Freeman: Israel must accept US-imposed Saudi plan or face extinction

President Barack Hussein Obama's reported choice to head the top US intelligence body, former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman, told a policymaking group that Israel's "inability to find peace with the Palestinians and other Arabs is the driving factor in the region's radicalization and anti-Americanism."

In a speech to the 15th Annual US-Arab Policymakers Conference, on Nov. 3, 2006, he referred to Israel's founders as "talented European settlers" enjoying intellectual and technological superiority over Mideast Arab societies, especially in military terms: "Israel excels at war; sadly, it has shown no talent for peace."

Freeman asserted that the only peace Israel enjoyed was "crafted for it by the United States, imposed by American pressure and sustained at American taxpayer expense" despite it being given "carte blanche" to "bomb Lebanon into peaceful coexistence with it and to smother Palestinian democracy in its cradle."

Now, however, he says that "Israelis are frightened ... of their Arab neighbors" and all their peace-making experiments have failed: "left to its own devices, the Israeli establishment will make decisions that harm Israelis, threaten all associated with them, and enrage those who are not."

The operative paragraph calls for an imposed ("tough love") solution based on the Saudi-initiated peace plan, or else the Arabs will be justified in their belief that Israel will be annihilated like the "Crusader kingdoms" that also "occupied Palestine".

without some tough love from Americans, including especially Israel's American coreligionists, Israel will not risk the uncertainties of peace. Instead, it will persist in the belief, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that it can gain safety through the officially sanctioned assassination of potential opponents, the terrorization of Arab civilians, and the cluster bombing of neighbors rather than negotiation with them. These policies have not worked; they will not work. But unless they are changed, the Arab peace plan will exceed its shelf life, and Arabs will revert to their previous views that Israel is an ethnomaniacal society with which it is impossible for others to coexist and that peace can be achieved only by Israel's eventual annihilation, much as the Crusader kingdoms that once occupied Palestine were eventually destroyed.

The excerpts of Freeman's speech relevant to Israel are presented in full below:

Finally, let me allude briefly to the issue of Israel, a country that has yet to be accepted as part of the Middle East and whose inability to find peace with the Palestinians and other Arabs is the driving factor in the region's radicalization and anti-Americanism.

The talented European settlers who formed the state of Israel endowed it with substantial intellectual and technological superiority over any other society in the Middle East. The dynamism of Israel's immigrant culture and the generous help of the Jewish Diaspora rapidly gave Israel a standard of living equivalent to that of European countries. For fifty years Israel has enjoyed military superiority in its region. Demonstrably, Israel excels at war; sadly, it has shown no talent for peace.

For almost forty years, Israel has had land beyond its previously established borders to trade for peace. It has been unable to make this exchange except when a deal was crafted for it by the United States, imposed on it by American pressure, and sustained at American taxpayer expense. For the past half decade Israel has enjoyed carte blanche from the United States to experiment with any policy it favored to stabilize its relations with the Palestinians and its other Arab neighbors, including most recently its efforts to bomb Lebanon into peaceful coexistence with it and to smother Palestinian democracy in its cradle.

The suspension of the independent exercise of American judgment about what best serves our interests as well as those of Israelis and Arabs has caused the Arabs to lose confidence in the United States as a peace partner. To their credit, they have therefore stepped forward with their own plan for a comprehensive peace. By sad contrast, the American decision to let Israel call the shots in the Middle East has revealed how frightened Israelis now are of their Arab neighbors and how reluctant this fear has made them to risk respectful coexistence with the other peoples of their region. The results of the experiment are in: left to its own devices, the Israeli establishment will make decisions that harm Israelis, threaten all associated with them, and enrage those who are not.

Tragically, despite all the advantages and opportunities Israel has had over the fifty-nine years of its existence, it has failed to achieve concord and reconciliation with anyone in its region, still less to gain their admiration or affection. Instead, with each decade, Israel's behavior has deviated farther from the humane ideals of its founders and the high ethical standards of the religion that most of its inhabitants profess. Israel and the Palestinians, in particular, are caught up in an endless cycle of reprisal and retaliation that guarantees the perpetuation of conflict in which levels of mutual atrocities continue to escalate. As a result, each generation of Israelis and Palestinians has accumulated new reasons to loathe the behavior of the other, and each generation of Arabs has detested Israel with more passion than its predecessor. This is not how peace is made. Here, too, a break with the past and a change in course are clearly in order.

