The stronger Israel is, the closer peace will be: strength, responsibility and unity

Excerpts from PM Netanyahu's Speech at Opening of the Knesset's Winter Session, 31 Oct 2011 (follow the link to the full translation text):

The Knesset is returning to its winter session at a time when the most dramatic events of our time are taking place in our region. ...old regimes have toppled, others are swaying and new ones are rising.

No-one can guarantee how good or how stable these new regimes will be, nor their attitude towards Israel. 

...These new regimes depend on the masses, the raging masses, of which many of the people have been systematically poisoned with anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda. This incitement began even before the State of Israel was established, and continues at full steam today.

...To cope with the instability and the uncertainty we are faced with, we need two things: strength and responsibility. 

...We operate and will continue to operate intensely and determinately against those who threaten the security of the State of Israel and its citizens.

Our policy is guided by two main principles: the first is "if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first," and the second is "if anyone harms us, his blood is on his own hands."

For two thousand years our people could not realize these two basic principles of self defense.  The Jewish people paid the ultimate price in the history of the world due to this inability.

This changed when the State of Israel was established, and the Israel Defense Forces was founded.  The governments of Israel acted on these principles: they fought those who threatened us and attacked those who harmed us.


...Fostering the strength and responsibility required to fortify Israel's security is also paramount in our quest for peace. 

In the Middle East, peace is made with the strong, not with the weak.  The stronger Israel is, the closer peace will be.

The people in Israel are united in their desire for peace.  Yet we seek real peace; peace that is anchored in the right of the Jewish people to a nation-state in its homeland; peace that is based on security.

We are willing to compromise, but not to discard our security.  Even before the earthquake shook our region, I stood firm on Israel's security interests, and today more than ever.

I assure you that in the negotiations for peace, we will continue to insist on our national interests, first and foremost, security. Last weekend it was said that I am a tough bargainer.  I know that was said as criticism, but I take it as a compliment.

...I am willing to make real peace with our neighbors, but I am not willing to risk our security and future. Any peace deal must be accompanied by firm security agreements on the ground; otherwise it just will not last.

For the negotiations to end, they first need to be started.  I have called upon the Palestinian leadership time and time again to enter direct negotiations without delay.    ...Instead of sitting at the negotiation table, they decided to join the Hamas and take unilateral steps at the United Nations.

...while we support the foundation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement, the Palestinians are trying to reach a Palestinian state without a peace agreement.  That is the essence of our reality and anyone with eyes to see and a sense of decency knows it.
...Members of Knesset, I have spoken, and I must admit not always successfully, about strength and responsibility.

I also want to talk about something that links the two: unity. 

...The unity that brings us to work together for one soldier is a testament to the ability of our people to come together in times of trouble.  It is an expression of our strength, our responsibility, our mutual accountability.  I believe in the power of this unity in times of trouble in the Knesset too.  I believe that in spite of all the disagreements, at the moment of truth we will rise above them and work together for the important and common goals.  These are the things that guide us: strength, responsibility and unity.  We have one country, together we can protect it.

Thank you.

PA doesn’t meet UNESCO statehood guidelines

From JPost, 1 Nov 2011, by KHALED ABU TOAMEH:

...The Palestinian Authority does not meet the UNESCO recommendations for becoming a full member in the international organization, according to a study published on Monday by IMPACT-SE – the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.

IMPACT-SE is a research organization that monitors and analyzes schoolbooks and curricula across the Middle East with an eye toward determining their compliance with international standards on peace and tolerance, a goal derived directly from UNESCO declarations and resolutions.

...Israel, for example, is not mentioned [Palestinian schoolbooks in use for the school year 2011] among the states of the Levant (which presently consists of the states of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as the Palestinian territories) and Jewish holy places are never mentioned as such. For instance, Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem is presented as the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque.

...The study also found that there was continued demonization of both Israel and the Jews in the books. Jews are described, among others, as violating treaties, getting rich unduly, deceitful, murdering children, disemboweling women and invading snakes. They are never presented in neutral or positive terms.

The study quotes the following examples from the Palestinian schoolbooks: 

• “The Messenger of God [Muhammad] ordered Zayd Ibn Thabit to learn the language of the Jews in order to be safe from their cheating,” History of the Arabs and Muslims, Grade 6, (2009), page 133;
• “Your enemies killed your children, split open your women’s bellies, held your revered elderly men by the beard, and led them to the death pits,” Reading and Texts, Grade 8, Part 2, [2003] (reprinted 2007), page 16; and 
• “By your life! How come snakes invade us and we [still] observe a protection covenant [dhimma] which respects commitments?” Arabic Language– Linguistic Sciences, Grade 12, (2010), page 61.

