Friday, November 5, 2010

Israel: Not For Sale

Caroline Glick does it again:

Column One: We are not for sale

This is yet another excellent article from Caroline Glick. Quotes are below and a few are quite interesting:

If Netanyahu wishes to be remembered as something more than another hack, no different from Livni and all the rest, he should end these destructive talks and tell the Obama administration the truth.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is playing with fire. And Israel is getting burned. Over the past week, it has been widely reported that the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government are conducting secret negotiations regarding future Israeli land surrenders to the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem.

According to the reports, the Obama administration has presented Netanyahu with a plan whereby Israel will cede its rights to eastern Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians and then lease the areas from the Palestinians for a limited period.

The reports on the length of the lease vary. Some claim that the White House is offering a seven-year rental.



Did I just read that right? A "seven-year" deal may be in discussions? Now that IS interesting isn't it?

The fact that these discussions are taking place is deeply disturbing both for what they tell us about the Obama administration’s view of Israel and for what they tell us about Netanyahu’s wisdom and character.


The following quotes are worth bolding and they are worth remembering:

By calling for Israel to cede the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians, US President Barack Obama is ignoring the most fundamental reality of the Middle East: Israel is besieged by its neighbors who seek its destruction. Without the Jordan Valley, Israel would become the modern day equivalent of Czechoslovakia stripped of the Sudetenland in 1938. It would be utterly indefensible.

None of Israel’s neighbors has accepted Israel’s right to exist. The absolute majority of the Arabs in all of the states neighboring Israel wish to see Israel destroyed. By relinquishing the Jordan Valley, Israel would be committing national suicide by inviting an invasion it would be incapable of staving off.

This is the truth today, and given the depth of Arab hatred of Jews, in all likelihood, it will remain the case in 40 years and in 99 years. At any rate, Obama’s suggestion that Israel entrust its future to an unsubstantiated hope that the Arab world will be fundamentally transformed is both ignorant and dangerous



And the next block of quotes is worth a resounding AMEN!

As for Netanyahu, he has no right to gamble away Israel’s future. He has no right to commit future generations to strategic suicide on the basis of Obama’s strategic myopia.

The very notion that Israel ought to ever surrender control over the Jordan Valley is egregious and unacceptable. And by proposing that Israel do so, the Obama administration is destroying the last vestiges of its credibility as an ally to the Jewish state. But that is not the worst aspect of the reported US proposal to Israel.

The worst aspect of the US proposal is that it calls for Israel to cede Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians and then lease them from the Palestinians.

Speaking to Army Radio, Science Minister Daniel Herschkowitz explained, “If we agree to the offer, we will be broadcasting to the Palestinians that the land is actually theirs.”


So what explains Netanyahu's actions?

NETANYAHU KNOWS full well that Israel cannot survive without the Jordan Valley. He also knows that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people and that we are the rightful owners of this land.

In acting as he is, Netanyahu is clearly trying to avert yet another crisis with the Obama administration. No doubt he believes that the Palestinians will save the day again by refusing to make a deal with Israel. Just as the Palestinians refuse to accept Israel’s right to exist, just as they refuse to give up on their demand that Israel destroy itself by accepting millions of foreign-born Arabs as full citizens in the framework of a “peace” agreement; and just as they refuse to accept any limitations on the sovereignty of a future Palestinian state, so Netanyahu believes, they will refuse to lease the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem to Israel for 40 or 99 years.

Netanyahu may be right to think this. The Palestinians may reject the deal. But he is taking an enormous risk.


Very risky indeed.

If Netanyahu’s tactics could only cause Israel tactical damage, his gamble that the Palestinians will also refuse this deal might be defensible. But his tactics cause Israel strategic harm even if the Palestinians reject this deal as well. And so they are inexcusable.

Israel cannot survive without the Jordan Valley. By negotiating a surrender of the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu makes it acceptable for the US and the rest of the world to demand that Israel commit national suicide.

AND WHILE moves like Netanyahu’s confuse Israel’s friends abroad, his willingness to consider a plan that denies Jewish rights to Israel and calls for Israel to make suicidal withdrawals demoralize Israelis at home.


There is much more to this article and it is definitely worth reading. She closes with this:

For 17 long years, successive Israeli leaders have come into office committed to defending the country, only to be reduced within a few short months to quibbling over the price of surrender. Leaders from the Right hoped that the Palestinians would scuttle the deals. Leaders from the Left begged the Palestinians to accept them.

If Netanyahu wishes to be remembered as something more than another hack, no different from Livni and all the rest, he should end these destructive talks and tell the Obama administration the truth: Israel’s survival is nonnegotiable and the rights of the Jewish people are not for sale.


So what will Netanyahu do? Will he actually take this gamble? If so, will the "Palestinians" call his bluff and then be in perfect position strategically (by "ownership" of the West Bank and other critical land) to stage their ultimate military victory?

Only time will tell, but that time is approaching rapidly.

It helps to remember that every bit of this is in God's hand and under God's divine direction. All events will ultimately lead to the battle of Gog-MaGog, according to Ezekiel's prophecy, and somehow that will include the prophecy of Isaiah 17 and the prayer of Psalm 83. These events seen highly intertwined.

If Israel must give up this land in order to lead to these prophetic events, then it will happen that way.
If Israel determines not to give away any more land, then that will somehow lead to the final prophetic events.

Either way, no matter what happens with Israeli land, it will be part of God's overall plan.

There is a lot of comfort in that thought. Somehow in this mix is the Rapture of the Church, and this event may also play a role in subsequent prophetic scenarios which will play out on earth. And at that point, we'll have far better things to do. Its a promise and a guarantee. After all, God is in control and He has promised a much better plan for those who follow Jesus.

Maranatha! Its all part of God's plan!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I can say is WOW! When I first heard about this proposal to lease the Jordan Valley and parts of Jerusalem back to Israel it was for a 10 year period. Now very quickly we see 7 years being quoted. It only took a week for the number to get to seven. If Obama is successful, his involvement becomes more significant than we anticipated earlier. Does anyone else find it unbelievable that with the current thumping his party just took in the mid terms, that he is able to ask the Israelies for this concession, given the fact the electorate has just handed him his hat so to speak. It seems to me that Israel would dig in their heals and wait for a more conservative administration to be in place. Any thoughts on this would be great.

Thanks!

James Dickens

Scott said...

Hey there James!

I recall posting on this a few weeks ago, when this first started making the news, wondering how long it would take to see a 7 year proposal...It didn't take long did it?

As far as the elections - I have read a number of articles (coming from the papers in the Middle East) - which state that now that the domestic agenda will be thwarted by the House, that Obama may turn his attention towards Israel and become MORE bold in requests to have Israel give up more and more.

In fact, as a result of the election now being over, he won't have to "play nice" with Israel any more, and now he may look for MORE concessions from Israel.

So rather than see the trends of the American Public and their desires, it may go in the opposite direction - ie MORE concessions from Israel and more favorability to the "PA".

We shall see - but the Israeli's seem concerned at what is coming from the US administration.