"The Arab enemy is determined to destroy Israel because that is its nature. Like the jackal which kills the lamb because it is a jackal, the Arab must destroy Israel because of who the Arab is ­­ Muslim and fiercely nationalistic, a part of a "glorious Arab nation" that would butcher Jews if it is able."

"When will the Israeli political parties recognize the Arab threat and vie in policies to neutralize this enemy in no uncertain terms?"

The Arabs openly declare their goal, the elimination of Israel. They have a realistic plan for its success. Their strategy is to enter negotiations with Israel in which they gain territorial footholds in key strategic areas, create a state, pack it with new masses, literally millions, of Arabs brought in from Lebanon, Jordan, and wherever, and make life in Israel impossible for the Jews. The plan so far is working on a scale undreamed of by a defeated Arab leadership which less than ten years ago was living in exile in Tunisia.

Today, thanks to Labor and the other parties of the left, these same Arabs, who have not abandoned their aims, are ensconced in Israel's territories and Gaza with their armies growing in size and armaments. Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin­Sadat think tank in Bar Ilan University, has noted the grave danger that these armies especially pose in case of attack from Syria or Iraq through Jordan, or even Jordan if its government should fall to a new anti­Israel regime.

Not only have the mixed multitude of Arabs of the territories gained legitimacy as a people, "an ancient people" they call themselves which claims Israel's capital city, Jerusalem and the entire land of Israel, they now have gained equality in negotiations with Israel. The prospect is that they will add new lands to their holdings without firing a shot. They gained all this in return for meaningless recycled promises that were long ago bought and paid for by Israel many times over and which have never nor will ever be fulfilled.

What is most dreadful is that the formerly staunch nationalist party, Likud, has self­destructed. It collapsed under a leadership that has abandoned its reason and its principles. It committed the colossal blunder of accepting the false Arab definition of the struggle, namely, that the Arabs are truly a national entity from whom Israel took lands ­­ the Arabs say "robbed" and Israel remains silent on the point ­­ and that these Arabs have legitimate rights to express their nationhood. The negotiation process is rigged, thanks to the Likud, to confuse and demoralize Israelis and to enable the Arabs to make additional territorial. Israeli leaders may think that negotiations for a new state will lead to a compromise that will satisfy the Arabs, but sober analysis indicates that it won't. and there will be a showdown.

Meanwhile, the Arabs make gains on the way to the ultimate victory they plan. It is against the background of having agreed to such conditions that Netanyahu plans to run. He hadn't even prepared Israel's people to be prepared to the showdown which is certainly coming. Truly, I can see the necessity that some Israel's may feel in having to give up land as the only practical way to situate the millions of Arabs in the territories. But what I cannot see is the unwillingness of Israelis to see this in its true guise as a grave danger to their existence that must be carefully hedged and controlled and ruthlessly dealt with in case it becomes life threatening to the nation.

But no such caution is apparent on the Israeli main street. Fed on self­deception, the Israel public explains away the dangerous Arab enemy as a someone that can be mollified and negotiated with. The idea that this is a crafty, dangerous enemy with the goal to make Israel disappear has been relegated to the status of some kind of mythical "big bad wolf," a fairy tale. Both Labor and Likud insist on believing the comfortable thought that the enemy can be bought off by a few dunams of land without achieving fully its often stated goals of getting Jerusalem and bringing in up to 2,000,000 more Arabs.

Both large Israeli parties have come to believe that giving in to some of the demands of the enemy, will somehow bring peace for Israel. According to the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, the Labor party colludes with Arafat, who has agreed not to announce the establishment of a Palestinian state in May 1999 if the Israeli election has not been held by then. What a partnership! Clearly, Labor is Arafat's favorite Israeli party, dependable to help the Arabs gain their new state the way Labor assisted these Arabs in creating the armies that today menace Israel's people. The regularity of Laborite collusion with Israel's enemy has become so ordinary as an event that Laborites have no fear that this collusion will hurt them in Israeli elections.

Can a nation like Israel, too devoid of pride and reason, survive against a determined prideful enemy ­­ an enemy which in pride and reason is everything that Israel is not? The Arab enemy is determined to destroy Israel because that is its nature. Like the jackal which kills the lamb because it is a jackal, the Arab must destroy Israel because of who the Arab is ­­ Muslim and fiercely nationalistic, a part of a "glorious Arab nation" that would butcher Jews if it is able.

Were the enemy clearly recognized as the jackal it is, would any Israelis agree to allow it to roam free and unfettered in the land of the lambs? There would be no question that this jackal must be penned so that he cannot fulfill his destructive nature as concerns his natural victim. There is no question that the nature of this jackal will not be modified by preachments and vain inducements. The only way to thwart him is to curb his ability to hurt Israelis and make war. This is the lesson that Labor, Meretz. and too many of Israel's people besides cannot seem to fathom in regard to this Arab enemy, an enemy whose nature is molded ­­ thanks to an Arab educational system that begins early ­­ so as to be motivated to destroy even a powerless Israel of postage stamp size.

Unless the Arab enemy is physically prevented from achieving his aims, he will continue his efforts. The stronger this enemy is, the stronger will be his determination to fulfill his nature. Feeding such an enemy with jobs and education does not wean this enemy from his goals. It merely makes him a well fed, comfortable, and more dangerous enemy, no less fierce in his determination to achieve his programmed goal of Israel's destruction. That is a lesson that Israelis have not learned from their generous conception of their enemy. All Israel's kindnesses, and there have been many, have not made him less fierce but even more desperate to rid himself of the humiliation of suffering the existence of infidels, Jews, ruling over Islamic lands ­­ a disgrace and an abomination to the Arab sense of himself.

With an enemy with that outlook, the intended victim must forever beware and work as vigorously and as craftily to counter him. When will the Israeli parties recognize the threat and vie in policies to neutralize the enemy in no uncertain terms? It is an issue that should be central. Surely there is election victory for a center­right party that can mobilize Israel's people to face the dangers and position Israel's people for victory in the struggle. Unfortunately, up to now Netanyahu has failed to take that job. Perhaps it is not too late.

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David Basch is an architect in New York and an expert on the Jewish roots of William Shakespeare. His web site, which can be found on the Other Links page of the Freeman web site, proves Shakespeare's Jewish origins. He also serves as the Freeman Center's political philosopher.