“The Oslo accords and the Declaration of Principles are mentioned and even quoted, but they are not praised and a peacefully negotiated settlement is not advocated or supported,” said the authors of the study.

“In contrast, there is a lot of praise for jihad and martyrdom to free Palestine without defining clearly the territory to be liberated, hence implying that Israel’s territory is also to be liberated.”

The study quotes the following paragraph from a Grade 8 book: 

“Today the Muslim countries need urgently jihad and jihad fighters in order to liberate the robbed lands and to get rid of the robbing Jews from the robbed lands in Palestine and in the Levant.”

The Shoah is not mentioned at all, though one ambiguous passage reads as follows: “The Jewish question is first and foremost a European problem.”

Rocket terrorism in the south

From Israel Daily Alert, Monday,October 31, 2011:

Gaza Rocket Fire Kills Israeli Man in Ashkelon on Saturday
On Saturday, Palestinians in Gaza fired at least 27 rockets at Israel. Moshe Ami, 56, a father of four, was killed in Ashkelon. Two rockets landed outside Beersheba. Nine Islamic Jihad terrorists have been killed in airstrikes since Saturday. Schools were closed in towns within 40 km of Gaza, including Beersheba, Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi. (Ynet News)

Israeli Towns Hit By Palestinian Rocket Attacks - Shmulik Hadad
In Ashdod, cars were destroyed, apartment windows were shattered and holes in an apartment building's exterior bore testimony to the Grad rocket that hit on Saturday. One rocket landed directly between two apartment buildings. Haim Elimelech, 50, said he was in his car when a rocket hit mere meters from him. "The neighbor's car, which was located between me and the explosion, got the worst of the damage," he said from his hospital bed. "Maybe if it wasn't there, we wouldn't be sitting here talking right now."  (Ynet News)

Israel Attacks Gaza Rocket Squad on Monday - Elior Levy
The IDF announced Monday that the Air Force attacked a rocket squad in Gaza after at least six rockets were fired at Israel. Two members of the Al-Ahrar movement's military wing were killed in the strike. Al-Ahrar consists of ex-Fatah men and is partly sponsored by Hamas. (Ynet News)

The Islamic Jihad Threat - Ron Ben-Yishai
The current round of escalation from Gaza was initiated by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Islamic Jihad has more long-range rockets than Hamas, thousands of activists, and some 10,000 supporters and collaborators. The group intends to utilize this power in order to challenge Hamas and force it to continue the armed struggle against Israel. (Ynet News)

Israel Kills Palestinian Rocket Commander in Gaza - Nidal al-Mughrabi
Israel's air force on Saturday killed Islamic Jihad commander Ahmed al-Sheikh Khalil and four of the group's munitions experts in Gaza following an earlier Palestinian cross-border rocket launch at Israel. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that its aircraft had "targeted a terrorist squad...that was preparing to launch long-range rockets."  (Reuters)

Islamic Jihad Becoming a Threat to Hamas - Khaled Abu Toameh
With the help of Iran and Syria, Islamic Jihad has become the second-largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas. Today, it poses a serious challenge to the Hamas government. In the past two days Hamas chose to sit on the fence while Islamic Jihad militiamen fired rockets at Israel, acting on instructions from Tehran and Damascus.
 

Hamas can't afford to be seen as playing the role of "border guard" for Israel. Dozens of disgruntled Hamas members are reported to have defected to Islamic Jihad, as have former Fatah security officers, some of whom were trained by the U.S. and EU. (Jerusalem Post)

Video: Gaza Terrorist Squad Preparing to Launch Rocket at Israel (Israel Defense Forces)

Video: Islamic Jihad's Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (YouTube)

...and from JPost, 1 Nov 2011, by YAAKOV LAPPIN: 

Schools closed in Ashdod, Beersheba, Gan Yavne for third straight day; 4 projectiles fired in latest attack; Iron Dome intercepts Grad over Beersheba; none hurt, no damage reported; US ambassador condemns barrage.

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired at least seven volleys of rocket fire into southern Israel on Monday afternoon and evening, undermining reports of a cease-fire.

No injuries were reported from the rockets, but they prompted local officials to shut schools on Tuesday for the third day in a row.

Classes have been cancelled in Ashdod, Beersheba and Gan Yavne by municipalities and regional councils.

