Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund

It is a rare politician that manages to transcend the maxim that “politics is the art of the possible” and advances from politician to visionary. Prime Minister Netanyahu may or may not have failed that test in his Bar Ilan University response speech to President Obama’s pro-Muslim speech at Cairo University.

Obama had implied in his infamous praise of Islam and criticism of Israel speech, that Israel was formed as a response to the Holocaust in Europe, thus supporting the Muslim canard that Israel was created at their expense to atone for European guilt. Netanyahu adequately responded to this, by giving a history lesson about our ties to the Land of Israel. He also spoke positively about the pioneers who are struggling against all odds to build up the Biblical heartland of Israel, although I wasn’t pleased that he spoke against the expansion of west bank settlements (communities in Samaria and Judea). Such a policy is inherently unfair, as it ignores the rampant illegal expansion of Arab towns. and should never be based on foreign pressure against Israel.

The main problem as I see it, is that no one will remember the proud history lesson nor the nice words about the “settlers”, but they will remember and repeatedly quote that Netanyahu finally agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Sure, he placed several conditions on its creation, such as the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State and Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital city. These conditions might make the plan’s acceptance by the Arab world a non-starter. With G-d’s help, they will refuse this peace plan as they’ve refused all the others that fall short of guaranteeing Israel’s destruction.

Even so, calling for such a state is dangerous, not only because of the precedent that it sets, but because it is morally and historically wrong to say that such a state deserves to come into existence. Even if the Muslim Arabs of the Land of Israel are considered to be a people, they certainly have no historical roots as a nation in this Land that G-d gave to His chosen nation Israel. Furthermore, to promise them a state is to reward the fathers of terrorism, while not stopping the inevitable pressure on Israel from Obama and his cohorts to compromise on these statedly firm conditions.

To be a visionary is to not be afraid to be morally right even if it hurts your international popularity. Netanyahu may yet surprise us by standing firmly behind his conditions, and if he does, there will be no surrender of our Biblical heartland because the Arabs are extremely unlikely to accept his conditions. In that case, his speech will be praised as a brilliant move in the chessboard of international diplomacy. If not, he will go down in history as just another spineless Israeli politician who failed the true test of a visionary — which is not collapsing one’s principles due to pressure and at the same time seizing the opportunity to speak truth to power.

David Rubin

Shiloh, Israel