (thanks MEMRI for the great job of translating them) has never limited its use of the term “settler” and “settlements” to the post-1967 territories of Israel; for example, Kiryat Motzkin, of the pre-1967 Israel (near Haifa), is called a “settlement” in the Arab media. In short, Israel has nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by maintaining the artificial distinction between its pre- and post-1967 lands, a distinction which the Arabs have never made and the Marxist Left increasingly no longer does either (cf. Helen Thomas).

By the way, you write:

“But if the world wouldn’t allow Israel to invade the Gaza Strip even temporarily, even with an embarrassing level of painstaking care to avoid killing non-combatants, how could Israel ever make such a policy stick?”

It was my impression that weariness of the situation of having to ask other nations’ permission for our survival is what prompted Jews in the late 19th century to set out to renew Jewish national sovereignty on the Land of Israel in the first place. “The world wouldn’t allow…”? Who asked it?

Israelis are not immune to self-deception or political correctness; remember Peace Now? (That always reminds me of the Hebrew phrase, “Shalom Ach-shav”, which inspired a punny counter-slogan, “Shalom, Ach Shav” — peace, but for nothing.)

It is common (but wrong) to speak of Israelis and settlers, as though settlers aren’t really Israelis. (What settlers are, of course, are Israelis who have chosen to live on land rightfully captured by Israel in a war of aggression launched against Israel — land offered in exchange for peace many, many times, always rebuffed. Settlers are people who have chosen to live where they do, at risk to their lives… knowing that their government, which encouraged them to live there, could also take everything away in exchange for a peace treaty, as Israel did in Gush Katif and Yamit.)

I do hope that one day, Palestinians en masse will look back on this part of their history as a time of madness and great shame. But it would take a singularity to achieve it, a “game-changer” that separates everything before from everything after. I, and many other Israelis, have long wished for a way to get there gradually. It hasn’t happened, and it’s not going to happen; there are too many entrenched interests on the Palestinian side to allow it to happen. A brave Palestinian who dares advocate a “live and let live” policy generally doesn’t survive very long.

As has been pointed out, here and elsewhere, the Palestinians have never had to answer for their actions. When Israel attempts to force them to pay a price — such as in Operation Cast Lead, one of the most humanitarian invasions in history — the world howls in outrage, and forces Israel to retreat.

I once advocated that, with rockets from Gaza raining down on southern Israel daily, Israel could force the Palestinians of Gaza to pay — by reclaiming one square kilometer of territory per rocket. (The Gaza Strip is 160 square kilometers.) But if the world wouldn’t allow Israel to invade the Gaza Strip even temporarily, even with an embarrassing level of painstaking care to avoid killing non-combatants, how could Israel ever make such a policy stick?

It is unfortunately the case that, for the Palestinians, there is a strong vested interest in continuing the struggle — and, for Israelis, the status quo is the least awful of many horrible alternatives. So the fighting will continue, until and unless we see the game-changer.

P.S. — Michael in PA, I beg to differ. It is not at all certain that the butcher of the Fogels will sleep peacefully at night. You can bet that the IDF is looking for him. It took them seven years to track down the infamous murderers of Yosef Avrahami and Vadim Novesche, but they did, and they got ’em all.

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

The “war” against our American way of life has caused me to hate, which, I believe is a valid response. But its not a great place to live and there is found a palliative in community and family.

Christopher Dodd stated in congress that the people in Cambodia would be better off under Pol Pot.

P.J. O’Rourke once described Dodd as a “human rum blossom”. I see no reason to argue with that description.

Curtis, if you find an Israeli that feels that way you will be the first one. A lot of Israelis probably looked at one another when Meir said that and wondered what the hell is she talking about. Ask an Israeli whose family comes from an Arab country how he feels about killing Arabs. There was a reason hundreds of thousands of Jews in Arab lands dropped everything and fled to Israel as soon as they heard Israel had been re-established.

Indeed the Israeli attitude towards themselves and others is worth noting because we can learn how to handle multiculturalism and Obama from it. Exclusive of the press, which is in Israel exist only to sow panic, the Israelis know they are better, a lot better than their foes and that includes the European chattering classes and the Arab world. The Arab world is a nuisance, the Europeans are contemptible, Obama is a stupid and arrogant spoiled child, disgusting and silly, but mainly silly.

Curtis and everyone at Neo-Neocon, please join me in prayer that Obama visits Israel. One never has to guess how an Israeli feels about you. It would be a delight to see the demonstrations of utter contempt.