No problem!
Posted on 08/20/2005 7:36:12 PM PDT by Lando Lincoln
In arrogant moments, I think of myself as one of the few people dissecting the plot in the Middle East. But there are days when I think I should hang up my marble slab. One of them occurred this week, when I read a column by David Frum (in Il Foglio, the Italian edition of the Wall Street Journal) explaining why Ariel Sharon decided to withdraw all Israeli settlements from Gaza -- even at the risk of fomenting something like civil war in Israel itself, and alienating key political allies. It was a move that could not be explained by American pressure, nor by Israeli domestic political pressure, nor by military necessity.
It utterly mystified me. I thought to myself, “Surely Sharon cannot be so stupid. He's never been this stupid before; he is genuinely wily. And he knows just what will happen. He knows the Arabs will not accept the withdrawal as a peace opening. They will take it as a desperate retreat. He will get no more credit from Europe and the international media than Israel ever gets for anything. Far from it: they will play up the ‘angry’ Palestinian reaction. And in Gaza itself, the Palestinian militias will stage a big, psychopathic victory parade -- the way they did when Ehud Barak voluntarily withdrew Israeli forces from Lebanon, only bigger -- and funded by the UNDP. Hamas and Fatah will step up the rocket attacks on Israel proper, and the Palestinian Authority will try to rekindle the Intifada. I can imagine Barak being so stupid, I can’t imagine this in Sharon.”
And what has been happening is exactly what I expected. As one Palestinian put it to a reporter of the Jerusalem Post (no less), speaking for most if not all: "Of course this is a victory for the blessed Intifada. Had it not been for the Kassam rockets and suicide bombings, Israel would never have thought of running away from our lands. The disengagement proves that the only way to liberate our lands is through the resistance, and not at the negotiating table."
So why, why, would a loyal Israeli leader, to say nothing of sane, not only allow all this to happen, but trigger the events? As I wrote above, Mr. Frum has nailed it.
Mr. Sharon, as everyone else who understands the background situation, is fully aware that, “Post-occupation Gaza will become a Mediterranean Somalia: an unstable failed state in which gangs compete for power and extremist Islam finds a sanctuary.”
But by allowing this to happen, he puts an end to the silly game, in which prevaricators in the West and across the Muslim world attribute every Middle Eastern disorder to Israel’s supposed refusal to allow a Palestinian state. He is now prepared to let them have that state, unconditionally, and let the world see why it should never have come into being.
Let the foreign ministries of Europe now panic about this triumph of Islamism on Mediterranean shores. Let the Egyptians now panic, as Israel removes the watch that protected Egypt as well as Israel from Islamist insurgency. Let Egypt and Jordan be compelled to send their own troops, respectively, into Gaza, and soon the West Bank. Let them take over Israel’s thankless task -- or suffer the consequences of it not being done. (The Egyptians have already sent into Gaza their first 750 troops to replace the IDF.)
For that matter, let the international community of professional apologists for Palestinian terrorism now drop their pretensions, and let the world know that what they actually demand is the annihilation of Israel.
Let Israel secure itself within the most defensible available frontiers, and complete the Wall it has been building.
In his Washington Post column, Charles Krauthammer spells out the security implications of this: the need for a mechanical system of retaliation for each Kassam rocket or other incursion that finds its way through or over that Wall.
This “Frum theory” is, I am now convinced, the only one that fits the facts. It cannot be welcome to the U.S. State Department, who, judging from Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s most recent “roadmap” bleatings, are either not in the loop, or pretending not to be.
Let me add, that the Israelis are, on this theory, returning to their much more successful survival strategy, pre-1967. It was, similarly, to seal the borders on the ground, and meet each successful Arab incursion with a brutal and unambiguous retaliation, on ten times the scale. This worked, wonderfully, in securing peace and quiet. Will it work again?
It was America that rescued Arafat from Lebanon when the Jews stopped his Jihad state that had killed over 100,000 people in Lebanon. It was America that put him in power in Israel over the Arabs, forced Israel to hand him whole cities including Bethlehem, America that gave him Billions of dollars to set up his terrorist kingdom again, and gave him weapons, and CIA sniper rifle training on how to shoot moving cars. It is America that is forcing Israel to hand over Gaza to them and America that is spearheading the return to the invasion lines of of the attempt to destroy the Nation at is birth by the Arab League.
Now I am ashamed of the mess that we have created in Israel, the million people we put into Islamic slavery and the blood of the Jews we helped flow freely, you however are on the other side of the fence. I suspect God forgives me, but in your case, you ignore the fruits of your efforts to cheer lead the destruction of Israel.
