| August 19, 2005
- "The armed struggle is the only strategy that
Hamas possesses…As long as Palestinian lands remain under occupation, Hamas
won't lay down its weapons." – Khaled Mashaal,
leader of the terrorist organization Hamas.
"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
– Dean Wormer, Animal House (1978)
The world has been witness to an
extraordinary, emotional event: the Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip.
This political gamble by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon marks
substantive forward movement on the Road Map for Peace in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question now is whether the Palestinian
militants – and in a more complete sense the entire Arab World – have the
wherewithal to understand that this is an opportunity to exist on this
planet peacefully with others or whether they want to continue their march
toward oblivion.
It is time for the Arab world – and
those who identify with it – to start living in the land of reality.
Israel isn’t going to cease to exist. No
matter how many suicide bombers Hamas, al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, Hezbollah or
any of the myriad racist, anti-Semitic terrorist organizations send to kill
innocent Israeli women and children, Israel will remain. Israel has survived
the invasion of armies sanctioned by the Arab League and gained territory in
spite of the waging of war by Arab nations. Israelis have not been persuaded
to "disband” their nation even as anti-Semite barbarians spew their
hate-speech calling Jews the descendents of pigs, even as their "civilized”
brethren decapitate other innocents in the name of religion across the
broader Middle East.
Israel has literally won every major
conflict it has ever had with the Arab world.
The fact Ariel Sharon has demonstrated
that he, even in the face of political suicide, intends to keep his part of
the bargain where the Road Map for Peace is concerned, is telling. But more
than being just a simple action of sincere resolve it presents an
opportunity for the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world to
demonstrate they can do the same.
Palestinians and the larger Arab world
must match Sharon’s move by making sure terrorist organizations such as
Hamas and Hezbollah cease their thirsting for Israeli and Christian blood.
They must seek to terminate the apocalyptic rhetoric used by their fanatical
religious leaders against Jews and the West. They must embrace a moment in
time that would see them leave the barbarism of the past behind in deference
for the hope the future affords. It is through actions, not rhetoric, that
true peace will be attained.
But, if the Palestinians and the Arab
world ignore this opportunity by viewing the sincere and generous gesture of
the Israeli pull-out of Gaza as a victory won by acts of terror, who could
blame the world community if it chooses to say that it has had enough of
them and their methods? Why shouldn’t the world community as a whole condemn
their intractability and insistence on the status quo?
I don’t believe that I am going out on a
limb when I say that the peace loving people of the world have grown tired
of listening to the Arab street justify terrorism and murder. We have grown
tired of their barbarity. We have grown tired of their apathy. It is long
past time for the Arab world to condemn terrorism, anti-Semitism and their
religion’s bloodlust for world domination. If Arab nations want to sit at
the world table as equals then it is time for them to embrace the
responsibilities of humanity.
It is a crime against humanity to
encourage suicide bombers, in the name of religion, to strap on pounds of
C-4 in order to murder innocent women and children on buses especially when
their justification is retaliation for a war lost 38 years ago.
It is a crime against humanity to kidnap
aid workers, in the name of religion, only to torture them by exploiting
their terror in front of a video camera in the final moments before their
heads are sawed off.
It is a crime against humanity to stone
women to death, in the name of tribal honor, because she smiled at a male
stranger or went to the market unaccompanied by a male family member or wore
clothes that some backward-thinking cave dweller believed scarred his honor.
This situation presented on behalf of
the Israeli people – and peace-loving people all over the world – is a
chance for the Arab world to save face. It is an opportunity to end the
savagery ingrained in their society, end the terrorism and offer their
people a future that isn’t mired in poverty, ignorance and butchery. It is
an opportunity to correct centuries worth of wrongs.
The peace-loving people of the world
must hope that the Palestinians and the Arab world recognize this moment and
pray that they choose the path to peace. But if they fail to capitalize upon
this historic opportunity, instead continuing the psychotic crusade they
have waged for centuries, we should be prepared to rectify the problem once
and for all.
Related Reading:
Hamas: Armed
struggle is sole strategy
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124245482858
Mashaal: Pullout is
beginning of the end for Israel
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124245484297
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