The leaders of the Palestinian Authority firmly condemned the terrorist attack in Jerusalem yesterday. I suggest we believe them. They've got practical reasons for being against such attacks, and who knows, perhaps they've even got glimmers of moral repugnance. Reports in our media have been telling for quite a while now that the cooperation between the PA security forces and ours is reasonably good; when it comes to hitting Hamas cells, it's probably very good.
But it doesn't help. Since immediately after the attack there has been a total gag order on the police investigation, but the hints seeping out - and past experience - suggest the Israeli police, and the General Security Service, and the relevant parts of the IDF, are all intensely focused on trying to figure out who planned the attack, who prepared it, who carried it out, and what else are they planning. This activity is happening wherever it needs to be happening, and past experience indicates that it's likely to be successful, hopefully before the next attack.
Now assume for a moment that Jerusalem has been divided in a peace treaty, and there's a Palestinian government which is truly against terrorist attacks in the Israeli parts of Jerusalem, but they aren't effective enough to stop all attacks. This means there will be attacks, and in their aftermath the Israeli forces will be able to respond only up to the line, not on its other side - even knowing full well that on the other side, that's where the planners are: two blocks over the line, or perhaps in the window overlooking the line, how can anyone know.
Would you be willing to live in such a town? Raise your children there, perhaps?
The fairy tale about a divided but open city is, at best, a fairy tale. More likely it will be a nightmare.
So there will have to be a wall. Right through one of the world's most sensitive and important cities. Even then some attacks will be inevitable, but the police will be forbidden to investigate beyond the wall - which is, I remind you, in the middle of the city.
For the life of me I can't say why people think this will be a good idea.
well probably they think so because as far as crime goes Berlin hasn't been much of a problem at least not for the likes of me
ReplyDeleteand with a bit of good will and with less reluctance to take risk and so on and so forth ...
To start with those idiots don't know anything about the difference between living in a city that has mountains, rocks anything not flat and a sprawl like Berlin. Here I am comparing Berlin to Athens or Paris.
and why not create a safe haven for terrorists and then send in psychologists who'll root out the problem or any other such hair-brained scheme. Wall or no wall once the Palestininians have authority over a part they will start the equal rights game. Jane Austen's novels are full of precedence problems, in the event Jerusalem sure will get more than her fair share of them and they provide an ideal environment for perpetrators
I thought Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish State. Why discuss this "division" thing at all?
ReplyDelete"For the life of me I can't say why people think this will be a good idea."
ReplyDelete1) They won't have to live with it
2) They can then get on with the business of dealing with the oil countries without always being asked to do something for the Palestinians to appease the Arab street
3) They are stupid. Belfast comes to mind, which should be enough to persuade anyone that its a ridiculous idea.
As I told Ya'acov two weeks ago, without a change in the moral attitude of Palestinian society, cleaning up the incitement and anti-Semitic and anti-Israel filth that is rampant in their society, peace is impossible.
ReplyDeleteWhat is needed is not a pro forma meaningless condemnation of violence but a constructive change in the way Arabs view and relate to Jews.
I don't see that happening in our lifetime.
Olmert and much of the Israeli Left can't wait to divide Jerusalem. Yet, they know very well what will happen. This indifference to the welfare and future of the state and its citizens is absolutely shocking to me. We saw the same thing with the Oslo Agreements and the destruction of Gush Katif. I will go further and say Sharon's Lebanon I war was also a manifestation of this gross irresponsibility of the Israeli ruling clique.
ReplyDeleteOther nations are like this as well, regarding the fate of other nations. Britain's and France's abondonment of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 is a good example. More recently there was Rhodesia, which was a model state but which, unfortunately, had a government based on an archaic model of racial discrimination. The world kept harping on them to turn the regime over in the easiest way to a black leader i.e. to Mugabe's gunmen and to hell with the consequences. Today, Zimbabwe has been destroyed and it is the blacks who the liberal "do gooders" claim to want to help are the major victims". There is no question in my mind that that Left/Progressives of the world who are harping on us all the time regarding the Palestinians also are indifferent to what will happen to both Jews and Arabs should we foolishly do what they want. But it is absolutely criminal for Israeli leaders themselves to behave this way and we MUST remain on guard for repeptitions of this irresponsible behavior.
That's way Yaacov's repeated warnings about the insanity of dividing Jerusalem can not be hear too often. Keep up the good work!
Y. Ben David - the Israeli Left supports the Palestinians precisely because they know they will do to the Jews.
ReplyDeleteThat is why they are urging Israel not to wipe out Hamas. I can't think of one rational reason why Israel should not destroy a genocidal group of fanatics dedicated to its destruction.
No one has explained why Jews need to hold their fire under attack unless of course the real reason for the advice of "restraint" we hear so often from the West is a not so hidden belief that Jews deserve what they get coming to them.
That some Jews in Israel have internalized this view that they deserve to be punished for existing does not make it right. With anti-Semitism now fashionable again, Israel has two choices: it can sit and wait to be destroyed or it can fight and win and wipe out its enemies.
Everything else is a delusion.
kahane was right...shoulda packed up the buses in 1978, before it was too late
ReplyDeleteThese blasts will raise tensions and also no peace discussions will be possible
ReplyDeleteas to believing Palestinian leaders
ReplyDelete"Palestinian traditions and morals"
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/03/palestinian-traditions-and-morals-video.html
All the instances cited in the video happened btw before I entered into news junky mode - none of them rings even the most remote bell for me i.e. they never reached me. I remember almost exclusively from that time period or an earlier one that Israel had bombed Arafat's head quarter. Not that I could put that info into context but probably because of just that it stuck.
and probably quite fitting in the context:
Sol Stern has a piece on Jeremy Ben-Ami which reminded me a lot of what Nick Cohen remarked in "What's Left?" i.e. that the Left is hurting from not having an equivalent to the Spanish Civil War these days i.e. they are a movement without a cause. It must be hard to be the descendant of great men.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/j-streets-jeremy-ben-ami-no-zionist-hero/