Volume 3, Number 1q81
 
'There's a Jewish story everywhere'
 

Wednesday-Saturday, September 9-12, 2009

CROSSING THE YARDEN

Such a concession! Flying over Saudi Arabia

By Yarden Frankl

NEVE DANIEL, Israel —Peace Partners? For those who have missed the Middle East Peace Process over the last few years, here is a summary:

Israeli Concessions:
Allowed return to Israel of wanted terrorists.

Distributed weapons to “former” terrorists.

Released from jail current terrorists.

Withdrew from and demolished Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip

Withdrew from and demolished Israeli Settlements in the Northern Shomron .

Accepted the notion of a Palestinian State .

Removed security checkpoints.

Sent humanitarian aid to residents of Gaza.

Considering preventing the building of homes, community centers, and kindergartens in Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.

Palestinian concessions
:

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And a list of contemplated concessions from the Arab states:

Possibly allowing an Israeli airplane to fly above an Arab Kingdom

Do you mind if we fly over?


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Wow. Could you just imagine? After dealing with decades of war and terrorism, we can finally fly over an Arab country!

“Look out the window Moshele. If you squint you can almost see oil wells through the clouds!”

Now, I don’t want to seem ungrateful to all the senior U.S. State Department diplomats who are burning the midnight oil trying to get lower Qatar to allow an Israeli plane to fly over, but speaking for all Israelis — we really couldn’t care less. We have a lot more things we would like to see. Namely:

Arab recognition that Israel is the Jewish homeland

Arab acceptance that any Palestinian State be demilitarized

An end to Arab state sponsored anti-Semitism

The Arab States acting like civilized nations

Those are just a few meaningful steps that we Israelis would like to have. Let’s see some pressure on the Arabs for those, forget about the nice airplane rides.

No, such a concession is not really a concession, it is basic human decency.

The idea of matching such a gesture with the criminalization of construction for Jewish housing is bizzare. Instead, perhaps we should contemplate allowing Arabs to fly on Israeli airplanes. But of course they already do. Some of them are actually the pilots.

Can anyone picture Captain Goldberg of Royal Saudi Airlines?

I would hope that our leaders take a pass on such “concessions” until we get something real in return.

Anyway, Israeli planes do fly over Arab countries. Just ask the Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis. We even leave something for them to remember us by.

I wonder if we have any flights scheduled soon over Iran….


Yarden is special projects director for HonestReporting. His blog may be accessed at www.crossingtheyarden.com


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