Zion Forever

(photo courtesy of http://zioneocon.blogspot.com/)

In one day, Israel will be changed forever. By returning land that was legally won in a war (initiated by Arabs seeking to destroy the country,) the state of Israel will be abandoning land - and rewarding terror. Generations of families will be uprooted. Jobs will be lost. Graves will be moved (including at least six that belong to terror victims,) and for what?

The terror won't just continue...It will escalate. Rocket attacks will strike further. The new sea port will welcome ships carrying illegal arms from Iran. Arms will be easily smuggled between Gaza and the West Bank.

All the academic think tanks are screaming this inevitable reality. The people in the above picture are doing the same. So were the 50, 000 Jews gathered to pray and protest at the Western Wall recently. That was the largest gathering of praying Jews since the second Temple period thousands of years ago.

Israel may be an old nation, but it is also a young country. It has much to learn.

Rather than answering to international pressure - the voice of a world that would rather see the Jews long dead than in the news, Israel should seek to serve its best interests. That means confronting terror effectively; Not bowing to it. Hamas is already waving flags that declare Jerusalem as the next target.

Aeycha! (Alas!)

What follows is an excerpt from a Jerusalem Post article written by Daniel Pipes. Click here to read it in its entirety.

Israel Shows Weakness in Gaza

by Daniel Pipes

Are Israel's critics correct? Does the "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza cause the Palestinians' anti-Semitism, their suicide factories and their terrorism? And is it true these horrors will end only when Israeli civilians and troops leave the territories?

The answer is coming soon. Starting on August 15 the Israeli government will evict some 8,000 Israelis from Gaza and turn their land over to the Palestinian Authority. In addition to being a unique event in modern history (no other democracy has forcibly uprooted thousands of its own citizens of one religion from their lawful homes), it also offers a rare, live, social-science experiment.

We stand at an interpretive divide. If Israel's critics are right, the Gaza withdrawal will improve Palestinian attitudes toward Israel, leading to an end of incitement and a steep drop in attempted violence, followed by a renewal of negotiations and a full settlement. Logic requires, after all, that if "occupation" is the problem, ending it, even partially, will lead to a solution.

But I forecast a very different outcome. Given that some 80 percent of Palestinians continue to reject Israel's very existence, signs of Israeli weakness, such as the forthcoming Gaza withdrawal, will instead inspire heightened Palestinian irredentism. Absorbing their new gift without gratitude, Palestinians will focus on those territories Israelis have not evacuated. (This is what happened after Israeli forces fled Lebanon.)

The retreat will inspire not comity but a new rejectionist exhilaration, a greater frenzy of anti-Zionist anger, and a surge in anti-Israel violence.

Palestinians themselves are openly saying as much... (continue here)