The Swedish furniture maker IKEA made the headlines last week, even though it was an innocent bystander to the war of words between the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his female Swedish counterpart. Reacting to Sweden's recognition of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, Lieberman caustically said that “the Middle East and the Palestinian – Israeli dispute is slightly more complicated than is assembling an IKEA furniture product.”
IKEA is the famous Swedish company that manufactures all types of furniture that the buyers must then assemble themselves using their own talents and time. IKEA has a number of large stores here in Israel and is a very popular product worldwide.
The Swedish Foreign Minister responded to Lieberman's thrust by stating that she would be happy to send Lieberman an IKEA product but that he has to realize that in order to assemble it, he definitely needs the willing cooperation of a partner and a manual to instruct them in its proper assembly.
As of this writing, there the matter apparently rests. However, if I were Lieberman, which thank God I am not, I would have a wistful but pointed rejoinder to this generous offer of the Foreign Minister of Sweden. I would tell her that I would gladly accept any type of IKEA solution and product here in our section of the world but I would appreciate it if she could also tell me who my willing cooperative partner will be to help me with the assembly, and if she could tell me if she also has a manual of instructions.
Even she admits that one cannot assemble an IKEA product alone and that there must be some reasonable explanation as to how to put the disparate parts together so that the finished product does not collapse. All our previous efforts to assemble such an IKEA-like solution with the Arab world have collapsed shortly after the assembly project was completed and celebrated.
IKEA provides a warranty with its products. All of the do-gooders who have Israel's true welfare at heart and are always trying to save us Israelis from ourselves with “tough love,” have never provided us with any warranty as to the product they wish us to assemble.
In fact, when push comes to shove, they are rarely heard from afterwards and usually just withdraw into their smug posture of fairytale unreality. It should be obvious to all by now that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are not willing, cooperative partners in trying to achieve a just and lasting settlement of a century-old dispute.
The constant incitement, propaganda, spewed hatred and dire threats that emanate daily from the leaders and spokespersons of the Palestinian Authority hardly make them our partners in any sort of endeavor, let alone in arriving at a peaceful settlement, which will require concessions and compromise on all sides.
We have tried numerous times to assemble this IKEA-like solution by ourselves. Israel has withdrawn from territory, dismantled settlements, exiled thousands of its own citizens, released hundreds of murderers from prison (so that they can murder again) all in a vain attempt to arrive at a permanent settlement of our conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world generally.
All of our efforts to assemble this solution have failed dismally and all previous agreements and unilateral concessions forced on Israel are tainted by the blood of thousands of victims of these failed policies and false assembly instructions. There is no unilateral way to assemble an IKEA product.
It would seem equally obvious that when IKEA issues a manual of instructions for assembly of its products and subsequently those products continually collapse, that IKEA would rethink its assembly process and provide a newer and much more accurate manual for its customers.
What is true for IKEA should also be true for the governments and diplomats of the world, especially Sweden. If the old manual is proven to be inaccurate and of little value, then perhaps our “tough love” friends should rethink the issues and come up with new and better suggestions and insights as to how this dispute can, if ever, be settled. And if they are unable to do so, then perhaps silence and patience should be the order of the day on their part.
Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times hardly known to be pro-Israel, recently wrote that he understands why it is perfectly logical and legitimate for Israel to maintain the current status quo in its dealings with the Palestinian Authority and the surrounding Arab world. He naturally bemoans the fact that this is the situation and wants Israel to come up with new creative thinking to break the logjam.
He apparently has no new creative thinking to bring to the table, since all of the previous solutions have proven to be broken shards. I wish IKEA all the success in the world and I hope that the Foreign Minister of Sweden would indeed provide us with a willing cooperative partner and an accurate manual of instructions that would ease the situation in which we find ourselves.
This article originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.
(15) Yitzhak Berg, October 16, 2020 6:16 PM
IKEA & Peace in the Middle East
Thanks Rabbi Berel Wein for this great message
(14) scott, November 11, 2014 8:37 AM
who cares what the Swedish think?
