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Stan Goodenough is an experienced journalist who has written about politics in South Africa and the Middle East for such organizations as The Daily Dispatch of East London, South Africa, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post, and the Virtual HolyLand website. He has been a South African gentile resident in Israel for 12 years. Stan is editor of and .
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By Stan Goodenough
December 12, 2005
An editorial from Jerusalem Newswire
Just in case it was not yet clear that Israel's diplomatic rewards from this summer's Gaza "disengagement" have expired, the US State Department at the weekend signaled it was back to business as usual, insisting Israel ignore recent "Palestinian" aggression and offer concessions that put Jewish life in danger.
Stripping away all the bureaucratese, the message went something like this:
Now you listen to us, Israel. You listen well, and you do as we say.
It does not matter to us that six Jews were blown to shreds in the streets of Netanya by a Palestinian Arab less than one week ago.
It makes no difference that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, on the same day, approved a law guaranteeing compensation payments to the families of terrorists like the Netanya Jew killer, rewarding their actions and encouraging others to do the same.
We don't really care that Abbas has just named the newly opened Gaza-Egypt border crossing in honor of another terrorist that killed five Jews almost exactly one year earlier.
We don't give a fig about whether or not the PA pays tribute to its killers, including the terrorist who massacred 21 people in a Haifa restaurant in October 2003, and to whom a collection of poems was published and awarded the PA's Book of the Month prize earlier this year.
It doesn't touch us: the callousness of Abbas and his spokesmen, who have never found it in themselves to express sorrow or condolences to the thousands of Jewish families afflicted by the bombers and murderers who have gone out from the areas under Palestinian Authority control.
Nor are we given pause by the fact that the Gaza Strip has become anything but a model for future Arab-Israeli peace since you Israelis withdrew from there. We are not bothered at the way Gaza has been used to launch untold numbers of Kassam rockets against your towns; that the abandoned settlements are being used by the various terrorist organizations to train their killers; or that more terrorists and more weaponry has been flooding into the Gaza Strip.
None of this matters. All that matters is that you keep to your side of the agreement; you must open the crossing from Gaza and allow trucks driven by Palestinian Arabs to pass through to Judea and Samaria, starting this week.
What was that? The trucks could be used to smuggle weapons and terrorists? Well, we'll deal with that possibility when we get to it, shall we? For now, you have signed an agreement and you will, we are sure, keep to your commitment.
We are the United States of America. We are the most powerful nation on earth. What's more, little Israel, we're the only friend you have left in the world and, quite frankly, notwithstanding our expressions of shock and disgust at the Iranian president's suggestion that your country be wiped off the map and your people be relocated to Germany, it is really starting to look like time is not on your side....
With you no longer around to irritate the Arabs, some Americans believe, the oil will flow smoothly, uninterruptedly and once more easily affordably into their automobiles.
Who needs you, anyway? What good have you brought into the world?
Well, we're obviously not going to countenance any talk about destroying you. We are your ally. We're your best friend. And because we know how deeply you value our friendship, we know you will knuckle under and allow those transports through. Even in World War II, you recall, we let the transports through.
There's a good ally. There's a good chap.
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