Video: “The Rise of Terrorism in Israel”
10.22.15
Featuring Amb. (ret.) Yoram Ettinger
Transcript of Yoram’s Speech:
Thank you very much. First and foremost Palestinian terrorism has always been as it is now institutional, never random contrary to the lone wolves myth.
We are talking about Palestinian terrorism which has deliberately, institutionally, systematically, targeted Arab and Israeli non-combatives, not only Israelis, and when one talks about Palestinian terrorism we have to turn to Arab countries in order to understand the scope of Palestinian terrorism. We are talking about Palestinian terrorism haunting Jordan, especially but not only during the 1968, 1970 Black September days. We are talking about Palestinian terrorism which has haunted Lebanon, especially but not solely from 1971 until 1982. We are talking about Palestinian terrorism haunting Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. We are talking about Palestinians serving as the ruthless arm of Saddam Hussein in Iraq until 2002, roughing up Iraqi citizens. We are talking about Palestinian terrorism serving Assad until 2012, and we’re talking about currently Palestinian terrorism fighting with the Muslim brotherhood terrorist groups inside Egypt against the regime of Sisi.
We are talking about Palestinian terrorism which has aligned itself with the anti-American regimes in the Middle East, joining forces with the Ayatollahs in Iran ever since the demise of the Shah of Iran back in 1979. We’re talking about Palestinians siding and fighting alongside Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS. In fact the spiritual mentor of Bin Laden was Abdulla Yusuf Azzam, an Arab from Samaria, and certainly we’re talking about Palestinian terrorism which has been a recent branch of Islamic terrorism which has afflicted the Middle East actually since the appearance of or the eruption of Islam back in the 7th century.
And last and not least, we are talking about anti-Jewish Palestinian terrorism, which has been Middle East fixture at least since the early 1920s, which means well well well before the 1948 establishment of Israel, certainly before the 1967 return of Jews to Judaea and Samaria, we are talking about the political guideline of contemporary terrorism mainly the Palestinian covenant it was published in 1964 three years before the reunification of Jerusalem and recently we heard about collaboration between Palestinian terrorists and Nazis, this is well documented and once again the aim then was not to constrain the size of the Jewish state the aim then as it is now was to eliminate the Jewish state altogether. By the way the very hardcore evidence of the collaboration between the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini and Hitler, the very direct the very active role of the Mufti in energizing the Nazis drive to exterminate the Jews was always highlighted at Yad Vashem until, until Oslo 1993 when the architects of the self-destruct suicidal Oslo agreement also managed to relocate the hardcore evidence about the Mufti and the Palestinians to a very remote site of Yad Vashem.
So that is a form of background to realize that are we talking about, not random highly highly endemically institutional, not a phenomena that is plaguing the Jews, only this has been a phenomena which has afflicted, plagued Arabs, as well as Jews and last and not least the involvement of Palestinians in terrorizing various Arabs, always pro-American Arab countries also caused waves of refuges from some of those countries.
Kuwait expelled 300,000 Palestinians after being liberated by the Americans and expulsion was Kuwaiti reaction to Palestinians terrorizing Kuwait. There have been more than 100,000 fleeing Syria once Assad basically lost control of Syria and they fled for fear of retribution by Syrians against Palestinian terrorism inside Syria after the demise of Saddam some 50,000 Palestinians fled Iraq for the same reason and currently Palestinians are fleeing Egypt for fear again of retribution against the backdrop of them collaborating with Muslim brotherhood terrorism.
It seems to me that one element which we should realize is the role played by American taxpayer in inflaming Palestinian terrorism. The US does channel to the coughers of the Palestinians Authority 400 million dollars every single year which basically funds the Palestinian hate education machinery from kindergarten through 12th grade in mosques and Palestinian Authority-controlled media. There is no more effective manufacturing line or production line of terrorists than the hate education which was instituted by Mahmoud Abbas back at the end of 1934 when he was Arafat’s senior deputy, he has sustained it until this very day and by now a generation and a half of Palestinians have been brainwashed into terrorism, the education system in the Judea and Samaria the Palestinian education system also highlights, it highlights the tenants of Islam which fits terrorism- such elements or tenants as the supremacy of Islam over all other religions, the permanent state of war between the abode of Islam and the abode of the so-called infidel, the duty of Muslims to bring the infidel to submission either through jihad holy war or though conversion the immiscibility of the so called so infidel sovereignty over any land which is divinely ordained to Islam, and certainly the sublime honor of sacrificing one’s life on the altar of Islam’s war on the infidel.
When one talks about Palestinian terrorism we should also be aware that Islamic terrorism has inspired terrorist groups in Europe, in Africa, in Asia as well as the American continent, including a few hundred sleeper cells in the US and obviously the more successful is perceived to be Palestinian terrorism in the Middle East, the more audacious those other terrorist elements evolve.