I was about six. A small kid. We lived not too far from a landfill where the best blackberry vines grew. Berries that were as large as my little fist. I didn't like them but mom liked to put them on her ice cream and I liked to hunt for them so I spent a lot of time in the berry bushes. One day I was attacking a bush on the slope leading down into the floor of the landfill and when little boy my age and his older sister came by. The little boy and I started to play and joke as little boys do, but I guess the big sister felt left out. So she started rolling big rocks down onto my head. I asked her why and she replied by asking her little brother to join her in moving bigger rocks to roll down the slope at me. So he did. My new little friend went from laughing and joking with me to trying to kill me...an almost complete stranger who had done nothing to him. Just because his sister asked him to. And he enjoyed it. I finally got over my shock and ran away. Never knew who they were. Never saw them again. I learned everything I need to know about the shoah that day. People hate and kill for no good reason. The world is full of animals pretending to be human. I got to run away. I think sometimes about how horrible it would be if there was nowhere to run. That's the shoah. People pick on Jews because they enjoy it. Because other people are just that. other. When are we going to stop trying to make nice with people who hate us for no reason and come home? G*d likes us. When will that finally be enough? Aren't six million Jews enough to sacrifice to Europeans? They don't like us. And never will. Let's worry about how Israeli like Israel for a change.
(13) Mary, November 11, 2014 12:37 AM
People can not be reassembled
There is too much history and too many people envolved for a Middle East peace to be able to put one together as one would a piece of precut furniture. Much has to change for that to happen; old hateds , old rilvaries, and even old priorities - Islam swore to eliminate both Judaism and Christianity over 1000 years ago and still hol
d to that objective.
(12) Sandy, November 10, 2014 7:32 PM
Throw Them Out of Israel
Those who are living in Israel and want to harm us need to have their citizenship revoked and to be shown the border. That must be done. Vipers in our midst must go. Let them live with their own kind. Take back every inch of our country and those who don't like it can leave.
(11) Anonymous, November 10, 2014 11:04 AM
#7 The problem is not in the parts, rather in the partner who wishes to Burn the parts!
Every attempt at peace ends with Arab riots, more concessions. After centuries of treating the Jews as dhimmis, with no population outside of 5-6 small walled cities, brave Jews, at great risk and expense, began developing new settlements in the 1860s. For 60 yrs, increased populace brought jobs to alien Syrian, etc, Arabs, then THEY claimed ownership. When Jews were promised a mandate, to live in harmony w many newly arrived Arabs on ancestral lands of "Palestine" which included Trans-Jordan, Arabs rioted. They were rewarded with a Just and Fair solution at the 1920 San Remo conference, when they received 4/5 of that Palestine as the state of TransJordan. [BTW, it was renamed Jordan to lessen the indication that the East Bank was less important...only "trans", the part that was on "the other side of" the Jordan River...than the West Bank, the entire west Bank, which was the more important side of Ancient Israel]. The Arab response? More riots, unrest, 1921-29(Chevron massacre). More negotiations, more conferences : Sykes-Picot 1936(if I recall correctly). More concessions of land for peace. Response? More Arab riots. More concessions. As WW2 begone, British White Paper closes immigration to Palestine as Jews are murdered by Nazis with Arab complicity . The world has a momentary blip of dissonance from antiSemitism as usual, allows a bifurcated, indefensible Jewish Homeland in Nov 47. Less than 50% of the remaining 1/5. Offer of Arab State on more than 50%, better and contiguous land. A clear win again. Just and fair. Result? Rabid rioting. Six months of build up of Arab forces on all sides of the fledgling state. Jews in Arab lands attacked. Result? War! Miraculously, Jews win. Result? 19 years of threats, attacks, and new war. Jews win again. It is JUST AND FAIR THAT THOSE WHO BEGGED FOR PEACE, SACRIFICED FOR PEACE and were forced into war again and again, then WON THAT WAR should be allowed to keep the protections afforded by that war. Just and fair!
Yisroel, November 10, 2014 9:14 PM
correction: Peel commission, 1937
For a deeper analysis of several of my points, see the related Aish.com article, "Middle East Reality Check", March, 2013; Dr S. Katz.
The problem has only gotten worse in the last 20 months.
The solution Dr Katz suggests is wonderful, but 1300 years of attempts by Islam to conquer and subjugate or defeat the west does not seem to be on the horizon. (See Dr Kedar's current [Nov 10]-and excellent-article on Arutz Sheva for sources, etc)
Again, the only Just and Fair solution to solve the situation is to recognize the fact that Israel won a defensive war against murderous Arab enemies resulting in the capture of our ancestral lands which, in addition to their historic and legal rights are also desperately needed for a buffer and to avoid Auschwitz borders."
As for what to do with the Arab populace, they should be required to swear allegiance (not worth much, with "teqiya"-lie for the cause-but a start) and set up municipal self governments which would self tax and self govern, as long as peace is obtained. This worked in the Turkish Ottoman empire, as the bet din had overlapping municipal control of the Jews, Church had control over Xtians, and islamic leaders over Muslims.
