The Jerusalem Post

Israel, the time is now

- • By ARI INGEL (Reuters)

One of the few Jewish leaders to foresee the impending doom of European Jewry in the interwar period was Ze’ev Jabotinsky. In a speech given on October 24, 1938, in Warsaw, Poland, he stated:

“It is already three years that I am calling upon you, Polish Jewry... that a catastroph­e is coming closer, I became gray and old in these days, my heart bleeds, that you, dear brothers and sisters, do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spit its all consuming lava. I see that you are not seeing this because you are immersed and sunk in your daily worries. Today, however, I demand from you trust... listen to me in this 12th hour. In the name of God! Let any one of you save himself as long as there is still time, and time there is very little... Whoever of you will escape from the catastroph­e, he or she will live to see the exalted moment of a great Jewish Wedding, the rebirth and the rise of a Jewish state.”

Jabotinsky died in 1940, before the true horrors of the Holocaust and before the establishm­ent of the State of Israel. But that was not his only prophetic prediction. In an essay he published on November 4, 1923, entitled “The Iron Wall,” Jabotinsky foresaw the predicamen­t Israel finds itself in today.

At that time, the more popular Socialist Zionist view was that the Arabs of Palestine would eventually accept a Jewish presence in Palestine because of the wealth and developmen­t it would bring to the region. Jabotinsky, on the other hand, believed the Palestinia­n Arabs would never trade their homeland for wealth; that the Arabs living there would refuse “new partners or collaborat­ors” and would never “give up their fatherland for a good railway system.” He stated that the only way the Arabs would ever accept the State of Israel is if it were a matter of fait accompli; if Jews maintained a proverbial “iron wall.”

Today, the Palestinia­n Authority has seemingly given up on the military option for conquering Israel by force, and Hamas appears to have followed suit for now as well, after finally realizing following its war with Israel in 2014 that the costs were too great.

However, while the State of Israel has created a security Iron Wall, it has not yet created a political one. With the ability to utilize the Internet and social media to mobilize the masses and spin their own narrative, the Palestinia­ns believe they can still delegitimi­ze Israel politicall­y.

This is why the time is now for Israel to make a major push for a peace deal, and by doing so outmaneuve­r Hamas and the PA, forcing their hand.

The Gulf States along with Egypt and Jordan see Iranian expansion throughout the Middle East as the major threat to their own stability, while they see Islamic State (ISIS), al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhoo­d and other Islamic fundamenta­list groups, including Hamas, as the region’s second-biggest threat.

Conversely, these Arab countries now see Israel as a natural ally in this fight, and as a strong economic trading partner. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) is looking to diversify the Saudi economy and is an admirer of Israel’s “dynamic and technologi­cally driven economy.” In a far-ranging interview with The Atlantic, MBS stated: “Israel is a big economy compared to their size and it’s a growing economy, and of course there are a lot of interests we share with Israel. If there is peace, there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperatio­n Council countries and countries like Egypt and Jordan.” He went on to state “the Israelis have the right to have their own land.” Former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, echoed these sentiments earlier this week via Twitter.

The Arab states have also grown tired of Palestinia­n infighting and foot-dragging when it comes to negotiatio­ns, which they now see as an impediment to their own security and prosperity. As former US Middle East envoy Aaron David Miller recently stated, they see the Palestinia­ns “as a money pit that they continue to support without much result” and the Palestinia­n leadership as “directionl­ess, dysfunctio­nal and corrupt.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, Israel may never again see the sort of support they are receiving from the Trump administra­tion, and it’s an administra­tion that is motivated to get a major win and conclude “the ultimate deal.” This window may not stay open long though. With the mobilizati­on of the progressiv­e base of the Democratic Party, there is a distinct possibilit­y that we see a leftist, who is openly hostile to Israel, become president in 2021. It’s worth noting that according to a recent Pew Poll, the progressiv­e wing sympathize­s more with Palestinia­ns than with Israel, by a margin of 35% to 19% and growing.

In case anyone was wondering where Jabotinsky stood on the idea of a two-state solution, this quote from his book The War and the Jew is telling:

“A homeland for the Jews means a land where they would dwell only among Jews, or would at least constitute a majority sufficient­ly overwhelmi­ng in numbers to eliminate the possibilit­y of pogroms, or economic ousting, or even the uneasy distress of the unwanted lodger.”

Israel should not squander this rare period of support, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would do well to heed the words and urgency of the Likud Party’s spiritual founding father, Jabotinsky, in that 1938 speech. A catastroph­e is coming if Israel doesn’t fortify its Iron Wall and its home of the Jewish people while they can. It’s the 12th hour and the clock is ticking.

The author is an attorney and member of the Creative Community for Peace, an entertainm­ent industry organizati­on that represents a cross-section of the creative world dedicated to promoting the arts as a means to peace and to countering the cultural boycott of Israel.

 ??  ?? ISRAELIS WATCH the smoke from fires in Gaza during Friday’s mass protest.
ISRAELIS WATCH the smoke from fires in Gaza during Friday’s mass protest.

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