September 1976
Many times I have spoken of the Talmudic parable of the king, his servant, and the fish. Never was it more apt. [Events of today between Bibi and Obama.]
Once there was a king who sent his servant to buy a fish. The servant returned with a fish that stank. In fury the king gave the servant a choice of three punishments: “Eat the fish, get whipped for the fish, or pay for the fish.” In
common with most people, the servant chose not to reach into his pocket
and he decided to eat the stinking fish but after two bites the stench
made him give up and he decided to get whipped for it. The pain of the lashes, however, made him stop that, too, and he cried out, “I will pay for the fish!”
And so the fool ate the fish, got whipped for the fish and, in the end, had to pay for it, anyhow. Those
in Israel and without, who refuse to understand that nothing will deter
America from demanding that Israel make the maximum concessions, play
the same fool. Those who do not understand that there is
nothing that Israel can possible do, that there are no compromises it
can make, that there is nothing short of full retreat to the 1967
borders that will satisfy the United States-are the same fools as the
servant who ate, got whipped and in the end had to pay anyhow,
Their refusal to make the difficult choice of telling the Americans “no”, now,
at this moment, will see them making the retreats they hope will avert
American anger; it will see this effort fail even as the frontier moves
from its present lines within the Arab heartland to new ones close to
the Jewish cities; and most important, the Americans will make the same
demands they always have envisioned since the days of the Roger
Plan-total Israeli withdrawal. And since this is a thing that not even the most dovish of Israelis will agree to, the result will be an ultimate Israeli firm “no”,
an ultimate American anger of the kind all men of “new initiative”
propose to avert today by compromise, and exactly the same conditions of
confrontation that would come anyhow if the Israelis said their “no” today. There would be one great difference, however, a “no” today will bring the crisis while Israel stands poised near the Arab capitols. A “no”
tomorrow, after all the hapless and confused compromises and
“initiatives,” will bring the same crisis near Tel Aviv, Beersheva and
Netanya.
This is what happens when foolish and confused Israelis, by refusing to pay the price of saying “no”
to the stinking fish of pressure, attempt to eat it, submit to getting
beaten over it and then learn to their dismay that there is no escape
from the difficult decision that they should have made in the first
place.
Let the Israeli government, its men of “new initiative” and the Jewish leaders in America understand several basic axioms:
1) America
is committed to the Roger Plan
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Plan)and the world’s interpretation
of Security Council Resolution 242, i.e. Israeli withdrawal from all
(but insignificant) parts of the lands of 1967. This
includes the Golan Heights, Gaza, the entire West bank and the entire
Sinai as well as changing Jerusalem’s present Jewish sovereignty status.
2) American interests lie, in the minds of most officials in Washington, with
Arab oil, the huge potential Arab market and with supplanting Soviet influence with American. This means, at best, an “even-handed” policy rather than a pro-Israeli one.
3) America is moving steadily to recognition of the “Palestinians” as a people
and
of whomever they decide to have as their leaders. Those leaders are
clearly the PLO and already the move to “moderate” the PLO,
“public-relations-wise” is underway so that Washington can more easily
pressure Israel into recognizing them.
4) The Ford-Kissinger administration is determined to prevent stagnation and
will pressure Israel into concession after concession.
5) No administration will go to war for Israel and no administration will continue the
present aid level no matter what Israel does or concedes. The frantic
search for human allies will end as unsuccessfully as those Jews in the
past who forgot what faith in the Jewish G-d was and who turned to Egypt
or Assyria or other “allies” for help, only to learn to their dismay
that the allies betrayed them.
Stinking fish are not made to be eaten or to get whipped or. One must have the courage to look at the truth and pay the bitter price of honesty. America is tired of the Israeli nuisance and wishes it would ea t the fish already. The time to loudly proclaim “no” is now.
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