Fact, Fantasy and Fatah by Stewart Weiss October 8, 2015 http://bit.ly/fact-fantasy-fatah It wasn't long ago that the millions of folks on Ashley Madison - the "life is short, cheat on your spouse" website - woke up to find that their fantasy life had been cruelly compromised and corrupted. Suddenly, the cat - or "cheetah," if you prefer - had been let out of the bag, and the ghosts of guilt, anger and embarrassment moved into many an American household. Well, the latest acts of barbarism by the Palestinians living in our midst have finally succeeded in bursting the bubbles of coexistence, "partners for peace" and the supremely sacrosanct Two-State Solution that have haunted us for far too long. As if to hammer - and stab and shoot - home the ugly truth to our often all-too-naive nation, the latest acts of terror have dispelled, at least for the foreseeable future, the absurd fantasy that these are a people with whom we can make peace and live side-by-side as equals. Let us frankly, finally tell it like it is and scream it from the rooftops, if we must: The Palestinians do not want peace. They do not want either a Jewish state or a state with Jews on "their" land. They do not want to arrive at any compromise or common cause with Israelis, Jews or Zionists. And they do not want a better future for their people if it includes any kind of future for us. They want us gone - or dead. The Myth of Mahmoud has been shattered. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is an unreformed, belligerent terrorist-in-a-suit Arafat wanna-be despite the irrational, wishful thinking of some of our present Knesset members, not to mention a former president. Abbas is a pathological liar, dedicated to demonizing Israel at every possible opportunity - usually by accusing us of the very crimes he and his fellow thugs are perpetrating. He plays the "good cop, bad cop" game quite well, speaking out of several sides of his mouth at once. But his despicable, dishonest diatribe at the United Nations left his true character bare, for all who wished to see. There is no possibility of allowing these anti-Semitic gangsters to set up an independent entity of their own alongside Israel. They don't deserve it and they can't be trusted with it; they will only use and abuse it to institutionalize more terror on our innocents - a la Gaza and Hamas - and make our lives miserable in every way. We can't come to terms with the Palestinians because we have virtually nothing in common with them: - While we sing songs of peace, they chant words of war. - While we raise our children to revere and respect others, they raise their children to rampage and destroy. - While we train our soldiers to defend, they train their fighters to attack. - While we believe in the sanctity of mankind and the supremacy of a universal God, they believe that only they are fit to live, and that only "their" God may be worshiped. - While we seek life, crave life and embrace life, they seek death, they crave death, they embrace death. - While we feed our people on the belief that, with love and mutual recognition, all problems can be solved, they believe that hate and denial of the "other" is the sole path to redemption. Is it any wonder that poll after poll shows that the Palestinians crave more suicide bombings, more vehicular homicides, more affinity for Hamas? That they reject the existence of Israel in any shape or form? That their overwhelming choice for a future "leader" for Palestine is Marwan Barghouti, the infamous mass-murderer currently serving five life-terms who still plans terror attacks from within his pampered cell? As the third intifada rears its ugly head, we must learn from the lessons of the past. Jewish blood cannot flow freely in the streets or on the roads, even if means curtailing the freedoms that normally grace a society. Mosques that preach violence must be closed, their imams arrested. Anyone who lifts a hand - whether it holds a gun, knife or rock - must be immediately, mercilessly stopped. Free and unrestricted travel must be curtailed until and unless our roads are secure. Palestinian homes must be systematically searched, removing the widespread caches of weapons waiting to be turned upon us. Nablus, the heart of Palestinian terror, would be a good place to start. Most importantly, our government (at least the parties that identify themselves as Zionist) must speak with one voice, unequivocally condemning the violence and casting the blame where it belongs - on the victimizers, and not the victims. The Palestinians have enough support from the tyrants, dictators and anti-Semites of the world; they meet regularly in New York to condemn us, without more help from our own Knesset. And please, let us not ask that monotonous, misleading question, "But what is the solution if not a state for two peoples?!" Remember the story of the person lost in the woods, who comes across another person also seeking the exit. As he prepares to go off in one direction, the other fellow tells him: "Stop! While I don't yet know the way out, I do know that the way in which you are headed leads to nowhere!" As I write this piece, on the heels of Simhat Torah, meant to be among the happiest days of the year, mourning observances are beginning for a number of pure souls - two distinguished rabbis among them - who leave dozens of orphans and thousands of traumatized friends, students and family behind. The news of their deaths depresses us; the scene of one of the wounded women running for help, the knife still in her back, as crowds of smirking Palestinians spit and throw rocks at her, disgusts us and reveals the depths of our enemy's depravity. These and so many other brutal acts of terror clearly indicate that we have been going down the wrong path, that we must change direction, that we are not yet "free" in the fullest sense. While we have waited 2,000 years for a Jewish state, we are still waiting for one that is safe and completely secure. The "status quo" is not sustainable as long as a walk to the Kotel is a journey into the unknown. No doubt that living in a fantasy-filled dream world can be a very pleasant experience. But when that dream starts to turn into a nightmare, we had better wake up and deal with the reality. --------------------- The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana; jocmtv@netvision.net.il