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Last update - 01:40 19/10/2009
Finish it now
By Eldad Yaniv
Tags: israel news, palestinian 

In the early 1990s, when Judge Richard Goldstone headed a commission of inquiry on the rising violence in South Africa toward the end of apartheid, he garnered the same kind of compliments from the Afrikaners as he has been getting from Israel over the last few weeks. But the "Jew boy" wasn't the problem then, and he isn't the problem now. And PR isn't the solution. Take a look in the mirror; it's not Goldstone, it's us. We're the problem as well as the solution.

Israel is being pushed to the side of the world stage and will yet find itself in the same position South Africa was during the final years of the right-wing "crocodile," P.W. Botha, a conservative ideologue. The Goldstone report is a cruel but accurate image of Israel the leper as seen by the "anti-Semitic" Goldstone and Israel's good friends around the world, who are having a hard time continuing to defend the country.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for the rights of black people in the United States, it didn't bother anyone that South Africa had benches for white people only. But then the weather changed, winter turned to spring and racism became a crime once more, first in the United States and then around the world. That's exactly what's happening in Israel now. George W. Bush retired to his ranch and America has gotten tired of the settlers. Everyone understands what every decent and patriotic Israeli also realizes: Israel won't be in Hebron or Ofra when it celebrates its 70th anniversary. So why not be done with it before then?
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When will be the appropriate time? When Ankara recalls its ambassador? When Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon is arrested in London? When the Security Council imposes sanctions? When Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi start saying behind our backs the same things the Swedes and Norwegians say about us to our faces?

We could be total suckers and not be done with it until then, or we could decide now, the way David Ben-Gurion took action at 4 P.M. one Friday afternoon: mightily, and in thrall to a Zionist vision. Complete the ugly, injurious fence that causes injustice but saves lives and turn it into Israel's internationally recognized border. Patriotic Israel realizes that the Palestinians must not beat us in the War of Independence and become the majority here, just as Ben-Gurion understood in 1948 when he made his decision. So the Arabs oppose dividing the land under reasonable conditions and want to talk until they form the majority here? Let them oppose. The world agrees, and we act.

Israel didn't have to wallow in Lebanon for 18 years because of the Katyusha threat, and it doesn't need to immerse itself in Hebron for 42 years because of the Qassams. The Israel Defense Forces successfully defends our internationally recognized borders from security threats. We've waited too many years to give the Palestinians an answer on this, and time is against both sides of the conflict - mainly us.

And when Israel establishes recognized borders, maybe peace will make a surprise appearance. The Palestinians will no longer be living under occupation, no one in the world will listen to them anymore, and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan will be worried about staying in power if it's not quiet in Palestine. So maybe something will move and we'll bury the sword.

And if not? We will continue to seek peace while establishing ourselves as a model society with recognized borders; we will be respected members of the European Union and sought after by the entire world.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must decide whether it will be on his watch that Israel closes the book on its control over the territories, just as Ariel Sharon closed the book on Israel's presence in Gaza and Ehud Barak did in Lebanon. Or not, in which case Bibi will be followed by the Israeli F.W. de Klerk, who will lead us to a safe harbor and a historic, and final, victory in the War of Independence.
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  1.   Damn tootin` 02:14  |  Michael N 19/10/09
  2.   Couldn`t agree more 03:57  |  Dan 19/10/09
  3.   the fence will never be the border 06:21  |  robert frost 19/10/09
  4.   Eldad, what makes you think 09:49  |  Yonatan 19/10/09
  5.   Deja vu 12:14  |  Nina 19/10/09
  6.   #5 Well, yeah, Nina, you are correct 13:32  |  Johnboy 19/10/09
  7.   An Alternative Approach 13:32  |  ARTH 19/10/09
  8.   Finish it now 14:39  |  sam 19/10/09
  9.   Leave Tel Aviv, Too 15:44  |  Ahmed 19/10/09
  10.   to Johnboy 16:36  |  nina 19/10/09
  11.   to ARTH, my point exactly 16:43  |  nina 19/10/09
  12.   to Ahmed #9 18:56  |  zeev 19/10/09
  13.   to Nina #5 20:24  |  zeev 19/10/09
  14.   the conflict is national but mainly religious 23:30  |  sani 19/10/09
  15.   Silly arguments by Yaniv hold no water 08:34  |  Joe Sittizen 20/10/09
  16.   to Joe Sittizen #14 10:35  |  zeev 20/10/09
  17.   Nina #11 - 6th try 19:36  |  zeev 26/10/09
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