“We anticipate a direct conflict with Egypt in the near future,” explained Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, one of the great patrons of the peace accords with Egypt, recently.
Israel’s direct conflict with Egypt has never ended. But for the last three decades it had assumed a more subtle form that tied Israel’s hands. The peace accords with Egypt were nothing more than a miserable illusion that robbed us of the Sinai and its settlements. They forced Israel into recognition of the Palestinian “nation” and its right to our land, to the Madrid Conference, and finally to Oslo – the loss of Gush Katif, and Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Throughout this process, thousands of Israelis paid the price of mushrooming terror and Israel lost its oil fields and major financial resources. Now, when the direct conflict begins, it will happen just outside of Beersheba and not on the banks of the Suez Canal, as was the case in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Who is responsible for this fiasco? Menachem Begin is at the top of the pyramid. But the pyramid rests on layers of officials that developed political, media, academic, legal, military, and, of course, economic careers from Camp David, Madrid, Oslo and the entire Orwellian “peace process.”
Where are all the experts and advisers who day in and day out pressured Israel to give the Golan Heights to the Syrians immediately? Where is Ron Lauder, who mediated between Israel and Syria in Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous government? Where are all the journalists, commentators and Middle East analysts? Do any of them feel the need to apologize and admit his or her mistakes? Do any of them have the courage to say that it is a good thing that Israel did not succumb to their demands and didn’t repeat the mistake they made with Egypt?
Let us say that a bank robber escapes from the bank with a sack of money over his shoulder. Passersby identify him and shout, “Catch the bank robber!” Chances are that he will be caught within a short time.
But now let us change the scenario. It is not the robber making his quick escape from the bank, but the bankers. Instead of running away, they distribute the money from the sacks to the passersby. Is anybody going to shout, “Catch the bank robber?” Ben-Eliezer gleaned invaluable benefit from the “peace spoils.” His friendship with ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak afforded him great prestige and was his main calling card. Like Ben-Eliezer, major layers of Israeli society basked in the glow of the so-called peace process and enjoyed its abundant and multifaceted perks. Only “nut cases” (the left’s term) opposed the accords and did not partake of its spoils.
The peace process representatives have nothing to worry about. Nobody is going to demand that they pay for robbing Sinai, Gaza and parts of Samaria from Israel. They have distributed so many dividends to such wide circles of society that everyone has enjoyed the spoils of the robbery.
The relatively few sane people who remain have nowhere to turn to demand justice. As long as those responsible for the scandal remain in the government and in influential positions, nothing will change. They will never admit their mistakes, they will never take responsibility, and they will continue to push the State of Israel over the cliff – employing the same principles that they have so successfully used in the past.
The peace process fiasco is the product of governments from both left and right. The Likud is no less responsible for the bizarre situation in Israel than Labor and Kadima. Both the left and right wings of Zionism are incapable of getting on a track other than the “peace” track, because they cannot define a destiny worth dying for. For if Israel is nothing more than a “safe haven” for the Jews, then the Zionist experiment has utterly failed. In no other place on the globe are Jews targeted by tens of thousands of terrorist rockets, waiting for the nuclear salvo that is supposed to pick up where the missiles left off.
Manhigut Yehudit is changing the situation from the foundation up. Our candidacy for leadership of the Likud is the way to break out of the “peace process” trap. Our Jewish destiny is the only factor that makes Israel’s existence values-based, something worth fighting for – and not just surrendering for.