And then we have the issue of Palestinian terrorism in my mind providing the righting on the wall. We study this week the portion of the Torah which refers to Abraham and Abraham’s, one of his qualities was the ability to read the writing on the wall, he read the writing on the wall and he implemented it all the way to the Land of Israel. Today we have also a writing on the wall, we see Palestinian terrorism as we see for instance terrorism inside Syria. And some folks already understood the writing on the wall in Syria, namely being relieved that Israel did not retreat from the Golan Heights which would have traumatized Northern Israel. The question is do we read the writing on the wall which is provided by Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria and do we understand the consequences of any of any Israeli withdrawal from the mountain regions of Judea and Samaria with all do respect to the Golan Heights they are relevant to the tip the northern tip of northern eastern tip of Israel in the upper Galilee when it comes to the mountain regions of Judea and Samaria should Israel undertake what I would consider to be a suicidal step of retreating from the mountain regions of Judea and Samaria this would traumatize Jerusalem, Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, roughly 80% of the population of Israel, 80% of the infrastructures of Israel.
Last and not least, the question is how does one face up to Palestinian terrorism? And again first and foremost we have to turn back to the track record, and once again Abraham, Abraham was the first politically incorrect Jew. He defied the majority, he defied the odds then in the wide world. He was thinking and acting in an out of the box manor this is exactly how we should also face up to Palestinian terrorism. Namely we should condemn and remove ourselves what I would call the immoral moral equivalence, equating Israeli between counter-terrorism on the one hand, and Palestinian terrorism on the other. On the other hand we should certainly refrain from any financial or other assistance to Palestinian Authority as long as they conduct hate education. We certainly should not negotiate at all. Not directly, not indirectly with hate educators and unless we would like them to feel that they can get away with murder, there should be no contemplation of concession again until there is a dramatic transformation of the Palestinian Authority.
When it comes to political incorrectness we should shift gears. We should shift gears from chasing individual mosquitoes and we should focus on draining the swamp. Unless we drain the swamp those mosquitos will keep on coming, and when it comes to draining the swamp there are roughly three major tactics which I would suggest.
First and foremost, again elimination uprooting completely of all elements of hate education in educational institutions, religious institutions, and media institutions, and until that is undertaken no communication whatsoever with the Palestinian Authority. We should launch in my mind a large scale, disproportional, preemptive military operation throughout Judea and Samaria and the Arab sections of Jerusalem. We should ignore completely the calls mostly by Secretary of State John Kerry to restrain ourselves when it comes to self-defense, a fundamental statute in Judaism as we are taught in the Talmud by the way, you must preempt and kill he who rises up to kill you- you don’t do that- you sacrifice your own life, you destroy your own life and your family’s life. And then when it comes to solving and minimizing terrorism we should also severely punish the families and the communities of terrorists. And this is a very humane action because families and communities should not fail to exercise responsibility.
A family which does not exercise responsibility and therefore enables and facilities a son, a husband, a relative, to terrorize- should be punished in order to prevent and minimize such future occurrences, a community which does not take care of restraining its people should be punished as well. Let alone the fact that we are aware of, not only do they fail to exercise responsibility, they fail in providing inducement to such activities and we have seen that again in the policy of Mahmoud Abbas, honoring terrorists by naming streets and parks and squares and sport tournaments after them as well as financially assisting their families. All this in my mind must be uprooted if we wish to curb, to limit, and to restrain terrorism.
Last and not least if we want to frustrate Palestinian terrorism which aims to set Israel on course of retreat, we should proclaim a constructive response- namely expanding Jewish construction. They want us to retreat from our homes from Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel- we should build in those areas. In fact I would even publish a list telling terrorists you injure a Jew- 15 new housing units will be built in the area closest to the site of terrorism- if you dare murder a Jew fifty more units shall be built. And now let’s see if you are acting in a way which would expand dramatically Jewish construction in the area the more you expand terrorism the more we and in fact exponentially we are going to construct.
I’m aware such policy would trigger international pressure, would trigger American pressure, who knows maybe evens suspending military supplies, suspending joint exercises, condemning us at the UN etcetera. It seems to me that all we need to do is simply turn back to the precedent sent by the former prime ministers, all of them, from Ben Gurion through Shamir. Each one of the defied in exactly such a manner, in a much more audacious manner, American and international pressure and punishments. Each one of them was a victim of short term international pressure, inconvenience, hardship, but all of them gained tremendously as far as long term strategic respect which was translated into more and more, larger and larger scope of cooperation, especially with the US. Not only irrespective of their defiance, precisely because of that defiance, I don’t think that Americans are looking for an ally who is a wimp, and in retreat on a rainy day, they would like a defiant much more than a wimpy ally.
