A letter from Israel on the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War

Gerard Vanderleun has an excellent Memo from Israel to the Palestinian "people":

Memo from Israel to Palestine
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War. The Six Day War was, as it turns out, only one of the high points in the struggle of Israel to secure its very existence and to find a just and lasting peace with neighbors who would incinerate that state if they had the slightest opportunity. This brute fact, despite continued examples of its reality, is still avoided and temporized by Israel's leaders today. On this day, the current Prime Minister of Israel, the enfeebled Olmert promised, "We will not hesitate to take bold initiatives to advance peace, even if they require heavy concessions," and "Israel is prepared to make painful concessions to pay the price for a lasting and just peace."

Given the "heavy" and "painful" concessions already made by Israel over the last 40 years, one shudders to think what else Olmert is prepared to give up. At some point, there will be nothing left to cede.

All of which, to my mind, leads directly to some fast approaching fateful day when the weak men such as Olmert are pushed aside by history and Israel is, finally, prepared to issue a document such as the one that follows and is, finally, prepared to act upon it.

To: The Palestinian People
From: The People of Israel
Re: Final Notice Before the Termination of Our Relationship
Date: "To Be Determined"
(To be filed in your "Permanent Conduct Record")

AS YOU KNOW from our repeated meetings over many years, we have repeatedly done our best to accommodate your incessant demands regarding employment, compensation, housing allowances, health benefits, and other items of mutual interest as we have endeavored to work together on "Project Peace in the Middle East."

We have, with your agreement and assurances of a better performance, given you time, money, professional help, medication and a more than reasonable offer of land for you to live in while you work out "your issues." In the course of these meetings we feel we have been more than forthcoming in our attendance to your "special needs."

From time to time we have accepted your written word that, given adequate resources, you would be working internally to resolve "your issues." We note, for the record, that at no time has your word proven to be worth the paper which we both so ceremoniously signed. Indeed, it has been our bitter experience that the working out of "your issues" most often involves explosive episodes on the streets of our country.

It has come to our attention, through a continuing rain of the body parts of our citizens onto our streets, that "your issues" do not seem to be resolvable through considered and mutually agreeable negotiations. The outcome of these 'negotiations' in the recent past seems to us to be one of we give and you take and then you kill us. We have decided that this is not a peace project that we wish to continue.

Indeed, it would seem to be the case that your "central issue," although internally generated within your institutions and religion, seems to be the eradication of the state of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish people here and abroad.

We mention 'abroad' since it would seem to us that your goal is to first create a base that includes the entire state of Israel, kill the Jews within those borders, and then use that land as a base to kill Jews throughout the world. Perhaps we are wrong in this but we find that a people is best known by the company they keep.

As Jews we have had a similar experience with this "central issue" as a "final solution" towards the middle of the last century. We discovered, after millions of us had been slaughtered, that mollification, negotiation, and submission was not a successful policy. Indeed, we created the state of Israel around the central concept of 'Never again.'

Please note that after no little reflection and soul searching, we have decided to return Israel to this concept as the foundation of our internal and international policy from this moment forward.

Because we are a reasonable people we have decided to issue this memorandum in order to give you one chance to reform yourselves and become fit to be included in the human race. Should you choose not to pursue this path, we will at least have a record that you were notified in a fair and timely manner before termination.

"Never Again" was our first principle and is now our final position. This memo serves to note the end of all negotiations with the Palestinian People.

Your problems and your issues as of this date are yours and yours alone. You must solve whatever bipolar instability and manic-depressive disappointment and psychotic tendencies towards homicidal violence plague your society among yourselves. You will not, from this date forward, use the People of Israel as targets for your own internal demons.

Your "issues" will no longer be allowed to become our "episodes."

And Gerard is just starting to warm to the task. An excellent piece of writing...