Jerusalem Cloakroom #166

Land for Peace (L-f-P) – A Politically Incorrect Examination

by Yoram Ettinger
yoramtex@netvision.net.il

August 30, 2004

1. Israel constitutes 0.2% (11,000 sqm) of the Arab League members (5.56MN sqm), which are 150% and 130% larger than the US and Europe respectively (and that does not include the 643,800 sqm of Iran). The L-f-P formula assumes that Israel should concede its scarcest asset – territory – while the Arabs are expected to accord Israel that which they have not shared with one another since the 7th century – compliance and peaceful co-existence.
    

2. L-f-P assumes that – while located in the most conflict-ridden, violent, unpredictable region of the world – Israel should cede its most security-significant real estate to its sworn enemies, who have yet to establish inter-Arab comprehensive peace and compliance with agreements.
    

3. L-f-P has ignored Mideast reality: The only possible (inter-Arab) peace is based on DETERRENCE, which is severely undermined when belligerence is rewarded by territory. The Mideast defines L-f-P (e.g. “Disengagement”) as “loss of national respect”, “cave-in”, “battle-fatigue”, “cut&run”. L-f-P has convinced the Arabs/Palestinians that they can get away with murder.
    

4. Post-WW2 L-f-P forced belligerent Germany to cede land to its intended victim-nations, which then agreed to conclude peace with Germany, thus bolstering moderate Germans. Forcing an intended-victim (Israel) to concede land to aggressors (Arabs/Palestinians), rewards extremists and fuels violence. Forcing L-f-P upon Czechoslovakia set the stage for WW2. A logical, moral, strategic application of the rarely-employed L-f-P formula would force the Arabs to cede land to Israel, which would then reciprocate with peace.
    

5. L-f-P falsely assumes that the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict is TERRITORIAL in nature, while the Arab/Palestinian war on the Jewish state has been EXISTENTIAL. L-f-P has ignored the annihilationist nature of official/mainstream anti-Israel (K-12) education, clergy and media in the PA and Arab countries, which is the most authentic reflection of ideology and long-term goals.
    

6. L-f-P falsely assumes that Arab/Palestinian terrorism is driven by deprivation/despair, while the post-1993 terrorism has been driven by HOPE for a Jewish collapse. It was ignited when Israel gave hope to the PLO, snatching Palestinian terrorists from oblivion in terrorist camps in Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria and Tunisia, providing them with land and guns, tolerating hate-education and the manufacturing and smuggling of explosives and weaponry.
    

7. L-f-P is based on a FALSE PARITY: Full territorial concession by Israel in return for full peace. Would that mean that when the Palestinians – once again – violate agreements, Israel would be allowed to retrieve territory?!
    

8. The 1922 L-f-P (ceding to the Hashemites 77% of the Balfour Declaration Jewish Homeland) produced exacerbated anti-Jewish terrorism. The 1947 L-f-P UN Partition Plan (chopping 20% from the designated Jewish state) triggered the 1948/9 War. The 1949 L-f-P (Israeli withdrawal from parts of Sinai, Judea & Samaria and So. Lebanon) and the 1957 L-f-P (ceding the entire Sinai, 3 times larger than Israel) set the stage for the 1956 and 1967 Wars. The 1979 L-f-P (withdrawal from the whole of Sinai) yielded a peace treaty with Egypt, which still conducts official anti-Jewish/Israel hate-education, facilitates Palestinian terrorism, incites against Israel at the UN and prepares its military to overwhelm Israel. The 1993/4 L-f-P (Gaza and 40% of Judea & Samaria) has produced the world’s largest terrorist base.
    

9. L-f-P ignores the most critical feature of nationalism: CRADLE OF HISTORY is the essence of national liberty, history, memory, experience. It is the prerequisite for national preservation, the cement which overcomes domestic frictions, superior to any national goals (peace, prosperity, etc.). Rarely would nations agree to cede land to aggressors; never would nations contemplate a giveaway of their cradle of history, lest they lose their future.
    

10. L-f-P calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. It would undermine vital US values and interests, constituting a lethal threat to Jordan, which has the largest Palestinian community in the world (70% of its population and 80% of Amman) and controls 75% of British Mandate Palestine. Wouldn’t that amount to the establishment of a second Palestinian state at the expense of the only Jewish state?!