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Commentary: Appeasement Now Caroline Glick's first line in her column yesterday: "The world has gone mad." She then proceeds to explain the many reasons why this is so. For example: "As the Palestinians push forward with their Iranian-sponsored, Arab supported jihad, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responds by announcing his intention to release thousands of terrorists from prison and throw thousands of Israelis out of their homes while giving their lands to Hamas." Her primary, focus, however, is the involvement of Saudis as the "peace broker" between Israel and the Palestinians. With so much insanity to write about, I confess that, while I was mindful of this issue, I put it on the back burner; I'm grateful to Caroline for bringing it forward. There are reports, she says, that since Olmert met in September with the Saudi Prince Bandar (who served for a long time as Saudi ambassador to the US), he has been considering embracing the "Saudi peace plan" of 2002. The carrot for Olmert is the offer of formal peace with not only Saudi Arabia but with six other Arab nations (Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the Emirates, Morocco and Tunisia). Sounds good, huh? But this plan is an absolute horror. It endorses the "right of return," which would bring up to 4.2 million Palestinian Arabs into Israel, who would then work to destroy us from within. What is more, it would prohibit Arab states from taking in any of these 4.2 million and providing them with citizenship, so that they would be pushed in the direction of Israel. And it would require Israel to relinquish all of East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount), all of Judea-Samaria, and the Golan (thrown in for Syria, for good measure). After all of this was accomplished, then the aforementioned Arab states would establish dealings with Israel -- an Israel weakened, wounded, and on the way to being destroyed. Glick explores the reasons why she thinks Olmert would head in this direction -- he is trying to "spin" the situation so that there seems to be a new "peace effort" that will be applauded by the leftists in Israeli media, who will in turn attempt to block the investigations into his alleged criminal activities (there are several files open on him). Me? I am beyond words. It would be one thing if we were speaking about bribes, or a bit of political "finagling." But the thought that perhaps the prime minister would sell the nation into oblivion to save himself from what? from loss of power, fines, embarrassment, imprisonment. Beyond words. ~~~~~~~~~~ Khaled Abu Toameh reports in today's Post that it is now known that Hamas has smuggled more than $66 million in cash through the Rafah crossing in the last eight months. It was handled over to the PA. In addition, $318 million has come to the Palestinians, channeled through the offices of Abbas, from international sources. This in spite of the presumed economic sanctions in place because of Hamas. What is more, since the breakdown of the talks for a unity gov't in the PA, there has reportedly been contact between Hamas and European officials and US Democratic officials, in a secret location. Hamas is apparently convincing various officials to accept an offer of a hudna in lieu of Hamas recognizing Israel's right to exist. In return for this hudna Hamas would expect a deal that provided a Palestinian state. There are no red lines. What all of this tells us is that if Western gov't officials can't get from Hamas what they insisted they would hold out for, they'll cave and take less. The idea is to "move ahead" on the peace track, or give the illusion thereof. This is now reportedly seen as a possible "solution" to the conflict. Hey! It will seem quiet. The Arabs will be happy. The leaders of the Western world will pat themselves on the back. And, if later, down the road, it all explodes and Israel pays the ultimate price? That's the way it will be. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (do I have a choice here?), I will say it again: a hudna is not a peace treaty, it is not a truce. It is a TEMPORARY cessation to allow for strengthening towards the end of attacking again later. In this instance attack would come after Israel had been weakened by withdrawal from considerable territory. There are no red lines, there is only a nightmare scenario. We cannot trust those who presumably should be supporting us. We cannot trust those who head our own gov't. The only ones we ultimately might trust are the Arabs, who will be true to form -- we perhaps can trust them to blow it. If they continue to shoot those Kassams and launch those attacks, then Olmert will ultimately be forced to respond, and the "ceasefire" he has so diligently defended would come to an end. ~~~~~~~~~~ see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
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