You sure do, Shimon. You sure do. You have to close your eyes to the jihad ideology. You have to close your eyes to the history of dhimmitude, and to the statements by Hamas leaders about reviving it. You have to close your eyes to the genocidal Jew-hatred that so many of the jihadists against Israel have expressed. You have to close your eyes to the outrage that Israel represents, simply by existing, in the eyes of Muslims who believe that non-Muslims have no right to hold authority in land that rightfully belongs to the dar al-Islam. You have to close your eyes very, very tight when they come for us, and soon, very soon, peace will indeed come.
"Peres Says Peace Is Made by Closing the Eyes," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu for Israel National News, November 19 (thanks to Pamela):
(IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres told Diaspora Jewish leaders Monday, "You have to close your eyes" to make peace. He also reasoned that a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority will encourage Sunni Muslims against Ahmadinejad.Speaking at the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Committees, he said that "making peace is a little bit like marriage [and] you have to close your eyes and accept what is possible to accept." His audience laughed and applauded.
He also explained his reasoning why surrendering Judea and Samaria to the PA and establishing a new Arab state in their place would have a domino effect on peace in the Middle East.
It would have been interesting to hear such "reasoning." One wonders if he has a shred of evidence beyond closed-eyes hope for the idea that the creation of yet another Arab state hostile to Israel and bordering upon Israel will somehow quench the flames of the jihad.
See no evil? Must be a monkey.
Speaking at the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Committees, he said that "making peace is a little bit like marriage [and] you have to close your eyes and accept what is possible to accept." His audience laughed and applauded.
...........................
Thank God I don't have the sort of marriage Peres seems to be referring to. I suppose it's the sort of "if I'm really, really nice to him, maybe he won't hit me so often" type.
If that's the case, it might be better to get a restraining order, buy a gun, spend some time at the shooting range, and ask your friends and neighbors to keep an eye out for you.
If you make it difficult enough for the guy, he might actually leave you alone, even if he will always bear a grudge.
You have to decide that a threat to "wipe you off the map" is not "acceptable"--and that he means it quite literally.
Closing your eyes is not the answer. Having your eyes open is the answer, and keeping them open may just enable your survival.
Peres is drawing the wrong lesson from his metaphor.
The sooner this dinosaur, and the rest of these Israeli fools go extinct, the better off Israel will be. These idiots who preach the garbage of the Carter administration era truly have not only their eyes closed, but their ears, and brains closed off to reality. Sure, surrender more JEWISH land to the islamofacists so they will be all that much closer to Israel to launch more missles and who knows what else!
Peres needs to have his hand on the trigger and be willing to use the weapons at Israel's disposal, but he won't. He will keep on this insane track to hell for the Israeli people. The entire current Israeli should be given the boot now and not wait until February of 2009. The only thing these islamofacist pigs understand is a complete and total butt kicking, not once but over and over until they get the point. Maybe even the point of Israeli misssles returning the favor, with who knows what!
Reminds me of that awful film, Kubrick's last, "Eyes Wide Shut".
Kapo Peres.
And I thought at one time he could be PM-material.
How wrong was I.
Do you have too click your heels three times as well?
...surrendering Judea and Samaria to the PA and establishing a new Arab state in their place would have a domino effect on peace in the Middle East.
Because it worked so well in Gaza:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/8369
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B43BCCB2-1248-4FFB-8ADE-CC9689E47840
This is willful ignorance plus willful blindness plus Einstein's definition of insanity.
Bring back Bibi!
Of all people, Peres should know from his own experience that this "eye-closing" business doesn't work, because the other party always has the eyes wide open.
1. His own marriage seems to be on the rocks. His wife doesn't live with him at the President's Residence and doesn't even visit.
2. Recently, at the "Interfaith" gathering at the UN, he called to revive the Saudi Plan, closing both eyes on the problematic provisions stipulating the return of the Palestinian refugees. But the other side's eyes were wide open and King Abdullah was quick to remind him that crucial paragraph of the Saudi plan (among other problematic issues).
