           In the traditions of Rabbi Meir Kahane, z"l
                      by Gershon Ben Shabtai
                        January 23, 1992
                   Autonomy or Self-deception?

       It is a tragedy to watch the hapless so called, "right wing" parties in Israel suddenly
wake up from their stupor and realize that we are in danger.  They accepted the concept of
going to a peace conference without any Jewish position whatsoever.  Hoping not to give
away pieces of our homeland is not a position.  It was clear then as it is now that the only
possible outcome of such a pointless meeting is disaster to Israel.  
       Rather than make reasonable and irrevocable demands, Shamir decided to pretend
to give the Arabs what they wanted in an effort to appease America and yet still maintain his
integrity.  It is an impossible juggling act which cannot succeed.  Politics can work just so far. 
The day eventually comes when hard decisions must be made:
       Do you give up the land or don't you give up the land?  Do you accept Arab
national independence on Jewish soil or not?  Do you continue to permit Arabs to
indiscriminately murder Jews all over this country or do you remove them?  
       These are questions which will all, eventually, have to be addressed by the
government of Israel.  Thus far we have succeeded in putting them off and not answering any
of them.  But delaying tactics will only defer the same problems and compound them for the
next year, the next government, or even the next generation.  It will certainly not solve the
problems, rather only make them more complicated.
       It is impossible to control the actions of over two million people who live among
you and who hope to drive you out of what they consider to be their land.  The only peace
they want is another Arab state INSTEAD OF the Jewish one.  Any fool can see that the bluff
of "autonomy" within Israel will never satisfy the self-respecting Arab.  Would you want
Jewish "autonomy" under Arafat's Palestine?  
       Let us all open our eyes and be honest.  The so called "autonomy" plan is, at best, a
fraud and at worst the first step toward a Palestinian state which, in and of itself, is the first
step toward destroying the Jewish one.
       The concept of Land for Peace is merely a subterfuge to enable the Arab states,
who cannot destroy us by going to war, to destroy the Jewish State in gradual steps, without
an immediate war.  I can understand our enemies employing this, or any other strategy, in
order to achieve their heinous aim.  What perplexes me is how our own governmental leaders,
from right to left, feel the need to accept this absurd self destructive concept.  Why are they
not openly and loudly rejecting it as not being acceptable for discussion?  Instead Shamir, who
has no intention of giving back one inch of our holy soil, tells our enemies that "everything is
negotiable"!  I know what he really means and so do our enemies.  But they will force their
interpretation down our throats unless we take all doubts away from them.
       The worst kind of deception is self deception.  We have been afraid to tell our
enemies and friends alike that Judea, Samaria and Gaza are indisputable Jewish property which
we will never let out of our hands again.  Instead we have chosen to leave our county's
heartland in limbo and hope that the problem will go away by itself.  We have permitted the
Arab squatters to bring up a generation who honestly feel that our homeland is really theirs. 
And worst of all, we have recognized the legitimacy of a non-entity and have, ourselves, thus
paved the way for our own self destruction.  Many of us have actually come to believe our
own deceptions!  
       We can cleverly suggest a willingness to permit Arabs to have limited autonomy in
our homeland.  But the Arabs are neither stupid nor lacking in self respect.  They will
"negotiate" with us until they get what they want.  Once we get bogged down in such
negotiations our great "friend", the United States, will never agree that we limit "self
determination" for the fraudulent entity we all recognize.  We are fooling no one but
ourselves.  