Q & A Session:
Well, calling upon them is highly, highly or lowly, lowly ineffective. There is no need for talk, there is a need for walk. And it seems to me that morally speaking, strategically, practically speaking, there should be as of a few years ago or as of this moment, an end special of all, and I emphasis ALL direct, indirect financial, agricultural, irrigation, medical, everything, no more contacts with the Palestinian Authority. By the way, as would be the case with any hate educator. I have no doubt that whether you have a Republican or Democrat in the White House, no American president would tolerate hate educators in any state of the union. Such organization or individuals defiantly would not be in Washington, federal government, state government or local government. Assisting them, there’s no doubt in my mind they would be tried and probably put behind bars. Sent away, sent away, from any civilized society. In this case of Palestinian hate education we are not only talking about verbal hate education, we are talking about actually terrorism which murders people, targeting Arab and Israeli non-combatants. It seems to me when it comes to the US and Israel, they should set the tone and make it clear to Abbas and every Palestinian in Judea and Samaria, no more working in Israel, no more benefiting from Israel and likewise with the US until you approve completely, and I emphasis completely, and better yet demonstrate for the next year then we certainly will show our appreciation by renewing contact.
Well I can go back to the eruption of the second intifada in 2000, Barak was the Prime Minister. His reaction was wimpy, restraint, and his reaction was building walls, which certainly not only does not stop Palestinian terrorism, it adrenalizes them because they detect fear, retreat and lack of will to flex real muscle. That caused Barak to become the shortest serving PM in Israeli history. He was resoundingly defeat by Sharon, right away launched unrestrained, highly disproportional military operations throughout Judea and Samaria, broke the back of the second intifada and until this very day, as a result of this reaction, the Israeli military and secret service is at liberty to operate anywhere they want in Judea and Samaria. Whether it be area A,B,C, downtown Nebulas, Hebron and the PA has no authority to stop them. Unfortunately at this moment, to the best of my knowledge, and I don’t pretend to know anything, but I have not noticed Israeli following that policy or tactic. And until we do that, we are not going to resurrect our postural deterrence. And that is the main issue. The proof is in the pudding. They do not take our postural deterrence seriously. If they would have, they would not have resorted to institutionalized terrorism. They assume we are not at this stage of disproportional all-out military operation. One more element we should realize. For Israel to undertake such disproportional, decisive, comprehensive and unrestraint military action would serve the best interest of the vast majority of Palestinians. It takes one to drive around Judea and Samaria to realize that those Palestinians who do not reside in Abbas sections of Ramallah are oppressed by very, very dictatorial corrupt regime. 30-40% unemployment is only one reflection of the regime in Ramallah but the total lack of civil liberties is another reflection. Maybe most importantly, Palestinians vote with their feet. Emigration from Judea and Samaria by Arabs has increased substantially since the year 2000. Until then, it was mostly Christians. The corrupt, ruthless regime of Abbas and before that Arafat forced Christians out of Bethlehem, out of Ramallah, the headquarters of Abbas, is almost devoid of Christians. It used to be majority Christian until Oslo. Bethlehem used to be majority Christian, now its maybe 15%. Beit Jala probably even slimmer Christian minority. In 2014, net 25,000 left Judea Samaria, the number of those exiting over the number of those returning was 25,000. The year before it was 20,000 net immigration. The year before that it was 17,000 net immigration. And again almost all of them Muslims. Moreover, the daily flow of Arabs from Judea and Samaria into Jerusalem, some of them are terrorists, but the vast, vast, vast, majority aim to enter Jerusalem in order to eventually get an Israeli ID card, becoming permanent residents of Jerusalem. They aim to benefit from Israeli social security and other benefits, but mostly human rights. And it seems to me those voting with their legs, they tell us something about the true sentiments in Judea and Samaria where Arabs refer to the regime of Abbas, before that Arafat, as the Tunisian Sodom and Gomorrah.
