A Clarification of the Two State Solution: It is no mystery to those who know me that I support a two-state solution to the Palestinian/Israeli situation. This is not I must emphasize a reversal of my support for the Jewish people and the Jewish state. When I witnessed Arabs running up the hillside of the Golan and Israeli soldiers shooting them (they have a right to protect the security of the state) it made me reactive and nervous. I began to think we need to do something quickly or they will be climbing in hordes from every side right into the Israeli state since they dwarf Jews numerically. I feared the IDF would not be able to stop thousands of Arabs and Palestinians possibly without guns doing something for the cameras by, perhaps, using passive non-violent Gandhiesque resistance. It would not sit well in American or European living rooms to watch on TV the IDF gun down unarmed people even though Israelis have a right to defend the Jewish state. I am, I think, quite rationally concerned.
Moreover, I recently heard that some, perhaps even many, Jews inside of Israel are seeking citizenship from other nations such as Austria or the US because they fear the impending elimination of the Israeli state and the predictable violence that would ensue. I was emotionally driven by this prospect to research that assertion from whom I consider reliable sources. My sources said that was absolute propaganda and while a few might do that it is microscopic in relation to those Jews who are citizens of Israel and would never leave. The man suggesting this alleged fact, Franklin Lamb, is a strong supporter of Hezbollah in Lebanon who is committed to the annihilation of the Jewish state. I am going to glean additional responses to his assertion to verify its veracity. Researching it, however, brought one truth to light and that is the ancient anti-Semitism we thought was at an end because of the Holocaust is, indeed, alive and well especially during economic downturns. The vitriolic hatred of the Jew is mind numbing. If you do not believe me, then Google it.
I am frightened by both what happened to the Jewish people in 1930's Europe and I am desperately afraid of it ever happening again. Up until now there was little reason to fear it but we remained, of course, always vigilant. There is little doubt in my mind that it is not possible that the majority of Jewish citizens of Israel would abandon the Jewish state without taking down the entire region with them. If Jews have learned nothing else from our history we have learned that it is not possible to negotiate from a position of weakness. Israel is, we all know, armed to the teeth and before the Jewish people could not have that state they would make damn well sure no one else would have it either.
There is no question in my mind, too, that Israel is the freest of all states in the Middle East. The Jewish people are smart and know that the State of Israel must possess overwhelming military strength and, in fact, not hesitate to use it IF the Jewish state faces an existential threat. It is unacceptable to the Jewish people for anyone to overthrow it.
Having said that I want a two state solution and believe it must be carved out quickly. We must though stand strong, we must stand united and we must question why our fellow Jews at times betray their own people given the Jewish history they know. I often use the metaphor of homosexuals because I believe the humanity of a nation state toward them says something about the nature and essence of a culture. There is nowhere in the Middle East and all of Islam where one, if he or she is homosexual, could live openly except in Israel. That is telling as is the abduction of the gay woman in Iran. If she is alive it will be miraculous but Ahmadinejad says there are, of course, NO homosexuals in Iran. Believe that and he'll tell you another such as the Holocaust never happened.
The state of Israel must be recognized, it must be secure and it must be unharmed if there can ever be the possibility of a two state solution. It is a two state solution I want as President Obama enunciated at AIPAC. It MUST be done, I believe now, with all deliberate speed while never sacrificing the security of the Jewish state. I will NEVER abandon my people or the Jewish state and although I am too young to remember the events of our ugliest Shoah period in Nazi occupied Europe, I think about the six million living in Europe’s death camps when the weather is blistering hot, when the weather is freezing cold, and every rain-soaked and clear day in between. I think about them every day of my life. I never forget them and I always remember -- Never Again!
