Home
In this issue
May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review April 5, 2007 / 17 Nissan, 5767

Misleading analogy ignores history

By Jonathan Tobin



Printer Friendly Version

Email this article



Irish peace agreement gives false hope to those who want more pressure on Israel


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Last week's dramatic meeting between two Irish leaders was the sort of thing no one imagined possible.


Rev. Ian Paisley, the fearsome octogenarian tribune of Northern Ireland Protestants, and Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the terrorist Provisional Irish Republican Army, sat down in Belfast to make peace. Though it has been nine years since the IRA first agreed to a cease-fire and to participate in a constitutional process to determine the future of six of the counties of the province of Ulster, the willingness of these two extremists to talk seems to herald the final stage of the Irish peace process.


The scene was, in its own way, every bit as incredible as the dramatic Oslo peace accord signing on the White House Lawn in September 1993, when an equally unlikely pairing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

DREAMS OF PEACE
Just as that event spawned hope not just for the Middle East but elsewhere as well, the Belfast meeting has encouraged every dewy-eyed dreamer of peace to think big. After all, if Paisley — the implacable "Dr. No" of Ulster — can make nice with the IRA, surely anything is possible.


That's just what observers of the Middle East are saying this week as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appears to have abandoned the Bush administration's prior unwillingness to strong-arm Israel to make concessions to the Arabs. So when, among others, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin wrote to make an analogy between Ireland and the Mideast this week, her agenda was to help build support for such a policy of pressure on Israel.


Since so many are fixated on the Irish breakthrough and its relevance to the Middle East, it's worth taking the time to analyze that situation and to see just how misleading this analogy can be.


Unlike the Israeli-Arab stand-off, where one side (the Palestinians) still refuses to accept the legitimacy of their opponents' existence as a separate state, the historic acceptance of a two-state solution in Ireland happened 85 years ago, not last week.


In 1922, Britain finally gave up its fight to hold on to all of Ireland, and agreed to terms with the leadership of the Irish republican movement that had been waging a guerrilla war against them. Irish leader Michael Collins achieved independence for the people of Ireland after 700 years of British rule. But he had to pay a bitter price for it.


Collins had to concede that six of Ireland's 32 counties with Protestant majorities would stay with Britain, as the majority of those who lived in Ulster had always wanted. But, like the Palestinians who have spurned offers of as much as a state in all of the West Bank and even a share of Jerusalem, some of Collins' colleagues opposed the deal.


The result was the Irish civil war that pitted Collins' "Free-Staters," who accepted the peace with Britain, against a rump of the IRA, who would accept nothing less than a united Ireland. With the support of the overwhelming majority of the Irish people, the Free-Staters won the war, though Collins was assassinated. Collins' antagonists later won control of Ireland via elections, though no Irish government has ever attempted to undo the treaty and conquer Ulster.


Since 1922, the conflict has been about whether or not a portion of Ireland — the majority of whose inhabitants do not wish to sever their allegiance to Britain — would be compelled to do so.


Though the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland may have had legitimate grievances against the Protestant majority, the goal of the Provisional IRA and its political wing Sinn Fein was to forcibly absorb all of Ulster into the Irish Republic.


Their campaign of terror to achieve this end was opposed by the majority of the population of Northern Ireland, as well as by the majority of Catholics in the independent south. Yet with Northern Irish Catholics as sick of the bloodshed as their Protestant rivals, and with both Britain and the Irish Republic united in their opposition to terror, the "provos" finally gave up in 1998. Resuming a terrorist war simply isn't an option for the IRA or Paisley's own ultras.


The contrast between this scenario — and the one facing Israel and the Palestinians — couldn't be clearer.


Unlike the Irish, who agreed to a historic partition for peace, the Palestinians have yet to meaningfully do so, despite the plethora of peace deals that Israeli leaders have signed with them in the last 14 years.

WHERE IS THEIR COLLINS?
Some may have thought that Arafat was the Palestinian Michael Collins, a leader willing to risk his life in order to secure peace through compromise with his foes and a willingness to face down his own extremists, but that was never in the cards. The notion that Hamas might take such a step is laughable.


Hamas is based in an extremist faith, not a belief in secular self-determination like Irish republicanism. Their oft-stated goal is simply the destruction of the State of Israel. Were they, or their more secular rivals in Fatah, merely interested in Palestinian statehood, they could have achieved that a long time ago.


Conversely, the Irish never begrudged the right of the British to rule Britain; they just wanted them out of Ireland. The Arabs still oppose the existence of Israel within any borders, including the cease-fire lines of 1949. Their war against the Jews predates the "occupation" of 1967. Israel has always been willing to compromise. Their acceptance of numerous partition plans through the years that were repudiated by the Arabs proves this.


Even more significantly, for all of the bitterness and hatred that kept the "troubles" boiling so long, there is no comparing the cultures of either side in Ireland to the eliminationist mentality of the Palestinians. Theirs is a culture based on the delegitimization of Israel and the Jews, not an agenda of national revival.


Even the "Saudi plan" includes a provision calling for the "return" of Palestinian refugees to Israel. That is tantamount to mandating the end of the Jewish state. Even if the Israelis — desperate not to allow any daylight between themselves and the Americans — say it can be discussed, it is no path to peace.


The Palestinians already have their Paisleys and Adamses. But until they find their Michael Collins — or, more importantly, create a culture that might produce one — there will be no such thing as peace, no matter how often Condi Rice shuttles between Ramallah and Jerusalem.


As long as outsiders encourage the Palestinians in their madness — something the Rice-backed Saudi plan seems to be doing — a day of peace for Israel such as the one the Irish now celebrate, will be put off even further.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Let him know what you think by clicking here.

Jonathan Tobin Archives




© 2005, Jonathan Tobin