This would also remove the onus of Israel providing utilities for a community that won't pay for them and then be forced to increase taxes to Jewish citizens. Would lower the cost of living substantially.
May haShem open the eyes of Israeli leaders to guide them to protect our populace from the vicious terror attacks!
(10) Anonymous, November 10, 2014 5:38 AM
Great!
This is great! Thank you so much for posting this!
(9) Emil Friedman, November 10, 2014 2:50 AM
Did IKEA do or say anything anti-Israel before Minister Lieberman's "wise-guy" comment?
If not, he should promptly apologize to IKEA and make it clear that we don't blame IKEA for decisions made by the Swedish government.
(8) Sueiyin Siuyin Ho, November 10, 2014 2:42 AM
So-called West Bank
The so-called West Bank is a fallacy promoted by ethnic Arabs who are angry because others before their generation were angry over unjust refusal or continuity of refugee status. The whole thing has been turned into an exaggerated, "off-the-subject" issue about so-called Palestinian rights to the land which traditionally belongs to Israel. There is in reality no such thing as the West Bank, as the manufactured identity called Palestine sees it. Under an Israeli NCR claim - Native Customary Rights claim, so-called Palestine has no rights to claim the land for themselves precisely because they are not the "traditional owners". Israel should push the UN for Native Customary Rights to the so-called West Bank and to every other disputed territory, instead of using the "State land" argument, which upon principle, defies Biblical right of Israel to the land as ancestral domain because it is an unG-dly secular argument. Back in the time when G-d gave all the land of Israel to it's twelve tribes, G-d did this so that Israel would remember their sacred relationship to Him through the ties to this land. The "State land" argument serves only to diminish the sacred significance of this covenantal relationship between the people of Israel, the Creator, and the land He gave the people.
Yisroel, November 11, 2014 4:13 AM
Well said!
The religious-historical reasons are the strongest....
(7) Anonymous, November 9, 2014 11:37 PM
The problem may be in the parts
Sticking to the IKEA analogy, the manual may be fine and the guarantee may be fine but the furniture will still collapse if it's ill-designed or one or more parts are defective. Granted, nothing good has come or likely ever could come from releasing murderers from prison. Granted also, uprooting Israeli settlements from the Gaza also was a failure. Does that mean the search for a better design, for more reliable parts, for a surer guarantee should stop? Can all the arms and alliances Israel might muster ever be enough to "win" in the long run. More likely, only a just and fair peace, which necessarily would involve very painful concessions on all sides, could do that. As we read in Pirkei Avos, ours is not to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it. How, I wonder, does Rabbi Wein conceive of that task?
(6) Anonymous, November 9, 2014 6:29 PM
Two-State Solution, Two-Stage Solution
Israel's naive friends push a two-state solution, when the two states are already in place: Israel and Jordan (which used to occupy the so-called West Bank, lost it when it joined in the attempted murder of all Israelis in 1967, and is now happy to let Israel choke on it).
Israel's enemies are looking for a two-STAGE solution. Stage One: yet another Judenrein Arab state. Stage Two: with the new state as a base, kill the Jews. We all know this, but no one seems to talk about it.
(5) Anonymous, November 9, 2014 5:59 PM
AMEN
AMEN
(4) marilyb, November 9, 2014 5:54 PM
Smart rebutal
Your article was thoughtful and on target. Perhaps, one day, there will be more like minded people as yourself to discourage those that don't want Israel to succeed and will protest otherwise.
(3) deanna, November 9, 2014 5:36 PM
ikea
Ikeas founder was known to have Nazi sympathies and everyone knows it. And yet there are stores in Israel and uk and USA frequented by many Jewish people. The Swedes were the first European nation to recognise the State of Palestine. Not looking good is it and yet we keep on buying!!!1
(2) Kathleen, November 9, 2014 4:58 PM
Great article
Israel doesn't need "tough love". It needs and deserves "unconditional love" from its so-called allies like the current U.S.administration.
(1) Anonymous, November 9, 2014 4:54 PM
ikea solution/sweden
Ikea is the only game in town for many towns. Boycott her beloved IKEA all over the world. Not another stick. Start a competitor with the Chinese or india or Canada to fight this action. Produce a better product with a one person manual in English with translations and see how long it takes antisemitic IKEA to fold kind like the Volvo or saab.