So much for eye-closing.
Although in my view he should keep at it because useful idiots can be beneficial to more sides than one.
Sometimes, I despair. Remember the Israel of Entebbe? Is it still there somewhere?
More on Shimon Of Chelm here:
http://newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/17986
Among the statements by Shimon Peres collected in the piece to which a link is given just above are these:
I have always tended to be overly optimistic.
An army that can occupy knowledge has yet to be built. And that is why armies of occupation are passé.
It is no wonder that war, as a matter of conducting human affairs, is in its death throes and that the time has come to bury it.
Anyone who wants peace and security will get neither.
It was a mistake to bomb the nuclear reactor in Iraq.
Between ten bunkers and ten hotels, ten hotels are also defense.
We are discovering that all the things we are fighting for are not so important.
The more we give up land, we discover we have more Ph.D.s per kilometer -- so we are going to make a living on the Ph.D.s and not on the mileage.
[In the Knesset, to Benjamin Netanyahu]: You were in America and you are still in a daze. You have just come back and, believe you me, you have not got a clue what we are talking about.
We are in transition from a world of identifiable enemies to one of unidentifiable problems.
What we have to do is to economize our policies, and not to politicize our economies, which is so costly and so expensive. Dictatorship, nowadays, is so expensive that only rich countries can afford it. Poor countries can hardly suffer it -- with an outsized secret service, the censorship, the permanent control, the worries, the suspicion, the narrowness, the closeness, the ignorance.
I have become totally tired of history, because I feel history is a long misunderstanding.
[Describing his courtship]: Her name was Sonia, and she was eventually to become my wife. I sought to impress her by reading to her, sometimes by the light of the moon, selected passages from Marx's Das Kapital.
The blind shall lead the blind yet into a ditch.
"Anyone who wants peace and security will get neither."
My God.
The only kind of peace you can make with the Arabs right now is a cease fire as we have with North Korea. It isn't a true peace and nobody is fooled into believing it is. The Palestinians have made a bad bargain. The days when the PLO was a Russian proxy are long over. Their wealthy Arab and Iranian backers have no interest in a real peace.
Lots of things going on with Israeli "leaders" make my blood boil these days. With every new idiocy from that quarter, I rail against it to an old Israeli warrior I know (who has not one illusion regarding what the Arabs want, believe me.
Though he knows Israel can never give up, or back down, he sometimes gently says to me that Israelis are tired. They've been fighting for their existence for so long, they are wearing out. I look at this site listing the terrorist attack casualties and deaths
and get a sense of what he is talking about.
I fear for that "eternal canary in the coal mine".
Peres might as well say, "you have to lay back and enjoy it," during the rape.
Yeah Bibi...I always did like him...
"He (Peres) also reasoned that a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority will encourage Sunni Muslims against Ahmadinejad."
Excuse me, but aren't the sunnis against Ahmadinejad already? Who is Peres trying to please? Obviously NOT the people of Israel.
Peres needs to forget the analogy of riding a scary amusement park rollercoaster and get on with reality.
Vee
I think the Israelis would be less tired if they knew more people around the world were backing them, morally and physically.
The levels of overt and covert antisemitism in the west, thanks to about fifty years of Muslim oil-funded propaganda, are becoming quite frightening.
We can stand up to that - to antisemitism, especially in its covert form of 'antizionism' - in our own churches and communities, every time we get the chance.
Every time we hear someone trashing Israel and repeating the Big Lies that the Muslims have taught them, we can call them on it. We can write to our politicians and newspaper editors and church leaders and use the terminology Hugh Fitzgerald has been teaching us - Slow Jihad (Fatah), Fast Jihad (Hamas); we can advertise Bat Yeor's 'The Dhimmi' and Bostom's 'Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism' for all we're worth, because they're the 'Rosetta Stone' for the Middle East 'situation'; we can tell people about the Treaty of Hudaybiyya and *why* the 'two states side by side' thing is a snare and a delusion. And we just have to keep on doing it.
