| Talkback | |
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Title: | Think Again: Prisoner of `the fanatacism of reason` | |||
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| Name: | Joseph E . | | |||
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| City: | Givatayim | State: | Israel | | |
| After the failed Camp David summit of 2000, George Will pronounced then prime minister Ehud Barak "perhaps the most calamitous leader any democracy has ever had" for the way he had succeeded in "delegitimizing all previous Israeli positions" By that standard, our current Ehud is worse. PM Olmert too is dead to the importance of national will and belief in the justice of one`s cause in the life of nations. In his "new year" interview with The JPost, Olmert uttered nary a word about Israel`s "red lines," paid passing lip service to Jewish "rights," and mentioned only illegal Jewish outposts - no Palestinian failures to keep their promises (such as the murder of three Jews by PA security personnel in the last six weeks). Nor did he stress the limits of what he can do without bringing about a civil war more ruinous than any Arab terrorism. In his most demoralizing comment, Olmert portrayed Israel as desperate for peace: He spoke of the end of Israel`s existence as a Jewish state unless it can realize the vision of two states for two peoples. He thus confirmed Yasser Arafat`s old boast that the "Arab womb" will prevail, and, with his demographic determinism, strengthened the Palestinians in their view that time is on their side. Olmert is a prisoner of what Lee Harris in Suicide of Reason labels the "fanaticism of reason." Instead of trying to shake Western leaders out of the fantasy that all societies are like their own and Islamic cultures share the same basic values, an Israeli prime minister adopts the fantasy. He acts as if peace is within Israel`s power to bring about, if only we make a generous enough offer. Like Barak at Camp David, he begins negotiations by signaling his final position. After invoking the "hand of G`D" to describe Israel`s current constellation of friends on the international scene, Olmert reminds us that even our best friends foresee a final solution in which Israel returns to its 1967 borders and Jerusalem is divided. He does nothing to disabuse them of that notion or point out the dangers for Israel. PERHAPS OLMERT doesn"t even see the dangers. Frighteningly, in the course of his Post interview he did not mention a single lesson learned from Oslo or the Gaza withdrawal. It apparently does not occur to him that Moshe Sharon, Hebrew University professor of Islamic history, is correct when he writes: "There is no way that the Arabs can or will accept the permanent existence of a Jewish state in the heart of what they regard as the Arab-Islamic homeland." Our prime minister asks us to trust that Mahmoud Abbas accepts Israel`s existence as a Jewish state "in his soul," even though he can`t say so. (He also assures us that Hosni Mubarak and Vladimir Putin are "very impressive" men. After all, Putin has promised him never to harm Israel`s security, the sale of advanced anti-aircraft batteries and nuclear technology to Iran notwithstanding. Nor does Olmert mention the very impressive million-man army into which Mubarak has poured billions - an army which could never be conceivably employed against any foe other than Israel - even as Egypt wallows in horrific poverty.) |
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