Israeli sees 'Net revolution By David Anthony Richelieu Express-News Staff Writer It won't be a vengeful God that smites the enemies of Israel and the other democracies of the world. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes the Internet will bring down the totalitarian regimes of the world. "Truth has been the major casualty of the latest violence in the Mideast," Netanyahu said Sunday night in San Antonio. But he said he remained optimistic about the ultimate outcome because dictatorships can't distort facts and truth that are directly fed to and from orbiting satellites. He predicted that modern communications technology would bring an end to the Muslim religious regime of neighboring Iran because "once people see how other people are living around the world, they want the same freedoms, the same rights and the same choices" they see on American television shows or over the Internet. He predicted similar reactions from masses in China and North Korea. "There already are cracks in the walls of ignorance, and they will only get bigger with time," he said. Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 1996 to 1999, was the featured speaker at the annual "Night to Honor Israel" program at the Rev. John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. Netanyahu is known for his uncompromising opposition to Middle East peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, headed by Yasser Arafat, but he sounded conciliatory and statesmanlike after a forceful invocation, a rousing keynote introduction by Hagee and emotional musical acclamations that had the overflow crowd standing, arms outstretched and swaying back and forth. "There is peace with democracies and peace with dictatorships," Netanyahu said, referring to a quote from Immanuel Kant. And, he said, history is strewn with the worthless paper of treaties with dictatorships, such as that signed at Versailles after World War I and the accord signed with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 that convinced British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain "it is peace in our time." But Netanyahu said that in the latest attacks and bombings against Israelis, the truth is not being told. He urged those inside the church and watching the telecast carried across the nation to light a candle of truth about what is really happening. "The greatest danger is the confusion that is being caused," he said, referring to the notion that all Israel has to do is give the Palestinians some land and everything would be settled. He said what no one is telling is that the Palestinians were offered full, free Israeli citizenship and turned it down. Netanyahu then echoed what Hagee said in his introduction, that you cannot sign a peace accord with people who are your sworn enemies and have publicly dedicated themselves to killing you. "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East," he said, noting that nation's survival is based on its ability to make war and to deter war by its neighbors. Netanyahu said that not until there is a demonstration that the Palestinian Authority can sustain peace over a reasonable period of time should any thought be given to signing a peace accord that could endanger Israel's future or Jerusalem's status as a united, free and open city where all religions are respected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- drichelieu@express-news.net |
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