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Thursday, October 18, 2007

CONSPICUOUS BY HIS ABSENCE: MID-EAST ENVOY TONY BLAIR....

There is so much activity this week in the news that making sense of it is not just a challenge, it's a necessity. Sometimes a name not in the news can be more telling than a name actually in the news. But, before speaking to the conspicuous absense of Mideast Envoy Tony Blair....

KARACHI, PAKISTAN was the site on Thursday, October 18, of an horrific deadly double-bombing that took the lives of well over a hundred Pakistanis greeting former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her return from eight years of exile. Our hearts go out to the freedom loving people of Pakistan, who are threatened by the same mentality and terror groups that hate Israel. One can only hope that this horrible act of terror will strengthen the developing bonds between President Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto, and all the forces in opposition to Al-Quaeda, the Taliban, and other extremist groups in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, D.C. was the site of ceremony and respect given by President Bush to the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Our best wishes to the Dalai Lama and to the invaded of Tibet, may the "Mandalla" be beautifully and speedily rebuilt in our times!

In the meantime two names have been in the news of late as regards Israel, those names being our Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and presidential hopeful Senator Sam Brownbeck. Secretary Rice is engaged in urgent flurries of shuttle diplomacy seeking to bring about the "end game" in terms of realizing a two-state solution to the Israel v. "Palestinian" problem. Senator Brownbeck meanwhile has endorsed Israel MK Benny Elon's "peace plan" calling for involvement of the Jordanians and calling an end to the "land for peace" doctrine and practice.

Using the game of chess as an analogy to the current flurry of moves, then Israel can be viewed as being "forked" by two choices: "Land for Peace" a la Secretary Rice or "Land for Peace" a la Tony Blair. Admittedly this latter view is a reasoned speculation; but, consider: it was the British, who renegged on Balfour, leading to the Jordanian annexation of Judea and Samaria in 1947. In the past few months Tony Blair has graduated from Prime Minister of Britain to Mideast Envoy of the Quartet. Simultaneously various Israeli leaders have commenced to talk about involving Jordan in a solution to peace. Therefore the following caution must be issued to Israelis: any solution involving Jordan may inevitably lead to the loss of Judea and Samaria and an inevitable bloodbath of "Palestinians".

The plan of MK Benny Alon and even Sam Brownbeck may well intend to keep Judea and Samaria in Israeli hands and may even intend the annexation of these Biblical Lands to the modern State of Israel. Israelis may find this idea logical and attractive, as it is indeed logical and attractive. However, the world at large seeks to sever these lands from Israel, and the world at large cannot conceive of a peace plan that does not place Judea and Samaria in non-Jewish hegemony. It does not matter that, as in 1970 during the reign of the preceding King Hussein, the Jordanians necessarily massacred tens of thousands of rebellious "Palestinians" and would likely have to do it again on perhaps an even larger scale; the world at large would wash it's hands of the matter, look the other way, and say, "It's Arab business...." Israel should not give the world the pretext for such a massacre by - even with the best of intentions - suggesting Jordanian hegemony over those "Palestinians" still in Israel's charge today. Indeed, a Jordanian return to the Kotel might not bode well for the present King Abdullah II, whose great-grandfather and namesake King Abdullah I was murdered by "Palestinians" on the very steps of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, while on his way to Friday prayers.

Now is not the time to involve Jordan in an Israeli peace solution, although it is the time to involve Jordan in heightened security actions. Jordan already has a million refugees from Iraq, and therefore needs help to deal with that reality. Clearly, it is not the time to ask them to accept responsibility for an additional million "Palestinians" (even if these "Palestinians" are well reimbursed). Nor is it time to place the Temple Mount or any Israeli Biblical Land this side of the Jordan River into Jordanian [nor "Palestinian"] rule. Did Israeli soldiers fight their bloody way into the Holy City in 1967, so that forty years later, the Kotel should be gifted back from whence it was won, thence to be trampled on? Has Israel lost it's mind and it's honor? It is utterly amazing and disgusting to hear talk of turning hegemony of Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount over to the Jordanians!

Conspicuously absent in the news even more than Tony Blair are the names of the eight Israeli captive soldiers, be they living or be they dead. Their absences should speak to all of us louder than all the other news, and should cause us to resolve ourselves not to fall prey to Trojan Horses, nor to be distracted by the compelling scent of Scrambled Eggs. The underbelly of Jordanian involvement would mask great bloodshed and destruction; the recent Israeli bombing in Syria made possible by the evasion of Syria's Russian radar may sizzle; but, it isn't steak....