Posted on 02/04/2011 6:41:24 PM PST by Ari Bussel
Missiles Aimed at Tel Aviv by Ari Bussel
Israel is now and will undoubtedly be under further attacks. There are more missiles today in Lebanon and Gaza than possibly anywhere else in the world, all stockpiled and ready to be launched against Israel. Not exactly a statistic countries like to boast about: “We have the highest number of missiles per capita.”
Modern Israel has seen a tremendous buildup in recent years, skyscrapers of the most beautiful kind add an aura to a new skyline against the deep blue of the Mediterranean. There is a road infrastructure that would be suitable in any country, although it is often a parking lot – there are so many cars. These roads, buildings and millions of people on this tiny piece of land are all within missile range.
In the summer of 2006, about a million people escaped from the Northern part of Israel toward the center and the south. The missiles from Hezbollah reached only to Haifa. Life dynamics changed for many as they were either being hosted or acting a host, often to complete strangers.
Two years ago exactly, the missiles from Gaza forced the people in Southern Israel to escape to the safety of the center and the north.
In recent months, those damned “settlers” of the “Occupied West Bank” were trained in opening their homes to embrace and absorb hundreds of thousands from the center and elsewhere in Israel. Immediately after these exercises took place, the Carmel Mountains Inferno put the system to a test. But there were no missiles launched. It was terror of a different type.
As we review this cycle, from North to South to Center, two things become evident:
First, escape is the wrong course of action. Israel must go on the offensive. Israel is a tiny country, and running out of places to hide. In a news report this week, plans have been disclosed to start building massive underground holding structures for strategic infrastructure and enormous shelters in the belly of mountains.
Israel has become very proficient in construction, although even if expedited, these plans would not be completed for the next few years, a time span that is too long for any upcoming attack on the Jewish State.
Second, the aim of these expanding concentric circles is to reach where it will hurt most—the greater Tel Aviv Area—the very “Center” of Israel. More than Jerusalem, Tel Aviv is considered the “unofficial capital” of the State of Israel. Here is where Members of Knesset come for meetings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds events and the embassies of nations are found.
I do not know if such a survey was conducted, although I would presume based on the results of related surveys that a majority of Israelis will be unwilling to give up any part of Tel Aviv (the municipality that includes Jaffe) under any circumstances. This is approximately the same percentage that is willing today to split Jerusalem into two, one part Israeli (maybe even under international oversight) the other the capital of the Palestinian-country-in-formation.
There, in the Greater Tel Aviv area, life at the cafes, theaters, beach and restaurants does not stop for a moment. There is the very heart of liberalism, beauty and culture. There is where people do not understand what eight years of constant bombing have meant to the people of Sderot (15 seconds away from launch in Gaza), what peaceful living side-by-side with one’s Arab neighbors means in Judea and Samaria and the sleepless nights and nightmarish days a mother whose child was kidnapped experiences.
Thus, some (although admittedly not all) go to the streets calling for peace, waving Palestinian flags, calling to avoid military service and protesting the military’s “atrocities.” Others teach or learn at the universities that Israel is Apartheid and must be boycotted and sanctioned, and then go out to defend the “academic freedom” of Post-Zionism.
There is where Ha’aretz (“the country”) newspaper is based, from which most of the international propaganda machine against Israel is deriving information and evidence (“Ha’aretz reported that …”).
Those in Tel Aviv have not experienced the fear and consequences of being in missile range, at least not since Saddam Hussein’s First Persian Gulf War twenty years ago. A whole generation has passed, and the memory of those of us who experienced that War in the Home Command tend to push these memories away, as something unpleasant and bothersome.
Why worry about missiles when life in Tel Aviv is so glorious? Concentrate on the present, for the future is unknown and the past better forgotten.
Why worry about stockpiles of missiles when many of those serving in the Israel Defense Forces today are yarmulke-wearing religious fanatics? Most of them are from the “Occupied West Bank,” and they have too many children anyway.
Let them go door to door, from one entrapment to the next booby-trap and fight a “moral fight.” We, here in Tel Aviv, have a much greater mission on our hands: WE ARE THE MORAL COMPASS OF ISRAEL.
We report to the world the various war crimes Israel is committing, we call for the youth to dodge service, we teach them “how to” and we—too—risk our lives, but for worthy causes. We go to areas under Palestinian control (something Israel considers unlawful) and bring Palestinians who have never seen the sea to a fun day in Tel Aviv.
We help them disguise themselves as Jews or tourists, and we drive them through the streets of Jaffe, their homes, to which they have keys, and we show them all that is theirs, the touch of sand, the feel of the warm Mediterranean water and the blue skies above.
Why worry about missiles when we, the human rights champions and elites of Israel, her moral compass and dedicated-conscience-soldiers stand guard between one party and another, always gathering in one café or another bar?
Possibly the only reason to worry, slightly, is that technology advances with time, our enemies learn, train and improve and the missiles today are longer range and much more accurate?
