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Source: https://www.jns.org/there-is-no-compromise-in-a-religious-war/
There Is No Compromise in a Religious War
(JNS) Mitchell Bard - Golda Meir said of Israel's enemies, "They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don't know of a compromise." Israelis live in the Middle East, not the Middle West. Yet politicians speak dreamily of ceasefire agreements and a Palestinian state. The root of the conflict is not the so-called "occupation." When Jordan oversaw the West Bank for 19 years and Egypt controlled Gaza, no one demanded a new Palestinian state. Israel doesn't occupy Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen or Iran, and yet it is being attacked by all those countries. The issue has never been Palestinian self-determination. Arab states invaded Israel in 1948 to carve it up among themselves, not create a Palestinian state. The Palestinians literally blew up the 1993 Oslo Accords with terrorism and turned down independence provided by the Clinton, Olmert and Trump Mideast peace plans. What fuels this ongoing conflict is not a fight for Palestinian self-determination but the refusal of Islamist forces to accept a Jewish state in their midst. Peace cannot be achieved through land or ceasefire agreements since Muslim extremists do not believe that Jews can live on any part of Islamic land. The two-state crowd ignores the Palestinians when they say a Palestinian state would have to be Judenrein, the only place in the world where Jews would not be permitted to live. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah expressed hope that diaspora Jews would all move to Israel. "If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." War is hell, but it is also sometimes necessary. What is the alternative when the Iranian regime has surrounded Israel with an "axis of resistance," attacks it with ballistic missiles, and is developing nuclear weapons to incinerate it? Americans are in the same fight. Israelis are told they are creating more terrorists, but Americans have never hesitated to kill terrorists out of such concern. While some are telling Israel to "take the win," no one proposed that the U.S. stop the war on terror after Osama bin Laden was dispatched.