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Jewish World Review / Oct. 2, 1998 /12 Tishrei, 5759

Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas Land erosion in Israel

THE PICTURE OF ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat flanking President Clinton in the Oval Office makes one wonder what the president promised Netanyahu to get him to agree to the conditional turnover of an additional 13 percent of West Bank land. Why would Netanyahu believe any promise coming from this president, an admitted liar? Getting Netanyahu to believe this lie allows the president to claim a Middle East peace breakthrough in time for the elections and provide him with some impeachment insurance.

Bibi
It does not take a Torah prophet of the caliber of Daniel or Jeremiah to figure out what happens next. Arafat promises to do what he can to stem terrorism. But terrorism has brought him this far, and he and his colleagues in Hamas and other terrorist organizations aren't about to lay down their most effective weapon so close to their often-stated goal of completely annihilating Israel.

Netanyahu has left himself a loophole, but it may be just large enough to put his neck through. He says he'll give up the land provided that agreement can be reached on what the Palestinians will do to dismantle terrorist cells, extradite prisoners, confiscate "excess'' guns and stop inciting citizens with anti-Israel propaganda, speeches and sermons.

Good luck. These have all been effective tools in the Palestine Liberation Organization arsenal. The PLO may say they'll do these things, but they've said they'd do a lot of things. On the rare occasions when they appear to live up to their word, they soon violate it when the West's attention is turned elsewhere. Only Israel is to be held accountable when it fails to sign the form for its own assisted suicide.

Netanyahu says he wants 3 percent of the 13 percent of land to be ceded designated a nature reserve where no Palestinians would be allowed to live. But Israel has promised to allow Palestinians to have their own airport, open an industrial park in Gaza (which could be used for storing or producing weapons) and to allow safe passage for Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza, which might facilitate the movement of forces hostile to Israel.

Arabists in the State Department and throughout the U.S. government are gullible, naive or stupid. They probably believe that Salman Rushdie's "canceled'' fatwa is for real, too. Can a diplomat terminate an Allah-inspired directive to kill "an infidel'' and an enemy of Islam? Rushdie, who thinks he's free, has probably never been in greater danger.

It is the same with Israel. Diplomats will not protect the Jewish people when the next war comes, which some believe will occur shortly after Arafat declares an independent Palestinian state next May.

Writing in the Sept. 25 issue of Ma'ariv, Oded Granot outlines a probable scenario: "The Palestinians have learned their lessons from the tunnel riots. In advance of the big confrontation, which will begin immediately after Arafat declares independence, they will prepare firing positions, anti-tank weapons, communication systems and an effective civil defense system. In Gaza and the West Bank, people understand that a mass civilian uprising -- which police forces will join only in the second stage -- is the most effective way of contending with the IDF's (Israel Defense Force) great clumsiness. And it also looks great on television screens abroad.''

Israel is being squeezed like the Sudetenland before Hitler broke his promise to Neville Chamberlain and launched a war that killed 50 million people, including six million Jews. Chamberlain's deathbed lament was "if only Hitler hadn't lied to me.'' Bill Clinton is playing Neville Chamberlain. Arafat is in the Hitler role. What role will Netanyahu play?

Israel's enemies believe the only good Jews are dead Jews. They know how to play the West for suckers. Get ready for the next war. It's coming as sure as the next broken promise from Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat.

The question is whether Israelis will have enough land left to stand and fight and win for the fifth time.

Up

10/018/98: The race panel: lies in black and white
9/18/98: The Clinton strategy and the Clinton legacy
9/18/98: Stopping him before he sins again
9/15/98: Repenting when the end is near
9/11/98: Faithfully executing: Congress vs. the President
9/10/98: The degrees of separation between Dan Burton and Bill Clinton
9/08/98: Joe Lieberman and the Democrats' conscience
9/04/98: Clinton vs. Reagan and the struggle for power
9/02/98: If only Bubba had been a Boy Scout
8/31/98: Liberal clergy and the Lewinsky affair
8/27/98: Combating the terrorists among us
8/25/98: The president as 'Chicken Little'
8/20/98: That was no apology
8/18/98: Big government's crab grab
8/14/98:Untruths, half-truths and anything but the truth
8/12/98: Lying under oath: past and present impeachable offenses
8/10/98: Endangered species
8/04/98: In search of an unstained president
7/31/98: The UK is ahead of US in one area...
7/28/98: Murder near and far
7/21/98: Telling the truth about
homosexual behavior
7/17/98: One Nation? Indivisible?
7/14/98: Who cares about killing when the 'good times' are rolling?
7/10/98: George W. Bush: a different 'boomer'
7/08/98: My lunch with Roy Rogers
7/06/98: News unfit to print (or broadcast)
6/30/98: Smoke gets in their eyes
6/25/98: Sugar and Spice Girls
6/19/98: William Perry opposed
technology transfers to China
6/19/98: The Clinton hare vs.the Starr tortoise
6/17/98: The President's rocky road to China
6/15/98: Let the children go
6/9/98: Oregon: the new killing fields
6/5/98: Speaking plainly: the cover-up continues
6/2/98: Barry Goldwater: in our hearts
5/28/98:The Speaker's insightful remarks
5/26/98: As bad as it gets
5/25/98:Union dues and don'ts
5/21/98: Connecting those Chinese campaign contribution dots
5/19/98: Clinton on the couch
5/13/98: John Ashcroft: another Jimmy Carter?
5/8/98: Terms of dismemberment
5/5/98: Clinton's tangled Webb
4/30/98: Return of the Jedi
4/28/98: Desparately seeking Susan
4/23/98: RICO's threat to free-speech and expression
4/21/98: Educating children v. preserving an institution
4/19/98: Analyzing the birth of a possible new nation
4/14/98: What's fair about our tax system?
4/10/98: CBS: 'Touched by a perv'
4/8/98: Judge Wright's wrong reasoning on sexual harassment
4/2/98: How about helping American cities before African?
3/31/98:Revenge of the children
3/29/98: The Clinton strategy: delay, deceive, deny, and destroy
3/26/98: Moralist Gary Hart
3/23/98: CNN's century of (liberal) women
3/17/98: Dandy Dan
3/15/98: An imposed 'settlement' settles nothing
3/13/98: David Brock's Turnabout


©1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Inc.