Planet Peace Now

This morning I was in Jerusalem along with Noa from Peace Now, presenting our respective takes on the situation to an informed and interested Jewish leadership group from Kansas City. I told them why the 'land for peace' paradigm has to be changed, because as the years go by we see that it's not correct. If the reason the local Arabs hate us is because we stole Judea and Samaria from them, then to solve the problem you rectify the wrong - return the land- and then everything will be fine. Sound reasonable? Uh huh, except that the assumption lived up the old joke of 'assume' making an ass-u-me. (Hey, I never claimed this would be a family blog).

Problem is that they hate us for other reasons, so giving them land ain't gonna stop the hatred. I mean, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was founded in 1964, 3 years before the 6 Day war that left Judea and Samaria in Israeli hands after King Hussein attacked. And the Arab riots that killed hundred of Jews in 1929 were a full 40 years before the so-called occupation, so what was the deal then? That even preceded the Mufti's plans for a concentration camp near Nablus to help the Nazis out, Auschwitz being kinda far. So a lot of stuff just doesn't fit the hypothesis, but heck, we tried.

What just wipes me out is Peace Now utter inability to see what's happening. I would really like to put it down to naivete, but I can't anymore. Today she went with the usual 'if we only got rid of the settlements everything would be fine' routine. Yes, if we pull out every Jew from J & S we can stop getting to the airport 3 hours early, no purse checks at the theater, no trunks popped at the mall parking, we can fearlessly go for coffee . I know, let's try it like in Gaza and see how it goes! What a great idea. Oh, she says, that failed because we didn't strengthen Abbas enough. A hah. And they freely elected Hamas because....? I mean, really. Are we the problem- or is Israel is the problem?

She also claims that it's our fault that they have suicide bombers, she just completely justifies their homicidal tendencies. This blows me away (sorry, very, very bad choice of words). Yesterday a gang of Israeli Arabs were arrested for raping Jewish girls over the last 2 years in 'revenge for Israel's policies'. Is that also okay????? What kind of twisted logic is this? Didn't get a chance to ask. Quite honestly, I found myself pitying her. That's why I didn't tell the group what an Arab from Chevron told me a few years back, that he hates all Jews because his religion tells him that we are an abomination in the Islamic Middle East and so he has a theological need to eliminate us. But, he added, (I guess in an effort to cheer me up), that he respects me because he sees that I'm a proud Jew. The Israeli left, though, he hates for being Jews and also despises for being traitors to their own people.

Go figure. Strangest compliment I ever got. I think.

More about this in later posts. ( I know, the suspense is killing you). Gotta take my son to Jerusalem now for an appointment, then on to a special fair of products of Gush Katif, Northern and Sderot businesses to help them earn a living.

Cool and clear as today's Judean evening comes around.