September 20, 2011, 2:27 AM
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Speaking Sunday at the UN's conference of donors to the Palestinian Authority, Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon warned that while Israel supports economic assistance to the PA now, that is liable to change within the week.
As he put it, "Future assistance and cooperation could be severely and irreparably compromised if the Palestinian leadership continues on its path of essentially acting in contravention of all signed agreements which also regulate existing economic relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority."
Ayalon's position is eminently reasonable. Unfortunately, it contradicts utterly the official position of the Government of Israel.
The government's position was transmitted on Friday to the same donor conference that Ayalon was participating in. According to the government document, "Israel calls for ongoing international support for the PA budget and development projects that will contribute to the growth of a vibrant private sector, which will provide the PA an expanded base for generating internal revenue."
Israel's move was reportedly championed by the Defense Ministry and the IDF senior brass, which reportedly adamantly opposes cutting off any aid to the PA, including aid to the US-trained and financed Palestinian army in Judea and Samaria. As The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday, senior Defense Ministry officials argue that an aid cutoff is liable to lead to the PA's collapse and PA employees - which comprise the majority of Palestinian workers - may become violent.
As one Defense Ministry senior official told the paper, "It is important that we retain financial stability, even after their unilateral moves. Stopping money transfers could lead to a financial crisis which could lead to a violent escalation."
In other words, the Defense Ministry argues that if the donor countries stop paying off the Palestinian militias - including the US-trained and funded Palestinian army - then their supposedly moderate forces will turn to the terror business to support themselves.
Aside from being strategically insane, this position bespeaks an unjustifiable unwillingness on the part of the leftist-dominated Defense Ministry to understand the basic nature of the Palestinian cause and what it requires from Israel.
Since the IDF and the Foreign Ministry and the rest of the government bureaucracy embraced the PLO as Israel's "peace partner" 18 years ago, they have been operating on the assumption that the PLO and its spinoffs - Fatah and the PA - are interested in reaching a peace deal with Israel. But this has never been the case.
For the PLO and its spinoffs, the Palestinian conflict has always been and will always be a zero sum game. The goal of the Oslo process, the goal of the PA, of the Palestinian militias, and of the UN bid is one: to strengthen the Palestinians and weaken Israel.
As far as Israel's "peace partner" is concerned, Israel can never concede enough. There is no deal that Israel can ever offer that the Palestinians will ever accept. Even if Israel offered to destroy itself and hand its ruins to the Palestinians, the Palestinians would pocket the concession and then declare war against whatever remnants remain of the defunct Jewish state in order to "liberate" the land from its Jewish "occupiers."
We know this is the case because this is what the Palestinians - led by the PLO/Fatah/PA - did in Gaza after Israel unilaterally surrendered. The last military vehicle had barely cleared the border when the Palestinians torched the synagogues Israel had left standing.
So too, after Ehud Barak essentially offered the Palestinians Israel's head on a platter when he offered them the Temple Mount, they pocketed his offer and began butchering Israelis in a bid to "liberate" the Temple Mount.
The much vaunted Palestinian security forces organized, funded and directed the terror war. And the internationally financed PA budget paid for it.
The reason that the Palestinians are turning to the UN is not because they cannot receive statehood in the framework of a peace deal with Israel. They are going to the UN because they don't want a peace deal with Israel. They want sovereignty and they want to remain at war with Israel.
For 18 years the IDF's top brass has refused to recognize the game that the PLO has been playing since the onset of the fake peace process. Informed by the leftist establishment, the IDF's senior officers vacuously argue that Israel's only option is to strengthen the PA, including its US-trained and funded army.
This appeasement mindset has paralyzed the IDF's ability to develop comprehensive strategies for victory for nearly a generation. And the IDF's leadership clings to appeasement despite the fact that the public has completely rejected it due to its consistent failure.
The basic rule of commonsense policy-making is to be good to your friends and bad to your enemies because then people will want to be your friends and they will not want to be your enemies. The appeasement mindset turns this rule on its head.
As far as the appeasers are concerned, you must be good to your enemies and bad to your friends because your enemies will stop hating you if you're nice to them. As for your friends, they are wrong to be your friends since you have yet to be worthy of friendship since you have not yet appeased your enemies.
By supporting continued foreign aid to the Palestinians in the aftermath of their UN bid the government has adopted a classic appeasement policy. It has told the Palestinians that they will pay no price for their act of aggression. Worse, Israel just told them they will be rewarded. Israel has gone on record saying it cannot manage without the Palestinian governing body that exists to destroy it.
As for Israel's friends, the government just pulled the rug out from under their feet. Cong. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a true friend of Israel. Her bill calling for a cutoff of US aid to the PA and a massive decrease of US aid to the UN in the event the UN upgrades the Palestinians' diplomatic status is one of the most important pieces of pro-Israel legislation to be introduced in the US Congress in a generation.
