Posted on 11/20/2007 11:54:02 AM PST by Tolik
I believe it is more like insanity. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It’s a Legacy thing. She hasn’t been responsible for anything of note as Sec. State and has been out of the limelight.
She’ll try to persuade a willing Ohlmert to give away the store in return for empty promises.
How about looking at the time remaining in their Administration and seeing somebody whose goal is to leave the process further along?
It's human nature for any focused person to bear down with a finish line in sight.
And Ms. Rice fits that description.
Eating prunes again, I see.
By Boris Shusteff
There is a story in Greek mythology about a Phrygian peasant named Gordius who very skillfully tied an ox yoke to his chariot. The legend said that the man who could loosen the difficult knot would become a ruler of all Asia. Many people tried but none succeeded. Finally Alexander the Great cut the knot with his sword, and declared that he had fulfilled the prophecy.
The time is long overdue for Israel to cut the Gordian knot of the Oslo agreement. The more the Israeli leaders try to stick to this selfinvented mantra, the more land they transfer to the Palestinian Arabs the more they obfuscate the truth. And the truth is very simple: if Americans have the right to America, Canadians to Canada, and Australians to Australia, then the Jews have a hundred times more rights to Palestine.
For almost two thousand years Palestine and the Jews were inseparable in the minds of civilized mankind. Palestine, or, as it was called before, Judea, was known to everybody as the land of the Jews. Lord Lindsay wrote in Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land, published in London in 1847 that, "the Jewish race may once more obtain possession of their native land The soil of Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children."
American President John Adams confessed in a letter to Mordechai Noah in 1818: "I really wish the Jews in Judea an independent nation." Abraham Lincoln said in 1863 during his meeting with Canadian Christian Zionist Henry Monk that, "Restoring the Jews to their homeland is a noble dream shared by many Americans." Benjamin Harrison, yet another American President, wrote in 1891 that, "It is impossible for one who has studied all the services of the Hebrew people to avoid the faith that they will one day be restored to their historic national home."
The two millennia of continued Jewish presence in Palestine amidst ruthlessness, discrimination, persecution and massacres have no equal in history. It is this heroic and desperate clinging to the Land that convinced the world community at the beginning of this century to give the mandate to Palestine to Britain in order to facilitate the restoration of the Jewish national home.
Two additional reasons were behind this decision. When, in the year 70 AD the Jews lost their independence, their population in Judea numbered between five and seven million people. In the middle of the nineteenth century according to J. De Haas History of Palestine, the Last Two Thousand Years, the estimated population of the whole of Palestine was between 50,000 and 100,000 people. Thus, the Zionist slogan of the country without the people was not an exaggeration.
Another reason was explained by Sir George Adam Smith who wrote in 1891: "Nor is there any indigenous civilization in Palestine that could take place of the Turkish except that of the Jews who have given to Palestine everything it has ever had of value to the world." The absence of the "indigenous civilization" was confirmed by the prominent Palestinian Arab Professor Rashid Khalidi. In the recently published book Palestinian Identity, he wrote, "So profound a transformation of the sense of self of the Arab population of Palestine, which began during the years immediately before World War I, resulted in the emergence of a Palestinian national identity where a few decades before no such thing had existed."
This "sense of self" was discovered by the Arabs through the Jewish ethos. Khalidi quoted a "remarkable article" written in 1919 by no other than Hajj Amin alHusayni (later to become the Mufti of Jerusalem), who in "an unmistakable reference to Zionism and Palestine argued that the Arabs should take heart from the experience of a people long dispersed and despised, and who had no homeland to call their own, but did not despair and were getting together after their dispersion to regain their glory after twenty centuries of oppression."
Thus, not just the Europeans and Americans, but the Arabs too were well aware of the unique Jewish ties with Palestine. This is why there were no objections on their part when the Jews were called the "Palestinian settlers," the Jewish newspaper was called "The Palestine Post" and the Jewish symphonic orchestra was called the "Palestinian orchestra." The Arabs were the Arabs, and the Jews were the Palestinians. Because of another well known truth, it is outrageous to actually say that the Jews occupied Palestine. The tiny sliver of territory including the lands of Judea, Samaria and Gaza constitutes only slightly more than 20% of historic Palestine.
For an unbiased view of history it is important to look at events at the time when they were not yet marred by political considerations. Nothing can serve this purpose better than browsing through the pages of old books. The book "The Forgotten Ally" written by Pierre Van Paassen, a Dutch born newspaper correspondent, belongs to this category. It was written in 1943 and published by the Dial Press in New York. The author, who came from a family with a long line of Protestant clergymen on both sides, wrote this book at a time when Israel did not exist. To the contrary, the Jewish people was on the brink of extinction. For this reason, the facts presented in this book deserve even greater attention.
