By Bob Kaufman, , Seattle
In his stirring speech to the Sept. 18 StandWithUs gathering, Rabbi Daniel Gordis criticized American Jewish leaders for their silence on the coming UN vote on Palestinian statehood. The op-eds by Michael Weil and Mervyn Danker in the Sept. 16 JTNews provide ample evidence to support his criticism.
These Jewish leaders promote different paths to achieve what they consider to be a great benefit for Israel, the creation of a state dedicated to her destruction within easy firing range of her major population centers. Let them consider some points raised by Rabbi Gordis.
Abbas has said that the Palestinians have been under “occupation” for 63 years. Do the math. He isn’t talking about the controversial capture of lands in the Six Day War of 1967; he is talking about the creation of Israel in 1948.
He is quoted as saying no Jews will be allowed to live in the territory ceded to the Palestinians, and on top of that he still insists on a “right of return” not only of those who left in the war the Arabs started in 1948, but all of their descendants. This will destroy the Jewish majority needed to keep Israel under Jewish control, making a mockery of the concept of a Jewish state, which he refuses to recognize.
Arab media and school materials have never called for the two-state solution our authors are advocating, but the two-state solution of Arafat, negotiate for as much Israeli land as possible, and then attack what is left and destroy it.
Weil has good Zionist credentials, which gives him “a moral duty to support any people that desires self-determination.” Great, but what if they insist on self-determining themselves on the land of the Jewish people, as they clearly intend? Mr. Weil, there are homeless people in New Orleans that would like to live in your house. How soon can your family evacuate?
We can disagree over who is the rightful owner of the West Bank, but until the entire Muslim world calls off its war against Israel, the Jewish State needs to hold onto as much land as it needs to defend itself.