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Can Israel Survive?
Townhall.com ^ | September 22, 2011 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 09/22/2011 4:40:55 AM PDT by Kaslin

Will Israel survive? That question hasn't really been asked since 1967. Then, a far weaker Israel was surrounded on all sides by Arab dictatorships that were equipped with sophisticated weapons from their nuclear patron, the Soviet Union. But now, things are far worse for the Jewish state.

Egyptian mobs just tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo and kill any Israelis they could get their hands on. Whatever Egyptian government emerges, it will be more Islamist than before -- and may renounce the peace accords with Israel.

One thing unites Syrian and Libyan dissidents: They seem to hate Israel as much as the murderous dictators whom they have been trying to throw out.

The so-called "Arab Spring" was supposed to usher in Arab self-introspection about why intolerant strongmen keep sprouting up in the Middle East. Post-revolutionary critics could freely examine self-inflicted Arab wounds, such as tribalism, religious intolerance, authoritarianism, endemic corruption, closed economies and gender apartheid.

But so far, "revolutionaries" sound a lot more like reactionaries. They are more often retreating to the tired conspiracies that the Israelis and Americans pushed onto innocent Arab publics homegrown corrupt madmen such as Bashar Assad, Muammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak.

In 1967, the more powerful periphery of the Middle East -- the Shah's Iran, Kemalist Turkey, a military-run Pakistan and the Gulf monarchies -- was mostly uninvolved in the Israel-Arab frontline fighting.

Not now. A soon-to-be-nuclear Iran serially promises to destroy Israel. The Erdogan government in Turkey brags about its Ottoman Islamist past -- and wants to provoke Israel into an eastern Mediterranean shooting war. Pakistan is the world's leading host and exporter of jihadists obsessed with destroying Israel. The oil-rich Gulf states use their vast petroleum wealth and clout to line up oil importers against Israel. The 21st century United Nations is a de facto enemy of the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, the West is nearly bankrupt. The European Union is on the brink of dissolving, its population shrinking amid growing numbers of Islamic immigrants.

America is $16 trillion in debt. We are tired of three wars. The Obama administration initially thought putting a little "light" into the once-solid relationship between Israel and the United States might coax Arab countries into negotiating a peace. That new American triangulation certainly has given a far more confident Muslim world more hope -- but it's hope that just maybe the United States now cannot or will not come to Israel's aid if Muslim states ratchet up the tension.

It is trendy to blame Israel intransigence for all these bleak developments. But to do so is simply to forget history. There were three Arab efforts to destroy Israel before it occupied any borderlands after its victory in 1967. Later, it gave back all of Sinai and yet now faces a hostile Egypt. It got out of Lebanon -- and Hezbollah crowed that Israel was weakening, as that terrorist organization moved in and stockpiled thousands of missiles pointed at Tel Aviv. Israel got out of Gaza and earned as thanks both rocket showers and a terrorist Hamas government sworn to destroy the Jewish state.

The Arab Middle East damns Israel for not granting a "right of return" into Israel to Palestinians who have not lived there in nearly 70 years. But it keeps embarrassed silence about the more than half-million Jews whom Arab dictatorships much later ethnically cleansed from Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and sent back into Israel. On cue, the Palestinian ambassador to the United States again brags that there will be no Jews allowed in his newly envisioned, and American subsidized, Palestinian state -- a boast with eerie historical parallels.

By now we know both what will start and deter yet another conflict in the Middle East. In the past, wars broke out when the Arab states thought they could win them and stopped when they conceded they could not.

But now a new array of factors -- ever more Islamist enemies of Israel such as Turkey and Iran, ever more likelihood of frontline Arab Islamist governments, ever more fear of Islamic terrorism, ever more unabashed anti-Semitism, ever more petrodollars flowing into the Middle East, ever more chance of nuclear Islamist states, and ever more indifference by Europe and the United States -- has probably convinced Israel's enemies that finally they can win what they could not in 1947, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and 2006.

So brace yourself. The next war against Israel is no longer a matter of if, only when. And it will be far more deadly than any we've witnessed in quite some time.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: ayersintifada; codepinkintifada; dncantisemitism; dncintifada; dncvsisrael; dohrnintifada; obamaantisemitism; obamahatesjews; vdh
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1 posted on 09/22/2011 4:40:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

By the grace of God, Israel CAN and WILL survive because of the same God of the Holy Bible. I stand by Israel.


2 posted on 09/22/2011 4:44:13 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: Biggirl

I think it has less to do with God and more to do with several million heavily armed and trained Jews with their own military infrastructure, industry and a good grasp of history.


3 posted on 09/22/2011 4:59:52 AM PDT by Byzantine Basileus
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To: Biggirl

Israel will survive. God will protect the apple of His eye. This may be the time that God will protect Israel and destroy a lot of countries who come up against it.


4 posted on 09/22/2011 5:01:04 AM PDT by Buddygirl
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To: Kaslin

Israel also has a bunch of nice, shiny nukes—AND there is also the Masada option in the end.


5 posted on 09/22/2011 5:02:04 AM PDT by Flintlock (Photo ID for all voters--let our dead rest in peace.)
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To: Kaslin

Israel WILL survive!
The question is “how the world will react to Israel’s self defense?”.


