Greater Than the Sins of War Are the Sins of Peace
Greater Than the Sins of War Are the Sins of Peace
For in War Terrible Things are Done to the Enemy
But in the Pursuit of Peace, Things Twice Terrible
Are Done To the Nation and to One's Brethren
Once again the planes take off, not for war but for peace. Conferences are carried on behind closed doors, secret proposals are put on the table and portions of them are leaked to test for the public's reaction. Phony surveys are commission that declare that %42 of Israelis are prepared to give up Gaza, Yehuda, Shomron, Yerushalayim, Israel and their own lives in exchange for peace. Another %5 percent are undecided.
We have seen this show before. The actors change, the gallery shifts uneasily, the curtain rises on rubble and burned bodies, on wreaths of peace and international awards. We have seen the show before it never seems to end but plays on in this theater of the damned.
It is always well received by the world's press which immediately comments that the final solution is near, if only Israel is prepared to sacrifice some more. Israel which refused to reclaim the Har Habayit and resume the sacrifices to G-d, now sacrifices to the enemy instead.
The burned offerings we bring are the bodies of our children, the severed limbs of our women and the earth of our land and the stones of our cities. All these we offer imploringly to the enemy in exchange for peace and the world audience claps, wipes a stray tear and like the spectators of the Roman arenas at which the captives of Yerushalayim fought for their lives-- demand more.
This theater will not end, until it concludes in one of three ways.
Either those forces perpetuating the drama of peace will be democratically overthrown or undemocratically overthrown or Israel will be overthrown. Those are the only three options there are and the only three options there ever were.
A Democratic overthrow requires booting out all the appeasement parties, including phony right wing parties like Yisrael Beiteinu and minimizing the electoral victories of the Haredi parties. It means making it clear that this a struggle between two widely divergent sides and it means getting a foothold in every community in Israel, it means an organized counter-propaganda effort using radio, the press and the internet. It means a large scale of confrontational protests and activism that shuts down parts of the government. It means looking at the Orange Revolution and the fall of Ceausescu and the East German government for tactics because this will not be a merely Democratic struggle but one conducted against a regime embedded by lies, that is profoundly un-Democratic and ruthless toward its opponents.
An Un-Democratic overthrow requires either a coup or waging a rapid civil war by overthrowing enough of the mechanisms of government and its political leadership to take power in a provisional government and put on trial those responsible for the last 15 years of treason and terror. Again the lesson of the fall of Ceausescu is instructive here, an out of touch corrupt government combined with mass protests that defeat the regime's intelligence apparatus and an overrun of the centers of power can accomplish the seemingly impossible. It is vitally important to remember that the overthrow of Ceausescu began with unrelated street protests that mushroomed when outside activists joined in and spread out of control. The perception of Ceausescu's loss of power and authority by his own corrupt henchmen led to the collapse of his regime.
The third option is the annihilation of Israel. We have been there before and as for what is to come, Uri Tzvi Greenberg said it best.
And I say: If your generation will be slow
And will not grasp in its hands and forcibly mold its future
And in fire will not come with the Shield of David
Judea will not arise.
And you will be living slaves to every foreign ruler
Your houses will be straw for the sparks of every wicked one.
And your trees will be cut down with their ripe fruit.
And a man will react the same as a babe
To the sword of the enemy -