Point Of No Return

'The Fall of Icarus' by Pieter Pauwel Rubens 1636, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

 

Just as the Iranian president does not draw any connection between the occupation and his desire to nullify Israel's existence, the world should also view the Israeli-Palestinian struggle and the Iranian threat to Israel as separate issues. Ahmadinejad does not recognize the 1967 borders - or any borders - for a Jewish state. He uses Holocaust denial to eradicate the moral basis for Israel's existence, and even says so openly. That was the explicit explanation that the Iranian foreign minister gave for why it is necessary to discuss the "myth" of the Holocaust right now. To counter this, it is necessary to create a moral, diplomatic, political and even military front - one that will be activist rather than sleepy and apologetic, and that will make the discussion of Israel's destruction unprofitable for the Iranians even before any discussion of the goals of the nuclear capabilities they are developing.

This from Haaretz today, entitled "Iran grows strong, the world yawns".

It is with deep frustration and even deeper sense of brooding anxiety, that I am forced to face this awful reality all around us; the world yawns in the face of Israel's looming doom, and never more so, than after Lebanon War II.

Articles, editorials and valued opinions are more outspoken than ever, yet in a tragic way, instead of arousing the desired sense of urgency, they seem to intensify the feeling of despondency and inevitability.

The only thing worse to a heated debate against someone, who is fuelled by anti-Semitism and bigotry is a dejected 'whatever'. It almost seems, even outgoing Kofi Annan feels a point-of-no-return has been passed:

"Some may feel satisfaction at repeatedly passing General Assembly resolutions or holding conferences that condemn Israel's behavior," Annan said. "But one should also ask whether such steps bring any tangible relief or benefit to the Palestinians."

Describing decades of resolutions and a proliferation of special committees, Annan asked if this had any effect on Israel other than to strengthen the belief "that this great organization is too one-sided to be allowed a significant role in the Middle East peace process."

"Even worse, some of the rhetoric used in connection with the issue implies a refusal to concede the very legitimacy of Israel's existence, let alone the validity of its security concerns," Annan said. "What was done to Jews and others by the Nazis remains an undeniable tragedy, unique in human history."

And there it is again. The existence of Israel linked to the horrors of the Holocaust. Just as Thug-In-Chief Ahmadinejad is relying on:

Iran is helping make clear that the "Arab-Israeli conflict" is not about borders, settlements or refugees, but about the radical Islamist refusal to accept the right of a Jewish state to exist in any shape or form.

The Iranian conference illustrates the linkage between Holocaust denial and Israel denial.

Who would have thought, that utterly traumatized Holocaust survivors and Jews from all over the world, effected by the long process of coming to terms with these unspeakable events, may one day be held accountable for the manner, in which the process of recuperation could possibly have been allowed to dominate the otherwise indisputable right-of-claim based on millennia of Jewish heritage in this area. If anything, this conference, "serve as an opportunity to debunk the claim that the historical, legal and moral basis of Israel's existence is solely, or even mainly, born of European atonement for the Holocaust."

It was 89 years ago this month that Lord Arthur Balfour declared: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

In 1922 this policy was ratified by a vote of the League of Nations, which gave the British a mandate over Palestine with the express purpose of creating a "Jewish national home." The justice of this - decades before the Holocaust - became more obvious as the world came to recognize more than a dozen new Arab states at about the same time it accepted one Jewish state, Israel.

While most of the new Arab states had no national historical antecedents, the Jewish state, of course, did. The capital of Israel became Jerusalem, the city that King David established as his capital some 3,000 years before, where the First and Second Temples had stood for approximately 1,000 years, and toward which Jews had prayed for 2,000 years.

The point of Iran's "study conference" is to argue that Israel is an alien colonial implant. Actually, the Jewish state could not be more indigenous to this area, and its revival represents perhaps the greatest example of restorationist justice in history.

What are we to do, if such overwhelming historical facts are merely shrugged off with a yawned 'whatever'?

Comments

[Red Violin]

Thanks Alexandra for making me read the whole article...Very insightful.

Islam and Globalization by Sam Ghandchi:

... Incidentally in the Islamist Iran of the last two decades more people have left Islam than in the secular Turkey. The problem as I noted is related to the total structural change of the world and that we are living in a world that the mass communications have made it possible for anyone living anywhere in the world to connect with people following other religions and with various thoughts in the information space whether by radio, TV, or computer...

http://www.ghandchi.com/437-GeographyEng.htm

[Crusader.NoRegrets.]

It could be a brilliant way to "share the urgency" of the situation with the French and Germans, no?

