A Message to the President at the Ranch
Moral clarity has been the strongest suit of your strong administration. To fudge the difference between the good guys and the bad guys reflects moral relativism, a disease from which you apparently suffer little – except when it comes to houses built for Israelis where you would prefer they not be built.
Moral clarity has been the strongest suit of your strong administration. To fudge the difference between the good guys and the bad guys reflects moral relativism, a disease from which you apparently suffer little – except when it comes to houses built for Israelis where you would prefer they not be built.
Those houses seem to evoke in you and your so-far exceptional Secretary of State an anger comparable to the anger evoked by the acquisition of Strela anti-aircraft missiles by the Palestinian Authority; comparable to the anger evoked by the continuing incitement to Jew-hatred preached in the PA; the anger evoked by Abu Mazen’s delicate handling of Hamas and Islamic Jihad rather than uprooting them as called for by your own Road Map; the anger evoked by the continuing Palestinian demand for the so-called “right of return,” a non-starter in your own words.
How did you come to this antipathy toward houses for Jews? In particular, why do houses built between the cities of Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem upset you so?
It cannot be that you envision that land as part of the future Palestinian State; it will surely be part of the State of Israel for all time. Otherwise Israel would not have “territorial integrity.” And since you have promised the Palestinians territorial integrity, we know you would insist on no less for Israel.
It cannot be that you think houses built east of the 1949 Jordanian-Israeli armistice line are somehow “illegal.” That has never been the position of the U.S. government – an “impediment to peace” occasionally, but not illegal. The land is what remains of the British Mandate that expired on 14 May 1948 as determined by the UN, and was then occupied illegally by Jordan until June 1967. There was never a recognized border because of Arab insistence that there not be one, lest it impart legitimacy to Israeli rule on one side. Houses are no more “illegal” on the east side of the temporary line than they are on the west side. Israel’s acquisition of the land was the legal and legitimate result of an attack by Jordan on the third day of the June 1967 war.
Maybe you are just trying to balance your criticisms so the Palestinians don’t feel pressured as they move convulsively toward a future that looks far more chaotic than the one in Iraq. But why shouldn’t they feel pressured to accept reality?
Our suggestion? When Prime Minister Sharon visits Crawford, just remember that it is he who is democratically elected; he who upholds the values Americans uphold, and fights the war Americans fight; he who has determined to free Israel from ruling a large and unhappy population without waiting for that population to come to terms; he who has taken steps – some would say courageous, some would say foolhardy and others would be more harsh – in that regard; he and his people who will deal with the aftermath of Palestinian misrule, internal violence and continuing preparations for war against the Jewish people.
The clarity you have shown so regularly would serve America and Israel well here.