David M Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM
Quite a few “bubbles” have popped over the past week. Whether the
current round of warfare with Hamas ends today in another bad cease-fire
or extends into an even worse ground fight, quite a few political myths
have already been demolished.
The “Tel Aviv bubble” was the first to go. Neither Hamas nor
Hezbollah had directly slammed their nasty calling cards into the
central Dan region before. It’s no longer so easy to preach Palestinian
statehood from the pretty porches of Kadima and Meretz’s headquarters in
Tel Aviv. Residents of the south, of the settlements, and of the sushi
bars of Tel Aviv are all in the same boat. Good morning.
The second myth completely vaporized was the notion that Israel could
and would clobber the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip the minute they
used violence and terrorism against us. Remember Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s Gaza disengagement bravado? “If they use Gaza as a launching
pad for terrorism after Israel withdraws, Israel will respond with no
holds barred and have international legitimacy for doing so,” he said,
or something to that effect.
Poppycock. The New York Times has given us sanction to bomb Hamas’
“empty training sites” (yes, that’s what a Times editorial actually
suggested), and the world community is letting us get away with a few
days of pinpoint terrorist targeting. But we have no international
sanction for truly disarming the Palestinians, bunker by bunker. We have
no international legitimacy for clobbering or dismantling the
Iranian-backed terrorist state that has been established on our southern
border.
Which brings me to the next bubble that has been burst: the notion
that there ever can or will be something called a “demilitarized
Palestinian state.” Alas, this is nonsense. The Gaza experience has
shown that if given a state (or in the case of the Hamas, when they grab
a state), the Palestinians inevitably develop their own foreign and
defense relationships and arm their state to the teeth. All
international guarantees and so-called “security arrangements” to the
contrary come to naught. Nobody has stopped Gaza from becoming a client
state of Iran and part of the Iranian army. Nobody has prevented Hamas
from developing strategic partnerships with the radical Islamic
governments of Egypt and Turkey.
Another myth that should now be put to rest is that Mahmoud Abbas’
Palestinian Authority has a legitimate, serious claim this month for
international recognition through the U.N. as a state representing “the
Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza.” There already is an
independent Palestinian state, in all but name, in Gaza. That state is
in no way under the control of the Palestinian Authority, it does not
come close to meeting U.N. definitions for legitimate statehood, it is
not peaceful, and Abbas has no realistic plans for making it so.
Another burst bubble is the inane intellectual argument that
religiously extreme, anti-Semitic radicals (like Hamas) can be co-opted
into peace (or at least long-term diplomatic cooperation) by giving them
power. This argument posits that the holding of sovereign power and the
assumption of day-to-day responsibility for the welfare of a people
willy-nilly moderates a radical movement. That Western recognition and
cooperation, Israeli respect, economic aid, open borders and
peace-minded Western educational efforts will massage the jihadists into
becoming pragmatists.
No, the evidence shows that jihadists like Hamas are willing to
sacrifice all of the above on the altar of permanent holy war against
Israel. Only the naive can continue to make the co-option argument. Only
appeasement-minded diplomats dare try to impress this notion yet again
upon Israel.
Finally and fortunately, it’s good to be able to burst the bubble of
the myth that Israelis are exhausted and have no strength for their
continued national struggle. Not true. Our national resilience and
spirit are strong.
Israelis are indeed mentally so very tired of the conflict, but we
nevertheless have plenty of fight left in us. In point of fact, 99
percent of reservists showed up for military duty this week, with high
motivation. That is tens of thousands of men and women, people with
families and careers, many of them from Tel Aviv.
Nobody is thrilled about a ground offensive into Gaza, but most
Israelis understand and accept, alas, that we still have to fight for
our sovereignty and security. And we are determined to do so.
Posted by Ted Belman
No comments:
Post a Comment