Article III, Section 3 of the American Constitution includes, in its definition of treason against the United States, “adhering to their Enemies” and “giving them Aid and Comfort.”
Israel’s Penal Law on treason is more complex: it defines treason in terms of four kinds of acts:
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- the category of acts which “impair the sovereignty” of the State of Israel—section 97(a);
- the category of acts which “impair the integrity” of the State of Israel—section 97(b);
- the category of acts under section 99 which give assistance to an “enemy” in war against Israel, which the Law specifically states includes a terrorist organization;
- the category of acts in section 100 which evince an intention or resolve to commit one of the acts prohibited by sections 97 and 99.
The punishment prescribed in the Penal Law for the first three categories of acts of treason is death or imprisonment for life. The harshness of the punishment emphasizes the seriousness with which the State of Israel originally viewed the crime of treason. This is no longer the case. Treason has become permissible in Israel.
No less than six Israeli prime ministers, dozens of past and present cabinet ministers, and scores of past and present Knesset members are prima facie guilty of having violated at least section 99 of the law governing treason—by yielding, or by agreeing to yield, Jewish land to Israel’s implacable foe, the PLO-Palestinian Authority. (I leave aside how often various Israeli governments have armed this enemy of the Jewish State since 1993.)
Moreover, since various past and present members of the Supreme Court have adopted the mendacious ruling of the International Court of Justice that Judea, Samaria, and Gaza constitute “belligerent occupied territory”—territory over which no state other than Israel could claim sovereignty under international law—one can only conclude that Israel’s High Court of Justice has made treason legitimate and even respectable in the Jewish State.
To clinch my thesis, let us review the Geneva Accord or Geneva Initiative which was launched on December 1, 2003 at a ceremony in Geneva. Among its signatories were Israeli politician Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, and former PLO-Palestinian Authority minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. This non-governmental agreement, reportedly distributed to two million Israelis, yields to Israel’s enemy not only Gaza but almost all of Judea and Samaria.
The agreement stipulates that the Temple Mount and most of the Old City of Jerusalem will come under Arab control. The Western Wall will remain Israeli, as will the Zion and Dung Gates—but the other city gates will be under Arab control. Jews will be permitted, according to the agreement, to “walk freely” from Jaffa Gate to the Jewish Quarter.
Even the cities of Ariel and Efrat will be dismantled and evacuated, according to the agreement, as would most of the other Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. As many as 200,000 Jews would thus be expelled from their homes.
In return for this Israeli withdrawal, the Palestinians would limit their “right to return”! Whatever the term “limit” may mean, the Geneva Accord would return Israel close to the borders that existed before the 1967 war—which Abba Eban dubbed Israel’s “Auschwitz lines.”
Although the Geneva Accord sanctions treason, it did not prevent Mr. Beilin from returning to the Knesset—a return facilitated by Israel pernicious system of proportional representation and fixed party lists. But what is more, Israel’s territorial withdrawal, as stipulated by the Beilin-Abed Rabbo agreement, appears to be the basis of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s “Realignment Plan”!
Mr. Olmert need not worry about being indicted for treason. Treason having become legitimate and respectable in Israel, he’s free to dispense with Jewish land as he might his own apartment. Aiding and abetting Israel’s enemy is not to be taken seriously in the Jewish State—certainly not so long as most Jews, too ignorant to realize that this State is their most dangerous enemy, lack the wherewithal to liberate themselves from bondage.
