Somewhere over the rainbow

As we read in the Torah portion, Noach, the rainbow became a symbol that God would not destroy the world by flood again.

These days it has come to represent the kaleidoscope of humanity. For many, it is a pathway to some mythical paradise which will somehow materialize. It is this latter group of starry-eyed individuals and groups that I want to concentrate on because their fixation with chasing unrealistic political objectives in the face of reality is slowly but steadily infiltrating our lives.

There is nothing wrong of course with dreaming about a better world at the end of a rainbow but when getting there involves total suspension of common sense then we are in deep trouble.

That is the situation we face these days as the following scenarios illustrate all too clearly.

Anyone with even a rudimentary amount of intelligence is aware that the Taliban are not exactly role models for civil liberties and human rights. That being the case what can one make of the recent demand by the Taliban that they be permitted to address the UN General Assembly? This has been followed by the UN considering adding the Taliban to the Women’s Rights Commission. Anything more ludicrous or totally detached from reality would be hard to find.

However, it gets better (if that is the right expression in the circumstances). The EU Foreign Policy Chief is on record as stating: “We have no option but to talk to the Taliban. Maybe it’s a pure oxymoron to talk about human rights but this is what we have to ask them.” The only morons in this farce are the so-called champions of European appeasement who are following the same old worn-out path of moral failures enacted by their predecessors in the 1930s. Back then, when Jews were being hounded, rounded up and selected for boycotts and murder, Europe’s politicians as well as FDR in the USA, sucked up to the Nazi regime and preferred to issue vague proclamations instead of confronting terror face on. Today, as the Taliban round up those in opposition to them and send women back to the dark ages, the same morally decrepit agenda is being enacted.

In an interview with AP, one of the founders of the Taliban said that executions and amputation of hands in accordance with Sharia law will be reintroduced. Did this elicit howls of outrage from the various so-called human rights groups which condemn Israel? How many of the freedom-loving democracies represented in the UN which vote against Israel every Monday and Thursday recoiled by taking firm action?

Meanwhile back in Europestan, the EU Director for security confessed recently that “the idea of the end of Western civilization is appealing to more and more youngsters and this trend has only increased following the victory of the Taliban.” He went on to observe that “radicalization online of Muslims in Europe is increasing.” Given these self-evident developments, why is it that there are still policymakers in democratic countries mesmerized by visions of the Taliban embracing human rights at the end of their rainbow?

This same insane hallucinatory mirage exists as the Mullah regime in Tehran races towards the nuclear option, North Korea thumbs its nose at the rest of the world while it develops weapons of mass destruction, China prepares to obliterate Taiwan and Abbas keeps pulling the wool over gullible donor nations.

Actually, the antics of President for life, Abbas, are a classic case of how one can fool rainbow chasers time after time and get away with literally murder.

Every time he opens his mouth, whether at the UN General Assembly, media interviews or staged meetings, the mistruths pour forth and are eagerly lapped up by all who see him as some sort of saviour at the end of a glittering rainbow. In the warped thinking currently prevailing, all we have to do is embrace his revisionist versions of history, accept without challenge his threats of violence if we don’t fall into line and above all not to forget to keep the money taps flowing no matter what may transpire. Every misfortune and calamity suffered by the Palestinian Arabs is the fault of and as a result of criminal policies of someone else, principally of course the evil Jews. That is why the term “nakba” (catastrophe) is nowadays not just confined to the Balfour Declaration and the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in 1948 but also to each and every event which has occurred since then. The fact that Abbas and his co-conspirators have been allowed to get away with this total distortion of truth helps to explain why the lies have nowadays acquired the stamp of approval from the international community.

When Abbas declares that unless Israel withdraws to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines within a year it will face dire and serious consequences he knows full well that it will earn him the unadulterated adoration of the assembled delegates at the UN and elsewhere.

As a perfect example of the duplicitous deceptions which characterize the antics of the Ramallah based “democratic and peace-loving” characters running the PA take note of the recent farcical performances enacted not only by them but also our own collection of clowns.

A delegation of two Cabinet Ministers plus one other Knesset member of the ultra-left Meretz Party who are members of our current coalition made a pilgrimage to pay homage to Abbas and assure him that there are still a few political dinosaurs in Israel who believe that he represents all that is holy and good. In addition to the usual photo opportunity, the media would have us believe that the doves of fraternal friendship and eternal peace await us if only we accept the 1947 UN partition lines. As an added “carrot,” Abbas held out the promise that if the Israeli Government would talk to him he might consider withdrawing his request to the International Criminal Court to prosecute us for war crimes. Naturally, all those who chase rainbows became mesmerized by this tantalizing prospect.

Reality of course is always a bitter pill to swallow especially for those who refuse to acknowledge it even when it hits them in the face.

Our Defence Minister also descended on Ramallah in order to dialogue with Abbas and his advisers. According to a leaked report apparently, Gantz told the PA President for life that he “wants to be the new Yitzhak Rabin.” A more unfortunate analogy and ambitious goal I cannot think of because all we received from Rabin and Arafat’s piece of paper was Oslo followed by terror, murder and carnage. The fact that our Knesset Members are still prostrating themselves at the feet of those who promote, encourage and facilitate terror and pay the families of “martyrs” for murdering Israelis, reveals a total disconnect. Further proof that negotiating with Abbas is a waste of time was provided by the fact that subsequently he named Gantz as one of those to be targeted by the ICC.

When all is said and done we have two choices.

Either to eternally dwell in an alternate universe depicted by the lyrics of the song “somewhere over the rainbow”:

Someday I’ll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops, that’s where
You’ll find me, oh

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
And the dream that you dare to
Oh why, oh why can’t I?

OR – wake up, take note of actual realities and prepare to act accordingly.

As usual, it is a matter of timing whether we wake up too late or prepare our strategies in time.