As US Secretary of State John Kerry boards his plane for yet another flight to the Middle East, here are a few requests Israel’s government could have ready to make to its American guest.
1. Please convey to President Barack Obama, with all due respect, that unless Jonathan Pollard – who has not murdered even one American – is set free after his 26 years in prison, Israel will renege on its readiness to release any more Palestinian prisoners – most of who are cold-blooded killers, and have spent far less time in jail.2. Please convey to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has stated his intention not to let one Israeli Jew live in his sought-after Palestine, that he needs to prepare to open the gates of his new state to all the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. For if the United States has nothing to say about Abbas’ desire to have a judenrein Palestine, it will surely have nothing to say about Israel becoming a araberrein Jewish state.
3. Please make clear to the PA leadership – and the rest of the Arab world – that the Palestinian Muslim-inspired lie denying any historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem and its Temple Mount (where twice in history God’s holy House stood for Israel, His people) – a falsehood whose purpose is to sever this city from Israel and the Jewish people – that this denial will deal a death blow to the present negotiations.
4. Kindly remind your president of how Israel’s enemies have misused Israel’s past withdrawals – from South Lebanon and Gaza – and allowed tens of thousands of rockets to be fired from these areas into peace-loving Israeli neighborhoods. In the light of this, please make it clear to Abbas and his gang that no Israeli government can be expected to agree to withdraw from areas even nearer to its main population centers, without maintaining a firm military presence in the Jordan Valley to prevent such a repeated misuse of its willingness for peace! And please note how essential this is, all the more so given the abysmal betrayal Israel has experienced after entrusting its basic security needs to the international community!
5. Please make it unmistakably clear to Mr Abbas right now – and not after the present talks break down – that if the international community really wants to see a positive outcome resulting from these talks, it will not be pressuring Israel into making ever more concessions – let alone lure her with financial and other international guarantees. Rather, these nations will be encouraged to bring the pressure to bear where it belongs, telling the Palestinian leaders, in no uncertain terms, that unless they fully commit to respecting this bare minimum of Israel’s demands – including the reality that they are making peace with a Jewish democratic state in their region, THEY, and not Israel, will be held responsible for the breakdown of the current negotiations.