The framework proposed by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at Beirut in 2002 offers Israel an opportunity to accomplish both. It has the support of all Arab governments. It would exchange Arab acceptance of Israel and a secure place for the Jewish state in the region for Israeli recognition of Palestinians as human beings with equal weight in the eyes of God, entitled to the same rights of democratic self-determination and domestic tranquility within secure borders that Israelis wish to enjoy. The proposal proceeds from self-interest. It recognizes how much the Arabs would gain from normal relations with Israel if the necessary conditions for mutual respect and reconciliation could be created.

Despite the fact that such a peace is so obviously also in Israel's vital and moral interests, history and the Israeli response to date both strongly suggest that without some tough love from Americans, including especially Israel's American coreligionists, Israel will not risk the uncertainties of peace. Instead, it will persist in the belief, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that it can gain safety through the officially sanctioned assassination of potential opponents, the terrorization of Arab civilians, and the cluster bombing of neighbors rather than negotiation with them. These policies have not worked; they will not work. But unless they are changed, the Arab peace plan will exceed its shelf life, and Arabs will revert to their previous views that Israel is an ethnomaniacal society with which it is impossible for others to coexist and that peace can be achieved only by Israel's eventual annihilation, much as the Crusader kingdoms that once occupied Palestine were eventually destroyed.

Tags: Charles Freeman, Saudi, crusader kingdon

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Comment by Linda Clapp on February 28, 2009 at 7:43pm: Freeman**** what a misnomer!!! You know what??? Israel doesn't need the USA or any other entity to Stand for Her-- She has the Creator of the Universe and He is Awake !!! Judgement is indeed on the world-horizon. Look up, Look up-- our Redeemer draws near. Praise Him, Praise Him, for All His Mighty Works. (Exodus 14: 13,14)"And Moses said unto the people, FEAR ye NOT, stand still, and see the SALVATION of the L-RD, which He will show to you.... The L-RD SHALL FIGHT for you, and you shall hold your PEACE"!!!

Comment by Krisiun on February 26, 2009 at 3:49am: I'm trying to be on my best behavior here.
This Hussein O and Freeman, I say F!#^%#%$@CK THEM.
To the 900 million dollars we're sending to worthless Gzza, I say F%@#!#@!&%)CK THAT.
This money is going to be used to kill Israelis and 0 knows and wants it to happen.

Comment by Michael S. on February 25, 2009 at 4:57pm: I still can not believe that the people here think the USA is for Israel. I see an Israeli gov't that has come to rely on the politics that go on in the US. Israel, needs to keep on the work of developing Israel, the vast areas of Israel that are not farmed or used for the production of food. This land that is not so called wilderness can still be used for farms, residents and industry. The Ministry of Interior responsible for the personality registrations and decides who can immigrate to Israel, and who can become a citizen in of the Rule of Citizenship. In addition, the Ministry of Interior controls the status of permanent residents and issues visas to foreign workers. Unlike the USA that allows many people to come in without permission. The security barriers were a good way to so the world that Israel will not take any junk thoughts from outsiders. The IAF makes sure that a rocket fired into Israel will be responded with force and as far as the south end of the Gazze strip there needs to be a better way of restricting smuggled goods(weapons).

Peace, that is not possible. A period of no killing is. As for the USA, don't count on anything from the gov't they like to talk and get a puffy chest and a treat of Saudi imposed peace...they know better.
The USA and Saudi Arabs are having the same problem with terror and they aren't going to stop Israel from doing what needs to be done for a piece of peace. Obama, has grown up with the rules of deception and knows very well what needs to be done and I think we have a chance in America to slow down the process of "socialism".
Once Ham'ass is chased out of Gazze and the PALS there realize that the only way they will ever be able to live in the waste that has become them, the strip could be green again.

Comment by RedSniper on February 25, 2009 at 4:53pm: Yessir, these two-bit morons from "J-Street" must be really proud of themselves now. Still worshiping in the Temple of Obama the Great, fellas?

