The European Parliament has agreed to increase aid to the occupied Palestinian territories in 2012, reports on the annual EU budget negotiations in Geneva said Saturday. The bloc’s budget for next year will increase by 129 billion euros, following more than 15 hours of talks, Reuters reported. The increase includes an extra 100 million euros for the Palestinian territories. As the largest single donor to the Palestinians, the European bloc of nations contributes some 500 million euros each year for Palestinian Authority salaries and to support future state institutions.[2]
Despite the fact that Israel has taken measures in castigating the PA, it is not dealing with the real issue of “land”. The most effective method in sending a message to the Palestinians is annexation. Cutting off funds is temporal, because the EU and the US is more than willing to subsidize the Palestinian dependent welfare mindset. Real transformation can only come about by the annexation of land.
When will this happen? The more Israel commits herself to peace with an enemy who seeks to destroy her, the more confusing it becomes to Israelis and the world at large. The Israelis know that Palestinian Arabs do not want peace. When will this annexation take place? Will it happen when Hamas starts sending more missiles into towns, and schools? Now is the time to annex all of Judea and Samaria this is only option for peace. If not now, when will it be done? Does Jewish blood have to be spilled before Israel annexes communities?
Here are Shimon Peres' own words: (in translation)
“If a separate Palestinian state is formed, it will be armed from top to bottom. It will be a base for the most extremist terror groups, who will have anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, endangering not only passersby but every airplane or helicopter that uses Israeli air space, every vehicle on Israel’s major coastal highways. It is doubtful whether territorial depth provides deterrence. But the absence of minimal territorial depth leaves a state without any deterrence. This option in itself makes attacking Israel on all fronts irresistibly tempting…demilitarization of the West Bank is a questionable antidote: the problem is not the agreement to demilitarize, but whether the agreement will be honored. The number of agreements broken by the Arabs is not less than the number they have kept.” (This Time Tomorrow, Jerusalem 1978, page 255.)
For decades, the consensus among those in Israel’s government and the population in general is no independent state inside Israel. This belief has now changed and it includes both right and left. If Israel is going to have peace, it must claim her historical homeland and not waver in her conviction. The historical narrative of the Palestinians is fictional and Israel must claim her rights to her land.[3]
The longer Israel waits to annex Judea and Samaria the more blood will flow. Now is the time to claim the land and continue building, not when Jewish blood is spilled. We all hope that the government of Israel will take action as soon as possible and reclaim her historic rights to the land of Israel.
King Solomon says it best, “A wise man’s mind tends toward the right hand, a fool’s toward the left”. Ecclesiastes 10:2
© Abraham J. Santiago
[1] www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/world/middleeast/israel-halts-payments-to-palestinian-authority-adding-to-fiscal-woes.
[2] http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/21/european-union-funding-for-palestinian-authority/
[3] http://www.freeman.org/MOL/pages/march-2011/the-challenge-of-inclusion-annex-and-survive.php
