"Peace" has to have the word "Just" in front of It.

I received an interesting comment from someone who read my short post (unusual for me, eh?) "Israel is Israel" (see post of October 28th). As my reply became longer and longer, I decided her comment bothered me enough to post my answer here-be forewarned: I have lotsa links in this one, so get your clicking-finger ready (Miri, I hope you are reading this.):
My post was about Tamar Yonah's blog on Arutz Sheva (Israel National News-see the whole article again, here) in which she wrote about what she termed "The Isaiah Plan," Isaiah being our Navi (prophet)from the eighth century, B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), whose time seems to eerily mirror our own, with its corrupt and power-hungry ruling "class" (e.g., certain Prime Ministers, Knesset members and the like) victimizing or at best ignoring the common people, while trying to make pacts with the enemy.

I don't believe that Tamar said that we are 'righteous.' What she said was, we should aim for justice and righteousness. She basically said that the Arabs are lying to Israel and to the world, about:

1) The so-called "refugee problem" which they created themselves, are taking NO responsibility for and are milking for whatever they can get out of it,
2) The idea that Israel is really something else called 'Palestine' which is supposed to be an Arab country (read the history of the region; and read From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters),
3) Their manifesto, which still calls for the destruction of Israel and which they refuse to change.

We are not fighting for the 'right' to kill people, as my commenter contended-that is ridiculous; we didn't start the war in 1948 right after the State of Israel was declared, we didn't threaten Egypt in 1956 in what became known as the Sinai Campaign by blocking her ports, we didn't threaten our neighbors and announce that we are poised on the borders of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to annihilate them in what became known as The Six Day War (see also here.)Unfortunately, with the Yom Kippur war in 1973, and on to Lebanon in 1981 and 2006, I can go on and on if space (and your patience!) would allow.

Israel has not been the aggressor but rather the defender; the Arab nations have been trying to kill us, by outright war or by attrition, since even before the inception of the State (have you read about the Hevron massacre in 1929?) and 'peace talks' after 'peace plans' after 'road maps' are just not gonna cut it because the Arabs do not really want peace with Israel. If they did, they would be cracking down seriously on the terrorists shooting kassams from Gaza onto S'derot, on the sniper shootings on Israeli vehicles driving on the roads, on the riots and on the rock-throwing.
What the Arabs really want, is for us to not be there, period. And we won't do that. We are there. We were recognized by the world and voted in as a State in 1948. We have an historical right to this land-just do a little digging, please- and we've also earned the right to have this land, not only because of world-wide and centuries-old persecution by other nations (while we resided among those nations peacefully) and religions, but by our blood, sweat and tears in draining the swamps and making the desert bloom and building the economy to the point of making Israel the most vibrant, hi-tech, and democratic nation there is in the Middle East today.

All this shuttle-diplomacy in the efforts of peace are diplomatic dances and political-correctness, because the entire world is afraid to say the emperor has no clothes. And you know how I feel about that. We need to face the truth of our situation in the Middle East, and stand up for what is right and truth. A so-called 'peace' with a terrorist enemy will not create a peaceful Middle East; it will only create a clone of what happened in Gaza: been there, done that. And it will lead to the next war.

That is why we need a Just Peace, and why Tamar Yonah is right.
Shabbat Shalom.