MORPHEUS: You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up and believe…whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill… and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole [i.e., the truth] goes.
Remember…all I’m offering you is the truth, nothing more.
I remember exactly when I took the “red pill” regarding the Palestinian Arab-Israeli conflict. It was 2000, after then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered then-PLO Chairman/PA “President” Yasser Arafat exactly what he (Arafat) had so recently claimed to want (in English) – a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza consisting of 95% plus of that area, land to live in peace with the Jewish state of Israel – and Arafat walked away from the offer without countering it, then proceeded to incite his people into yet another terrorist war directed primarily against Israeli civilians. At that exact moment in time, I knew the “peace process” between these two parties was complete and utter bunk (actually, another word comes to mind here, but is too crude for use at this website) because one side – the Palestinian side – did not really want to have peace.
Prior to 2000, I, like many of my religious group – I am Jewish – in the U.S., was taken in by the usual propaganda put forth by the chattering classes in the U.S., especially the State Department, Europe, and the New York Times. Israel was at fault for the lack of peace in the Middle East, they said, because its “right wing governments” led by Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir refused to give up on the idea of a “Greater Israel” that included all of the West Bank areas. For this reason, I cheered when Labor Leader Yitzhak Rabin finally and conclusively defeated the Likud in the 1992 elections, assuming that a real peace was finally at hand. I especially respected the fact that Rabin was strong and responsible enough to get over his distaste of the despicable terrorist Arafat and “do what was right for peace” by agreeing to the Oslo Accords in 1994. When Rabin was assassinated and Benyamin Netanyahu had his first stint as Prime Minister, I mourned the loss of all my hopes. But then, in 1999, Ehud Barak led Labor back to victory, and once again, peace in the Middle East seemed right around the corner.
And then Arafat walked away from the negotiating table.
That was when I finally took the red pill and saw the truth. The truth was – and is – that the Palestinians and their leadership – both the PLO and Hamas – simply didn’t, and still don’t, want peace. If they did want peace, Arafat wouldn’t have walked away in 2000. If they did, Arafat’s successor Abbas wouldn’t have also walked away in 2008, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert offered a similarly generous peace offer. But that is not all. If the Palestinians truly wanted peace, they would – for lack of a better term – fix their “deviant society.” Specifically, the PA/Hamas/Palestinians would:
Stop utilizing their various cultural, educational, and media sources to undermine the peace process with Israel.
Stop using their children’s shows and elementary schools to incite Palestinian children to kill Israelis, including women and children, and Jews (regardless of their positions on the Arab-Israeli debate) in general.
Stop producing government officials, from the President down to their diplomatic envoys, who spread anti-Semitism throughout the world.
Stop naming streets, buildings, and squares after terrorists who have killed Israelis and Jews.
Stop selling and teaching such trash including Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion..
Stop smuggling arms and rockets and explosives into the West Bank and Gaza to be used to attack Israeli cities and farms.
These demands – and that is what they are – should be non-negotiable. There can be no peace without them being satisfied. Unfortunately, many in the West are still ingesting the blue pill. These people are still stuck in the imaginary world of the Matrix. Time after time, like clockwork, these delusional persons demand more concessions from Israeli governments, of both left and right, regardless of what is happening in the Middle East or what the Palestinians are doing. In 2005, they demanded, and they got, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip by the supposedly arch-conservative then-Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. No peace followed. In 2008, they persuaded then-Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert to reiterate the Barak proposal from 2000. No peace followed. Now, the unelected Palestinian “President” Abbas is demanding that the world grant the Palestinians a state without any compromise or peacemaking on their part, as a reward for their violence and their bad faith.
The answer to this demand should be “no.” It is long past the time for President Obama, members of the U.S. Congress, and even the world community, to take the red pill. The truth is waiting for them.