Newt was right

December 21, 2011

Re “Facts on the ground,” December 14

This is in reference to your Dec.14 editorial, “Facts on the ground.” Newt Gingrich’s remarks may not be pleasing to his colleagues and indeed may cost him an election. However, it should be understood that as a matter of principle he has chosen truth over realpolitik.

Indeed, were one to traverse history from the San Remo Conference to the present time, it becomes patently apparent that Israel has suffered from constant betrayal and political pragmatism. It is equally noticeable that persistence in the so-called “land for peace” mantra has not worked, nor can it. Let us recall that in his memoirs on the Peace Conference, Lloyd George expressed the view that no race had done better out of the fidelity with which the Allies redeemed their promises to the oppressed races than the Arabs. It is equally important to recall the London Times Sept. 19, 1919 declaration, “The Jordan will not do as Palestine’s eastern boundary. Our duty as Mandatory is to make Jewish Palestine not a struggling State but one that is capable of a vigorous and independent national life.”

Nowhere in UN Resolution 242, which has been heartily accepted by the Arabs, does the word “Palestinian” appear. And the failure of disengagement from Gaza, surely points to the need for Israel to have truly defensible borders, an idea supported by both conservatives and liberals.

Alex Rose
Ashkelon, Israel