Saturday, February 02, 2008

I'll Answer David Forman

Rabbi (Reform) David Forman, in his most recent op-ed, writes about his outlook on the Arab-Israel conflict and then, sort of, poses a question [my comments italicized and in brackets, like this]:-

I have little [how little?] confidence that the Palestinians, certainly under the present leadership, are either willing to or capable of reaching a peace accord based on a two-state solution.

It is becoming abundantly clear [becoming? boker-tov Eliyahu, as we say] that the Palestinians may never [may?] accept an equal [or inequal, actually] division of this land. Peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt notwithstanding, the majority of Arab nations will not tolerate a Jewish state in the heart of the Muslim world. Perhaps the writing has always been on the wall but we failed to internalize it [we? we?!!!], as Arab countries rejected the 1947 UN partition plan and, upon the departure of the British, attacked Israel with the goal of driving the Jews into the sea.

Yasser Arafat may have been [may? may?!!!] to blame for the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations, but his reasons for walking away from a historic agreement were foolishly consistent [as foolish as you are/were together with your foolish friends?], as reiterated last week by Khaled Mashaal at the National Palestinian Conference in Damascus: "armed struggle until Jerusalem is liberated and all refugees are returned to the provisional borders of 1948."
While one can recount missteps Israel has made since its creation - including the settlement enterprise [what else did we misstep? uniting Jerusalem? refusing the so-called 'right of return'?] - the basic fact remains: The Arab world refers to Israel Independence Day as Nakba Day - the day of the great catastrophe. Hizbullah, Hamas, Iran and even the "moderate" Fatah are ultimately all dedicated to Israel's destruction, as was Arafat.

So let's face it, the sad reality [why sad?], for now anyway [for now? but you just said forever], is that peace with the Palestinians is not in the cards. Further, unless Islam undergoes a theological, cultural or social reformation, not only Israel but the entire free world will be threatened by Islamic fundamentalism.

Therefore, Israel must defend itself, which means retaliatory raids, targeted assassinations, preemptive strikes and building temporary walls. [so, now that all is moral? where were you yesterday/yesteryear?] With all the complexities of occupying another people, which necessarily [no it doesn't] compromises our Jewish moral value system, if we hope to stop rockets from falling on Sderot and prevent them from raining down on other parts of the country, we may [may? see above] have to intermittently lay siege to Gaza and remain in the West Bank.

YET EVEN as I may espouse the political philosophy above, it would be mistaken to brand me as an intransigent right-winger;.. [mistaken? why? why am I worse or different than you? because you claim to be humane? liberal? progressive? come on, all that is bovine manure]


My answer to his self-doubts is that it's okay David, you're simply one of us, the realists, the true Zionists. It's okay, you can come out of your shell now.

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