JNW EDITORIAL
Crazy policies
By Ryan Jones

October 3rd, 2004

On the fourth anniversary of the Oslo War this week, “Palestinian” Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia urged Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to reassess his “crazy policies.”

For once, I have to agree with the veteran PLO “statesman.”

Sharon, and Israel under his leadership, is implementing policies that simply make no sense to those of us taking in the full picture.

The Israeli leader claims that, from his vantage point, he enjoys a clearer perspective of the overall landscape. His actions, however, have left many wondering if pressure from his good friends in the White House is not skewing his vision.

Let’s review some of the basic facts from the past decade, and see just how clear-sighted Sharon’s rise to the prime minister’s chair, and his “special” relationship with the Bush administration, have made him.

• For decades the Arabs murder and maim the Jews of Israel.
• Perceiving they cannot force the Jews out by violence alone, the Arabs suddenly sign a “peace” treaty with the Jews, demanding land in return.
• But though they are obligated under the treaty to halt all violence, the Arabs break their promise and continue to kill Jews.
• At Camp David in 2000, the Jews try to appease their “partners” by making a final offer of nearly everything the Arabs say they wanted from the start.
• Realizing this could put an end to their true intentions to wipe out the Jewish presence in the Middle East, the Arabs reject the offer and launch an intensified terrorist campaign.
• Despite the open belligerence, Israel refrains from destroying the PLO terrorist infrastructure in hopes that a “moderate” Arab leadership will one day take power.
• In the meantime, Israel decides to start giving the Arabs what they rejected at Camp David, even without reciprocal concessions.

Israel’s role in this drama, particularly in the last two points – which represent the past four years – certainly do not indicate coherent and logical thinking, at least not to those of us with any common sense.

As Qureia stated – these policies are “crazy”!

Of course, these basic facts do not take into account many of the so-called “complexities” that are part of the landscape being presented to Sharon.

But it is these complexities – such as the need to curry favor with an openly hostile Europe – that are driving Israel’s leaders to act in ways that can only be described as foolish.

They prevent Israel’s leaders from throwing aside phony “peace” deals with their declared enemies and actually doing something to provide their citizens with security.

Sharon says that is precisely what he is doing by running from Gaza and putting a fence between Israel’s Jews and their would-be “Palestinian” murderers.

But wouldn’t sending in the army to destroy the terrorist organizations and confiscate the sea of illegal weapons currently in the hands of the “Palestinians” be a much more far-reaching solution?

In step the “complexities.”

While Washington and Europe support in theory Israel’s right to self-defense, Jerusalem’s Western “allies” will not tolerate the IDF forcibly removing the Arabs’ ability to mass murder the Jews.

They want to give the “Palestinians” the opportunity to choose to stop murdering Israel’s citizens; regardless of how long it takes. In the meantime, Jewish men, women and children will pay with their blood for the outworking of this “complex” situation.

Enough with the complexities.

They are fomenting confusion and division among the people, and resulting in needless pain, suffering and death.

That Israel’s leadership is culpable in perpetuating this situation is reprehensible. That the nations of the world are actively formulating and presenting it as the only reality Israel can hope for is deadly – for them.

In His Word, God vows to deal with both groups with divine severity.

Speaking to the “shepherds of Israel,” the LORD condemns them for failing to “strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bound up the broken, or bring back that which was driven away.”

“So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field…”

“As I live,” says the LORD God, “surely because My flock became a prey, and my flock became food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd… Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand…” (Ezekiel 34:2-10)

Referencing what can only be the Oslo Accords and Sharon’s “security wall,” the LORD slams Israel’s leaders for “seducing My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace; and then one builds a wall, and they plaster it with un-tempered mortar. Say to those who plaster it with un-tempered mortar that [the wall] will fall.”

“I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume it. So I will break down the wall you have plastered with un-tempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground… and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 13:3-14)

Turning to the nations culpable in Israel’s suffering, the Angel of the LORD tells Zechariah that the nations “who touches [Israel] touch the apple of His eye. For surely I will shake my hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants.”