Israel is Falling into a Trap

by Benny Katzover

We are headed for peace talks again, with Israel insisting on no preconditions. Why, then, is Israel paying a fee again, using the terrible currency of freeing Palestinian murderers and making diplomatic concessions before the talks have even begun (if the media reports are true)?

Palestinian murderers may not be released prior to the first meeting of the two delegations, but it seems that they certainly will be released at some point down the line. And thus, regardless of how the talks progress, we will once again be the only country in the world where the worst possible crime -- murder -- becomes less offensive when the victims are Jews. Wasn't the State of Israel supposed to be a safe haven for the Jewish people? We have now become a state that scoffs at the law, the Shin Bet security agency, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police. 

Is it true that the government does not plan to impose a moratorium on settlement construction? Why, then, have there been nearly no new construction tenders issued since the current government was sworn in -- not in Samaria, not in Judea and not even in Jerusalem? 

Is it true that Israel will not make any diplomatic concessions? The prime minister stood as steady as a rock and declared "we will not agree to hold talks on the basis of 1967 borders." But could the Palestinians really have agreed to return to the negotiating table without an American guarantee that this issue would be discussed? 

And worst of all is the fact that the prime minister is starting to adopt the terminology of the Israeli Left -- which he once rejected with disgust -- stating that Israel's strategic goal is to prevent a binational state. If this is his way of adopting the view that Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria undermines key Israeli interests, then he has lost sight of the Jewish character of this country. This approach means that the 400,000 Jews currently living in Judea and Samaria, or at least the 150,000 who live outside the large settlement blocs, will be forced to leave their homes. Could we be the only country in the world where our sons and pioneers are driven out rather than our enemies? A county whose leaders are willing to hand over the heart of the nation -- in both the geographical and emotional sense -- to those who consistently teach their children that "Palestine stretches from the sea to the Jordan River?"

One can only hope that these talks will amount to nothing. But the very existence of the talks, including the understandings that precede them, puts Israel deeper into a trap and serves to increase diplomatic pressure on us rather than easing it. And even worse, it casts doubt on our justifiable right to the heart of our land, even among the Israeli public, and especially among Israel's youth, now that the secular schools have abandoned any effort to educate the students to feel a strong, natural connection to their land. 

I will take a risk and say that the core principle that links the desire to "preserve the Jewish character of the state" and the willingness to vacate the heart of the Jewish state is starting to erode.

Benny Katzover is chairman of the Samaria Residents' Council.

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=5079

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.