[(Continued from p.9)]
ers being called criminals because they kill the enemy? That Israeli soldiers might be called upon to return fire? You -- of all people -- know the lessons of the Sudetenland, and how every act of aggression and barbarism in modern times is dressed up in the disguise of "self-determination." You, of all people, should know that even the complete implementation of the Meretz/Ha'aretz/Labor Party's version of Munich will simply be the opening bell for the real Arab war of extermination.And you, of all people, are helping Shimon Peres and the Labor Party impose their fantasies on the Jewish people. If they succeed, the Jewish people will cease to exist.
Is that the result you want to be derived from the Holocaust? Do you really want to be part of that? Do you really prefer the facade of "morality" to Jewish survival? You know that Churchill would have stated that such a delusion will produce the loss of both!
Sincerely yours,
Steven Plaut
Steven Plaut is professsor of economics at Haifa University.
more crucial to discredit a rightwing that has been vindicated by events. And how better to discredit it than by employing Chamish to manipulate foolish right-wingers? The left-wing media are then able to tar the right as a bunch of kooks who believe in rubbish that the National Inquirer would consider too far-out to publish.
In an extraordinary display of diplomatic courage, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman cited what Czechoslovakia had learned from its experience in World War II, when the allies sought to appease Hitler by giving him the Sudetenland: "You cannot negotiate with terrorists because the single response of terrorists for fulfilling their demands is blackmail -- new demands, nothing more." The only way to deal with terrorists, said Zeman, is to fight them. At the press conference in Jerusalem where he made these remarks, Zeman implicitly criticized Shimon Peres, with whom he had just met. "I wonder whether there is no repetition of this danger of appeasement, the willingness for compromises which leads to cowardice only."
Predictably, the European Union scolded Prime Minister Zeman, its executive body declaring that comparing Arafat to Hitler was "unhelpful" and adding the threat "Such language is not what we expect from a future member state." In case Zeman missed the point, Jean-Cristophe Filori, spokesman for the European Commission, noted that joining the European Union's economic bloc, which Czechoslovakia planned to do in 2004, required a "commitment to EU foreign policy."
We hope the Czech Prime Minister does not back down in the face of the EU's blackmail.
Congratulations to Michael Freund for figuring out Sharon's strategy. Writing in the Jerusalem Post, he points out that the genius of Sharon's plan "lies in its utter simplicity." By deploying helicopters and jet fighters to bomb empty buildings late at night in response to the daily murder of Israeli citizens, "Sharon is slowly but surely reducing the quantity of available office space in Palestinian-controlled cities. Palestinian businessmen will then have little choice but to seek out rentals in safer places, such as in Israel. And so, in one fell swoop, Sharon thinks that he is both sending a message to terror and helping to alleviate the deepening recession in Israel."
Humor aside, Freund zeroes in on Sharon's total failure as Prime Minister. "Thus far, the only thing Sharon has succeeded in doing is demoralizing the people of Israel and turning them into sitting-ducks for Palestinian gunmen and bombers." Sharon has struck against a central Zionist tenet, says Freund. "The State of Israel was founded, among other reasons, to ensure that Jews would no longer be killed with impunity. And yet now, in the very heart of our Land, that is exactly what is occurring. Our enemies strike at us daily, and our government sits by passively, doing little to stop it."
Last February, concludes Freund, "the people of Israel entrusted Sharon with their future and with their lives. He has blundered terribly on both accounts. The last thing Israel needs right now is to go to elections. But we may have little choice. Because if Sharon's government is not brought down soon, it might very well bring down the country instead. And that is why Sharon has got to go."
Shimon Peres, Israel's single greatest contribution to the annals of human folly, continues to offer up pearls. For once, we can report an accurate self-assessment by Peres, this in a February 14 interview with reporter James Bennet in the New York Times: "In politics I am like Alice in the wonderland." Also remarkable, Bennet, instead of surrounding Peres's endlessly recycled stupidities (e.g. "You know romance and peace must be done in twilight") with the respectful sycophancy one would expect from the Times, actually writes that Israel's Nobel Peace Prize winner "has become an object not merely of skepticism but of ridicule."
Unfortunately, as long as he is Foreign Minis-
(Continued on p.11)
Outpost - 10 - March 2002