Sometimes your enemies can teach you something. In fact, many times they can teach you something. Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) has now stood up as the ultimate Palestinian patriot. It’s true, he has aspired to that before, but has always fallen short. Incitement on PA TV just doesn’t cut it when compared to Hamas. Renaming signs after terrorists cannot compare to actually planning and executing the attacks like Hamas and ISIS does. So what’s left for Abbas?
Abbas has never retreated from bombastic verbiage. His latest, is that Jerusalem belongs to “Palestine.” Now that is not surprise. This time Abbas drew a red line for his own people.
“Anyone who accepts a Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital is a traitor,” Abbas said.
How refreshing. I have to say, at least Abbas can be admired for standing up and showing us what it means to be a patriot. It’s true, our own leaders have said Jerusalem is the united capital of Israel, but we have never heard Bibi Netanyahu call Isaac Herzog a traitor for advocating the division of Jerusalem.
Ideology means something or at least it should. The problem with our leaders is that the words leaving their mouths seem to be nothing more than noise. We have to be willing to be as fervent with our belief sets as our enemies or we won’t succeed in preserving our inheritance. This is not to say we should knock the other side out using violence. Our enemies can raise that flag, but we have to believe strong enough in our convictions that we call out our internal opposition for what they are, traitors.
In no way am I referring to positions concerning, health care, infrastructure, taxes, or the economy. These are agnostic policy choices that should be made based on professionalism. I am referring to Israel’s future and its connection to its past. When a politician is determined to trade away our national heritage as if it is a mere policy decision, yes that person is a traitor. When he or she supports foreign influence that has caused the death and security deterioration of the nation, yes that person is a traitor.
“He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” – Edmund Burke
Since the beginning of the Zionist Revolution and the Jewish people’s nascent liberation the political class has been afflicted by a ghetto philosophy, this dhimmitude wrought upon the Jewish nation after years in exile has yet to be shed. Advancement within the nation has occurred because the Arab population within and without the Land of Israel has forced the political class’s hands. We see this in 1948, 1967, and beyond. Despite Israel’s overwhelming strength, the government has never forced true sovereignty throughout Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. The Arab leadership are here in many ways in order to refine us and make us reach to the next level. If not the ghetto we have created would be far too comfortable to crack the complacency of ideological hollowness
Mahmoud Abbas may be a murderer, Holocaust denier, and thief, but he understands the need of the Arab street to cling to its absolutism, because for them there are things far more important than simply peace.