By announcing it opposes an aid cutoff, Israel undermined Ros-Lehtinen's position. It betrayed its good friend.
No doubt Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman were under great pressure from the IDF and from the Obama administration to call for continued international funding of the PA. But the public didn't elect them with the expectation that they would abandon Israel's national interest and harm its friends just because they feel the heat.
The appeasers claim that Israel wins international approval by being good to its enemies. But 18 years of consistently attacking its friends and praising its foes has brought Israel to the brink of international isolation. We have empowered our foes and demoralized our friends. And now we continue to squander what little diplomatic influence we still have left in a bid to again aid the Palestinians in their continued war against us.
If the government thinks that Ayalon's statement can repair the damage it just caused the country, it should think again. The only way to fix what just happened is for the government to issue a new policy supporting the cutting off of foreign aid to the Palestinians and announcing that Israel will stop transferring tax revenues to them if their status at the UN is upgraded in any way. And Netanyahu should pick up the phone and personally apologize to Ros-Lehtinen for his government's disgraceful behavior.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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"No doubt Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman were under great pressure from the IDF and from the Obama administration to call for continued international funding of the PA."
I never thought I'd live to respect Abbas, but look at the way he's been resisting the pressure
of both USA and Europe to abandon his UN move - and he doesn't even have the support of the Congress that Netanyahu could always take for granted - quite the reverse, in fact, as the Congress is staunchly pro-Israel. Both men have been under pressure, but Netanyahu folds up every time it happens. Several people around have been talking about history that won't give the Jewish people another chance, but one senses they don't really believe it'll come to this. The high-flown rhetoric has never impressed History: perhaps somebody can persuade Netanyahu to concentrate less on talking his eloquent talk and more on walking the walk Mahmoud Abbas is walking so unswervingly.
Remember the story about the 12 spies Moses sent to scout out the land God has promised to Abraham and his descendants for eternity,how the majority, in fact 10 of the spies were fearful cowards who had no faith in God came back with a bad report.
Well ,nothing really ever changes ,same-o,same-o all the time.
We get the 'bad report' everyday from the Israeli media and Government every day as they refuse to keep what God has entrusted to them.
The latest crop of little faithless,cowardly grasshopper Jews don't want believe God or to hold onto what God gave them in 67' so they try every perverted way they can imagine to make sure God's enemies get the land.
They trust in Washington liars more than God and call him a liar by their evil deeds.
I would really,really hate to be in the sandal's,slippers,shoes of this faithless bunch on judgment day when they stand before the One who promised the land of Israel to Abraham,Issac and Jacob in perpetuity.
"And Netanyahu should pick up the phone and personally apologize to Ros-Lehtinen for his government's disgraceful behavior."
I was happy to call Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen to convey my appreciation for her work in the fire.
We Jews are a stubborn people which in the past has worked in our favor, but it seems that we haven't learned from our mistakes. Like recalcitrant children we,led by the Jewish Left lash out at our supporters, people like Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen who have our best interests at heart. Most to blame are the government. There is so much in-fighting that they've lost track of the bigger goal keeping Israel and her Jews safe. It is a very sad state of affairs and I am very frightened for our future.
Caroline's recommendations are the bare minimum necessary that might preserve Israel and western civilization. The cancer has gone so far, I'm not sure if even that would be enough. Time to stop feeding the cancer with the sugar of aid.
Even if all government aid to PA/Hamas were stopped tomorrow, still the west subsidizes Islamists in two ways. First there is prohibition, which guarantees a revenue stream to terrorists, particularly in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Second the west has accepted the nationalization of western company oil infrastructure, which now funds terrorism and the infrastructure of terrorism.
Prohibition should be immediately ended, and drug warriors investigated for possible treason charges. Nationalization of oil infrastructure should be reversed by privatization when possible, by destruction when necessary.
Sooner or later the world will choose between Sharia law and Jus Naturale, and the means necessary and sufficient to achieve either objective.
This story is confirmed in todays Ny times. Netanyahu, in a special meeting with republican lawmakers in august, asked them not block the money to the PA, as it would be used for training police officers. After hearing this request from the Prime minister, the lawmakers agreed to release the 50 million.
So really, why get angry at our enemies when our own Prime Minister is actively supporting them?
The Leftists used to view the Eastern European impoverished Jews with derision for their begging and obsequiousness to their European overlords.
Israel nationally today has become the Jewish beggar on an international level. Those European Jews can look at the arrogant fools in charge today and laugh at them. They never came anywhere near reaching the level of depravity and self destruction of today's misleaders.
Just came across this gem and thought you might be interested.
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/39540 Pat Condell at his best.