PrintAugust 10, 2008
There Is No Such Thing as Making Peace
On September 10th, 1964, the Radio Times, a British magazine, quoted President Woodrow Wilson that, "Right is more precious than peace." The great humorist, Jerome K. Jerome, suggested many years before that, "... we all love peace, but not peace at any price."
In actuality, peace is a paradox, especially when applied to the world of politics. Peace is only a reality between states that are friendly towards each other. They, after all, do not need to make peace. But the nation that strives for peace with an enemy can only find it when both parties have reached sufficient deterrent power to prevent warfare.
The peaceniks, the liberal groups, the lefties, and all those who shout out the vacuous phrase, "peace and justice," have turned those once noble words into soiled and tarnished rags. They have become the very folk who, through one of life's supreme ironies, shout down other voices - often attended by their own violent acts - and thus become guilty of the very behavior they claim to oppose.
The universities and colleges have become hotbeds of radicalized students who chant slogans of peace and justice yet howl down invited speakers with whom they disagree. Free speech withers on today's university campus while professors, smiling indulgently, espouse the monolithic message of the Left, which tolerates no disagreement.
That word, "peace" has permeated the democracies for decades and flowed from numerous pulpits. But despite untold forests cut down in order to produce posters, books, banners, placards and learned tomes calling for peace, there is less peace in the world today and more hypocrites selling it like snake oil peddlers.
On the banks of the East River in New York City stands the Temple of Peace, the huge United Nations building that claims to be its repository, but which in reality is the ultimate Temple to Hypocrisy.
The worshippers of Peace are the supreme idealists who never abandon their dreams even if their naïve acts lead them to inadvertently make tyrants stronger and create living nightmares for the very victims for whom they claim they are bringing peace.
There is no such thing as making peace. If a nation desires peace with its neighbor, but that neighbor implacably rejects peace, then any imposed peace process from outside is nothing more than a handmaiden to futility or worse.
The peacemaker often creates a catastrophic erosion of security for the peace loving nation, which because of its peaceful intentions is the only party that is then leaned upon to make endless and one sided concessions to a belligerent enemy. Such has been the curse of the peace process for Israel in its attempts to survive relentless Arab aggression.
Israel's leaders have sought peace above all else and considered its attainment with hostile neighbors as the great panacea. But making peace must never be the goal of a nation when confronted by enemies who look upon peace with contempt.
For almost a century Jews have begged the Arab world to agree to a lasting peace. They have offered what no other nation or people would dream of offering to a belligerent. But they have received nothing for the simple reason that the Muslim Arab is only interested in a limited ceasefire so as to continue aggression against the Jews as soon as he feels strong enough.
Deterrence, unwavering strength and deterrence, is the only salvation for Israel against the Islamic onslaught just as it is for an equally blinded West increasingly confronted with Islamic terrorism.
To cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, as the Jewish prophet, Jeremiah, taught us long ago, is not an expression of hope but a foolish and dangerous abrogation of reality. It dulls the mind and the aspiration of a people who then become lost and blinded under a veritable veil of deception.
Peace is impossible for a nation like Israel without its own demonstration of unassailable military strength and its utter rejection of concessions to an implacable enemy. The Arab world respects strength. It treats concessions with complete and utter scorn. It considers overtures of peace as a sign of weakness and becomes emboldened in its aggression.
When that enemy is an Arab entity unwilling to make any concession whatsoever, and when the world expects Israel always to give and the Arabs always to take, then to continue along that same path to nowhere, becomes an Israeli self-delusion, leading to worse: Self destruction.
It is high time for Israel to be making demands upon the Arabs, starting with territorial concessions from the vast Arab world. Based upon prior precedents in Muslim history going back to the time of Mohammed and his dealings with the Queresh tribe in Mecca, the Arabs will never make peace or accept a Jewish sovereign state in territory they have previously conquered in the name of Allah.
Thus, Israel should now begin reclaiming territory it has foolishly given away since the Oslo "peace" Accords. The Arabs will be forced to accept such demands if they finally realize that the Jewish state is once again so overwhelmingly strong militarily, morally and spiritually that they simply cannot destroy it.
There is no hope for the Jewish state surviving in the nastiest neighborhood in the world if it presents itself as inwardly irresolute and unwilling to engage in war. The Arab adversary should always be fully aware that Israel is resolute, steadfast and more ready to wage war than agree to a fraudulent peace.
If the Arab and Muslim world rejects Israel, it must live with the consequences of its enmity and become the ultimate loser. A Jewish state, which no longer seeks to make peace at any price will prosper and grow. It will also engender respect from both its friends and its enemies.
As W.B Yeats once wrote, "... peace under a semblance of peace ... is but a manifold illusion." And discussing self proclaimed peacemakers, A.N. Whitehead described their efforts as "...a deliberate aim at Peace, which very easily passes into its bastard substitute; anesthesia."
Victor Sharpe is author of the book: Politicide - The attempt to murder the Jewish state.