The school closures were accompanied by reminders sent by authorities to residents on the need to remain in designated safe zones for a period of 10 minutes following the sounding of air-raid sirens.

...Meanwhile, Military Intelligence concluded that the video released by Islamic Jihad of a truck-mounted rocket launcher firing several projectiles successively was a forgery. The video had been released as part of a boast by the terror organization of improved rocket-firing capabilities.

On Monday night, a Grad-type rocket fired at Beersheba was successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket shield, minutes after air-raid sirens rang out across the Negev city.

Another rocket fell near Ashkelon, and three additional rockets landed in open territory around Sderot and the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council. Earlier, a rocket exploded south of Ashkelon, shattering a period of calm that had been in place since early Monday morning.

No injuries or damages were reported in any of the attacks.

Shortly after midnight on Monday, the Air Force struck a rocket-launching crew after it fired three rockets at the Eshkol Regional Council.

“We identified an accurate strike,” an IDF spokesman told The Jerusalem Post.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday the IDF does not pay attention to empty calls for cease-fires from various terrorist groups.

In an interview on Monday with Army Radio, Barak said if they want a cease-fire, Islamic Jihad and Hamas will need to actually stop their attacks, he explained. He said Israel holds Hamas accountable for all rocket fire from Gaza.

The defense minister said the IDF is not interested in returning to Gaza. It will, however, respond accordingly to attacks against Israel’s citizens.

... US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro strongly condemned the continued rocket barrage.

“There is no excuse for attacking innocent civilians,” Shapiro said. “The US and Israel stand together in their fight against terror.”

The real racism: Expecting Jews to die meekly

From JPost, 28 Oct 2011, by MARTIN SHERMAN:

...Israel needs to once again convey, un-apologetically, to the world the rationale for its founding.

The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state... 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. – Neve Gordon, “Boycott Israel,” Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2009.

... this excerpt typifies the racist Judeophobic rhetoric ...

Expecting Jews to die meekly
This mode of rhetoric is no less than inciteful, Judeophobic racism, because in effect, it embodies the implicit delegitmization of the right of Jews to defend themselves.

It embodies the implicit expectation that Jews should consent to die meekly. And how can an expectation that Jews die meekly be characterized other than as “inciteful, Judeophobic racism?” For no matter what the measures Israel adopts to protect its citizens from those undisguisedly trying to murder and maim them — because they are Jews — they are widely condemned as “racist,” “disproportionate violence” or even “war crimes/crimes against humanity.”

It matters not whether these measures are administrative decisions or security operations, defensive responses or anticipatory initiatives, punitive retaliations or preemptive strikes. It matters not whether they entail the emplacement of physical barriers to block the infiltration of indiscriminate murderers; the imposition of restrictions to impede their lethal movements; the execution of preventive arrests to foil their deadly intentions; the conduct of targeted killings (with unprecedentedly low levels of collateral damage) to preempt their brutal plans; the launch of military campaigns to prevent the incessant shelling of civilians...

Lip service to Israel’s right to self-defense
The depiction of these measures as arbitrary acts of wrongdoing, whose only motivation is racially driven territorial avarice and discriminatory embitterment of the lives of the Palestinians, distorts reality and disregards context. But far more perturbing, is the moral implication of this condemnation.

For if all endeavors to prevent, protect or preempt are denounced as morally reprehensible, the inevitable conclusion is that they should not be employed. This implies a no less inevitable conclusion: To avoid the morally reprehensible, the Jewish state should — in effect — allow those who would attack its citizens, to do so with total impunity, and with total immunity from retribution.

True, many of Israel’s detractors protest with righteous indignation that they acknowledge that it “has a right to defend itself.” But this is quickly exposed as meaningless lip service, for whenever Israel exercises that allegedly acknowledged right, it is condemned for being excessively heavy-handed.

It makes little difference if Israel imposes a legal maritime blockade to prevent the supply of lethal armaments to Islamist extremists; or if Israeli commandos are forced to use deadly force to prevent themselves from being disemboweled by a frenzied lynch mob; or if, in response to the savage slaughter wrought by Palestinian suicide bombers — which relative to its population, dwarfed the losses on 9/11 — Israel clears the terror-infested and boobytrapped Jenin, using ground troops rather than its air force to minimize Palestinian collateral damage, thus incurring needless casualties of its own.

No matter how murderous the onslaughts initiated by the Palestinians, no matter how blatant the Palestinian brutality, no matter how outrageous the Palestinian provocation, the Israeli response is deemed inappropriate.

