Facing Unpleasant Facts in the Middle East
Steven Plaut
1/5/2003

Editors Note: I have not included all Steve Plaut's items and have rearranged them.

  The world is now well into the Post-Oslo era, in which the delusions and denials of reality that were the foundations of the "Oslo peace process" are at last being acknowledged for what they were. For those returning to the planet Earth from Fantasyland in the "Oslo" parallel universe, it behooves them and us all to bear in mind some of the unpleasant facts of life about the Middle East.

The Best Treated Arabs in the Middle East Are:

14. The only Arabs in the Middle East with any semblance of civil rights are those who live under Israeli rule.

15. Israeli Arabs are the best-treated minority in the Middle East and are treated far better than are Arabs living in Arab states. If the intifada "uprising" were in fact a product of oppression and mistreatment of Arabs by a government, then Israel should be the only country in the Middle East that does NOT have an intifada.

21. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does NOT deal with Islamist terror through wholesale massacres of the people in whose midst the terrorists operate.

19. Israeli assassination of Palestinian terrorists is in fact a substitute for retaliation in kind against the Palestinians for bombings of Israeli children and other civilians. The alternative to such assassinations is bombings of Palestinian civilians.

Only R&D can Stop the Bloodshed

1. The Arab world has never come to terms with Israel's existence within ANY set of borders whatsoever and is still seeking the destruction of Israel and its population.

23. Palestinians endorse terrorism and violence against Jews by near-universal majorities.

24. Israeli Arabs endorse terror and violence against Jews by large majorities. They also support bin Laden and the Hezbollah.

17. There exists no set of concessions by Israel that would result in the Arab states coming to terms with Israel's existence. (Editor's note: Perhaps mass conversion to Islam might result in Arab states coming to terms with Israel's existence but even that is unlikely)

7. The instability of the Middle East is not caused by Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands but by PLO occupation of Israeli lands.

29. Asking Arafat to arrest the terrorists is a bit like asking Osama bin Laden to arrest those responsible for September 11.

10. Palestinians are Arabs. The Arabs already rule 22 states. There is no reason why they should be entitled to a 23rd, and creation of such a 23rd Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza will escalate Middle East violence and world terrorism.

16. Oslo has radicalized and Nazified most Israeli Arabs, who now identify with and openly support Arab parties and politicians who call openly for violence against Jews and the destruction of Israel.

30. Peace cannot be achieved through pretending that war does not exist.

33. The only peaceful terrorist is a dead terrorist.

4. There is no alternative that will stop the bloodshed and war in the Middle East other than the adoption by Israel of an unambiguous policy of R&D, that is, of Re-Occupation and Denazification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Every other alternative proposal for stabilization and pacification is delusional.

5. Denazification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip must be based partly on the programs of Denazification imposed on Germany and Japan by the Allies after World War II, but in part must be different. Such Denazification policies will have to stay in place for decades. There is no other way in which Israel can prevent the daily massacre of its civilians by the Palestinian terrorists.