| It’s Just Not Working Jim Shipley 4/3/02 We are in a difficult time. Israel mows down Arab houses and trees to open vistas so that snipers cannot target passing traffic. Helicopter Gun Ships and remote bombs target suspected terrorist leaders and succeed in killing them about 90% of the time. And yet the nightly shootings and the suicide bombings go on. In fact, they escalate and become more brutal. So, Israeli teenagers out for an evening or a mother and daughter in their own home die and Israel responds by blowing up empty buildings. It’s just not working. Ariel Sharon who was a brilliant tactician as a colonel and again as a general cannot put together a plan to fight this kind of war. He seems to have no master plan of any kind. Not for the war, not for what might follow. As a military man, he of course has little or no experience in domestic matters, so the country’s economy plunges in free fall only partly due to the Intifada. Something has to change and change quickly. Israel frittered away over thirty years during which they could have built a strong Israeli Arab infrastructure by creating better village living conditions, fostering Arab economy and supporting a leadership among the Israeli Arabs that would have forestalled an incompetent, dangerous animal like Arafat from retaining power. Nature abhors a vacuum and into it stepped the man with the Kaffiayah. His corruption is overt and he makes no attempt to keep it a secret. Hamas and the PFLP operate with total immunity and he makes no attempt to rein them in. That is the reality of today. Two “leaders” who are not leading, simply blustering and creating almost irreparable damage to their people. So, what to do? Many years ago, we had a friend named Leo Isar. He was a Lebanese Christian who had gone back to his country and financed the building of a cement plant in his village in Southern Lebanon. The cement was sold to build homes in both Lebanon and in Northern Israel. This was of course, in pre-PLO Lebanon, to say nothing of pre-Syria/Lebanon. Leo stated on more than one occasion, “if businessmen control the situation, there can be no wars. It is the politicians and the generals who make war. We must control them.” There must be, there has to be scores of decent, honest Palestinian businessmen in the world who bleed for their people. We know that there are scores of Jewish businessmen who bleed for Israel. It is within these communities that the answer lies. Do the politicians in America control their own destiny? Absolutely not. Their constituency and their major donors do. Businessmen and women working in the districts and within the parties create the candidates, finance their campaigns and shape their policies. It takes money and influence and smarts. The fact that a number of idiots get elected is a natural hazard of the game itself. Think of the guy who snared the Coca Cola franchise for the PLA areas of Judea and Samaria. Look what the antics of Arafat have done to his business. Likewise the group that went for wireless franchises or backed small injection molding plants to take contracts for products from Israel. Do you think a few yards of territory one way or the other matter to them? Do you think for a moment that they believe that suicide bombers are good for their business or the future of their children? It is with them that the future must lie. Arafat could not deliver after Oslo because he never intended to deliver. Peace looked like it had a chance so he planned to start yet another Intifada. His hope was that his populace would rise up and make war on Israel. That other Arab nations would join in and that Israel would simply disappear. Of course it did not happen. Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and the others - even Egypt - would just as soon that Israel disappear, but they will not raise a finger to make it happen. Write checks, yes, but nothing beyond that. Do you believe for one moment that a State, given to the Arabs in 1947 and rejected, would make a difference at this time and under present conditions? With a corrupt leadership and no economic viability it would be a ticking time bomb in the region. No. A lot of things must change first. The leaders of both the Palestinians and the Israelis for one thing. Tom Friedman wrote an op ed column in the NY Times suggesting that the 22 Arab states come up with a proposal for Israel to return to its original pre 1967 borders and give up Jerusalem. Then they would recognize Israel, guarantee its sovereignty and all would be well. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia told Friedman: “Gee, I’ve got that plan in my desk. I am going to present it to the Arab States”. Baloney. There is much more to the story. It is well beyond the Arab/Jew thing. It is the fact that a parliamentary democracy has been developed in the middle of a sea of autocracy and dictatorship. And despite all, Israel works. The Israeli economy, coming from a land that is less than 2% of the total region far surpasses every other in the region, the oil sheikdoms not withstanding. The Palestinians need a Ghandi or a Tom Payne or an Attaturk. Israel needs a Begin or a Meir. The Mufti and the Mullahs have to be reined in. Islam will never be what it was. We will not go back to the eleventh Century. People, the plain people must take a hand. It is just not working. Not for Israelis, not for Palestinians. Something, everything has to change. And soon |
The Case Agianst Israel's Enemies by Alan Dershowitz 
Coming from England and particularly from the BBC, MUST BE SEEN VIDEO! ANOTHER MUST SEE VIDEO |