Route 17: Surrender, Dorothy

Robert E. Lee got a better deal at Appomattox than Israel got at Annapolis.

The South got to keep its land, its guns and its mules.

Israel will have to give most of the Old City of Jerusalem, give up access to holy places in Judea and Samaria, acquiesce to apartheid rules that preclude  Jewish residence on the West Bank, give guns to Fatah, and send all kinds of goods and services (reparations, you might say) into Gaza.

Robert E. Lee came away with his dignity.

At Annapolis, Arab leaders wouldn't shake the hands of Israeli leaders, or even enter through the same door as they did. Prime Minister Olmert left Annapolis with no dignity at all, if indeed he had any going in.

Lee looked at the situation. He couldn't stop the burning of Atlanta, or the burning of other Confederate cities, with the military options at the Confederacy's disposal. By surrendering the Confederacy's principles of state's rights and the right to secede, he bought quiet, a cessation of death and terror, and a chance to move on.

Israel refuses to surrender its principles (the oft-ignored principle of refusing to negotiate with terrorists) and negotiate with Hamas. At the same time, with the military options at its disposal (as Israel understands it) Israel can't stop Hamas rockets that land every few hours in Sderot or Ashkelon. Israel can't prevent, under the status quo, Jews dying and their limbs being amputated. Israel didn't have the will or the wherewithal to fight the rocket launchers in Gaza for more than two days. Israel didn't have the will or the wherewithal to fight Hezbollah for more than a few weeks.

Israel has already surrendered the safety of its citizens in Sderot. Israel has already surrendered its principle of not negotiating with terrorists by negotiating with Yasser Arafat, the granddaddy of Palestinian terrorism, and now they negotiate with the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas, the "good Palestinian," who sits in his office under a large photograph of Arafat. Abbas, the good one, broke off negotiations with Israel last week when Israel went into Gaza for 48-hours to fight Hamas and the rockets. That sure makes Abbas seem like he's more aligned with Hamas than with Israel.

Now Israel stopped fighting in Gaza and is talking with Abbas again. They might as well surrender and talk to Hamas directly.

In return for nothing, Israel has already surrendered the ability of Jews to safely visit Joseph's Tomb and the Temple Mount. Israel has surrendered the tranquility of Jewish pilgrimage to Mother Rachel in Bethlehem and our family plot in Hebron. Israel is unable to stand up to President Bush - who allegedly pressured an end to the foray into Gaza -- at a time when Bush is as lame as a lame duck can be.

At the same time that Congress voted 404-1 (House Resolution 951) in support of Israel's right to defend itself against rockets, Israel won't defend itself against rockets.

By surrendering to Hezbollah in the last war, and surrendering the lives of the two captives, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Israel stopped the rockets on the northern front.

Israel has surrendered its dignity and its decency with every falling rocket on the southern front. It's time to surrender and negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas, even if it lasts a week. At least it would be a better week for the Jews of Sderot than the last 250 weeks. The Jews of Lodz, in 1850, lived in greater peace than do the Jews of this Israeli town in 2008.

Look at Robert E. Lee. He surrendered and a century later is loved in the South. He epitomizes dignity and self-respect. He is remembered for loving his soldiers and loving his country - both of them, the Confederacy and the United States, a two-state solution if there ever was one.

Olmert long ago surrendered his dignity and has done everything but lower the flag over that part of Israel where the rich won't live and the poor can't escape. His years have turned back the Zionist clock a century, convincing Jews that we are helpless, at the mercy of the world's scolding. In a mockery of Zionism, Jews are scared of shadows, the shadows of rockets, while walking in Zion.

After 4,000 rockets and no sustained or successful military or diplomatic effort to stop it, let's admit as much: Israel, for all of its Zionist bluster, is a Cowardly Lion, roaring at scarecrows but surrendering Sderot. Israel would only be surrendering to reality if it negotiated with Hamas.

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