Weekly Commentary: The Pig Pilot Checklist
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 30 January 2014

It is both frustrating and disturbing.

There is a group of people pushing for the creation of an independent
sovereign Palestinian state who have consistently been on the wrong side of
history for over two decades and they are as haughty and conceited today as
they were at the very beginning of the gross failure known as Oslo .

But the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state would truly only be in
Israel’s interests if pigs could fly.

So here is an excerpt from the pig pilot checklist:

#1. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will remain stable and under moderate
leadership in perpetuity.

#2. The Palestinian state will remain stable and under moderate leadership
in perpetuity.

#3. No country or collection of countries will ever attempt, for any reason,
to invade Israel.

#4. The Palestinians will act with due diligence and great efficacy to honor
their treaty obligations, in particular security related obligations, at all
times and under all circumstances.

#5. The nations of the world will give priority to Israel’s security needs
and concerns over their own interests and agendas.

I could go on but its already clear that this pig isn’t flying anywhere.

Take note: proponents of a deal have yet to come up with a reasonable answer
to Minister Naftali Bennett’s intuitive warning that the cost of the
consequences of a Palestinian terror state dwarf the costs, no matter how
great, of failed talks.

Minister Lapid took an unsuccessful stab at it on Wednesday night, asserting
that the same nightmare of rocket and other attacks from the West Bank that
Bennett warns might destroy the Israeli economy if a Palestinian state is
created could plague Israel if a deal isn’t reached.

Silly is a generous adjective to describe this argument.

Not only would a sovereign Palestinian state find it magnitudes easier to
deploy weapons systems in the West Bank - Israel’s options and risks in
addressing both the Palestinian deployment of weapons systems and in
responding to Palestinian attacks would be profoundly different if the
territory is an independent sovereign state backed by various regional and
world powers as it exploits its sovereign status to the hilt.

A suggestion to Mr. Lapid and his fellow pig pilots: just for once show the
Palestinians the respect that they deserve and consider the possibility that
they mean what they say in Arabic. Give the Palestinians the credit that
they are just as creative and determined - if not more - to reach their
goals as we are. And in that moment, bereft of the typical patronizing of
the Left, consider how you would exploit the existence of a sovereign
Palestinian state to achieve your goals if you were a Palestinian who meant
what he said in Arabic.

If the pig pilots would genuinely and honestly engage in this role playing
they would most certainly experience an epiphany: Palestinian autonomy may
not have the same appeal as Palestinian sovereignty, but it’s a much safer
ride.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il Website: http://www.imra.org.il