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Israel and Ellen Ratner's Liberalism
By Chuck Morse
Ellen Ratner, the self described liberal political editor for Talkers Magazine and a Fox news analyst, has just returned from Israel and guess what, after the ongoing Arab mass murder campaign against Jews she has come up with a novel solution to the Israel-Arab conflict. In an article carried by World Net Daily, she is calling on Israel to ethnically cleanse all Jews from Judea, Samaria and Gaza, to set up another Arab-Palestinian State in the region between the Jordan River and the 1949-1967 armistice lines, and to "internationalize" Jerusalem, which I suppose means turning the Israeli capital over to the United Nations. Hasn't this already been tried by Ehud Barak and his liberal Israeli coterie? These notions are based on the infantile premise that appeasement will result in peace.
Ratner uses the classically left-wing tactic of moral equivalence when she compares the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Arafat's Al Aksa Brigade to the sole Israeli murderer Baruch Goldstein who machine-gunned 35 innocent people to death in a mosque. Goldstein's infamous actions were unusual, atypical of Israeli behavior, and widely condemned in Israel while the waves of Arab jihadists are celebrated throughout the Arab world and their families are awarded with lifetime pensions. Standard liberal reporting on the Israel-Arab conflict often refers to Arab "civilians" killed by Israel. In actions meant to protect the lives of its citizens, Israel is acting morally when it stops those who are involved in either killing or plotting to kill Jews. Given what its up against, Israel has been amazingly restrained.
Ratner accurately points out that most Arab-Palestinians want security, a good job and a decent standard of living. The truth is that Arabs living in Israel and the disputed territories have been enjoying levels of democracy and prosperity that are superior to most of the rest of the Arab and Islamic world. Israel had virtually withdrawn from the disputed territories by the late 1990's before the attack against Israel. So why the homicidal rage?
I remember the atmosphere amongst Arabs around the time of the Sept. 2000 Camp David meetings between Barak, Clinton and Arafat. Influential Arab commentators such as Hussein Ibish, in the pages of the New York Times, were demanding that Israel allow for millions of Arabs to swarm into Israel. Calls were being made for Israel to evacuate a corridor of land to connect Gaza and the West Bank and for the quick evacuation of Jerusalem. The true agenda, the destruction of Israel, was on full display in those months. The long planned murder campaign was launched shortly after the Camp David meetings.
The Arab populations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and even to a degree in the rest of Israel, have been largely radicalized by Islamic notions of jihad against the infidel, the same notions that caused the destruction of the twin towers in New York, and by modern leftist maxims of victimology. The Arab establishment along with significant segments of the Arab population, having embraced this toxic mix of Islam and leftist ideas, view any retreat by Israel as a weakness and another step toward their great and glorious victory.
It should be remembered that after Barak withdrew Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 1999, a shameful withdrawal conducted with lightning speed leaving Israel's Christian allies in the lurch, this was perceived as a victory by Arabs for the Arab cause. Almost immediately Hizbollah moved into the vacuum and claimed victory. Israel hasn't had a peaceful day since. It should also be noted that every time Israel withdraws troops from any Arab city on the West Bank, a mass murderer, often coming out of the withdrawn city, murders Jews.
Israel has acted in good faith as far back as the 1947 UN division of West Palestine into a Jewish and Arab segment. This was also responded to by a murderous Arab assault. History repeats itself and its lessons should be learned. How many Jewish deaths will it take before liberals like Ellen Ratner understand this?
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