Last nite I heard Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat ,deliver a talk on Religious Zionism.Riskin,an old friend was a debating team colleague both in high school and college.Incidently,a third member of our yeshiva high school team was Avi (now Allen ) Dershowitz.
Riskin ,made one interesting point.Like the Pharoh in our Torah,G-d has hardened the hearts and minds of HAMAS and FATAH, so that despite working against their common interests, they continue to kill themselves.
From the very first Madrid "PEACE" Conference,I worried that the Arabs would wisen up and agree to everthing Israel offered(similarly at Oslo I, II etc) and proceed to have a State,and most of the West Bank,part of Jerusalem etc.THEN.....it is classical for Arabs to lie(witness all the failed agreements,and the false reporting from the Arab world during the six day war,etc) THEN,being in a stronger position they could renounce their agreements and start again to fight for their ultimate goal-the end of Israel and the return of their "refugees".
Alas,they have never missed an opportunity to shoot themselves in the behind.Their ineptness and plain hatred for the Jew has helped mask the general mediocrity of later day Israeli leaders.
As we enter the '08 election season,and as the left wing of the Democratic party is jockeying to move further left(and carrying Hillary with them) the pressure to talk and engage Iran and Syria will grow.
I believe Syria is not the same as Iran, and under the right circumstances, there could be progress in talks.Syria knows what it has to do to bring this about,and up to the present is not prepared to either divorce itself from the mayhem in Lebanon,or stop being the home for a wide range of terrorists groups.
The first step the US and Europe should take ,is to bring Israel into full NATO membership.The signal to Iran would be clear.As Chirac pointed out ,before he tried to withdraw his comments,an attempt by Iran to launch a nuclear device would mean the instantaneous destruction of Tehran.
The financial sanctions must be toughened to bring home to the Mullahs that the world is unhappy with both holocaust denial and Iranian nuclear ambitions.
The participation of Romney,Edwards and Gingrich in the recent Herziliyah Conference dedicated to the Iranian problem is an important event.
The temptation to make believe that Iran is ripe for diplomacy will only lead to the production by Iran of multiple nuclear devices ,as time is on their side.It is interesting to read today of the mysterious sudden death of an Iranian nuclear scientist allegedly by Mossad.Hopefully he will not be the last mysterious mortality.
The Iranians undertand strength and unity on the part of the free world.
Together with the Saudis-who are not their friends,they finance world terrorism and Islamic fascism.
We are in a world war that we must not lose!
