Peace has never been more important for the people of Israel than it is today. Israel has always been in search of peace, but the country was misled by the so-called “peace camp,” which slowly gained a monopoly on the word and put real peace out of reach.
In fact, the “peace camp” is not directly concerned with peace, and it never was. And despite its depleted numbers, it remains the single greatest obstacle to peace that we have.
If the peace camp had been interested in promoting peace, you would think it would have been willing to consider a variety of tactics that could lead to peace. You would think it would have evaluated the conditions that have lead to peace in the past, and would have sought to implement them here.
Instead, the “peace camp” has been obsessed with applying only one strategy for peace – negotiations and withdrawal – and has ignored all the evidence showing that this leads not to peace but to war.
The fact that these groups are unwilling to reconsider this strategy despite all the contrary evidence only shows that peace never was their prime goal in the first place. “Peace” was a good slogan. It attracted to the peace camp many sincere people who did believe in peace. But it was not the goal of the movement. The goal was appeasement.
Peace, history tells us, has never been achieved through appeasement. For example, European and American attempts to appease the pirate states of North Africa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries only led to greater attacks and greater demands for tribute. Only when Thomas Jefferson decided to fight it out with the pirates did peace come to the Mediterranean.
Some things never change. From the Persians to the Romans to the British to the Americans, peace has always come about through the military dominance of an acknowledged superpower. Far from promoting peace, leaving a power vacuum tends to cause wars.
Because peace is such an important goal, we have to use the best methods for pursuing it. This does not mean offering to set up a terrorist state in the center of Israel. It does not mean negotiating with terrorists, offering concessions to terrorists, or even supplying material resources in order to prop up terrorist regimes.
The only way Israel can hope to make peace is by making use of its military power. We have to re-enter the Palestinian cities, re-establish military administration, and completely dismantle any quasi-governmental structures that remain in these areas.
Israel has to re-establish herself as the only military power in the region, and has to supervise the activities of the Palestinian Arabs, rewarding those who cooperate while punishing those who continue in the path of terror. We have to be present where the bombs are being manufactured, and not just present where they are being detonated.
It is true that this will not make us popular. It is also true that the so-called “peace camp” will do everything it can to make sure that peace does not come on these terms. Because the “peace camp” is not interested in peace. But our commitment to peace must take precedence over these concerns. The lives of all of us depend on it.