Thus Peres stops at nothing, repeatedly stretching the boundaries of the presidency—from a mere ceremonial position to a very politically active and engaged President overstepping the Prime Minister’s authority.
A Nobel Prize winner for his peace efforts, he is most known for the Oslo Accords with Israel’s enemies. More than two decades have passed, and peace is still a mirage in the scorching hot Middle East. But Peres does not stop. Ignoring reality, he pushes onward, refusing to accept defeat.
And defeat it is, by an enemy who never wanted peace and was just pursuing an agenda of weakening the other side, taking what is given, and then demanding more.
Not only a miserable performance, Peres’s actions are a clear dereliction of duty. By going with the “President of Palestine” to the Vatican to pray with the Pope for peace, he essentially elevated a figment of Arafat’s imagination to reality: One president recognizing another; Israel’s president acknowledging there is a “Palestine.”
Despite his noble motives and unending devotion, Peres has failed the Jewish People. His tombstone will read: Tried repeatedly, naively, and wasted the great heights he had achieved.
I am not surprised, for I remember Peres always behind another great leader. There are many leaders etched in my memory, including David Ben Gurion, Yigal Alon, Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzchak Shamir, Arik Sharon and others, but Peres was never --at least not in my mind’s eye growing up -- a leader on his own merits.
Three Israeli boys are missing, likely kidnapped by our enemies. Two are aged 16 and one 19. Within 24 hours after they disappeared on the way home, President Peres called their families, and told them:
“I know that these are difficult days for you. We are one nation. We are one family. And I want you to know that all of Israel is with you during these difficult times.”
The President of Israel continued:
“All the branches of Israel’s security forces are doing everything to bring our dear boys home. You are exhibiting strength of spirit. I stand with you during this difficult time. The people of Israel are praying for their safe return.”
So said the President of Israel.
Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi called for increased prayers and lighting of Shabbat candles. The Chassidim stood as one in prayer. Even the main Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) Rabbis called to say a chapter from Psalms. But has secular Israel, one and all, stopped what it was doing to wait for the safe return of the three boys?
Naftali Frankel, Gil-Ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach are sons of “Settlers” in “Occupied West Bank.” To add injury to insult, they are also religious (“Modern Orthodox”), like the majority of the some three hundred thousand Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria. As such, their fate, as gruesome as it may turn to be, is justified—to the irrational—in some convoluted way.
The Stockholm Syndrome
We have befallen into a trap sweeter than honey, where nothing is rational, logic is absent, light becomes darkness and goodness is changed to evil. In short, we find excuses to blame ourselves for whatever the enemy does.
Prof. Alan Dershowitz does not recognize any terror attacks against Jews living outside the 1967 borders in Israel. These simply are never included in his statistics.
Many Israelis boycott any product from “Occupied West Bank.” In Tel Aviv, many will not drink wines from vineyards in that region, and mainstream artists will not travel to cities such as Ariel and its cultural center to perform.
Apparently, the BDS movement is alive and kicking within Israel proper, perpetrated by Israelis.
For many American Jews, if all Israelis returned to the pre-1967 borders (and United and Unified Jerusalem were to be divided), Chamberlain’s vision of “Peace in Our Lifetime” could be achieved.
These American Jews, representing the majority of non-Orthodox Jews in the United States, are as fervent with their cravings as Chamberlain in his historic 1938 pronouncement.
Thus, who really cares about the safe and immediate return of the three kidnapped Israeli youths, possibly the “pro-Israel, pro-Peace” coalition in the USA?
This coalition includes members of the J Street lobby, Americans for Peace Now (APN), Merez, Amenu, New Israel Fund and several other left-of-center organizations.
They are usually the quickest to react when there is a sliver of chance to attack Israel. For them, everything Israel does is wrong, detrimental to the peace efforts and to Israel’s well being. They alone know what is good for Israel, and they are actively pursuing the current US Administration (which is not sympathetic to Israel at all) to pressure Israel for more and more concessions.
I was waiting for my friends at APN to send an urgent dispatch, but realizing that words are cheap and plentiful, I expect instead some action from them.
Alas, the operation by the Arab-Islamists Heroes was just before the weekend, and as it is summertime, nothing is urgent. Hopefully the three boys will be returned safety (all Israel need do is free thousands of murderers and terrorists and make numerous painful concessions).
A Guided Tour by Peace Now
Some six years ago Hagit Ofran, Settlement Watch Director for Peace Now in Israel, took me on a day’s tour of Occupied West Bank.
We started in Jerusalem, and spent the rest of the day in one of the most impressive tours of Judea and Samaria that I have seen. It was Hagit and I, two educated people, well versed in the so-called “Arab-Israeli Conflict.”
Hagit’s skin color is whiter than mine, and she knows the area as I know Beverly Hills. She travels freely into Arab cities in areas she knows her doing so is breaking Israeli law, and she takes Arabs in her car, likely breaking some other laws and endangering Israelis.