Comment by Ken Besig on February 25, 2009 at 3:46pm: If this is indeed the line that the Obama administration intends to follow to promote Arab Israeli peace, then this administration will fail just as miserably as all the others before it. We have been there and done that so many times before that any rational person would come to the conclusion that a shift in both direction and tone would be appropriate, but it seems that the Amercans never learn. We will manage to live with this failure, again.

Comment by clif atkin on February 25, 2009 at 3:30pm: ANOTHER FANATIC TO HELP WITH THE PEACE. THE REAL ISSUE HERE IS LACK OF GUTS BY THE USA GOVERNMENT. IF OIL DID NOT EXIST THE USA WILL TELL ISRAEL TO DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO AND LEAVE IT AT THAT. THE ARABS WOULD BE IN NO POSITION TO TELL ANYONE WHAT TO DO, THE ISRAELI'S WOULD THEN BE IN A POSITION TO LEVEL THE DOME OF THE ROCK JUST AS THE ARABS HAVE LEVELED CHURCHES ON THIER LANDS. EVERYONE WHO SPEAKS THE TRUTH KNOWS FIRST HAND THAT THE JERUSALEM IS THE CITY OF DAVID AND KING SOLOMONS TEMPLE WAS BUILT BY THE JEWS AND ALL OF ISRAEL WAS AND IS THEIRS. IF IT WASN'T FOR THE HOLOCAUST MENTALITY, WHICH WE SAW IN GAZA, THE ISRAELI'S WOULD HAVE PUT AN END TO THE 1939 YEARS OF TURMOIL AND LIVE FREE WITHOUT ANY EXTERNAL INFLUENCE OR COUNTRY TELLING THEM WHAT THEY CAN OR CANNOT DO.

Comment by Terry on February 25, 2009 at 3:17pm: Did we have any reason to expect anything different from an Obama administration? Yet, foolish, naive, & gullible American Jews swallowed Obama's BS hook, line, & sinker - something they will come to bitterly regret.
Obama will happily ''throw Israel & the Jews under the bus'' in his clueless attempt to pander to the Muslim world. The signs, however, point to Obama becoming a major failure as president - so the right course of action is to wait him out, in a year, Americans will wince when they hear his name. In the meantime, Jews must work with Congress to frustrate Obama's dangerous plans for the Middle-East. Obama is bad for Israel, bad for the Jews, & bad for America.

Comment by Robert Bernier on February 25, 2009 at 10:24am: Israel is a central front.
It is important for Americans to understand that they cannot afford a weak Israel, one that is "tired of fighting" but rather need to support voices in Israel that are capable of making the case for a robust offensive against the forces of global jihad that seek the destruction of the Jewish state as a step towards the defeat of the US and the subjugation of Christianity. Israel is a central front—if not the central front—in the war against Islamic fascism and global jihad as explained at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/islam-or-naught_7713.html

Comment by Robert Bernier on February 25, 2009 at 10:23am: The USA fight against terror.
By refusing to acknowledge its importance in the international fight against the global jihad, Israel's leaders have underplayed Israel's importance for US national security. Generally speaking Israeli leaders act as though the US is doing us a favor by supporting Israel militarily and diplomatically. But the fact of the matter is that Israeli defeats and general weakening are dangerous for America's national security interests both at home and around the world because Israel and the US are perceived by our common foes as two sides of the same coin. The retreats from Gaza, south Lebanon and northern Samaria led to the creation of safe havens for both local and global jihadists from which they not only attack Israel but train to conduct attacks throughout the region and world. More at :
http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/05/its-not-occupation-its-islam.html

Comment by Robert Bernier on February 25, 2009 at 10:20am: Are the American our allies ?...
The Obama Administration’s search for partners to promote “peace” and “democracy” within the PA resembles Lord Charles Bowen’s “blind man in a dark room looking for a black hat – which isn’t there”. The CIA has apparently assumed the Palestinian terrorist-training role. The CIA armed and trained thousands of Palestinian “security forces”, who subsequently joined every Palestinian terrorist organization. CIA Palestinian training success is best described by a member of the PA’s Chairman own security unit : “ The operations of the Palestinian s would not have been so successful and would not have killed more than 1.000 Israelis since 2000 without American military training”. More at :
http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/03/palestinian-funding.html