Back to Square One

There is no peace process when the Arab nations surrounding Israel keep reverting back to square one. Israel has had a de facto peace with Syria for years along its border with Syria, despite holding the Golan Heights, which it won in hard fighting in 1967, and which it defended at terrible cost in 1973. Syria wants the Golan back, not only because of the land per se, but because of what it represents.

Syria cannot recognize that Israel beat them repeatedly, and it needs something to show for its decades of war and support of terrorism against Israel's very existence. Syria still doesn't recognize Israel's existence, but it fears Israel's military. It's seen what Israel can do to Syria's military and its efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction, and it cannot hold a candle to Israel via conventional warfare, so its efforts are primarily via the proxy terror armies of Hamas and Hizbullah and as a conduit for Iranian support.

Of course, the Golan also is a major watershed and supplies much of the region, including Israel and Jordan. Syria's interests in the Golan aren't altruistic. Even Jordan recognizes this as the Jordan River supports a significant portion of the Jordanian water needs.

Meanwhile, Jordan is also working the usual tripe about how Israel must make concessions in order to establish a two-state solution. Let's also ignore the fact that Jordan had the power to make a two-state solution possible from 1947 until 1967, when it occupied and annexed the West Bank (and back in the days when Jordan was called Transjordan). The Palestinians are no different than their Jordanian brethren since they're the same people. The same goes for Egypt, which occupied Gaza from 1948 until 1967, when it too lost that territory. The Arab states didn't want to create a new Palestinian state; they sought Israel's destruction.

That mindset hasn't changed one bit, even with the cold peace between Israel and Egypt and Jordan.

When are the Palestinians, and by extension, the entire Arab world, going to concede that they cannot destroy Israel, and that it is futile to do so? Arab regimes around the world sponsor hatefests that demonize Israel and seek its destruction as a way of controlling their own restless populations.

And these are the folks that Israel has already made peace with.

Keep in mind that these are the so-called moderates in the Middle East.

The Palestinians produce stuff that is beyond the pale in comparison and they are actively seeking Israel's destruction.

All these people feeding the hate are evil.

Yes, they're evil. They're indoctrinating kids into hating and seeking destruction and wanton murder and unending violence because Israel exists. You want peace? Start by dealing with the indoctrination of the next generation of Arab kids into seeking Israel's destruction.

The Palestinian Authority was supposed to stop spreading hatred and indoctrinating yet another generation of Arabs into seeking Israel's destruction as the highest obligation one can achieve. The Palestinian Authority never did stop spreading the hate. Hamas and Fatah continue spreading their venom, using all the means at their disposal.

But we're constantly reminded that it is Israel that must make concessions in the name of peace. What are these people giving up in the name of peace? Nothing.

The Islamists feed on the hate and spread it by calling for jihad against Israel and consider it their religious obligation to fight Israel to the last man, woman and child. These barbarians are more than willing to murder everyone in their path, and no one in the Middle East seems willing to take these Islamists head-on.

UPDATE:
Mere Rhetoric points out that the terrorists are once again firing mortars into Israel despite claiming that they were going to contemplate a ceasefire.

They contemplated, and decided to once again engage in war against Israel because that's their religious obligation.

At the same time, Bill Roggio notes a curious report noting that the US Treasury Department has sanctioned an al Qaeda terror master living in Syria.

Sa'ad Uwayyid 'Ubayd Mu'jil al Shammari, an Iraqi member of al Qaeda who operates from inside Syria, has been designated as a terrorist under Executive Order 13224. The designation allows the US to freeze his assets, prevent him from using financial institutions, and prosecute him for terrorist activities.

"We will continue to aggressively implement the international obligation to target al Qaeda-linked terrorists, like Abu Khalaf, who threaten the safety of Coalition Forces and the stability of Iraq," said Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said in a Treasury press release issued today.

Shammari, who is better known as Abu Khalaf, is known to recruit suicide bombers from North Africa and aids in setting up their travel arrangements into Syria and ultimately Iraq. “The facilitator recruited a few suicide bombers, who attempted to travel to Iraq," the Treasury press release stated.

Khalaf also helped al Qaeda suicide bombers based in the Persian Gulf region travel to the Levant to conduct suicide attacks. The Levant consists of the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea and includes Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. He is believed to operate in Tal Hamis in Syria and Tal Wardan and the 'Awinat village in t Rabiah district in Iraq.

Syria keeps bad company, and sooner or later it will come back to haunt them in a big way, although it looks like the Obama Administration will content itself with issuing directives to cut off funding for those al Qaeda in Syria, rather than demanding the regime in Damascus hand them over.

We've also been hearing reports that the Syrian support for the Iraqi insurgency has picked up in recent weeks, suggesting that whatever the Obama Administration has done vis-a-vis Syria hasn't worked. Syria is pursuing its own agenda, and that comes at the expense of the US and Israel.