[Washington] believes that a closer relationship with Arab and Muslim countries is necessary. To achieve that, a solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict is deemed essential. Reaching a settlement will entail painful concessions by Israel. For Israel to agree to make those concessions, pressure will have to be exerted.
Furthermore, Israel's policy of retaliation against terrorist attacks...is seen as an obstacle to attaining such a settlement. Israel has to be persuaded, indeed pressured, to adopt a policy of restraint.
...asking Israel to show restraint is not enough if no alternative is proposed for Israel to feel secure. ...it feels very much in danger, cornered diplomatically and under attack militarily. Its neighbors are adamant in their refusal to recognize its existence, let alone negotiate peace with it. The policy pursued by the ... administration only serves to render its sense of isolation more acute.
Sounds familiar. Yesterday's headlines? Today's news? Try the mid-1950's, the Eisenhower administration. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Read on...
BY THE END of 1954, a peace plan was devised by the US and Britain. The so-called Alpha Plan called, among other things, for Israel to make territorial concessions in the Negev, agree to a territorial corridor on its sovereign territory to link Jordan with Egypt and accept some Arab refugees.
Israel strongly objected.
Following Israel's victory in the Sinai Campaign of 1956, Eisenhower considered imposing sanctions if it refused to withdraw from the recently captured Sinai Peninsula.
In the eyes of Eisenhower and Dulles, Israel's existence had to be reluctantly tolerated. Dulles said so, albeit in different words. Eisenhower himself stated that he didn't know whether he would have been in favor of the establishment of the state had he been president in 1948. However, now that it was a fact, the US had to deal with it.
The objective of his administration was clear: to elicit the support of the Arab and Muslim countries in order to face the communist threat. To achieve that, the US had to remove any obstacle in the way.
and that was before the gains of 1967 and the 'settlments'! Today, the communist threat has been relaced by the "terrorist threat" But take heart, my fellow Jews. Just as Hashem thwarted their plans from then until now, so He will continue.
Where are the world powers of old today? Egypt? Babylon? Persia? Rome? The United States is following them into oblivion. One day, they will be nothing more than a chapter in the history books. And we? We will still be here...in Jerusalem!
