I was very impressed by an article on Einat Wilf by Herb Kenon, the frequent columnist in the Jerusalem Post. Wilf had been a higher up in the government of Ehud Barak when he sought to bring about a two-state solution with Yasir Arafat with Bill Clinton mediating. Clinton famously said to Arafat that he made him a failure. After this, Arafat called for violent terrorism against Israel in an intifada. Then there was the offer of Olmert, such a generous offer that many were both upset and amazed. Yet Mahmud Abbas refused it. Wilf was on the inside of negotiations on the Barak team and followed closely with the Olmert offer. She also was a keen observer of the results of the withdrawal from Gaza and rather than choose freedom, Gaza was turned into an armed fortress involving almost the whole of the civilian population areas. This was before the Olmert offer. Sharon, the Prime Minister who withdrew from Gaza had died. Now Olmert the withdrawal would motivate Abbas for a peace agreement. He walked away.
Though it was hard for her, she came to the conclusion that the Palestinians do not want a state under any two-state formula but that this is only put forward as propaganda for the world. What they want is one thing, the elimination of Israel. As part of this, she chides both Bibi Netanyahu and Joe Biden for saying that their war was not against the Palestinians but against Hamas. She believes that this is delusional because the Gazans and most of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) choose Hamas and are also dedicated to the elimination of Israel. She calls this Palestinianism an ideology of the necessity of the erasure of Israel. Israel must not be allowed to exist as a nation-state on any part of the Land. (“From the River to the Sea” as the chant goes.”) Only by facing that we are at war with the Palestinians who support Hamas can we begin to face that only overcoming this ideology will bring victory, and fighting the war does mean a more realistic view of the task. I think that it requires an occupation and reeducation, if not by Israel then by other nations together who would be committed to re-education. David Biven, the Foreign Secretary at the end of the British mandate described the problem,
“His Majesty’s Government have thus been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles. For the Jews, the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish state. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine.”
It was and so it continues. She even speaks of dialogue with moderate Palestinians who deny that Israel is a people but claim it is a religion and has no right to a state. Of course, Israel is a people with even a very strong genetic unity.
Wilf also presents other very important insights. She describes the antisemitism behind the anti-Israel orientation of the nations. Whatever the problem the world faces, somehow the Jews plug into the equation as foundational to the problem. She notes the words as placards, colonialism, racism, apartheid, imperialism or white supremacy. I add communism (Marx was a Jew). Somehow the Jews are responsible in every case. This is astonishing but is historically true. Whatever the evil is in the discourse of the time the world would be better off without the collective Jew. This is astonishing. Nothing has to be based on real truth or analysis but the propaganda of media reigns. Constant repetition of the lies establish the lies in the mindset of a population. It will require a massive effort to counter this.
For Wilf this is just the way history has developed. However, for those who believe the Bible, this no accident of history. Rather it is a manifestation of dark demonic evil and the opposition to Jewish destiny. That destiny is to be an instrument of the redemption of the World and the return of Yeshua. The Jewish people/Israel are a great proof of the truth of the Bible and all the powers of evil have to oppose the Jewish people, God’s living apologetic for the truth.