Every little bit helps - visit the English-language blogs at the 'Jerusalem Post' and leave encouraging comments; refer to Spencer, Bat Yeor, Bostom's books.
When and if some awful jihadist attack occurs - as, for example, the jihadi massacre of yeshiva students in Jerusalem, earlier this year - write to the Israeli Ambassador in your home country, and express condolences. Let them know you know what they're facing. I think they will find it refreshing if they get letters from people who express condolences for bereaved Jewish families whilst making NO excuses whatsoever for the jihadists!
There are groups that do things like sponsor care packages for IDF soldiers, or for the many Jewish families in Israel that live on or under the poverty line.
If you visit Caroline Glick's website, you will find a link to a very interesting group called 'The New Guardians of Israel', or something like that. You can donate to support them.
I've thought that, during Hanukkah, individuals or groups that support Israel might consider displaying Hanukkah lights as a sign of solidarity (after due consultation with their local Jewish community).
Buying a Star of David pendant, say, and wearing it - my plan is to get one and wear it every Sabbath (the rest of the time I wear a pendant with a cross) - is another way of showing solidarity, and could be a good conversation-starter in some parts of the West. Have your Hugh-Fitzgerald-inspired Arguments For Israel all ready to go!
I'm hoping that the upcoming Jerusalem Conference, 'Facing Jihad', that Arieh Eldad is organising, may make some difference. Anyone from the UK or Europe who's reading this, should find out which of their politicians is attending, and be sure to give such people encouragement and, where applicable, votes.
Those of us who are praying people, should pray: Psalm 83 is very apposite.
The quotes at the NER and other absurdities from Peres' mouth are unfortunately authentic. Such as: We can't learn from history.
Anyhow, Vee's old Israeli warrior friend is a fool. He does not know the people in Israel today.
In 2006, the people were ready, even eager, to fight the Hizbullah. But the army was misled. The diplomacy led by idiot Tsipi was harmful and a surrender to the State Dept, the UK Foreign Office and other enemies. The people were betrayed. Your friend seems to know only the Vichyite clique led by Peres. He is out of touch, it seems to me, except with that Vichyite leadership clique.
Bear in mind that Peres was NEVER elected to a high office in Israel. He has been prime minister twice, but both times because Yits'haq Rabin could no longer serve. The first time Rabin was caught in a scandal, mere peanuts of course to what Olmert had done [and possibly, to what Peres himself has done that we don't know about]. The second time that Peres became PM was because Rabin was killed.
Nor was Peres elected to be president of the state by the people. Under Israel's system, the president is elected by the Knesset [parliament]. However, Peres was not even elected president by the Knesset. He simply became president. What happened is that there were three candidates. The Knesset voted and none of the candidates got a majority. But, unfortunately, Peres got the most votes. Then, the other two candidates both resigned, unfortunately. Then, without another vote being taken, Peres was somehow made president. The probable reason that another vote was not taken was because certain influential persons feared that if there were a secret ballot for the office of president --and Peres were the only candidate-- he still might lose. That is, if the question were Peres for Presdent, yes or no, the majority might have voted No. So in order not to take chances with democracy, he was simply made president.
Not very democratic but it's all for the sake of peace [today's last refuge of a scoundrel] and some might argue that such a dishonest, undemocratic procedure helps us fit better into the usual Middle Eastern corruption and autocracy.
If closing your eyes is too hard to acquire peace, a blindfold and a last cigarette may be provided.
"Peres Says Peace Is Made by Closing the Eyes...
It's hard to comment on something that profound.
I know there is a hidden, deep message in there somewhere.
One word...Bibi...His theme song could be that of Mighty Mouse, 'Here I come to save the day'...
Every thing else has failed Israel, give Bibi a try...