Despite the declaration of recognition of some generic abstract right to defend itself and its citizens, it seems that in practice the only “appropriate” response is for Israel to refrain from defending itself.

Exigencies of security
Then there is the reverse racism emblazoned in the subtext of the discourse of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians: The victims of racist hatred are condemned as racist for fending off their racist attackers.

Security barriers are not erected, roadblocks are not put in place, travel restrictions are not enforced as a racist response to Palestinian ethnicity but as a rationale response to Palestinian enmity. To believe otherwise is to fall prey to what Binyamin Netanyahu once called the “reversal of causality.” The blockade of Gaza is a consequence, not a cause, of Hamas’s violence; the West Bank security barrier is the result of, not the reason for, Palestinian terrorism.

If not for the massive carnage at Sbarro pizzeria, at Dizengoff Center, at the Passover Seder in the Park Hotel, there would have been no IDF operation in Jenin in 2002. Without the indiscriminate bombardment of Israeli civilians, there would have been no Cast Lead operation in Gaza in 2009. If pregnant women and ambulances were not used to smuggle explosives into Israeli cities, there would be no need for checkpoints and roadblocks. If Palestinian gunmen would not open fire from vehicles on Israeli families passing by, there would be no need to restrict the movement of Palestinians on certain roads. If Palestinians did not ambush Israeli cars traveling though Palestinian towns, there would be no need to construct special roads for Israelis to bypass those towns.

The outcome of Judeophobic enmity
Of course, the standard Judeophobic response to this will be... “occupation,” that all-purpose, all-weather, one-size-fits-all excuse for every racist Palestinian atrocity perpetrated against the Jews.

According to this morally base and factually baseless contention, all Palestinian violence is an expression of understandable rage and frustration due to years of repressive “occupation” of Palestinian lands.

This claim is as egregious as it is asinine. It must be rejected with the moral opprobrium and the intellectual disdain it so richly deserves.

... the call for the destruction of the Jewish state was made long before Israel held a square inch of what is now designated as “occupied Palestinian land.”

 (In fact, the original 1964 Palestinian National Covenant explicitly disavows any sovereign claim to the “West Bank” and Gaza as the Palestinian homeland.) The founding documents of the PLO, Fatah and Hamas are all committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, irrespective of time and regardless of frontiers. This too was the sentiment reiterated by Mahmoud Abbas in his recent UN appearance.

So clearly “Occupation” is not the origin of Palestinian ill-will towards Israel. Quite the reverse. The Israeli presence in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is a direct outcome of Arab ill-will towards Israel, when in 1967 their massive military offensive to destroy Israel failed catastrophically.

It was not Jewish territorial avarice that brought Israel to “the territories” but Arab Judeocidal aggression.

What if there had been no ‘Occupation’?
Even if it can be irrefutably shown that “occupation” is not the origin of Palestinian hostility, might it is not be possible that elimination of “occupation” would induce, if not Palestinian amitié, then at least Palestinian acceptance of Israel? Sadly, all evidence seems to point the other way. Every time Israel has made tangible efforts to remove “occupation,” the frenzy of Palestinian terrorism has soared to a higher crescendo, and forced abandonment or even reversal of these efforts:

• This was the case from 1993 to ’96, when the implementation of the Oslo agreements brought forth a huge wave of suicide bombings.

• This was the case in 2000, when Ehud Barak offered sweeping concessions to the Palestinians, who responded with a wave of unprecedented terrorism which continued under Ariel Sharon’s “restraint-is-strength-policy” until the carnage made military response unavoidable. The result was Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 that brought the IDF back in force to the “West Bank,” where calm has been largely maintained ever since.

This was the case in 2005, when Israel withdrew from Gaza and erased every vestige of “occupation,” and in return received continuing and escalating violence that culminated in Operation Cast Lead.

Clearly, not only can “occupation” not be attributed as the cause of Palestinian enmity, but attempts to remove — or at least attenuate — it seem only to exacerbate this enmity....
The real racism
...While the Jewish state faces unparalleled threats, and unconditional enmity, it is continually condemned for acting to meet those threats and to contend with that enmity — no matter what measures it adopts, no matter how grave the peril, no matter how severe the provocation.

