Posted on 07/14/2006 6:19:30 PM PDT by Pokey78
WHY IS THIS ARAB-ISRAELI WAR different from all other Arab-Israeli wars? Because it's not an Arab-Israeli war. Most of Israel's traditional Arab enemies have checked out of the current conflict. The governments of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia are, to say the least, indifferent to the fate of Hamas and Hezbollah. The Palestine Liberation Organization (Fatah) isn't a player. The prime mover behind the terrorist groups who have started this war is a non-Arab state, Iran, which wasn't involved in any of Israel's previous wars.
What's happening in the Middle East, then, isn't just another chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. You might even say this is part of the Islamist war on the West--but is India part of the West? Better to say that what's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States.
An Islamist-Israeli conflict may or may not be more dangerous than the old Arab-Israeli conflict. Secular Arab nationalism was, after all, also capable of posing an existential threat to Israel. And the Islamist threat to liberal democracy may or may not turn out to be as dangerous as the threats posed in the last century by secular forms of irrationalism (fascism) and illiberalism (communism). But it is a new and different threat. One needs to keep this in mind when trying to draw useful lessons from our successes, and failures, in dealing with the threats of the 20th century.
Here, however, is one lesson that does seem to hold: States matter. Regimes matter. Ideological movements become more dangerous when they become governing regimes of major nations. Communism became really dangerous when it seized control of Russia. National socialism became really dangerous when it seized control of Germany. Islamism became really dangerous when it seized control of Iran--which then became, as it has been for the last 27 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
No Islamic Republic of Iran, no Hezbollah. No Islamic Republic of Iran, no one to prop up the Assad regime in Syria. No Iranian support for Syria (a secular government that has its own reasons for needing Iranian help and for supporting Hezbollah and Hamas), little state sponsorship of Hamas and Hezbollah. And no Shiite Iranian revolution, far less of an impetus for the Saudis to finance the export of the Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam as a competitor to Khomeini's claim for leadership of militant Islam--and thus no Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and perhaps no Hamas either.
It's of course true that Hamas--an arm of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood--is at odds ideologically with Shia Iran, and that Shia and Sunni seem inclined to dislike, even slaughter, each other elsewhere in the Middle East. But temporary alliances of convenience are no less dangerous because they are temporary. Tell the Poles of 1939, and the French of 1940, that they really had little to worry about because the Nazi-Soviet pact was bound to fall apart.
The war against radical Islamism is likely to be a long one. Radical Islamism isn't going away anytime soon. But it will make a big difference how strong the state sponsors, harborers, and financiers of radical Islamism are. Thus, our focus should be less on Hamas and Hezbollah, and more on their paymasters and real commanders--Syria and Iran. And our focus should be not only on the regional war in the Middle East, but also on the global struggle against radical Islamism.
For while Syria and Iran are enemies of Israel, they are also enemies of the United States. We have done a poor job of standing up to them and weakening them. They are now testing us more boldly than one would have thought possible a few years ago. Weakness is provocative. We have been too weak, and have allowed ourselves to be perceived as weak.
The right response is renewed strength--in supporting the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, in standing with Israel, and in pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran. For that matter, we might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait? Does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained? That the current regime will negotiate in good faith? It would be easier to act sooner rather than later. Yes, there would be repercussions--and they would be healthy ones, showing a strong America that has rejected further appeasement.
But such a military strike would take a while to organize. In the meantime, perhaps President Bush can fly from the silly G8 summit in St. Petersburg--a summit that will most likely convey a message of moral confusion and political indecision--to Jerusalem, the capital of a nation that stands with us, and is willing to fight with us, against our common enemies. This is our war, too.
- William Kristol
BTW, I recall Bill Clinton promising to "pick up a rifle, and fight and die" if Israel were attacked.
Hey Bill .. if you haven't noticed .. we already in the middle east .. and if Israel needs out help .. they will let us know
Is he saying that this war is our fault?
Got a source for that? There's someone I'd love to send it to.
Hunting for it. The memory of the newsclip is seared, seared into my brain!
Hey Kristol, why don't YOU fly to Jerusalem?
You cowardly armchair critic.
As if this wasn't as predictable as the sunrise......
All we really need is a good excuse and a couple of carrier battle groups to take the Syrians out. Iran is a different matter, but getting rid of Assad, Hezbollah, liberating Syria and Lebanon, might not be as difficult as you might think.
Bashar Assad is NOT his Daddy's kind of Dictator, and he isn't being propped up be the USSR like his father was to boot. I don't think it would take a whole lot to bring down the entire Syrian Gubment and start fresh. And without the Assad regime giving them aid and comfort, Hezbollah will be defenseless.
His mother needs to slap him. Love her. Loathe him.
Hey Mol...if you haven't noticed there's about a half dozen Arab countries that would immediatly jump on Israel, leaving them only the nuclear option.
That's why the U.S. needs to lead the way.
Was that a real rifle with real bullets? Did he have his fingers crossed ?
Of course he said if "Iraq" attacked Israel so it probably won't count. Too bad, I wanted to see the picture of Clinton in a ditch trying to figure out what to do with a gun. I'm sure many here might have a few suggestions. ;-)
OH Billy....you've made so many misjudgments as of late...here's another one to chalk up...
L
And if you haven't noticed .. those arab countries .. though don't like Israel .. also aren't jumping in to this either
If we jumped into this right now, it would not be good ..
Let Israel take out the targets she needs to take out .. we are in the area if needed
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