Posted on 07/21/2004 12:16:47 PM PDT by knighthawk
I was halfway through Friday dinner with a group of old friends in Tel Aviv when I noticed that something was missing. All evening, the topic of conversation had been a scandal involving a second-rate Israeli pol named Paritsky and his dealings with the electrical company. Where were the Palestinians? In five visits to Israel since the fall of 2000, the intifadeh had been the invariable subject of dinner-table discussion. Suddenly, it went unmentioned. When I pointed this out, my friends shrugged. The intifadeh is so yesterday. Not that the Palestinians have stopped trying. Just days earlier, a bomb at a bus stop killed a soldier. It was the first attack in Tel Aviv in more than six months. My friends saw it as an aberration.
When Arafat unleashed the intifadeh four years ago, these same friends were far less sanguine. The only thing they knew for sure was that terrorism could not be defeated by military means. Only a political compromise (by Israel) would end the carnage.
They don't think that anymore. Under Ariel Sharon, Israel has put down the intifadeh the old-fashioned way - by fighting back. Palestinians who accuse Israel of conducting state terrorism are right. Israel has indeed terrorized the terrorists into submission. The size and cost of the defeat is just now sinking in. The crowds torching Arafat's military installations are conducting their own version of a 9/11 commission.
Meanwhile, Israel is burning with a different kind of heat. The economy is going full-blast. Cranes and business startups are everywhere. Only the Palestinians are absent. Until the intifadeh, Gazans and West Bankers made good money there. Now their jobs are gone - to foreign workers and advances in technology.
There is a self-confidence in Israel unlike anything I have seen since the Six-Day War. Israelis have discovered that they have the resources to wage war with whatever ruthlessness victory requires. That attitude includes the determination to complete the security barrier being constructed through the West Bank. The recent World Court ruling that the barrier violates international law was greeted in Tel Aviv with derisive contempt, and not only by hard-liners. The barrier saves lives. In a war, everything else is secondary.
Of course, winning the intifadeh doesn't mean that Israel is home free. The mullahs of Iran are trying to go atomic. Hezbollah reportedly is seeking chemical weapons. The Shin Bet is warning that Jewish fundamentalist terrorists may try to assassinate Sharon to stop the Gaza pullout. These are not threats to be taken lightly. Neither is the prospect of future attacks. Anxiety over national security is sure to remain the staple of dinner conversation.
Still, it's nice to get a change of menu once in a while. That's how I felt listening to my friends chew over the Paritsky affair and the depredations of the electrical company. Nobody said so, but it was a victory meal. And it tasted delicious.
Ping
Major Bumpitude!
When Arafat unleashed the intifadeh four years ago, these same friends were far less sanguine. The only thing they knew for sure was that terrorism could not be defeated by military means. Only a political compromise (by Israel) would end the carnage.That was worth repeating.
They don't think that anymore. Under Ariel Sharon, Israel has put down the intifadeh the old-fashioned way - by fighting back. Palestinians who accuse Israel of conducting state terrorism are right. Israel has indeed terrorized the terrorists into submission. The size and cost of the defeat is just now sinking in. The crowds torching Arafat's military installations are conducting their own version of a 9/11 commission.
Meanwhile, Israel is burning with a different kind of heat. The economy is going full-blast. Cranes and business startups are everywhere. Only the Palestinians are absent. Until the intifadeh, Gazans and West Bankers made good money there. Now their jobs are gone - to foreign workers and advances in technology.
There is a self-confidence in Israel unlike anything I have seen since the Six-Day War. Israelis have discovered that they have the resources to wage war with whatever ruthlessness victory requires.
They don't think that anymore. Under Ariel Sharon, Israel has put down the intifadeh the old-fashioned way - by fighting back.
I've been thinking the same thing myself. It's about beliefs. Everyone thought the intifada was popular uprising, fueled by desperate people blowing themselves up. Yet, the evidence that it was sponsored terrorism was always there.
Think ... payoffs to the families of the suicide bombers.
Israeli withdrawal from the territories means chaos, violence and destituition for the Palis. They are probably wishing that Arafat had taken the Clinton/Barak deal.
Can a parallel not be drawn here, between the the Israeli model and the US war on terror, in the essential role which our attack on Saddam Hussein had in terrorizing our own terrorists?
The intifadeh is not over. It's like a mad dog who has temporarily begun chasing and biting at it's own tail. Eventually it'll stop, and come at the Israeli's again. The Israeli's should take the moment to reload and take a breather, but keep a close and wary eye on the mad dog.
Excellent news
Thank you, knighthawk. Such good news is always welcome.
Kill the mad dog.
It's about time Israel took the gloves off and did what needed to be done. Three cheers to Sharon for giving those Socialist appeasers the Finger and continuing The Great Wall of Israel!
I agree. Or at least plant a bullet in it's head. But in this case, the dog springs new heads, and resumes it's attention on Israel.
The recent World Court ruling that the barrier violates international law was greeted in Tel Aviv with derisive contempt, and not only by hard-liners.
Good. That's the right way to greet such a ruling. The Court couldn't have made its contempt for the interests of the Isrealis any more clear. Maybe this ruling will mark a turning point, the point where Israelis began to release themselves from their sense of self-sacrificial obligation to the international community.
As Israel completes the barriers and unshackles herself from the Palestinians, she will have an economic boom like none ever seen before. 'Bout time...
Living well --- the sweetest revenge. Finish the wall and keep the Palies on the other side to wallow in their own hate.
I agree 100%
I think the removal of Saddam has helped, too. I think that has reduced the cash flow to the terrorists.
thas not going to happen. iran wants power, not death. they are a very powerful and populous nation, they want to see their influence spread over the region, and over the arabs, to whom they feel superior.
most anti-americanism and anti-zionism is simply part of the control the mullahs apply over the populace. the enemy is just a tool. the main goals of the regime at this stage are retaining control over the populace and expanding their regional power.
israel is more a convenient focus for propaganda and hate than an actual immediate enemy or goal.
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