Posted on 08/14/2009 6:56:25 AM PDT by JOHN ADAMS
Israel is the Jewish state. Now there’s a revolutionary proposition. Of course, it’s not revolutionary at all — the UN recognized Israel that way in 1948. The idea of a safe homeland for the Jewish people, in the land of Israel — that’s Zionism. But that idea has been effectively stolen and delegitimized by people peddling fashionable politics.
Z STREET, the new Zionist organization (See? Did you cringe a little at the use of the word Zionist? That’s what we need to fix.) was created to solve this problem.
First, let’s drill down to understand what’s happened.
As the world becomes more hostile to Israel, the Jews hostile to Israel play an increasingly larger role in the public debate.
I don’t call them self-hating Jews; that’s not what they are. I call them self-loving, not-too-Jewy Jews. You know, the self-important intellectuals and the well-moneyed, honey-tongued groupies currently whispering into the eager ears of the White House. They label themselves “pro-peace and pro-Israel.” But they don’t really care about protecting Israel from terrorism and extinction. What they really want is to avoid being embarrassed by Israel — embarrassed by a genuinely Jewish state (how parochial and intolerant!) and embarrassed by Israel doing the hard work of defending itself from terrorists (how brutal!). It’s not nice to win, or at least for Jews to win.
Their way of protecting themselves from that discomfort is by advocating a “peace process” that has never led and will never lead to peace in the Middle East. The same holds true for the non-Jews who call themselves pro-peace but are really just anti-Israel.
There are others who share our view. Scholars write books and articles. Advocates go to Washington attempting to forestall the latest demand by an American administration that Israel give up this particular security measure, or abandon that particular piece of land, or release this particular band of murderers, in the name of “peace.”
Sometimes a pro-Zionist letter to the editor gets printed or a handful of pro-Israel op-eds are published. But the current political fashion of “tolerance” has fooled or shamed too many into opposing the steps needed to create and defend a safe state for the Jews. And most mainstream media are too fashion-conscious to do anything other than dress themselves in the fashionable ideology. Careful explication of the factual and legal reality is a lot less sexy. A principled defense of the entire enterprise — the full-throated advocacy of Zionism, a safe state for the Jewish people in the land of Israel — is about as unfashionable as you can get.
Yes, you can, as some do, explain that Israel does not “occupy” territory, citing the legal requirement that the prior state had sovereignty over the land, which neither the Palestinians nor the Jordanians did. But who remembers that legal fine point the second after they hear or read it? And the obvious fact that the “West Bank” is only west if you are in Jordan doesn’t seem to penetrate. So the entire world condemns Israel for asserting control in parts of Israel — even if legally acquired — including in Jerusalem, and even if Muslims are permitted to live, work, and worship there freely (as of course they are).
How will Z STREET change the terms of the debate? First, we’re proud, not embarrassed, to advocate out loud the first principles of Zionism: Yes, a Jewish state! And second, our approach is devoted to changing the terms of the public debate. Our tools will include humor — more about that in the coming months — straight talk, and physical energy to imprint the facts we believe will make clear who is grounded in the historical, legal and moral side of the debate about Israel and which side is historically, legally and morally committed to peace and which side is not.
In practice, how will Z STREET do this? By firmly asserting our “three No’s”: No compromises. No negotiations. No concessions to terrorists. And we refuse to use the vocabulary of those who have delegitimized and stolen the Zionist idea. Words like “occupation,” “West Bank,” and “settlers” are weapons pointed at the heart of Zionism, not neutral instruments. The sooner people see that, the faster we’ll all attain clarity.
Instead, Z STREET uses accurate words and historical facts currently eschewed for fear of offending: that there never was an actual Palestinian state and Jews have an irrefutable centuries-long religious and historical attachment to Jerusalem while the Arab Palestinians have none. We must say frankly that all Arab Palestinian party leaders — the moderate terrorists in neckties and the nasty ones in kaffiyehs — endorse terrorism. Not nice? What’s not nice – the language or the facts? Until the terms of the debate and the strategy for changing those terms are employed, the world will continue to abuse Israel.
The time is now and Z STREET, using straight talk, physical energy, and humor, is the vehicle to sweep aside years of mind control successfully practiced by the anti-Israel crowd.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the co-founder of Z STREET.
‘Bout time.
You can call me an honorary Zionist. The real thing is in my wife’s family.....
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[Their way of protecting themselves from that discomfort is by advocating a “peace process” that has never led and will never lead to peace in the Middle East. The same holds true for the non-Jews who call themselves pro-peace but are really just anti-Israel.]
Why are left wing liberals always marxists, democrats, ungodly and unholy. Leftists are the pondscum of America.
At least pondscum serve as a food for catfish, leftists are good for nothing liars, thieves, radicals and fools and on good thing has ever come from the left.
Trouble and sorrow is all the left creates.
Word up!
Because they need our help militarily, they will always be in the position of having to do those things they need to protect themselves while not stepping on the toes of the current US administration.
Israel was attacked by the Arabs. Israel was able to push back the attack, but they did not officially win any war. They did not march on Cairo or Damascus or Amman. Because that war was never officially concluded the entire region continues in a twilight zone of tit-for-tat violence.
The practical solution that most people have settled on is to keep kicking the can into the future and tolerate the daily bits of manageable terror. The alternative is to make bold statements (e.g. The Golan Heights is now and forever the property of Israel, etc.) and back them up at the possibility of rekindling the war.
Idealists will never be able to tolerate what is going on in the Middle East right now, but somehow millions of people are able to make a living and live out their lives despite the ongoing random threats to their lives and livelihoods.
As a member of some amorphous group called the "Arab Palestinians" it may very well be true that individual people do not have a rightful claim to particular plots of land. However, as individual landowners they did have claims to individual plots of land.
If you want to gain ownership of a particular plot of land that someone else owns then you need to either pay them for it, or declare war on them and take it forcibly. And you have not won the war until you get that guy to sign a paper saying that he now recognizes your right over it.
Israel was successful in repelling attacks by Arabs, but never continued to the point of getting the Arabs to sue for peace and sign over the rights to the land to Israel. Israel can come up with all of the historical and religious reasons they want to, but there is nothing better for solving disputes like cold hard cash or the business end of a tank.
I am not saying that might makes right, but in cases where there appears to be no consensus now or in the forseeable future, it is either might or ambiguity.
Most people seemed to have settled on strident language over strident action. Unless and until Israel is willing to stake an unshakeable claim over a well-defined border ... and willing to fight for it to the death ... the Middle East will continue to see the low-level guerilla violence that has been there since the creation of the Jewish state.
Saddam, al Qaeda question and the CIA
Pajamas Media | 8-14-09 | Mark Eichenlaub
Posted on 08/14/2009 11:44:30 AM PDT by ikez78
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2316167/posts
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