Israel Matzav

World's largest blog ignores the facts

Proving once again its seemingly limitless capacity to ignore facts in order to push its hard Left ideological line, Arianna Huffington's 'news' site (which will soon be writing all news content for AOL) publishes a piece by one Ira Chernus (yes, of course he's Jewish) claiming that Israel has no security needs.

In the United States, though, the myth of insecurity is the taken-for-granted lens through which the public views everything about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Like the air we breathe, it’s a view so pervasive that we hardly notice it.

Nor do we notice how reflexively most Americans accept the claim of self-defense as justification for everything Israel does, no matter how outrageous. That reflex goes far to explain why, in the latest Gallup poll matchup (“Do you sympathize more with Israel or the Palestinians?”), Israel won by a nearly 4 to 1 margin. And the pro-Israeli sentiment just keeps growing.

Our politicians, pundits, and correspondents breathe the same air in the same unthinking fashion, and so they hesitate to put much pressure on Israel to change its ways. As it happens, without such pressure, no Israeli government is likely to make the compromises needed for a just and lasting peace in the region. Instead, Israel will keep up its attacks on Gaza. In addition, if the Palestinians declare themselves an independent state come September, as many reports indicate might happen, Israel will feel free to quash that state by any means necessary -- but only if Washington goes on giving it the old wink and nod.

If American attitudes and policies are ever to change, one necessary (though not in itself sufficient) step is to confront and debunk the myth of Israel’s insecurity.

It's really easy to pooh-pooh Israel's security needs from the safety of Boulder, Colorado, isn't it? But the entire reason that Israel has the type of military superiority that Chernus describes is that we have Judea and Samaria. If we give them up, we go back to being a state that is nine miles wide at its narrowest point, in the heart of our population and industrial centers. That means zero warning time against air attacks, and almost zero warning time against ground attacks.

Who still wants to attack us? Well, Egypt - even under Mubarak - always used Israel as the foil in its war games scenarios. Lebanon under Hezbullah is spoiling for a fight. So are the 'Palestinians' in both Judea and Samaria and Gaza (no difference between Hamas and Fatah there. And then there's Iran and Iraq and Syria. Jordan might be afraid to attack us, but they won't hesitate to let anyone else through. So where are we so secure?

Nuclear weapons? Assuming that we have them, we have already proven that we will get to pretty dire circumstances (see "Yom Kippur War") and still not use them. Second strike capability? That won't stop the suicidal Islamists from striking us, God forbid, and I would rather be alive than be able to take someone else with me through a second strike capability.

In summary, contrary to Chernus' assertion from 8,000 miles away, we most definitely are subject to military attack.

If you think our lives aren't in constant danger from terrorism, you're not watching or listening to the news and you're not reading the daily IDF updates on how many terrorists are being arrested each night, night in and night out, in Judea and Samaria. Were it not for the IDF presence in Judea and Samaria, 2003 would never have come to an end. Were it not for the presence of revenants in Judea and Samaria, a long-term IDF presence would not be sustainable. God has protected us for the last 40 years from the stupidity of politicians who wanted to pull us out.

The fact that the 'crude' Kassam rockets have not killed more people is not for the 'Palestinians' lack of effort. It's because - unlike them - we try to protect our population. The shelters, Iron Dome, the constant IDF actions all have minimized the number of Israeli casualties. Were these measures not taken, we would still be living with 2000-03 terror attacks.

As to the threat of delegitimization, unfortunately, by the end of the General Assembly session in September, Israel could yet find itself as isolated as South Africa was during the apartheid period.

One final thought: Name me one other country that fought and won a defensive war and then returned its territorial gains. For that matter, name me one other country that has ever fought such a war and then faced demands to give back the territory it won.

I doubt you'll find one.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Huffington Post, Ira Chernus, Israeli security needs

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:38 PM