Word from Oslo | Imamother

Motek

Wed, Aug 31 2005, 12:26 pm

KA'ARE KRISTIANSEN CONDEMNS IMMORAL ISRAEL GOVERNMENT EXPULSION OF GUSH KATIF JEWS

As a friend of Israel who has tried to keep myself informed on developments in the Middle East, it is really very difficult to understand the severe disgrace and suffering bought upon the hard working and pious Jews of Gush Katif by the Israeli Government.

I do understand that Israeli leaders want to stop the Arab terror which has afflicted Israel for so long.

Impossible to understand is, however, how the Israel Government expulsion of Gush Katif Jews will help stop Arab terror against Israel.

According to my view from here in Oslo, there is a belief in Israel that a new possibility for peaceful relations with Palestinian Arabs arose following the death of Yasser Arafat ("Arafat" being a nom de guerre taken from the mountain near Mecca referred to in the Qur'an, "The Cow"/Sura 2:198), who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 1994 and in protest of which I resigned from the Nobel Prize Committee. Some Israelis think that there is a "new" attitude towards peace with Israel on the Palestinian side.

Seen from here, the current optimistic view on the part of the majority in the Knesset regarding "new" positive attitudes among the Palestinians is a deja vu repetition of the most complete failure of the Middle East conflict, the so-called "Oslo Agreement".

Over a decade ago, Israeli and international champions of Arafat and the "Oslo Agreement", people who presented themselves as "experts" on Middle East affairs, ran before the chariot of their Palestinian "Prince of Peace" throwing flowers and singing the "great man's" praises.

Over a decade later, the same "experts" who inflicted the Oslo disaster upon Israel in the first place received the revelation after Arafat's death that the departure from this world of their idol created new opportunities for resolving Middle East conflict by removing a major obstacle to peace: Arafat himself.

These "experts" have been cranking up the old "peace" merry-go-round ever since. They apparently are too busy proffering "expertise" ever to have read "Why Don't We Learn From History?" by British historian Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart.

It is of course possible that Israel's academic, legal, media, military and political "elites" (and their foreign patrons) know something that I do not.

I sincerely hope so.

According to my view, giving in to Arab terrorist pressure, whether that pressure comes from P.L.O. terrorists or members of other terror groups, adds fuel to the fire of Arab terrorism against Israel.

I fear that Palestinian Arabs perceive the Israel Government expulsion of Gush Katif Jews as proof that Arab terror pays after all.

I also fear that throughout the world the Israel Government expulsion of Gush Katif Jews will strengthen the false belief that the Land of Israel belongs to Arabs and that Jews have no rights there at all.

For the sake of Israel I hope that my fears are never realized, but the latest news about Arab intentions is not comforting.

The news here clearly shows that Arabs rejoice over the Israel Government expulsion of Gush Katif Jews as they rejoiced over the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

The gravity of the situation is underlined by reports that both Hizbullah and al Qaeda plan to move en masse into Gaza.

Finally, being neither an Israeli citizen nor a Jew, I have been reluctant to express my opinions publicly in a situation where the expression of such opinions might be interpreted as foreign meddling in internal Israeli affairs.

My excuse is love for Israel.

The Israel Government expulsion of Gush Katif Jews is not an internal Israeli affair. It is everyone's affair. This expulsion is an immoral and illegal act violating international ethical, human, legal and social rights. This reality was affirmed by Israel Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy in his dissenting opinion opposing the Gush Katif expulsion and by University of Sydney Professor of International Law Julius Stone of blessed memory.

Over a decade ago, I protested as immoral the Nobel Prize Committee awarding a "peace" prize to Yasser Arafat in December, 1994, and resigned from the Nobel Prize Committee as an expression of that protest then.

Over a decade later, I protest as immoral the illegal Israel Government expulsion of the Gush Katif Jews today.

Shabbat Shalom from Oslo,

Ka'are Kristiansen

The Honorable Ka'are Kristiansen

Former Norwegian Nobel Committee Member;
Past President, Norwegian Parliament;
Former Norwegian Minister of Oil and Energy;