You, the Israeli “Left” and “Extreme Left,” Israel’s human-rights-moral-compass, use GPS like any other Israeli. You know that the Azrieli Towers (the World Trade Center buildings equivalent of Tel Aviv) are very well mapped, as is General Headquarters of the military you so despise just across the street, connected with a pedestrian overpass to the Azrieli Shopping Center.
You know where it is since you stand there so often demonstrating, and your cell phone then provides the exact position and location of the IDF’s GHQ.
The missiles will hit the area, obliterating it into a heap of rubble, and work their way in concentric circles outward, since there will be nothing more pleasing to the eyes and ears than the cries and grief-stricken shouts and moans of the residents of Tel Aviv when they are finally rained with bombs.
The very symbol, the very heart of Israel crushed, on its knees, begging for mercy, asking for forgiveness.
Add to the knowledge and experience advancements and stockpiling and the net effect is simple: accuracy, scale and mass will be devastating. If Hezbollah and Hamas, or each separately, decides to attack Israel today, Israel would have to make up her mind. More accurately, Israelis will have to make up their minds, and this is a very tough task.
The question will be very simple, and it is only to be determined if it would be asked before or after the first real barrage of missiles: Will Israel take her gloves off and respond as any other normal country would, striking at the very stockpiles, which deliberately were placed in the center of civilian populations, or would the armies of conscience and morality will still be waving their battle-cry: “Israel is committing atrocities—stop the brutal Israeli war machine!”
If Israel does not, her citizens will find out very quickly there is no where else to run and hide, unless of course the liberals-Ha’aretz-readers and intelligentsia will be willing to drive to the “Occupied West Bank.” Unlikely, of course, for they have just boycotted a new theater center in Ariel, and they would not change their skin, would they? Funny what fear or acute shortage may cause sane people to do. Even something as insane as going to Ariel!
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The series “Postcards from America—Postcards from Israel” by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager is a compilation of articles capturing the essence of life in America and Israel during the first two decades of the 21st Century.
The writers invite readers to view and experience an Israel and her politics through their eyes, Israel visitors rarely discover.
This point—and often—counter-point presentation is sprinkled with humor and sadness and attempts to tackle serious and relevant issues of the day. The series began in 2008, appears both in print in the USA and on numerous websites and is followed regularly by readership from around the world.
© “Postcards from America — Postcards from Israel,” January, 2011 Contact: bussel@me.com
First Published January 21, 2011
Damn! that’s a bad plan.
The reason they are where they are is because it is nobody wants them
Yes, by our Muslim president. Right.
I see. Are they where they are because they are wanted there?
Maybe some would accept an offer to come here. Maybe the ones who came here would feel more wanted here than there.
Great points. ;-)
The Jews are right where God wants them.
I hope that we’ve learned something from what I feel was a mistake on our part with respect to the folks aboard the St. Louis back in 1939. We could easily accommodate as many as might want to come.
Maybe we could trade for 12-14 Million Illegal Aliens"
We could, accommodate them with ease, but we won’t just like we didn’t back in 1939. God has a purpose in wanting them in Israel ... read the book of Revelation and you will understand.
AMEN!
Yep, and I hope they will be willing to pull the trigger on the nuke option when the time comes. If the goat herders are willing to pay the price that will cost them for centuries.
What would be y’alls tactical and strategic muzzie targets be in an all out war? Religious, financial, population centers, geographical?
The world would be a better place if you die of cancer.
(And, no, I am not Jewish.)
You know, those who did come would be escaping the craziness of Middle East politics. And, as a bonus, those who did come would also be escaping Israel's government-funded, universal and compulsory health care system.
It's like a twofer. ;-)
What a mess! I propose we do the honorable thing and invite all 6-7 million of them to come live in the USA where they can be properly protected.
Under 0bama, the USA is likely to be NUKED.
Do you really think it is safer to live in Israel than to live here?
Trust me, no Jew feels bound by the last book of the Christian Bible. You are assuming that the US somehow will be a better place to be when all hell breaks lose as described in the last book of the Bible. And all this is not meant to create an argument, just trying to find out were you are coming from
Well, I believe that the Middle East is becoming an increasingly dangerous and hostile environment for jews. I suggest we offer each of them an opportunity to escape the madness of that environment and come to this country. I feel that this country is still the best place in the world to live, but I recognize that others (maybe you) feel differently about the U.S.
In 1939, we refused to assist some jews who really needed our help. Maybe we can help some now.
So, I propose that we offer each of them an opportunity to leave the Middle East and settle here in the U.S. If every one of them accepted, we could accommodate them.
It just seems like the right thing to do.
Do you really think it is safer to live in Israel than to live here?
I didn’t say that. I said under 0bama we are likely to be Nuked. We’re definately >more< likely to be attacked by whatever means.
G_d will protect Israel. Obamamerica I am not so sure about.
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