As I tried to highlight that the Palestinian terrorism has been an endemic featured since at least the early 1920s. It has hit more Arabs than Jews and therefore there is no doubt it has been institutional, not random. Certainly when we examine hate education school textbooks K-12. The whole talks about lone wolves is spread mostly by people who are ignorant of Middle East reality, but also by people who do have responsibility in combatting terrorism, but they do not want to expose their own vulnerabilities, their own lack of capabilities, their own lack of backbone and therefore they spread this myth of lone wolf. Palestinian terrorism is anything but lone wolves. Just ask the Jordanians who got a taste of it between 1968 1970 when Palestinian terrorism aimed at targeting the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Just ask the Lebanese who still taste Palestinian terrorism inside Lebanon, and other countries as well. Certainly Kuwait who tasted it back in 1990. None of them assumes Palestinian terrorism is that of lone wolf, and by the way it has been reflected by the attitudes of Arab countries toward the Palestinians. The other day I went through the different issues of the most important Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat and I went back, back to January all the way to today examining their opinion pages. There are maybe one, maybe two at most, opinion columns/articles in the last 10 months in Asharq al- Awsat that deal with the Palestinian issue. The Saudis are not backing the Palestinians and calls for Palestinian terrorism. None of the other Gulf countries has backed them. Certainly Jordan and Egypt do not. And yes we hear the talk, but we have not seen the walk, not even the columns, opinion columns in their own media. Lets go back to 2014 we saw Hamas terrorism in Gaza all, all pro-U.S. Arab countries supported Israel’s war on Hamas terrorism for a simple reason: they are aware that Palestinian terrorism haunts their won homeland security and therefore they have not ever in fact flexed a muscle on behalf of Palestinians, other than their talking muscle. They have not showered Palestinians with resources, only with rhetoric. Anybody who examines Arab pledges of support for Palestinians would know that only a glimpse of those pledges actually reaches the back. The rest remains as talk but never translated into walk.
It seems to me that Americans should act in accordance with American interests as well as America values, American morality. I don’t think anyone would argue that hate education defies American values. Hardly anybody can argue the fact that hate education feeds terrorism. Nobody can ignore the fact that Palestinian hate education, just like Iranian hate education, targets the arrogant infidel, the Great Satan, as they call the USA, and therefore it seems to me it behooves those who control the purse of the taxpayer, mainly the legislature, to take adequate steps. And its mindboggling that American legislators have not yet not yet suspended all financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority. In fact I am bewildered that American legislators have not legislated a suspension of all contacts with the PA until there is an end to hate education. Some of us remember how did the white regime in South Africa crumbled. It was not because of any international resolutions, it was not because of international pressure, it was not because of international sanctions, it was because of one vote on Capitol Hill, House and Senate, which called, not called, stipulated/legislated an end to all direct and indirect contacts with the white regime of South Africa. Then President Regan vetoed it, the veto was overturned by both chambers and that was the end of the white regime in South Africa. When I compare the PA with the white regime in South Africa, the only difference is that the white regime in South Africa was pro-American. The PA is both hate education regime and anti-civil liberties regime, but also endemically anti-American, but still gets $400 million every single year which lets face it funds hate education, funds terrorism, funds anti-American movements in the Middle East.
My suggestion to Americans and I’m talking now to Americans, my suggestion is to focus on what is good and what is bad for America. And as I tried to highlight, we have ample evidence of systematic, deliberate, institutional campaign of terrorism, targeting pro-American Arabs, targeting American interests in the region, hate education which is anti-American and hate education which contradicts American values. All elements which relate to the Jewish state, which relates to Jewish religion, which relates to Jewish sites, are reported, but I do not believe that they should be the centerpiece of any effort here in this country in the USA. If Palestinian Authority activities are not significant as far as American interest then I would say realistically one should not expect American legislators to divert their attention away from major American concerns with an insignificant issue. But this one is very significant. Significant strategically, significant ideologically, it’s significant morally and its significant as far as the impact on the American taxpayers money which is being abused, misused and directed against the very interest of the American taxpayer and I think that this should be the highlight or the crux of any contact with American legislators. Which I believe at the end of the day is the most effective venue. It is very important to speak in schools, universities, synagogues, and churches. I do it myself. But much more important- critically important – is ongoing communications with House Members, Senators, and probably most importantly their professional staffers. They control the purse, they are co-equal, they are co-determining. It’s true that in most cases sadly they have relinquished their co-equal and co-determining role in accordance with the US Constitution, but the muscle is there. And should they be aware of the consequences, should they be aware of what is at stake I believe they also will take into action and to get them into action. I think the attention should be paid why is it important to them rather than why is it important to the Jewish state.
The capabilities are to deport anywhere we wish whether that is to Gaza or somewhere in the Indian Ocean or in the pacific or anywhere, the capabilities are there. The question is is the will power there? Is the understanding there? And also most very importantly just like in this country so it is in Israel, there is always arm-wrestling between the various branches of government. And therefore the executive, the legislature, the military, can aspire for one tactic, but then as happened in recent days the courts in Israel, the judiciary, may declare it non-constitutional, that requires obviously legislation. The judiciary may declare something illegal because there is no law, which justifies it, whether it is demolition, whether it is expulsion, whether it is incarceration, of whatever. The power of the Knesset in this area is to legislate updated laws which would minimize the possibility of the judiciary interfering in a determined battle against Palestinian terrorism.
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