She drives into Israeli-Jewish communities and is not stopped, as she looks “like one of us,” and then takes photos and drafts up reports that immediately circulate universally about another single family home popping up, a balcony added to a condo, another new neighborhood of six houses or some other so-called evildoing by Israel.
One of the more amazing moments was when she stopped to take pictures of a military installation. I asked my hostess and tour guide, “Is that legal?” For in my time, it was strictly prohibited.
Apparently, anything is allowed in Hagit’s mind. (Incidentally, the laws have not changed.)
Would Hagit the-warrior-for-our-enemies’-rights do anything for three kidnapped young Israelis, whose only sin is being a Jew in Judea and Samaria? A gesture that might prove she is humanely concerned about her own people?
Clearly not! These are the sons of those she maligns most. These are the culprits who sprayed her building cursing her (“Price Tag attacks”). Nobility of spirit will not be found here!
Hagit took me on the tour as her boss at that time, Yariv Oppenheimer, told her to do so, not of a real concern to the Jewish State of Israel or fairness tackling an issue.
Peace Now is an agent of foreign influence and interference, masquerading as a pro-Israel, pro-peace entity, when in reality it is fighting Israel from within. Much like Hagit’s gaining unrestricted access to Israeli communities throughout Judea and Samaria because she is mistaken for just “any other Jewish Israeli.” Peace Now is doing as much harm as possible.
The fault? Israel’s. For Peace Now’s budget streams from overseas, from Jews and from foreign governments. As long as Israel does not prohibit such flows of money into Israel, Israel haters will continue their destructive work from within.
Agents of destruction will not lament three abducted Jewish youths. Israelis who truly care about Israel and her long-term survival, would use all their contacts, not waste a moment seeking the three boys.
Hagit stopped her car for a “Palestinian” who told us stories (that became more and more impressive as the drive continued) then opened her wallet to give him money. She is so concerned with our enemies, and already justified anything that she does, that she admitted freely to have helped move people and “things” before, during the Intifada. I dared not even ask what “things.” Again, she is not stopped and looks very innocent.
Mira’s Task
I am still awaiting my friends in Americans for Peace Now and the Coalition Against Israel to show me I am wrong: in deeds, not in words. To prove that contrary to all appearances, they are first and foremost concerned Americans who really care about Israel, or Israelis who are loyal to their country.
But I expect more of another friend, a Jerusalemite for many years, who lost her first husband Oded in the Yom Kippur War. She founded an organization called Machsom Watch, to make sure that Israeli soldiers are not abusive to the population (normally it is the other way around, for anyone who is innocent of hate and terrorism, will undergo the inconveniences of having to stop and even be searched, understanding he or she is helping the fight against terrorism, similar to any one of us going through the useless TSA checks).
She knows what it means to suffer a personal loss, and she has proven before she will rise above political differences to do the right thing.
Mira Hermoni, utilize your contacts. Do not let your eyes close, even if you are tired. Three young men are missing, two of them are sixteen, one is nineteen. They committed no crime, other than being Jews in their homeland.
Mira, you and I recognize we have only one homeland for the Jewish people, in the Land of Israel. We may differ in our approaches and priorities, but we share the same love.
Do your job, for it is your job to protect Israelis first. As President Peres said: “We are One Nation. We are One Family.” I count on you, for you have amazing contacts within the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” crowd who regularly fraternize with our enemies. It was you who arranged the tour for me (one phone call to Yariv, and Hagit was my tour guide for the day).
I know you care, and I know you are true to your word. You must care, for three boys are not guilty of an elusive peace, nor should they be subjugated to the barbaric behavior of our enemies that your friends regularly put on a pedestal (the friends, not the behavior).
The Future?
May Israel wake up and institute a death penalty for terrorists who are convicted in a court of law.
May Israel stop the flow of foreign funds to NGOs masquerading as human-rights organizations that care only about the enemies’ rights, but never Israel’s.
May Israel annex Judea and Samaria, something she should have done decades ago. If we live to see a peace in our lifetime, Israel has shown time and again that she is willing to make very painful concessions. Thus, annexation will not be an obstacle, but a catalyst.
I want to add a few more lines, but I realize that none of these wishes can come true until a war that changes everyone’s frame of reference erupts. It happened in 1939, and six years later, a new reality emerged.
It has to happen in the Middle East, before a New Israel emerges, alongside anyone else who may want to live in peace and prosperity.
Until then, may the three boys not suffer. May their captors not torment them. If the Arab-Islamists who abducted them did so to murder them, may it be swift and painless. If the intention is to keep them as bargaining tools, may the Israeli security forces be successful in finding where they are being held and free them from captivity.
Most realistically, if the murder of the three boys is as gruesome as our enemies usually employ as their “hero’s achievement,” may this be the turning point that will galvanize Israel’s leadership to take actions postponed until now.
Capturing Jews from within Israel must not be left unanswered and unpunished. Not now. Not ever.
