Violence |
Violence: The Last Resort of Every Dictator Many years ago, the late Golda Meir, then prime
minister of Israel, predicted that the
187 million Arabs surrounding 4 million Israelis would always seek the
destruction of the Jewish state. In that estimate she proved to be quite right
as recent and current events have now demonstrated. The
Arabs like to tell the story of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, who made a
treaty of peace with surrounding tribes only to use their sense of security as a
means of attacking and killing them. In short, it is part of Arab culture to
agree to anything, sign any treaty and make any promise as a ploy to gain the
opportunity to still destroy all who differ in religion or culture. Added to this attitude on the part of the Arab nations is the utter lack of democratic institutions in all Arab societies. Like the bosses of the other 21 Arab countries, Yassir Arafat is a dictator who seeks to remain in power for life. No such dictator can ever admit any failures in his excessive promises to his people because such admissions would lead to his murder in an ever ongoing game of “king of the hill.” Furthermore, dictators always promise great future achievements to keep their downtrodden people from overthrowing them. This
is exactly what happened when Arafat swore that he would establish a Palestinian
state on September 13, 2000 with the old city of Jerusalem as its capital. That
promise was of course impossible to fulfill despite the appeasement politics of
Ehud Barak, who, like Neville Chamberlain at Munich in 1938, believed that
compromising again and again would somehow assuage the Hitlers or Arafats of
this world. But dictators cannot compromise because they promise too much.
Dictators cannot resign because they want to stay in power for life. Arafat said
that he feared he would be murdered if he compromised on the issue of Jerusalem
and so the recent Camp David meetings with President Clinton and Prime Minister
Barak failed because Arafat wanted everything. President Clinton placed the
blame for the failure of that effort on Arafat for his refusal to accept even
the most extreme Israeli concessions. To
cover up his failure Arafat therefore orchestrated the present violence. Only
the most malicious bigot would agree that the insane attack on Israel by the
Palestinians is somehow caused by the appearance of the Likud leader Sharon on
the Temple Mount. Surely, every Jew and every Israeli has a right to walk on the
holiest site in all of Judaism, the Temple Mount. Yet, this walk by one Israeli
politician is now used as a pretext for the violence and brutality unleashed by
the dictator Arafat. Not since the Nazi murders of the 1930’s and 1940’s
have we seen the kind of brutality as was displayed by Arab mobs in Ramalllah as
they deliberately slaughtered two Jewish boys who happened by mistake to enter
that Arab town. The
solution to all of this lies of course in the determination of Israel to defend
itself against these attacks and this violence. The end of such violence,
however, can only come when the Palestinians rid themselves of the dictator
Arafat, who is the only one who profits from all this brutality which he
unleashed. If the Palestinians, like the Serbs, rise up against their dictator
and establish a true democracy then such a democratic Palestine could of course
live in peace with its Jewish neighbor. Until that day, however, all Jews in
Israel or here must stand up as one against yet another Hitler and remember at
all times that those who seek the destruction of our brethren overseas seek our
destruction as well. Kol Yisrael Chaverim. All Jews are Brethren. Shalom
u’vracha.
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