Look -for all those who see Bibi as the great hope of Israel-examine the facts. Netanyahu caved under pressure of Clinton and US State Dept. and he gave up Hevron. He talks a big tough game but he is a politician-and he will say one thing and do another. He even had the Golan in his sights to give up. He bends in the wind with the latest polls.
" For sake of peace, Israel must aid Palestinian economy "-Netanyahu
Speaking at the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Committees, he said that "making peace is a little bit like marriage [and] you have to close your eyes and accept what is possible to accept." His audience laughed and applauded.
--
Sounds like an arranged marriage to me.
Or a shotgun wedding, if Obama has his way.
No wonder he wants to keep his eyes closed.
If the incoming Obama regime gets too oppressive maybe we all should all move to Israel and help stem the tide at the source.
" For sake of peace, Israel must aid Palestinian economy "-Netanyahu
Posted by: Shimshon
-
Sounds like you might know more than we do.
Whom would you propose that has a realistic chance?
Hugh wrote, regarding the wit and wisdom of Shimon Peres:
The more we give up land, we discover we have more Ph.D.s per kilometer -- so we are going to make a living on the Ph.D.s and not on the mileage.
.....................
Well, in that case, why not just cram all those Ph.D.s into an even smaller area--around the size of, I don't know, maybe the Warsaw ghetto?
That would certainly give you a lot more "Ph.D.s per kilometer"--for awhile, at least until those Ph.D.s could either flee to the U.S. if they were lucky, or die in Palestinian terrorist attacks if they were not.
Either way, it sounds like a plan!
As Ka sings to Mowgli
Trust in me, Just in me.
Close your eyes, And trust in me.
We can sleep safe and sound,
Knowing I am around
People - pray like blazes for the 'Facing Jihad' conference that Arieh Eldad is organising in Jerusalem, not just for Israelis but for lawmakers from all over Europe - one of whom will be Geert Wilders.
Pray that Eldad doesn't get assassinated by jihadis before it happens.
"You have to close your eyes" , "peace" and the domino effect .
It almost defies commentary. You really have to start to wonder whether Shimon Peres is perhaps a psycopath.
Dumbledoresarmy - well said. YOu pre-empted me! :)
Not only Israel is tired - Jews are tired. Jews all over the world are being attacked, againa and again, for things that are not their fault. They are smeared, sneered at, assaulted, killed.
Israel's physical safety would be much easier to fight were the mental and emotional fatigue not so great, and as you say, if they had backing.
But worse than this is the many postings that I have read on the subject of jihad threatening the world and whom does the world expect to do all the fighting to defeat jihad? Israel.
The Israeli leadership may well be reprehensible in the respect of not defending her borders. But at the same time Arabs live in and around Israel. When you live in a potboiling atmosphere it influences the way you think and act.
Unfortunately many Jews - and I'm sure you know the infamous idiot Antony Loewenstein for example - initiate a lot of anti-Israel rhetoric.
having said that, there are many Israelis who understand the problems and what they are facing. But it's no fun fighting all the time, so they - and others sick of fighting - leave.
"Speaking at the annual General Assembly of the United Jewish Committees, he said that "making peace is a little bit like marriage [and] you have to close your eyes and accept what is possible to accept." His audience laughed and applauded."
Actually I've never thought of the "relationship" between Jews and their would-be killers - ie the Arabs(Pals and others) as a marriage.
More like that between a stalker and his prey.
carpediadem
I began to sense that bone-weariness not too long after I started regularly reading 'Jerusalem Post' online - a year or two before I became a regular here - and began exploring the wild world of English-language Israeli Jewish blogs (most of which are extremely well written - intelligent, funny, lively - I recommend that folks here go for an explore).
I also read Yaakov Lozowick's brilliant little book 'Right to Exist' and I have never forgotten his quote from an Israeli writer describing what it was like to live through the worst of the suicide-assassin intifada, with Arab Muslim jihad fanatics blowing themselves up on buses and inside markets...that it was like being locked in a soundproof roof with a homicidal maniac, whilst people outside peered in through the glass and tut-tutted about the madmen.
