Columnist Roger Cohen from the New York Times is one of many who has painted the late Prime Minister of Israel, Yizhak Rabin, as a hero because he apparently was prepared to give away half of the land of Israel for peace: this despite the fact that Israel had been forced to defend herself from three wars initiated by the Arab countries around her. The Arabs lost in 1948, 1967 and 1973, yet it was expected and continues to be that Israel “return” land for peace, return to the 1967 borders with agreed upon swaps.
Cohen, like too many other pundits, bases the two-state solution on Resolution 181 of 1947 which was Resolution 181 then there would be reason to continue to force a two-state solution. But what we tend to forget or ignore is that the Arabs did not accept the two state solution in 1947 while Israel did and instead went to war and lost. And legally that makes resolution 181 moot. Referring to that resolution as the legal reason for continuing to attack Israel for not giving up more land for peace is specious.
Despite the fact that the initial assumption is false, facts dispute the Rabin mythology that sadly has survived for more than 20 years.
During the signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House Lawn, September 13, 1993, which elevated Rabin into hero status, New York Times‘ reporter Thomas L Friedman wrote “Mr. Rabin just needed a little extra nudge in the back. Mr. Arafat reached out his hand first, and then Mr. Rabin, after a split second of hesitation and with a wan smile on his face, received Mr. Arafat’s hand.”
There was reason for this ambivalence. History records that Rabin was not prepared at any time to give up land, “the settlements” or divide Jerusalem. October 5, 1995, a month and a half before his assassination Rabin stated: “We will not return to the June 4, 1967 lines. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term. He added “We committed ourselves before the Knesset not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth... And first and foremost in our concerns is a united Jerusalem, as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty.”
After his death his daughter Dalia said, “Many people who were close to father told me that on the eve of the murder he considered stopping the Oslo process because of the terror that was running rampant in the streets, and because he felt that Yasser Arafat was not delivering on his promises.” And “Father after all wasn’t a blind man running forward without thought. I don’t rule out the possibility that he was considering a U-turn, doing a reverse on our side. After all he was someone for whom the national security of the state was sacrosanct and above all.”
How did Rabin, a man who clearly stated his ambivalence if not outright opposition to the Oslo Accords, become the poster boy for peace -- the one to whom all refer when making demands of Israel to appease those who call for her death on a daily basis?
Sheikh Ahmad Adwan, a Jordanian Muslim scholar, long ago wrote:
“The Palestinians are the killers of children, the elderly, and women. They attack the Jews and then they use those (children, the elderly, and women) as human shields and hide behind them, without mercy for their children as if they weren’t their own children, in order to tell the public opinion that the Jews intended to kill them. This is exactly what I saw with my own two eyes in the '70s, when they attacked the Jordanian army, which sheltered and protected them. Instead of thanking it (the Jordanian army), they brought their children forward to (face) the Jordanian army, in order to make the world believe that the army kills their children. This is their habit and custom, their viciousness, their having hearts of stones towards their children, and their lying to public opinion, in order to get its support.”
These terrorist tactics continue today. And the Muslim terrorists take great joy in the murder of Jewish mothers and children. Dafna Meir, mother of six and a nurse, was murdered by Murad Bader Abdullah Adias, a teenager taught to hate Jews. He attacked with a knife while she desperately protected her children. His father expressed his pride in his son.Wonder what Cohen would say if this happened next door to him?
Yet the call for land for peace never ends. Shouldn’t the West be more concerned about protecting the only country in the Middle East and North Africa that shares our values than attempting to use it to appease those whose values are diametrically opposed to ours?
Diane Weber Bederman is a blogger for ‘Times of Israel’, a contributor to Convivium, a national magazine about faith in our community, and also writes about family issues and mental illness. She is a multi-faith endorsed hospital trained chaplain.
