Posted on 07/27/2002 11:42:23 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Wanted: A civil war
Ask the average Israeli or Palestinian, for that matter what is the single most depressing, most frightening aspect of the horrible state of affairs in which we are currently enmeshed, and he will tell you: It is not the violence, not the incitement, not even the fear of opening the daily newspaper that scares him the most.
It is the absolute hopelessness of the whole mess, the utter lack of a reasonable solution to the conflict, that is so traumatizing.
Other than a handful of pie-in-the-sky dreamers such as Shimon Peres, who cannot bring himself to admit that his "New Middle East" is nothing more than the same old quagmire no one has been able to come up with any plan that can even remotely pass for a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
But a solution does exist, one that could lead to a new beginning, a permanent peace, a better future. It is called civil war.
In order for the Palestinians to change direction from eternal conflict to compromise and coexistence, those who demand that Israel must be eliminated need to be purged.
That means: stripped of their weapons; denied free movement and free expression of hate. Arrested. Jailed. Stopped in their tracks by any means possible, including the use of deadly force.
For that to happen, there must be a civil war.
The terror-loving, terror-perpetrating extremist element must be confronted and conquered by those Palestinians who want a state based on law and order, one that openly accepts a Jewish nation at its side.
This was the original thinking of Yitzhak Rabin, who made no secret of his hope that an armed Palestinian Authority would move quickly to suppress any and all opposition to its rule, regardless of the methods employed.
Rabin envisioned a quick, brutal strike against groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, one akin to Hafez Assad's massacre of political foes in Hama and Iraqi's bloody suppression of Kurdish insurgents.
But Arafat and his cronies refused to take action against the extremists.
And on the rare exceptions when they did such as when they surrounded Sheikh Yassin's home, placing him under house arrest they quickly backed off when "the street" demanded that the rejectionists be held above the law.
And so the monster of terror grew fatter, stronger and bolder with each passing day, until they controlled public opinion and dictated the agenda.
Now nothing less than all-out civil war will excise the cancer infecting the Palestinian body politic.
CIVIL WARS are generally horrific exercises in bloodletting, with rival factions vying for power, leaving their countries ravaged for generations to come (witness Algeria, Lebanon, et al).
But there are also civil wars fought for more noble purposes, to purge a deviant enemy within and determine a nation's future course.
The most famous example, of course, is the American Civil War. It was, by all accounts, a horrendous cyclone of suffering and sadness that pitted brother against brother, resulting in more than 600,000 dead and over a million wounded. It may have been Blue vs. Grey, but the operative color was Red.
And yet, the War Between the States ultimately united the nation, established a firm direction for America and led to a steady increase in its power and prestige. The United States became, in short order, the leader of its hemisphere, and then the leader of the entire world.
Abraham Lincoln framed his conviction to engage in civil war in 1858, when he declared: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."
When the war finally came to an end at Appomatox in 1865, Honest Abe who would soon be assassinated by a vengeful Southern actor reflected on the war and his firm belief that it had to be fought:
"All dreaded civil war; all sought to avert it," he said. "Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish."
Arafat and the PA have on numerous occasions rationalized their continuing refusal to curb terrorism on the grounds that "it would create a civil war in Palestine."
Unfortunately, that is the precise cure for the havoc that surrounds us.
The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana.
FReegards,
Slings and Arrows
They themselves have said "there are no civilians," in an attempt to justify murder of innocents.
Very well. No civilians. Therefore you get 1000-pound bombs on buildings in which a terrorist leader has surrounded himself with human shields.
The palestinians have defined the terms of the conflict.
The only workable solution: transfer of all "palestinians" to Jordan, and a tightly-sealed border to prevent their return.
--Boris
Wishful thinking, imo. The 5% who want peace do not have the abilitiy to conquer the 95% who don't.
LOL, objective source.
None of Israel's Arab neighbors want the Palies, most especially the Jordanians. Not that I disagree with the essence of your statement. But the only way they will be forced to take them is at gunpoint.
Unfortunately, the Jerusalem Post is reading revisionist history.
Lincoln used the excuse of ending slavery as a propaganda technique. If that be true, the USA is the only nation on earth to settle the slavery issue with war. Everyone else settle it at a negotiating table.
And if Lincoln had packaged his method of ending slavery into a 'global vision', the body count would have been staggering.
Lincoln's real agenda was to establish a federalism which would deny the states their Constitutional rights. What we have in Washington, DC today is a direct result of Lincoln and his communist friends.
Yes but unlike Israel Assad kept his enemies down once he had them on the ground. Israel keeps slapping the terrorists down then pulling back and letting them rebuild.
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