Mark Weinreb: Unfortunately, Israel's security requires assuming the worst

To The Daily Sun,

In the late 60s and early 70s, when the Arab countries couldn’t "overthrow" the Jewish state militarily, they decided to just "kill Jews." The PLO was established whose initial purpose (similar to Hamas's now) was to kill as many Jews as possible. They kidnapped and killed the entire 1972 Olympic Israeli team. They also hijacked and held the Jewish passengers until they were freed by the Israeli Military during the raid on Entebbe. A Palestinian was even responsible for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 over his support of Israel.

I don’t believe that all Muslims don’t want peace with Israel and want to “kill Jews,” but every decision that Israel makes going forward in 2021 has to be based on what Arabs are capable of doing. I understand that many progressives are upset that the Israeli police reportedly attacked Muslim Prayers on Ramadan, but many don’t remember when the Arab countries attacked Israel in 1973 on the Jews' single holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. I remember, as I was in synagogue that day, when our rabbi announced the attack.

Finally in 1975, Israel signed the Oslo Peace Accords and turned much of the land they had captured back to Egypt and Jordan governance. Neither of those Arab countries really improved Palestinian conditions in those territories. In 2006, Israel effectively withdrew from the Gaza strip, leaving it entirely in Arab control. They also withdrew from much of the West Bank territory. Initially Israel had signed these agreements with the Palestinian Authority, but still many Palestinians wanted entire “Palestine.”

The Palestinians elected Hamas in 2007. At that point, both Egypt and Israel blockaded that terrorist organization from getting arms to kill civilians. Any money that Hamas received for “humanitarian aid” went to build terror tunnels and to launch missiles at Israeli civilians (over 4,000 during the war last month) .

In conclusion, I would ague that the living conditions that Palestinians are experiencing is more related to how Hamas and other Arab countries have treated them over the past 70 years.

In addition, Israeli’s citizens are not going to abandon the entire Palestinian region, not just for the Jews living there, but also Israeli Arabs who make up 20% of Israel’s population. Also there is no other historical territory for Jews to proclaim self-determination and feel safe. (Catholics have Vatican City, Muslims of both types – Suni and Shiites – have their countries. )

Jerusalem needs to be under Israeli control, because since 1967 it has been the only country to allow all people to freely practice their respective religions.

Right now, Israeli’s military is more powerful than any Arab country's or Hamas’s. That doesn’t mean that Hamas’s modes of terrorism (incendiary balloons, rocket throwing, misguided missiles, etc.) will not kill and maim Jewish civilians if they are not held responsible for their actions.

Mark Weinreb

Laconia

(Editor's note: This is the second of two letters on this topic.)