by Yishai Fleisher
No one missed the double entendre of your recent New York Times article title, “Don’t Shoot the Messenger, Israel”, which had the chutzpah to both accuse Israel of a hot head and insinuate an itchy trigger finger. And yet amidst this thinly-veiled smear, you went on to suggest that you had offered Israel an important “message” – that we should rush to seal a Two-State deal – as if either we had never heard of this before or anyone in the region still thought it was a useful idea.
No one in Israel is going to shoot you for your trite and obsolete “message”, but we must shoot down the fallacious and hypocritical assertions of your article. Please allow me to elaborate:
First: Repeating the word “occupation” many times may sway the ignorant, but it is nothing but an outrageous lie. Israel is not in occupation in the West Bank at all. The West Bank – or what we call Judea – is the heart of our ancestral homeland. This was affirmed by the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations, which recognized the historic rights of Jews in Judea. Indeed, because this is our beloved native land, many Jews (400,000 at last count) chose to build their homes and their lives here.
Yet Jews are under attack in Judea, which is why we have deployed our army. If no one ran at Jews brandishing a knife, or mowed down Jews with automatic weapons while they sit in traffic, there would be no need for an army presence, and the “feel” of occupation would disappear. It’s just that simple. Stop threatening the life and limb of Jews, and you’ll stop feeling occupied. Keep denying the Jewish right to live in our ancestral lands and keep savagely attacking us, and it will keep feeling like there is a mighty Jewish army on your neck.
Mr. Ban Ki Moon, it is you who are keeping the Palestinians under an “occupation” of lies because you keep telling them that Jews don’t belong in Judea, and thereby spread the false hope that one day Jews won’t be there. But that is simply not the case. Israel will always be in Judea because, whether you understand it or not, it is at the heart of our identity. Now it is up to local Palestinians to decide: do they want to listen to you and live in denial and strife forever, or accept the truth, and live in peace?
Second: The idea that Jihadism against Israel is the natural result of the “oppression” of the Palestinians is nothing but a false pretext, a masquerade, a ruse. Jihadism is a supremacist form of Islamic ideology that is sweeping the Middle East. It was trying to destroy Israel way before Israel was in the West Bank. Jihad seeks to destroy Yazidis, Copts – and especially – moderate Arabs who don’t share the same rigid world view. The many wars and thousands of attacks against Israel stem from Jihadism which rejects the reality of a Jewish Israel in a Muslim Middle East -or anyone else in a Muslim Middle East, for that matter.
Luckily for the Jihad, they have you to give international credence and political cover to the notion that “No one can deny that the everyday reality of occupation provokes anger and despair, which are major drivers of violence and extremism.” Is it the Israeli occupation which drives the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, and ISIS in Syria and Iraq? Is it the Israeli occupation which brings about Jihadist attacks in Europe? Of course not. Mr. Ban Ki Moon, your assertions to the contrary insult the intelligence of a world which is now feeling the brunt of global Jihad.
