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IS ISRAEL TOO "TIRED" TO SURVIVE?

by Dr. Steve Carol

  


Part 1. Is Israel Too "Tired" To Survive?

As Israel now moves towards elections at the end of March 2006, various views have been expressed about how to continue to steer a "middle course" in order to achieve "peace." Advocating such a middle course is Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. But recall that it was this same Mr. Olmert, who as Deputy Prime Minister to Ariel Sharon, spoke to an audience not too long ago and said: "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies. (as quoted in the New York Sun, Dec. 20, 2005)."

Such a middle course is illusory. It raises false hopes, among a people, who historically have hoped for, and yearned for peace. But reality dictates an awakening to the harsh truth that all these moves have not worked. Continued efforts to try to "negotiate" a "peace" have proven false under every Israeli government since 1993. To negotiate or to have peace, one must have a partner on the other side, truly wishing to negotiate and carry through, not go through verbal declarations as they prepare yet another attack, yet another round of war.

The incontrovertible truth is, and events have proven time and time again, the overwhelming majority of Arabs/Muslims do not want peace. They want Israel obliterated, gone, dead, a minor footnote in history!

Israel's military superiority, so often bandied about as the great deterrent, is no deterrent, if it is not used to the fullest. With Iran about to go nuclear (some say as soon as March 2006), even Israel's nuclear capabilities will prove to be no deterrence. A regime, such as Iran's with a "messianic" mission will not be deterred.

No matter what "border" is declared or fenced in (uprooting Israelis and strategic buffer in the process) the "border" will not deter growing missile attacks from Gaza, already Samaria and soon Judea. Not to mention Hezbollah poised on the Lebanese frontier with thousands more. Suicide bombers will continue their work. A human wave attack of thousands of such killers, streaming across any frontier is not a far flung fantasy. Tens of thousands of Moroccans simply poured across the border with Spanish Sahara in 1975 and absorbed that territory. Granted there was no use of force either by the human wave or the Spanish authorities, but an Arab/Muslim suicide bomber attack across Israel's frontiers would be a serious challenge for Israel. A "border" will not stop them, especially when the Arab side senses that Israelis have lost their will to preserve their nation in the only logical way -- that is, by overwhelming use of military power. It was only Israel's overwhelming use of force, but not totally, as history indicates, that bought Israel time, until the next round. As it stands now, Israel suffers the slower death of a thousand cuts, and has nothing to show for it.

Israel does need territory to survive. Historically, nations are conquered when the enemy's forces occupy the territory of their opponent. To retreat to the 1949 armistice lines, followed by immediate "world pressure" to go back to the 1947 partition plan lines is existentially a sentence of death. The Israelis, and many of its supporters worldwide, have to get over their hang up of "what will the world think", or will the world "approve." The world will do nothing, as we saw in the in the mid-1940s when proof of the Holocaust was clear; in the days of mid and late May 1967 as the Arab world gathered for what they believed would be one final military push to drive Israel into the sea. Again the world did nothing except gnash teeth, express verbal dismay and wait. It will do nothing now. Perhaps when it is all over, there will be a "memorial service" but don't bet on it. It took sixty years for the United Nation s to proclaim a "Holocaust Remembrance Day" to remember dead Jews, all the while actively promoting the actions of those who will finish the job on the live Jews. So we come again to the question: Are the Israelis too "tired" to do what is necessary to survive?


Part 2.  Is There A Solution To Being "Too Tired" To Survive?

Part one of this essay asked if Israel was too "tired" to survive? The obvious follow up question is: short of curing being "tired" by sleeping the sleep of the dead, is there a solution to the problem?

Survival calls for a more steadfast policy by Israel. A determined will on the part of the Israeli people to realize that Israel, the Jewish state, must remain Jewish. It can be either Jewish, with secure borders at the Jordan River, or "democratic" where no matter what the frontiers, the "democratic" process will guarantee that the Israeli leftists, and their "Israeli" Arab supporters will shrink Israel to its most vulnerable -- and then comes "the final kill."

I understand fully that Israel cannot survive long with two million "Palestinian" Arabs living in Judea-Samaria. Ceding Judea-Samaria to lessen the number of Arabs would not be the end of it. Let us not forget that there are also a million "Israeli" Arabs living in Israel. The facts, as demonstrated over the past 13 years, show that they consider and act as "Arabs first," "Palestinians" second, and by the way "Israeli citizens," last. They actively and openly seek to weaken Israel (with or without Judea-Samaria) by the "democratic" process, i.e. voting for and forming coalitions with the Israeli party that offers the most "concessions" (read retreat), and by openly assisting the enemy with anti-Israeli rallies (among Israeli Arabs) and in some cases, assisting the terrorists in reaching their targets. Thos who think ridding Israel of Judea-Samaria will eliminate the "demographic time-bomb" are deluding themselves. That still leaves the "Israeli" Arabs, living in Israel. What happens then? Israel ceding the lower Galilee and parts of the Negev to the second "Palestinian" state? Demands for the "democratic" process of a referendum, demanded by the "Israeli" Arabs will promptly be echoed by the Israeli left, the European Union, and "Palestinian" irredentist supporters, world-wide.

So the problem is not the borders. The problem is the loyalty of the Arabs living within Israel and living within Judea-Samaria. The problem is the over 10,000 "Palestinian" workers coming into Israel on a daily basis. Israel should declare that any Arab living in peace with his neighbors will be allowed his civil and religious rights, with all the benefits of living within the Jewish State. But he will not have political rights. This is what was outlined in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. If an Arab wants political rights, he can go to live in Jordan, the first "Palestinian" state, or elsewhere in the 21 nations of the Arab world. Arabs committing and supporting acts of terrorism should be expelled. If the choice is between the expulsion of Jews and eventually watching Israel vanish or expulsion of Arabs then I choose the survival of Israel and the expulsion of Arabs.

In the long run that is the only solution. As Israel continuously calls for "aliyah" one must ask: "How many Jews are coming to a nation beset by terrorism and adrift as to how to really cope with the on-going threat?" And "How many Israelis are fleeing to avoid all of this?" Those are numbers that are not given any mention at all.

So transfer and expulsion may be the only real solution. These are not pleasant choices, but faced with the stark choice of survival or slow elimination of the Jewish state, what other choices are there? "Hoping for the best," just doesn't work in this part of the world. If the Israelis and their supporters don't get that will -- if they are too "tired" to do what is necessary to survive -- the future is bleak indeed!

 
Dr. Steve Carol is author of "Israel's Foreign Policy in East Africa (1948-1973)", Official Historian "Middle East Radio Forum", www.middleeastradioforum.org and Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Middle East Studies, http://www.cames.ws in Scottsdale, Arizona. Contact him at drhistory@cox.net

This article was submitted Jan. 23, 2006 (Part 1) and Jan. 30, 2006 (Part 2).

 

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