One episode is especially relevant to our theme. In spring of 1927 Van Paassen visited the retired French General Sarrail, who prior to his retirement served as a High Commissioner in Syria. Explaining why it was necessary for Britain to elevate Emir Abdullah "to the throne in a country that was arbitrarily detached from Palestine," General Sarrail said:
"That is the significance of making him Emir of TransJordan. Some day the Arabs in TransJordan and Palestine will clamor for a reunion, or be made to clamor for it, which amounts to the same thing. The two countries, now separated arbitrarily, do in fact belong together. They are both Palestine. It is merely that Jordan divides the country into two parts. When the British Colonial Office thinks they are ripe for reunion, it will set the Arabs yearning for reunion. Their separation will be made unbearable."
The seventy two years that have passed since Sarrails prediction have not changed the facts. Palestine is not occupied by the Jews. It is occupied by the Arabs. Almost 80% of Palestine belongs to the Arabs while the Jews are huddling together on a tiny piece of land that they have miraculously managed to preserve. It is not the Jews but the Arabs that usurped Palestine. As it was during the darkest time in their history the Jews are not permitted to live in four fifths of their historic homeland. Every new transfer of land to the Palestinian Authority makes this forbidden territory bigger.
The Arabs are well on their way to making Sarrails prediction come true. The civilized world the British Colonial Office of our days encourages the "Arabs yearning for reunion." If another Arab state is created in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, then, very soon, the Arabs of this new state, the Israeli Arabs, and the Arabs of Jordan "will clamor for a reunion."
As General Sarrail warned: "What can the Jews say if and when the Arabs of the two countries want to reunite? What argument can they have if England demonstrates to the whole world that the Arab claims are legitimate and that if they don't give in to these aspirations there will be trouble?"
The Gordian knot tied around the neck of the Jewish state strangles its more and more. One cannot untie it. The only way to prevent complete suffocation is by cutting the knot. This can only be done through the abrogation of the Oslo agreement and immediate annexation of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. If one says that nobody expects from Israel these kinds of actions then they should be reminded that the expression cutting the Gordian knot means solving a difficult problem in an unexpected way. [1/14/99]
NOTES
1.Quotes by Lord Lindsay, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin
Harrison are from Eliyahu Tal's book "Whose Jerusalem?"
2. Quote by Adam Smith is from S. Katz's book "Battleground"
==============
Boris Shusteff is an engineer in upstate New York. He is also a research associate with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.
“Lets recall: The objective laid out by President Bush, when he decided in June 2002 to support the creation of a homeland for the Palestinian people, was to provide a stable, secure neighbor for Israel, committed to leaving[sic] peaceably with the Jewish State.”
Who is the editor, proofreader or idiot copyboy who let this go to press as leaving rather than living?
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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While I don't agree with the author about annexing the West Bank, only those populated and strategic areas, and Gaza is gone, the article in post 9, written in 1999, makes the point that the peace process is and always has been an Arab fraud.
My biggest disappointment with Ms. Rice is that I actually used to like her, and most importantly - respected her. I can’t comprehend how somebody so smart can be so stupid.
When we have the same complete mutual incomprehension with the Left - like we are living in the parallel universes - I accept that. Our assumptions and way of thinking are so different. They also think that we are crazy. Its OK. With Rice, it should not have happened because she was on our side (somehow, somewhere). Now, if she indeed thinks the way we see it, she flipped into the Utopian leftism that gladly deludes itself with progressive thinking that is practically removed from reality. How did that happen?
When ego trumps reality.
Mid-East “legacy” for Condi ping!
My most hilarious spell-checker goof was in the work instruction for the warehouse employees to call them whorehouse employees. I caught it myself in the first reading, before distributing, but could not stop laughing.
It seems many FReepers are angry with the direction this Administration has governed.
The forum...it's become more partisan IMO. There was a day in here when acute criticism of this President wasn't condoned.
I am not quite sure what exactly was not clear. Reading your posts I know we are generally on the same page. let me know, please, if I am off base in the following.
Regardless of the criticism of the Administration and Bush personally from the right, we all basically speak the same language. Conservatives, Republicans can argue and understand the argument even when angry at each other.
When we argue with the Left, on many occasions we like speaking different languages. For example, I can’t understand an argument that we need to try again to deal with people who said openly and proved in action that they don’t want to deal with us. For me its insanity. For the Left its diplomacy.
Bush initial handling of the Arafat and Palestinians was in “our language”: demanding accountability for the actions. What happened to that, and why Rice requires no accountability from one side of the divide now - is the subject of my disappointment.
I understand that most of the above is gross simplification, but anyway. Have I clarified the issue?
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