This then is the real racism that permeates the discourse on the Israel-Palestinian conflict: 

• The expectation that the Jews jeopardize their security in order to maintain the viability of manifest falsehoods. 
• The perverse portrayal of every coercive measure undertaken by the IDF to protect the lives of Jews against those striving to kill them, merely because they are Jews, as racially motivated, disproportionate violence.
• The disingenuous depiction of the inconvenience caused to Palestinians by these measures as a more heinous evil than the Jewish deaths they are designed to prevent.
• The attitude that shedding Jewish blood is more acceptable than the measures required to prevent it, an element that appears to be becoming increasingly internalized into the discourse on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel needs to once again convey, unapologetically, to the world the rationale for its founding: Jews will no longer die meekly.

Over 20 rockets were fired at Israel today from Gaza

From the IDF Website, 29 Oct 2011:

Over 20 rockets were fired at Israel today, Chief of Staff holds situation assessment and IAF targets responsible terrorists in response...
 
Over 20 mortars and rockets were fired today from the Gaza Strip at Israeli communities including Ashdod (population of over 200,000), Ashkelon (population of 113,000), Gan Yavne (population of 19,000) and the Eshkol Regional Council, causing light to moderate injuries to at least three people and damaging several buildings, including a school.

10:50pm - IAF aircraft targeted a terrorist squad in the northern Gaza strip that was preparing to launch rockets at Israeli communities. Additionally IAF aircraft targeted two armed rocket launchers in the southern Gaza Strip. Hits were confirmed.
10:15pm - IAF aircraft target a terrorist preparing to launch rockets at Israel in the southern Gaza Strip. Hits were confirmed.
10:10pm - IAF aircraft target terrorist squad responsible for firing rockets at communities in southern Israel. Hits were confirmed.
8:40pm - The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz held a situation assessment in response to the renewed rocket fire from Gaza. The assessment was held with the operational general staff including representatives from the Intelligence Corps, the Southern Command, the Home Front Command, the IAF and the Operations Directorate.
2:15pm - In a joint IDF and the Israel Security Agency, IAF aircraft attacked a cell of terrorists preparing to fire long-range rockets from the southern Gaza Strip. This same terrorist cell was responsible for the rockets fired at the Be'er Tuvia Regional Council last Wednesday. Hits were confirmed and the launching attempt was thwarted.

The Home Front Command instructed the civilians to enter safe rooms for at least ten minutes when an alarm sounds. Additionally, any gathering of over 500 in southern Israel is to be cancelled. Further instructions including school system operation are forthcoming.

The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, and will continue to operate with strength and determination against anyone who uses terror against the State of Israel. The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.

Remarkable Revelations from Mahmoud Abbas (in the "departure lounge"...?)

From Huffington Post, 28 Oct 2011, by AMY TEIBEL:
 

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian president, in a remarkable assessment delivered on Israeli TV, said Friday the Arab world erred in rejecting the United Nations' 1947 plan to partition Palestine into a Palestinian and a Jewish state.

The Palestinian and Arab refusal to accept a U.N. plan to partition the then-British-controlled mandate of Palestine sparked widespread fighting, then Arab military intervention after Israel declared independence the following year. The Arabs lost the war.

"It was our mistake. It was an Arab mistake as a whole..."

Abbas also addressed his negotiations with former Israeli leader Ehud Olmert, now in the spotlight because of the publication of the memoirs of former U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

Rice backs Israel's account that Olmert made a peace offer that was rejected...

Abbas claimed that he and Olmert were "very close" to reaching a peace agreement in 2008, before the Israeli leader left office under the cloud of corruption allegations. ....He confirmed Olmert's account that the Israeli leader was prepared to withdraw from 93.5 percent of the West Bank. ...In her forthcoming book, "No Higher Honor," excerpted in Newsweek this week, Rice claims that the Palestinians rejected Olmert's proposal.

Rice said Olmert proposed in a May 2008 conversation with her to cede about 94 percent of the West Bank, and to share sovereignty over the disputed holy city of Jerusalem and put an international body in charge of its religious shrines.

In its waning days, Rice wrote, the administration of President George W. Bush tried one last time to wrest a peace deal: "To have an Israeli prime minister on record offering those remarkable elements and a Palestinian president accepting them would have pushed the peace process to a new level. Abbas refused."

In their last meeting before Bush left office in December 2008, "The President took Abbas into the Oval Office alone and appealed to him to reconsider. The Palestinian stood firm, and the idea died," Rice wrote.
On Friday, the chief Palestinian negotiator told The Associated Press that the Palestinians had never rejected the Israeli offer.

...In his interview with Channel 2, Abbas acknowledged the Palestinians might not be able to muster the necessary nine votes in the 15-member Security Council to approve the statehood bid...