Extreme Concessionist

The left-wing, radical and progressive media atmosphere created in Israel has led to an almost total domination of public opinion discourse by ideas that are not only extreme and irrational but wrong and dangerous.

Take for example Akiva Eldar.

I have debated him several times and the man simply doesn't really know his facts. His logic is crooked. He is spoon-fed leaks and "ghosts" for others. He picks up weird notions and Haaretz's reputation allows him the veneer of semi-respectability.

Here's his latest suggestion: Give them the Temple Mount

...The only way that Israel and the United States can affect the struggle in the Palestinian camp is to take away the main contentious elements preoccupying the religious extremists - the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem and the problem of the 1948 refugees - and to hand them over to the moderate secularists. On the other hand, if Abbas emerges from the negotiations without sovereignty over the Temple Mount and without Israeli recognition of the issue of the refugees as proposed by the Arab League (an agreed solution on the basis of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194) - he might as well stay home.

In December 2000 then president Bill Clinton reached the conclusion that there would not be an Arab partner in a peace agreement without Palestinian or Islamic sovereignty over the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Gilad Sher, representing Barak in the meeting at which Clinton presented his plan, wrote in his book "Merhak negia" ("Just Beyond Reach"), that the president suggested that the Haram al-Sharif [the Noble Sanctuary, or Temple Mount], including the plaza and the mosques, would constitute Palestinian sovereign territory, and that the Western Wall and its complex would be under Israeli sovereignty. Sher says that during the cabinet discussion on the Clinton plan, Barak told the ministers he was not willing to be a party to such an arrangement, and said: "I have no intention of signing a document that will transfer sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians."

...The continued dispute over the excavations the Palestinians are carrying out in the Temple Mount complex suggests that transfering sovereignty to them is no more than a virtual concession for Israel. An agreement that will include UNESCO supervision over the excavations and free access to the Israelis will improve the situation vis-a-vis this sensitive area. Receiving the prestigious keys to the holy site will bolster the pragmatists among the Palestinians, and will make it easier for them to relinquish their wish to use the keys to homes they left behind in Jaffa.

Let's just take his last sentence: Receiving the prestigious keys to the holy site will bolster the pragmatists among the Palestinians, and will make it easier for them to relinquish their wish to use the keys to homes they left behind in Jaffa and ask why? Why, if after 40 years Israel yields and surrenders its most precious property would they consider reducing their pressure to get Israel to yield more? Why not try for a small number of 'returning refugees'? And then increase pressure over a 40 year period and just like they got the Temple Mount, they'll get more entry visas.

What, Arabs aren't as smart as Eldar is stupid?

But to call him "extreme" wouldn't be acceptable in Israeli public debate. Only right-wingers are extreme.