To remind them that Israel is not after all a one-bomb state, but a 300-bomb state. So as an Israeli, I'd be fine living under that kind of M.A.D. Israel goes down, and Germany goes down with her. There's even a kind of serious justice in that. "Hey" you remind Merkel and Chirac, "we all gotta die sometime. I just happen to believe in an afterlife. Do you?"

[Gang of One]

Oh yeah ... I think that by now, most if not all of Judaism's enemies are covered in this option. That would most definitely include the Islamist nation-states.

[Gang of One]

Ummmm, I did not bring up the Sampson Option, although I am aware of it.

[Crusader.NoRegrets.]

Gang of One

The Samson analogy is not intended for the Muslims - it's aimed squarely at Europe.

Hey, Chirac, you filthy piece of anti-semitic scum. One bomb hits Israel, just one, and we take the whole f****n' region down with us in flames, the oil, their cities, the lot.

Remember Chernobyl? Now multiply by about 100, add in millions of very sick Islamic refugees, and no oil.

Still wanna play "Cold War Deterrence" with Ahma-dama-ding-dong?

[gringoman]

Gang of One: they should rather remember Samson.

Posted by: Crusader.NoRegrets. | Friday, December 15, 2006 at 10:03 AM

Samson? But the Ahmanites have the advantage of being Islamic fanatics. What is a super-Jew to them? Samson was not even a prophet. As for true holy men, the commanders of the faithful have a Prophet even greater than any of the old Hebrews. Haven't you heard? They've got their Arab master, the final Prophet (upon whom they wish peace.) What can a mere Samson and his so-called option do? Can he keep the martyrs and true believers out of Mohammed's promised paradise while the infidels roast with Satan?

[Crusader.NoRegrets.]

Gang of One: they should rather remember Samson.

[Gang of One]

Is Ahmadinejad (and his regime) Hitler or is he Stalin? In other words is he going for anihilation or for deterrence/imperialism?

He is neither. Hitler was lapsed Roman Catholic who hated the Church and the idea of Christianity; why else choose the hackencrueze(sp?) and all the esoteric Teutonic mythology? Stalin was a complete atheist, or so he we assume, as he was the Chairman.
No, Ahmadinnerjacket is an out and out TrueBeliever™ in his Islamist fantasies and fictions. But I do agree on one thing: he is going for anihilation -- and he has no cumpunction of taking EVERYONE else down with him. Neither Hitler nor Stalin were that deranged or psychotic, IMHO.

I'd only have two words to say to the Iranian powers:

Remember Masada

We all fell on our swords, rather than be captured by the Romans. This will frighten Iran ... how?

[hughes369A]

I'd only have two words to say to the Iranian powers:

Remember Masada

[Ghost Dansing]

Regarding "Point of No Return"... there is of course this significant development:

"Why Israel maintains nuclear ambiguity"
Ehud Olmert's apparent admission that Israel has nukes calls into question the country's longtime vow of silence.
By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1214/p07s02-wome.html

TEL AVIV – Israel's nuclear policy was conceived spontaneously when a young deputy defense minister, Shimon Peres, was confronted by President John F. Kennedy at the White House about the Jewish state's rumored ambitions to become a nuclear power.
Mr. Peres's response - "I can say to you clearly that we shall not introduce atomic weapons into the region. We will certainly not be the first to do so'' - became a tagline repeated for decades to signal the country's self-imposed "no comment" on its reported nuclear capabilities...

In an interview with German television, Mr. Olmert sought to portray Iran as reckless while placing Israel alongside the accepted nuclear powers. "Iran openly, explicitly, and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map," Olmert said while visiting Germany. "Can you say that this is the same level, when you are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, and Russia?"

The uproar that ensued in Israel and abroad highlights the fragility of one of Israel's most finely tuned defense policies, a doctrine of nuclear ambiguity that has enabled Israel to deter foes for decades in a region with only one alleged nuclear power.

But as the possibility of a nuclear Iran looms, some are arguing that Israel may need to rethink that very policy.

"The ambiguity so far has been useful, and we have never threatened the region with a nuclear catastrophe. But sometimes there is no way out of it," says Shlomo Aronson, a political science professor at Hebrew University. "When [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad talks about wiping Israel off the map, this may mean the end of Iran, too.''...

...an atomic Iran would require a change in Israel's longstanding policy, say some experts. A region with more than one potential atomic power calls for a more explicit form of deterrence.

"In order to make a situation that existed in the cold war, that existed between the US and Soviet Union, you need that both sides threatened by each other," says Michael Karpin, an author of a history of Israel's nuclear program, "otherwise the side that doesn't make the threat is weaker. For a balance of terror so that both sides don't use the bomb, you need to know that the other side has the bomb.""

