About
Gerald A. Honigman
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida
educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle
Eastern Affairs, created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda
programs for college youth, lectured on numerous campuses and
other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen.
He is the author of
The Quest for Justice in the Middle East. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around
the world.
Link
You Have a Treaty
of Peace with Whom? August 28, 2009
Imagine for a moment that tunnels were being dug under the
Canadian-American border which were being used to import weapons that
were then used to target American cities and murder and maim American
civilians.
What would America do under such circumstances?
Well, first of all, despite disagreements with our neighbor to the
north, which were once deep indeed (i.e. loyalty to the British Crown,
for starters...many American Tories thus moved to Canada), we are
blessed with overall good relations up yonder ways.
But think about the unthinkable (and keep in mind that jihadists have
already made their way across that border).
The first thing we'd do is contact the Canadian leaders to take action
themselves.
Now, if the problem persisted, and those folks did little or nothing to
stop the problem, we'd be forced to take other measures--seeking redress
before an international authority--and, if that didn't work, we'd be
forced to act on our own. And we certainly wouldn't allow this to go on
for years.
The problem is multi-faceted. But, regardless of the possibilities, if
Canada still allowed its territory to be used to launch hostilities
against us, then..well...would that not be an act of war? Countries have
gone to war over soccer games.
Alright, consider this...
News is breaking that America has sent a team to Egypt to help destroy
tunnels that have existed for years on the Egyptian side of the
Gaza-Egypt border that have been used to supply Hamas & Co. with all
kinds of weapons and explosives--used mostly to target Jews in Israel.
The stretch of land that is involved here is a virtual zipper--3.5
kilometers (a few miles) wide.
Compare that to the 5,000-mile wide border that America has with Canada
stretching across North America.
Imagine if this was reversed, and Israel was allowing the tools of death
to enter into Egypt from its territory to wage terror, murder, and
destruction against Arabs.
Do I need to ask what everyone's response would be to this?
Would Israel need America to stop this problem?
Keep in mind that Egypt has received tens of billions of dollars in aid
from the United States over many years now--including top-of-the-line
military equipment.
Also keep in mind that Egypt has a huge standing army and dwarfs Israel
in geographical size and population.
In short, should Egypt really have to rely on America to show that it's
peace treaty with Israel--for which the latter gave back all of Sinai (a
great tank trap), abandoned state-of-the-art strategic air fields it
constructed, lucrative oil fields it developed, and the closest example
of true strategic depth that it ever had--is really a true peace treaty
and not just another version of an Arab pause before the next war...that
the tunnels, which Egypt obviously permits, are used to hopefully help
soften Israel up for?
The possible positive note here is that the same world view which drives
Hamas is also embraced by the Muslim Brotherhood...modern Pharaoh's own
nemesis. And, as they like to say in that region, "the enemy of my enemy
is my friend."
But should such minimal and basic civil relations between nations and
peoples have to depend on this sort of thing?