If you think I am "a condescending, pretentious a$$hole", think of what I think of a terorist sympathiser and supporter growing up in a free America and my sacrifice to defend your ass during vietnam.
Personally I think they should ship your ass to Palestine so you can live under the "freedom" that you espouse, and stop sucking up good Air in America.
Traitor.
I agree with #40, and raise you a savings for Israel in money, troops and blood. This is a win win situation. The Israelis have no one to deal with so they just did what they wanted without negotiating anything. If the Pali's say they want Jerusalem, the Israelis can say woa!, we already gave you Gaza, what's in it for me? Oh, so now the bombings start again? Well then no more land for you! This could be brilliant if it works. The Pali's will tear themselves apart trying to find a political movement to take on the Israelis, and the more radical they are, the more sympathy the Jews get.Israel should just ignore everything now, until the Pali's show something like disbanding the Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Without something from the Pali leadership(and you know that ain't happening), the Israelis can just ignore them. If they get nasty, then they retaliate without mercy.
robertpaulsen is a long-time Israel-hating troll. The best way to get rid of him is to not respond to his posts.
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Problem with this theory is that it hasn't worked for those territories already in Pal control. Israel goes in to quell the mortar attacks, and gets blamed for destabilizing and radicalizing the culture. Israel stiffens border security due to suicide attacks and gets blamed for impoverishing and demeaning the Pals.
The radicals have already sworn to use Gaza as a base for attacks on Israel. Israel is not going to sit by idly. It will retaliate, and it haters will have all the excuse they need to blame it for the coming failure of Gaza.
I doubt anything will be changed, except the right to live in Gaza will have been ceded. Disastrous policy.
p.
He sure does irritate me. What a marroon.
Thanks.
The Egyptians have already sent into Gaza their first 750 troops to replace the IDF
Well this is...interesting. I wonder when the 1st Egypian soldier will die?
I fully expect Prime Minister Sharon to ignore this President Bush when he turns against Israel the same way Prime Minister Shamir did to the last President Bush.
What makes you think he will "turn against Israel"?
Define "turn against Israel".
no flame intended.
good post. thanks
Understood, and you're welcome.
I hadn't realized the "transit issue" had to do with a land route between the territories. Think you're right - they need to say NO on both issues. Can't figure why some people are against this Wall, except that for some any annexation of West Bank territory is a no-on.
"I think you will find that most of your allies spy on you and vice versa"
Maybe true. But that doesn't mean we have to either like or accept it. We expect this kind of crap from the French, but Israel?
I understand that Israelis have a deep-seated belief that in the end, they can only count on themselves when the chips are down. I think they underestimate the amount of good will in the US for the survival of the State of Israel. Its one of the few things that can unite (most of the) Right and (most of the) Left. We're not like most other countries, where creeping anti-Semitism undermines the moral aspect of support for Israel.
This latest round of the oft-repeated scenario results in Israel giving up land and pride for empty promises, promises which are instantly broken. The pity is every thinking person with a historical perspective beyond 24 hours knows this whole affair is a political and PR farce. It is also a strategic disaster in that our enemies are emboldened. How many more deaths will this cause?
How many times in the past, after another land for peace deal with the Arabs, have I heard the phrases "This time we will hold them to account" or "We'll call their bluff". The nation of Israel, a microcosm for the entire civilized western world, has been steadily retreating, giving up territory so that US and European and Israeli liberals can feel good about their "quest for peace in our time".
What will be astounding to future scholars of the demise of western civilization is that we have the physical power to completely rout our evil enemies, but lack the will to apply that power. Has there ever been such a case in history: a nation walking a path to its own destruction when it had the might to avoid that path?
If the pre-1967 strategy was so successful, why was there a war in 1967 that necessitated the occupation in the first place?
No problem!
Got that right in a nutshell.
I'd hope, however, that Israel would consider India as well.
Another democracy under assault by Islam would make a wonderfully understand ally.
And their military R&D appears to be better off than China's. At least, on the naval side of things. Everything China has seems to be either bought by the Russian's or reverse-engineered from Russian equipment.
What's your beef? South Korea is our 'ally' and spies on us as much as the French. Why do we get so bent out of shape over Israel, but not South Korea? Why the double-standard?
And it doesn't make the press in the states, as South Korea doesn't have to go to America to spy. They have 35,000 US troops in their own country to spy on.
And that creeping Anti-Semitism has already seen the left in America climb in bed with the Islamofascists.
www.discoverthenetwork.org
That website is a wonderful tool in finding the relations between the leftist groups in America.
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