As Israel prepared to evacuate all Israelis from Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, a famous Palestinian “moderate” demanded that Israel also withdraw from Netiv Haasarah, a community just north of Gaza.
PA security chief Mohammad Dahlan publicly voiced the PA demand that Israel withdraw from the town of Netiv Ha’asara, a small residential community south of Ashkelon, in order to complete the planned withdrawal from Gaza.
A similar scenario is replaying itself in the north.
A senior Hezbollah official on Monday said the Lebanese militant organization believes that large swaths of northern Israel belong to Lebanon, far beyond the line Israel pulled back to in 2000.
“The Zionist terror organizations moved the border from that of 1920 to that of 1923, and Lebanon lost seven villages and twenty farms. One must be cautious before moving the border to the Blue Line, because then Lebanon will lose millions of square meters,†said Nawaf Musawi, head of international relations for Hezbollah. …
He branded Blue Line [the UN-approved border between Israel and Lebanon], which runs very close to the 1949 Israel-Lebanon border known as the Green Line, as merely a “withdrawal line.â€
In response Noah Pollak observes wryly:
What’s less fun, I suppose, is all the westerners who will use this proclamation to insist that Hezbollah is a reasonable group with limited ambitions and a flexible political agenda.
Advocates of dialogue with Hezbollah have repeatedly argued that a compromise over the Shebaa Farms would deny Hezbollah any further pretext for continuing “resistance†against Israel. In a textbook move, Hezbollah has just laid out just that–the next pretext.
The ever increasing demands of terrorist organizations on Israel, is a reminder of the aptness of Winston Churchill’s description of appeasement.
It also shows the inadvisability of the President elect Obama’s reported promise to the Palestinians, as that will only encourage them to demand more from Israel.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
It is worth mentioning that Dennis Ross, who says he was present for the entire meeting, absolutely denies that Obama said anything of the sort. Ross is not my all-time favorite human being but this does at least cast reasonable doubt on the story.
But the main point is correct. We are assured that it’s only the occupation and settlements that exercise the Palestinians. Withdraw to the 1949 lines and peace will reign. Well, that’s heretofore only been maintainable if you ignore everything the Palestinians say when they think westerners aren’t listening. But this is pretty obvious–“secure borders” for Israel in the Palestinian view might mean a line drawn between the Mann Auditorium, Mograbi Square, and the beach, with access to the holy site of Dizengoff Circle.
We can all hope Obama doesn’t have the instincts he seems to but his reaction to the invasion of Georgia doesn’t bode well: he called on both parties to “show restraint,” both the invading, brutal Russians and the Georgian victims.