Waiting for peace
Religious Jews are faithful to the concept of the Messiah. Those who think the Messiah has already come and gone have had to concoct a "second coming" to maintain the concept, but after 3,000 years religious Jews are still waiting for the coming of the authentic Messiah (although personally I have given up waiting).
This reminds me of the views of someone I had a discussion with about Israel. He felt, like many liberal-minded people, Jews, non-Jews and some Governments, that if Israel just stopped building settlements in the West Bank, then the prospects for peace would be improved. Someone pointed out that there was no peace before 1967, when Israel did not occupy the West Bank, and there was no peace from then until 1981 when the Israeli Government under PM Begin started supporting the building of Jewish settlements in the territories and their number increased. Then, Israel removed all settlements from Gaza in 2005, and this brought not peace but 8,000 rockets fired on Israeli territory, until the IDF launched Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
Nature and people abhor a vacuum, and with the legal right to live in the whole of the Holy Land (that was the British Mandate) and with time, it is inevitable that Jews will settle in Judea and Samaria. It is no less "manifest destiny" than the American settlers who moved into the plains and established villages and towns usually at the expense of the indigenous Indians. I don't see the US Government bowing to international pressure to return the "occupied lands" to the native Americans.
Actually the presence or absence of settlements makes no difference to the resolution of the Israel-Arab conflict. What really matters is a clear decision on the part of the Palestinians that they are prepared to live in peace with the Jewish State of Israel. When that happens, the issue of settlements could be resolved. But, until then, more and more Jewish settlers will move to Judea and Samaria (an area the size of greater London or Los Angeles), and the probability of a Palestinian State will recede. The Palestinians may think that time is on their side, but it's not. Israel continues to develop and grow and part of that growth will be into the adjacent territories. If the Palestinians really want a State then they must comes to terms with Israel soon, otherwise it will be too late for them. But, there is no sign that they are remotely prepared to do this, they use the settlement issue as a blocking excuse. And if liberal Jews say that that means we'll be fighting them forever, I say too bad, it will be just like waiting for the Messiah. If you can wait for the Messiah for 3,000 years you can wait for the Arabs to decide to make peace with us.
This reminds me of the views of someone I had a discussion with about Israel. He felt, like many liberal-minded people, Jews, non-Jews and some Governments, that if Israel just stopped building settlements in the West Bank, then the prospects for peace would be improved. Someone pointed out that there was no peace before 1967, when Israel did not occupy the West Bank, and there was no peace from then until 1981 when the Israeli Government under PM Begin started supporting the building of Jewish settlements in the territories and their number increased. Then, Israel removed all settlements from Gaza in 2005, and this brought not peace but 8,000 rockets fired on Israeli territory, until the IDF launched Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
Nature and people abhor a vacuum, and with the legal right to live in the whole of the Holy Land (that was the British Mandate) and with time, it is inevitable that Jews will settle in Judea and Samaria. It is no less "manifest destiny" than the American settlers who moved into the plains and established villages and towns usually at the expense of the indigenous Indians. I don't see the US Government bowing to international pressure to return the "occupied lands" to the native Americans.
Actually the presence or absence of settlements makes no difference to the resolution of the Israel-Arab conflict. What really matters is a clear decision on the part of the Palestinians that they are prepared to live in peace with the Jewish State of Israel. When that happens, the issue of settlements could be resolved. But, until then, more and more Jewish settlers will move to Judea and Samaria (an area the size of greater London or Los Angeles), and the probability of a Palestinian State will recede. The Palestinians may think that time is on their side, but it's not. Israel continues to develop and grow and part of that growth will be into the adjacent territories. If the Palestinians really want a State then they must comes to terms with Israel soon, otherwise it will be too late for them. But, there is no sign that they are remotely prepared to do this, they use the settlement issue as a blocking excuse. And if liberal Jews say that that means we'll be fighting them forever, I say too bad, it will be just like waiting for the Messiah. If you can wait for the Messiah for 3,000 years you can wait for the Arabs to decide to make peace with us.
posted by Jack Cohen at 6:48 PM
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