[Ghost Dansing]

It's real bad news... So to add to the gloom I offer this...beware the man with the red right hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrodaLzfi5s

...On the gathering storm comes a tall handsome man...With a dusty black coat and a red right hand...They're-a whispering his name through this disappearing land... But hidden in his coat is a red right hand...

...don't you worry buddy, 'cause here he comes...

...Through the ghetto and the barrio and the valley and the slum...His shadow is cast where ever he stands... Got some green paper in his red right hand...

You'll see him in your nightmares, you'll see him in your dreams...He'll appear out of nowhere, but he ain't what he seems...You'll see him in your head, on the TV screen.. hey, buddy, I'm warning you to turn it off...He's a ghost, he's a god, he's a man...he's a guru...

You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan...

Designed and directed by his red right hand...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Lyrics
Song: Red Right Hand Lyrics
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/scream/redrighthand.htm

[Liquid]

The overwhelming historical facts are merely shrugged off with a yawn because we continue to allow the lies! We have become a global society that tolerates the intolerable and it will only bring destruction. I remember when I first saw Prince Harry sporting his "Hitler Costume" for Halloween and I knew then that there are generations lost to the truth. I see all this denial as a pavement for the next holocaust. If people think it's not going to happen...well pull up a lawn chair and just watch! IMHO, the worst holocaust is yet to come and we are seeing more and more tolerance for it every day! The "Never Again" shout is being muffled by a hand of evil so we gotta learn to shout louder and bite the fingers that cover our lips!!!

God help us all!

[Professor Plum]

Not that anyone asked, but I doubt that the existence of Israel depends on anything the world does or doesn't do, thinks or doesn't think.

Israel has nukes. Iran and everyone else knows this. The mullahs' dreams of big power in the region require that they remain alive. One nuke on Tehran and they are gone.

Israel's history is to attack when there is no other option but annihilation, and when the rest of the world doesn't much care.

We are getting close to that time.

[igout]

Say what you want about Putin, but he knows how to communicate with lowlife, as the ones in London recently discovered. If only he'd take Iran seriously.

[Red Violin]

It's really a sad state of affairs, Alexandra. I share your frustration and anxiety bordering despair...See my blog for pictures of Jews who attended this genocide-inciting Conference:

http://fleetingperusal.blogspot.com

[Joe]

I think there is one key question you have to ask yourselves: Is Ahmadinejad (and his regime) Hitler or is he Stalin? In other words is he going for anihilation or for deterrence/imperialism?
My personal answer is that he is both and because of this we cannot waste more time dealing with phylosophical questions and plans.
We must stop him before he gets nuclear...and the clock is ticking. Hopefully, the world will get to the conclusion that it is best to do it together...but if this takes too long...Israel will have to take the initiative.
Check out more on Iran at http://www.TechnonLLC.com/blog

[gringoman]

But liberal Jews, who must feel something about Israel, still see Bushhitler and Jerry Falwell as greater threats than the Tehran Ahma whose wipe-out Israel pronouncements out-do even the late Adolf Schicklegruber. Surely they equal their fellow deracinated gentiles in this regard. This was indicated yet again in the recent electoral triumphs of Rodham Clinton/Nancy San Francisco Pelosi/Barack Hussein Obama etc etc. As for classic Jewish liberalism, is there a more sophisticated and successful and influential(even if dottier) exponent of it than the billionaire ex-Hungarian George Soros? Soros on Iran....

You have to avoid posing the question, should we allow Iran to have nuclear weapons or should we use military force to prevent that?” he said. “A missile attack would be even more counterproductive than the invasion of Iraq, because… if there was an attack the whole nation would line up behind the leadership just like America lined up behind the president, and the same would happen to the Muslim world, and to the developing world altogether, so Iran would emerge as the leader of an anti-American block.”

Soros believes current nuclear nonproliferation treaties have failed. He says he sees this failure as an opportunity to develop a more ecumenical and lasting treaty that would apply to Iran equally with other nuclear powers, including the United States.

“You really need to reconstruct a more effective nonproliferation treaty that would address the legitimate concerns of the non-nuclear powers,” he remarked. “And that would involve -- I think -- rules that would apply equally -- a nuclear freeze that would apply equally to the nuclear ‘haves’ and the nuclear ‘have-nots,’ with intrusive inspections which would apply to the United States just as much as to Iran.”

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Billionaire_speculator_Soros_says_Democrats_should_0918.html