Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Let us forget for a moment that Israel is not the nation-state of the Jewish people. Let us fantasize that it is not engaged in an intractable conflict with Palestinian Arabs who refuse to recognize or make peace with the legitimacy of an indigenous people who historically, biblically, legally, and irreversibly have reestablished their homeland in the Land of Israel.

The realty of course is that despite numerous efforts and generous concessions over the last 73 years by Israel to make peace with the Palestinian Arabs, the Palestinian Arab national aspiration has been and continues to be the destruction and disappearance of the state of Israel. Arab and other Muslim nations and Jew haters throughout the world, including those in America, have supported the Palestinian Arabs in this fantasy.

And what has Israel done during this period of hostility? It has reclaimed the land from two millennia of neglect by restoring its forests and fertile farmlands to their natural beauty and fruitful production. It has created great universities and centers of medicine and scientific research which has benefited the entire world, including those nations that would seek its destruction during these years.

It has in-gathered its dispersed and oppressed people from the Arab world and its ragged survivors from Europe, targets of the greatest genocide against a people in all of world history. It continues to be a haven for Diaspora Jews fleeing anti-Semitism.

Finally, out of necessity it has built up a military force second to none, and in doing so it has secured it own borders and the safety of its people (including its Arab citizens). As political and security circumstances have changed in the Middle East, Israel is now is a major contributor to regional stability.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, its pursuit of nuclear weapons, missile delivery systems, and its support, sponsorship and active participation in terrorist activities in its quest to establish hegemony over the Islamic World, have created grave security and economic concerns for the Sunni Arab and Gulf nations in the Middle East as well as for Israel.

At the same time, as Iran increases its aggressive actions and intentions, America continues its military disengagement from Syria and Afghanistan, and has already completely withdrawn its military presence in Iraq.

The reduced American presence in the Middle East has caused Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, as well as Egypt and Jordan to be justifiably concerned without an American buffer to restrain Iran. A new American policy was needed to project American soft and hard power in the region. Enter the Abraham Accords!

By brilliantly refocusing American Middle East diplomacy through the “Deal of the Century,” combined with the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the legitimacy of its settlements, its sovereignty over the Golan Heights and its claim to the Jordan Valley, the Trump Administration subtlety created in the Arab camp a realization that supporting the Palestinians in their fantasy of destroying the Jewish state was futile and an impediment to ever resolving the Arab/Israeli conflict.

As a result of the Abraham Accords, Israel is now looked upon by an increasing number of Arab and Gulf nations not only as a Jewish state, but as a neighbor and as America’s indispensable ally who in friendship could be counted on to restrain and contain their mutual enemy; and through mutual trade, enhance the critical transformation of their future economies to a diversified mix of high tech, sustainable energy, modern agriculture and water conservation.

The incoming Biden Administration and America will be well served by continuing this aspect of our foreign policy.

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.