by David M. Weinberg
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.
David M. Weinberg
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2907
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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