Defense Initiative Leader: Israel 'On the Brink of War'

The kidnappings and murders of three Jewish teens and a young Muslim teen are pointing to spreading violence between Israel and its enemies, American Freedom Defense Initiative President Pamela Geller said on Newsmax TV.

However, she and fellow guest Dr. Sabri Samirah, president of the American and Middle-Eastern Affairs Center, had strong differences of opinion on Thursday's MidPoint about which side is to blame for the continued strife between the nations.

"The Israelis just want to live in peace and the objective of Hamas is to destroy the Jewish state," Geller told MidPoint host Ed Berliner. "Clearly the violence is spreading, and so I would have to say that they're on the brink of war, and I don't believe that we should rush to judgment."

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Geller complained that President Barack Obama "was silent for 18 days" when the Jewish teens were killed, but rushed to make a statement on the young Muslim's death.

"What I am saying is we don't know what happened, but it's interesting how the whole world jumped to call it a revenge killing," she said. "There is absolute silence for weeks on what they knew was a Hamas operation to kidnap and then subsequently kill [the Jewish teens]."

Geller said a recent Fox News poll "from the territories" said the majority of Palestinians want Palestine "from the river to the sea — it's a biblical term — which means the complete annihilation of Israel."

But she called the idea that neither side wants peace "an absolutely false narrative advanced by a media that's notoriously anti-Israel and pro-jihad."

[Israel] "is a state that shares our values, our American values in terms of life, liberty, and individual rights," Geller said. "It's the only democracy in the Middle East. Nobody wants to deal with the Islamic anti-Semitism that is in the Koran that motivates jihadists, that incites and fuels this war, but the narrative that Israel does not want peace is ridiculous on its face."

Samirah responded that "Palestine is occupied by the Israelis. Even the U.S., our government, declares that these are lands under occupation. The settlements are illegal."

And as such, he said, "everybody around the globe is calling upon Israel to end the occupation, to end the settlements, and to stop abusing the Palestinian people."

The Palestinians agreed to give up "almost 80 percent of their historic Palestine" for Israel in 1948, he said, and want peace, but it is Israel that "wants to control the whole historic land of Palestine, to kick out all the Palestinians and not to give them any single human or civil right in their whole homeland. So Israel does not want peace, the Palestinians want peace."

Geller called Samirah's argument "nonsense" and insisted Israel "has tried to make peace at every turn" as the settlements are not illegal.

The Israelis withdrew from Gaza unilaterally and what did it become but a terrorist state to lob rockets at schools and children, said Geller. "It's a ridiculous premise. The Palestinians refuse, refuse to make peace. And by the way, there is no such thing as historical Palestine...that idea is a lie."

While Samirah insisted that the only solution would be for the American government to stop Israel from the "nonsense occupation," Geller interjected "there's no occupation, that's not true."

And Samirah insisted that American policy "has to pressure Israel completely and fully.

Even when Kerry said a couple of condolences, statements regarding the Palestinian youth who was killed by the Israeli settlers, the Israelis and American supporters of Israel started accusing Kerry of being Palestinian-leaning. This is nonsense."

But Geller said there is only solution: "the acceptance of the Jewish state. The Muslims must recognize the Jewish state."

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