A succinct and blunt presentation of Israel's position, by academic Dan Schueftan (video) ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, March 14, 2024

A succinct and blunt presentation of Israel's position, by academic Dan Schueftan (video)

Here is a blunt but accurate description of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by Israeli academic Dan Schueftan, who has also been an adviser to multiple Israeli prime ministers. It come from a much longer video interview published in Quillette last month.

The Palestinian perspective is, and this did not change in the last 100 years, that the very collective existence of the Jews here in the Middle East is illegitimate except as individuals of the Jewish religion. They deny the existence of a Jewish people, even today. The so-called president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech - if you want I'll send you the video of it. It's so ridiculous, it's unbelievable. I mean he tells stories about there's never been a Jewish people and so on and the Khazars in the Caucasus. It's ridiculous.

So they even deny the existence of a Jewish people and of course they believe that Israel is a product of of a colonial British act and the very existence of Israel is illegitimate. They make the option of national coexistence, of a historic compromise, impossible and therefore they don't have a state.

Now the way they behaved in terms of violence persuaded the Jews after October 7, more than any time in the past, that since whatever they have they weaponize, and what they want in the final analysis (and they say openly) is to obliterate the state of Israel. When you speak about Hamas they even speak about obliterating all the Jews and their charter relies on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. So this is an attempt by the Palestinians to terminate the existence not only of the state of Israel but also of the Jews as as a national collective, as a sovereign entity in this region.

This is a problem that at least in the foreseeable future it doesn't have a solution.

You see, one of the problems Americans have is that Americans have a operational oriented mindset. They look at problems like engineers: there's a problem, what's the solution? Tf you want want to be a historian if you want to understand human behavior you say to yourself this is a kind of operational thinking, while strategic thinking is what do you do when a problem doesn't have a solution. In other words, what is the response or the damage control that you can apply if a problem doesn't have a solution?

Most serious problems don't have a solution. Poverty doesn't have a solution. Crime doesn't have a solution. But if you you have a good law enforcement system you can bring crime from an unacceptable level to an acceptable level; if you have a well-functioning welfare state you can bring down poverty from an unacceptable level to an acceptable level. But people speak in terms of the two-state "solution."

By the way, in my recent visit to the US Congress I suggested to a number of Senators that the United States should adopt a two-state solution for a state for the Republicans and a state for the Democrats because the polarization in American society is alarming.

The only thing in life that has a solution is a crossword puzzle. For people who insist that every problem has a solution I remind them of their marriage and then they finally understand that there are some problems that have no solution.

You need to think in terms of what can you do when a solution is not available. Any serious thinking about the Palestinians or about Israel should start from that assumption but if somebody feels good about himself by playing with himself intellectually or politically and he wants to think about solution, it's okay. I mean, Americans come to Israel now and say, "Tell us what your end game is." I tell them, "Oh ,we really need to learn from you! You had an end game bringing democracy to Iraq. Then you had an end game bringing women's rights to Afghanistan. Since this went so well let's learn from you and tell us how after bringing democracy to Iraqis and women's rights to Afghanis you'll bring peace to the Palestinians, with the great successes you've had so far."

[To bring violence down to an acceptable level, Israel has to do] whatever it takes, limited by what we're willing to do based on our values. It's not you can have violence for a week but not for month, or you can kill 100 people or not 500 people. The question is what do you have to do that there is no other way of doing.

For instance, if you want to deter Stalin from using nuclear weapons, you adopt a policy that basically says we will obliterate the human race if you do this to us. [That's the whole idea of nuclear deterrence. Or when in the Second World War people are threatened in Britain, they burn Hamburg and Berlin. When the Americans want to invade Japan they burn Tokyo and they nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So the question is, can you use less violence and still obtain your objective? For instance, if you have precision guided munitions you can kill the terrorist without killing the people around him so use it to minimize collateral damage, as we have.

Today in Gaza we have the most fortified position ever in human history. It's not only fortified by every house being booby trapped and full of weapons under the beds of children and in hospitals and in schools and in mosques, but also it is fortified by the New York Times and Amnesty International and Joe Biden and everybody else. You must be very careful in terms of getting what you need, namely to root out the barbarians with as little civilian casualties as possible. The Palestinians want us to kill their children not only by putting their weapons in their bedrooms and in their schools but also because they want the pictures of their children killed so that they can use a public opinion against Israel. We can try to minimize it but you cannot avoid it altogether. ...When dumb people or evil people say stop the war because civilians are being killed they're basically saying once the barbarians embed the weapons in their children the barbarians will win because civilized people cannot respond and root them out. And if that will happen then the barbarians win not only vis a vis Israel - the Jews are always the canary - they will win everywhere...The barbarians are looking for things that work. The number one weapon of the barbarian is our values and the dumb application of our values. We need to keep our values because we're civilized people, we are not like them. The one thing Israelis are frightened more than anything else that we become like the Palestinians, in other words, to behave like barbarians as they do. When the barbarians rape and decapitate and burn families alive, between 75 and 90% of the Palestinian people support them and every time they kill Jews the Palestinian people support them. The only role model that the Palestinians have are people who kill Jews. They don't have other role models; their schools are named after terrorists.

So when you are faced with it you have to find your way between getting what you must have, namely root out the barbarians, and keep your values, because if the Palestinians will force you to become like Palestinians this will be the worst that they can do to us. The one thing we we don't want to let them do is to make us be like them.