[(Continued from p.10)]
ask the UN to declare an immediate cease-fire. A stunned Israeli government obeyed the order. From that moment, Kissinger launched a campaign of pressure -- including threats of Soviet military intervention (which he himself had invented) -- to bring about a series of withdrawals that finally landed Israel even beyond the lines at which it had been attacked by Egypt. Golda Meir and defense minister Moshe Dayan (who a year later publicly described how Kissinger had bluffed him) at least had the excuse of the tensions of a war situation and their inability to judge, under pressure, how serious the threats of America's master-manipulator -- Kissinger -- were.No such excuse is available to Sharon for accepting a document made in secret, hostile in purpose, prepared in collusion with some of Israel's worst enemies. In rejecting such cavalier treatment, Sharon would have gained the support and respect of most Americans. Moreover, Israel is now experiencing the most solid Congressional support it has ever had. Instead Israel has been maneuvered into an Oslo-like position. It is Israel that is being called upon to make concessions.
As for the Arabs, who were to start the whole road map process by putting an end to the terror, we are told that Abu Mazen is not strong enough to disarm and dismantle the terror groups. He needs "strengthening." This is exactly what we were told about Arafat at Oslo: He did not have the strength to deal with terrorist groups; so we gave him rifles -- a most valuable contribution to his intifada. Consequently, Israel is being called upon to throw Jews out of settlements and most emphatically to release Palestinian prisoners. Having already released some hundreds, it is now under greater pressure to release more and more (and thus provide manpower for the next intifada). Indeed, Israel's concessions are the only subject under serious discussion.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders declare repeatedly that they have no intention of giving up their arms. They intend, they say, to use them until Israel is destroyed. And Arafat remains in his compound at Ramallah, laughing his head off at the stupid Israelis who are unable to learn, even from 55 years of experience, that the Arabs do not intend to make peace with a living Israel.
Samuel Katz, a member of the high command of the Irgun and of the first Knesset, is the author of Lone Wolf, a two volume biography of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He was instrumental in AFSI's founding. This article appeared in the Internet edition of the Jerusalem Post of August 8.
(Continued from p.2)
William F. Buckley, who said he would rather be ruled by the first few people in the telephone book than by a group of Harvard professors. While it is common to contrast the perpetuation of the Arab refugee crisis with the absorption of almost 36 million other refugees uprooted in the period after World War II, Haifa economics professor Steven Plaut takes us back to the Tories:
"In the American War of Independence, many thousands of Tory Loyalists fled the newborn country as refugees. The American War of Independence was in reality a civil war. The local Tories opposed the creation of the newly declared independent state, sought to remain a part of the greater British Empire, allied themselves with the British forces trying to suppress the new state, participated in 'terrorist' attacks and tried to destroy the American independence movement from within. The Tory refugees fled the 13 colonies to Canada, the Caribbean, and elsewhere because they wished to escape battle zones, feared reprisals, were expelled or simply did not wish to be part of the United States.
"Those Tory refugees were absorbed by the countries to which they fled, mainly Maritime British Canada. They forfeited all the property left behind in the United States. The Patriot leaders opposed any sort of compensation or settlement for them. The most militant opponent of any sort of deal was Benjamin Franklin. They would never be granted any right of return to the territories they had left..
"Imagine that the British Empire had taken the Tory Loyalists who left America, set them up in terrorist training camps along the Canadian border, organized them into murderous legions and death squads, armed them with heavy firepower, bankrolled them, and all the while built up its own armies for the day of reckoning when the Americans would be annihilated and thrown into the sea. Imagine that the British Empire underwent nazification, by which its schoolchildren were taught that the greatest act of patriotism was to murder American children and bomb American schools and meeting houses. Imagine that for decades the British kept the Tory Loyalists who had fled the United states locked up in squalid camps for their public relations value.
"And then imagine that the British Empire announced that it would never agree to recognize the existence of the United States until the Tory Loyalists had been granted the Right of Return. Imagine that the British insisted that until all property, real or imaginary, claimed by those refugees were returned, the anti-American jihad would continue.
"And if you can imagine such a thing, you have the entire story of the Palestinian Right of Return."
(From the Editor continues on p.12)
September 2003 - 11 - Outpost