50 things I've learned about the Arab-Israeli Conflict

It occurred to me that now would be as good a time as any to sum up

> everything that has been learned about the Middle East conflict, that is,

> everything that the Israeli government and chattering classes refused to

> learn for the past two decades.

>

>

>

> 1. Nice fences do not stop missiles, rockets, and mortars.

> 2. Complete removal of Israeli forces and Jewish settlers from an area

> does not achieve anything, and merely signals Israeli weakness,

inviting

> escalated terror and aggression from the Arabs.

> 3. The Hezbollah and the Hamas cannot be defeated with air strikes.

There

> is no effective alternative to ground invasion and ongoing control of

the

> ground.

> 4. Unless the Israeli military controls the ground on the OTHER side

> of fences, those fences achieve nothing.

> 5. Goodwill gestures by Israel increase terror.

> 6. Goodwill gestures by Israel never produce moderation of Arab goals

> and demands, but rather produce the opposite.

> 7. Terror is not caused by settlements, but rather by the *removal* of

> settlements.

> 8. Terror is not caused by Israeli military occupation, but rather by

> the *removal *of Israeli military occupation.

> 9. It is impossible for there to be two sovereign entities between the

> Jordon River and the Mediterranean.

> 10. No matter how many concessions Israel makes, the world will always

> justify Arab terrorism, because there is always one more capitulation

that

> Israel failed to make (e.g., giving up the "Shebaa Farm" on the Golan

> Heights)

> 11. No matter how nice Israel is to Israeli Arabs, no matter how many

> affirmative action programs it implements, it will always be accused

of

> being an "apartheid regime".

> 12. The Israeli Far Left is an openly anti-Semitic movement that

> seeks Israel's destruction and automatically endorses the enemies of

> Israel in all things.

> 13. The Israeli Labor Party and its Kadima cousin may be more

> effective at fighting terror, once they decide to do so, than the

Likud.

> The reason is that if the Likud were fighting terror, the Israeli Left

> would take to the streets in mass demonstrations against Israeli

imperialism

> and aggression, and the leftist Israeli media would declare that

400,000

> protesters turned out.

> 14. The *real* enemy of Israel is not Arab fascism but Jewish

> leftism.

> 15. The world likes to see Jewish civilians murdered by terrorists

> and will applaud and justify all such murders as comeuppance for the

Jews

> for being so insensitive.

> 16. The Israeli Left will oppose every conceivable act of Israeli

> self-defense, other than total capitulation.

> 17. Israeli niceness and flexibility fan anti-Semitism.

> 18. Israel-bashing is nothing more than anti-Semitism and

> Israel-bashers are increasingly open about their delight at seeing

Jewish

> civilians murdered.

> 19. Israeli pursuit of the "peace process" has triggered a world-wide

> storm of anti-Semitism.

> 20. Terrorists cannot be appeased.

> 21. Arab terrorists do not morph into statesmen.

> 22. There are no Palestinian moderates.

> 23. Israel bashers do not care about dead Arab civilians, other than

> as a useful bludgeon with which to delegitimize Israel.

> 24. The Western Left would celebrate if Israeli Jews were shipped off

> to concentration camps in cattle cars, and would demand improved rail

> service.

> 25. The vast majority of Israeli Arabs want to see Israel destroyed

> and the Jews thrown into the sea.

> 26. There are hundreds of Jewish professors in Israel who serve as an

> academic Fifth Column that will do anything to collaborate with the

enemies

> of their country.

> 27. The Arabs will not accept an independent Israel in ANY set of

> borders, no matter how small. Hence one achieves nothing by reducing

> Israel's territory, other than to signal weakness and destructibility.

> 28. Much of the Western media believes that there are no problems on

> earth that could not be greatly improved by destroying Israel.

> 29. Most of the governments of Europe do not believe Jews should be

> treated with respect, and certainly do not think Jews should ever be

allowed

> to defend themselves.

> 30. The only country on earth that is expected to respond to mass

> murder of its civilians through turning of the other cheek is Israel.

> The only country on earth that spent many years trying to defeat

> aggression and terrorism by turning the other cheek is Israel.

> 31. No matter how Israel responds to aggression and terrorism, it

> will always be a "disproportionate" response.

> 32. Those who claim that anti-Zionism is different and distinct from

> anti-Semitism are anti-Semites.

> 33. The only people on earth whom the Left believes should be denied

> the right to self-determination and self-defense are the Jews.

> 34. "Palestinians" are not a people and never were. They are simply

> Arabs who happened to migrate into historic Western Palestine. They

> have no right whatsoever to statehood.

> 35. The Golan Heights are not "Syrian" and never were.

> 36. Noam Chomsky is an anti-Semite and Norman Finkelstein is a

> neo-nazi. People who endorse them are anti-Semites, even if they

> happen to be Israeli Jews.

> 37. Israeli politicians are among the stupidest on earth.

> 38. Israeli leftists never learn from the failures of their policies

> and "ideas". Every failure is simply because their policies were not

> applied thoroughly *enough.*

> 39. The moral and legal responsibility for every single Arab civilian

> killed or injured in the Middle East conflict rests squarely upon the

> shoulders of the Arab fascists and terrorists.

> 40. There is no moral or legal reason for Israel to refrain from

> attacking terrorists and murderers when they hide among civilians.

> 41. "Anarchists" and others who protest against Israel's security

> wall want the wall removed because they want terrorists to murder

Jewish

> civilians.

> 42. Palestinians are the Sudeten Germans of the Middle East.

> 43. Israel has no obligation to share its water resources with the

> "Palestinians" or anyone else.

> 44. There are no non-military solutions to the problem of terrorism.

> 45. One can only make peace with one's enemies. One also only makes

> war with one's enemies.

> 46. There are no significant differences between the agenda of the

> PLO and the agenda of the Hamas and Hezbollah.

> 47. The Middle East conflict is not a marital spat. Going through

> the pretense of holding hands and holding talks does not calm

tensions and

> achieves nothing.

> 48. One cannot make peace by pretending that war does not exist.

> 49. One cannot buy off anti-Semites and Islamofascists with trade

> concessions and subsidies.

> 50. The only way to stop terrorism is to kill terrorists.