Jacques Ellul's 'Un Chretien Pour Israel' (1986) which I read in the early 1990s, is *the* book that immunised me permanently against what Bat Yeor calls 'palestinianist' propaganda. I just wish Eerdmans would hurry up and get it translated into English - all his other works from the 1980s have been translated. I wrote them a letter begging them to get it translated since it's a key part of his oeuvre and an excellent companion piece to his classic work 'Propaganda'.
The chapter on 'antizionism and antisemitism' was eye-opening: he refers to antizionism, especially as expressed by the Christian left (who are sooo in love with the Pooor Palestinians [TM]) as the latest 'avatar' (his terminology) of antisemitism. That was about 20 years before Phyllis Chesler wrote 'the new antisemitism'. interestingly, I don't think Chesler had read Ellul, so they came to exactly the same conclusion, independently of each other. Ellul beat her to it because he was living in France.
Oddly enough, it is thanks to Ellul that I am here. I was trawling the internet trying to find out whether 'Un Chretien Pour Israel' was in print/ for sale anywhere - no luck! alas! - and Bat Yeor's dhimmitude website came up in the trawl, since it includes online text of the forewords that Ellul wrote for two of her books. Bat Yeor provides a link to jihadwatch - out of curiosity, I clicked, and, well, here I am and intend to stay.
Thank you for your answer, Dumbledoresarmy. Which was thoughtful, as usual.
I have a custom-made silver Star of David, given to me by an Israeli friend. As I'm not Jewish, I don't feel quite right wearing it. I do so, though, in solidarity; especially as the philosophical attacks on Jews are increasing.
And Eliyahu, my old warrior Israeli friend isn't a fool. He's characterized the young soldiers of Israel as great, actually, but his great concern is the poor leadership and rottenness of the political people. The military has to be allowed to do what they must. So far, things haven't looked good on that front.
Vee - you're Christian?
If so, don't feel strange wearing a Star of David. Jesus/ Yeshua was and is, after all, we Christians believe, son of David.
You might find it interesting to read Franz Rosenzweig's "The Star of Redemption".
The more I get to know about Jews and Judaism, the more I come to understand how profoundly, thoroughly, wonderfully Jewish Jesus was.
Earlier this year I was having coffee with a woman I have befriended; of Jewish parentage and upbringing she is now - paradoxically, I don't know the story behind it - a follower of Jesus/ Yeshua and indeed a priest in the Anglican Church (I treasure the memory of receiving Communion from her on the Feast of Pentecost, and hearing her preach on that occasion as guest preacher at our church - she pointed out that the first Pentecost took place on the Jewish feast of Shavuot which celebrates the giving of the Law).
She was sitting across the table from me and as I watched her smiling and flashing her dimples I was thinking: while my ferocious Irish and Danish and Scots and Germanic ancestors were performing human sacrifices to gods like Odin Glutter-of-the-Crows, or taking heads (the pagan Irish were headhunters and slavers) in the dark wet woods of northern Europe, dreaming of Ragnarok, *this* woman's ancestors were standing at Sinai under the cloud of the Shekhinah, saying Yes to YHWH the Liberator.
It makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
Vee - I think pretty soon all those of us who oppose antisemitism of every kind (and in particular, who oppose the Muslim Jihad against the Jewish state) are going to have to physically stand up and be counted, to the point of coming out on the streets.
Ooops. Typo in my posting of 5.29 pm above. For 'soundproof roof' read 'soundproof room'.
No; not a Christian, Dumbledoresarmy. I was baptized Catholic, as my parents were both of that religion, but I am actually an athesist.
Truly an Infidel, to everybody.
But I have no quarrel with those of a religious persuasion, with the exception of the adherents of one. Which, as we know, is much, much more than just a religion.