6 posted on 09/22/2011 5:11:31 AM PDT by G Larry (I dream of a day when a man is judged by the content of his character)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: Byzantine Basileus

If you do not understand God’s relationship to Israel, then you cannot understand the situation in the Mid-East.

Ask yourself, “Why does a tiny tribe of people still exist after thousands of years, after being run over on several occasions by the strongest empires of the time? Why do so many nations start foaming at the mouth in rage, trying to destroy Israel? Why has no one, from Nebuchadnezzar to Hitler to Yasser Arafat, succeeded?”

The Jewish people are God’s reminder to the world that no matter how sophisticated, powerful and enlightened we think ourselves, He is still in charge.


8 posted on 09/22/2011 5:12:38 AM PDT by BwanaNdege (“Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address” - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: Byzantine Basileus

....And also I do add, Israel has its own “Silicon Valley”, second to the USA’s. In other words, the Israelis USE the brains God has given them.


9 posted on 09/22/2011 5:13:05 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: F15Eagle

There is a Pali state, JORDAN.


10 posted on 09/22/2011 5:15:19 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: Kaslin
Can Israel Survive?

If Israel falls it will be due to the American Jews who voted for, and elected, the muslim Baraq Hussein mohammed 0bama who has set the stage for Israel's demise.

FUBO GTFO! 486 Days until Noon Jan 20, 2013

11 posted on 09/22/2011 5:15:30 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Psalm 109:8 Let his days be few and let another take his office. - Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin)
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To: Flintlock

Hopefully you mean Samson Option. I hope there is never another Masada!


12 posted on 09/22/2011 5:17:19 AM PDT by jonatron (This is the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave.)
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To: Biggirl

“same God of the Holy Bible”, but not the same Israel of the Holy Bible?

Or do you believe, like my aging mother, that today’s secular parliamentry democracy has some similarity to the theocratic monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon?


13 posted on 09/22/2011 5:24:55 AM PDT by flowerplough (My favorite lesbian in the whole world is Joan Jett.)
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To: Byzantine Basileus
“I think it has less to do with God and more to do
with several million heavily armed and trained Jews with
their own military infrastructure, industry and a good
grasp of history.”

Yeah, right on. There's one thing all Israeli’s agree on;
and it's “Never Again”. And, the Israeli’s mean it.
If the Arab hoard appears about to over-run Israeli then
look for Israeli tactical nukes to come out. Then, if
Iran decides to put their nuclear tipped missile on the
launch pad, then look for Isreali strategic missiles come
out. Sooooo, believe it when you hear an Isreali say
“Never Again” cause they sure as hell mean it....

14 posted on 09/22/2011 5:27:14 AM PDT by snoringbear (Government is the Pimp,)
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To: Biggirl

Ignoring the fact that the Church is today’s true Israel, it must be remembered that God’s covenant with Israel and its possession of the land is contingent. Israel lost the land twice in the past. Looking at Israel today, can we honestly say that, given the reality of the high number of secular and non-observant Jews, it is living up to the its side of the Covenant? Presumption about the Covenant lost the Jews the Land of Israel twice before; it can happen again.


15 posted on 09/22/2011 5:45:23 AM PDT by Petrosius
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: Kaslin

I read Psalm 83 and see this scenario.
I believe that this particular Psalm is a prophecy of a pre-trip war against Israel where God preserves them.


17 posted on 09/22/2011 6:01:33 AM PDT by skoobedoo (Mr. Obama - if you act presidential, I will call you Mr. President.)
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To: Petrosius

You are referencing ‘Replacement Theology’.
I believe this to be a very wrong belief and here is one location that more fully discusses this:
http://www.therefinersfire.org/replacement_theology.htm


18 posted on 09/22/2011 6:05:56 AM PDT by skoobedoo (Mr. Obama - if you act presidential, I will call you Mr. President.)
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To: The Sons of Liberty

But they will NOT fall - read Psalm 83 and tell me if that does not sound like exactly what is occurring now.


19 posted on 09/22/2011 6:11:19 AM PDT by skoobedoo (Mr. Obama - if you act presidential, I will call you Mr. President.)
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To: skoobedoo
You are referencing ‘Replacement Theology’.

I am referring to "Fulfillment Theology". Replacement Theology is a pejorative term that does not reflect traditional Christian teaching on the relationship between Christianity and the Jews. In short, Jews have not been replaced but rather gentiles, as was promised by the prophets, have been grafted on to Israel in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Two thousand years ago some Jews accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah and welcomed the gentiles into their community. Other Jews rejected Him and continued to separate themselves from the gentiles. In Jesus Christ the Jews have not been replaced; the Covenant is opened to them in union with all mankind. Jews and gentiles are united in one Covenant with God; there is no separate Covenant for the Jews only.

In any case, it was not my intention to highjack this thread and redirect it to this issue. I just wanted to be honest and state my position as I addressed the the question at hand about what I see as a dangerous presumption that God will alway see Israel victorious and in possession of the land despite its own non-observance of the Covenant.

20 posted on 09/22/2011 6:18:53 AM PDT by Petrosius
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