Tempered yet timid
In some mysterious way tempering steel, subjecting it to repeated heating and hammering, strengthens it. So similarly the Jewish people have been tempered by history. But, having lost so many people we are loathe to be aggressive or militaristic.
The Arabs/Muslims on the contrary are perversely persistant at aggressively pursuing their goals. They have many people, and they are quite prepared to be killed or commit suicide in order to attain their goals. The surrounding Arab countries (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon) kept the Palestinians suffering in "refugee camps" for 60 years in appalling conditions, rather than assimilate them as every other country has done to their own refugees, in order to ensure the persistance of the problem. And the Palestinians have accepted this role and are still prepared to suffer and die for the cause. This is the result of religious/cultural indoctrination.
The Arabs/Muslims are very sensitive to perceived insults to their communal dignity. They regard all land ever controlled by Muslims as given to them by God and can never accept its loss. This applies to Israel (to them Palestine) as well as to Spain, Chechnya, Phillippines, Bali, etc. This is a problem for other claimants, since you can defeat the Muslims over and over again, as Israel has done, and they keep coming back with their terrorism and sense of victimhood.
We Jews can resist their attacks, but we are not good at offensive moves. Maybe this is a leanred response. We were caught completely off-guard by the Egyptian attack on Yom Kippur 1973, we were completely unprepared for the attacks of Hizbollah in 2005 that lead to the Second Lebanon War. It's as if wishful thinking sets in and we sit back and say, "Ah well, at least now we can enjoy some peace and quiet." We have been most successful when we have turned the tables on them. When the Egyptians under Nasser were preparing for an attack for weeks in 1967, we finally struck them and it was all over in 6 days. When Syria was secretly preparing a nuclear option with the N. Koreans recently, our air force struck and the danger was over.
But, we are not so good at negotiations, witness the fiasco of PM Barak at Taba, where he personally nearly gave away everything to Arafat, who luckily wanted more (now Barak is in the US as Min. of Defense). Of course, now the Palestinians (Fatah) want to start where Taba left off. They state their maximal positions and they will not budge from them, while by contrast our PM states over and over again what he is prepared to concede. There is no clear Israeli position stated as to what is our maximal position, what are our red lines. No Israeli Govt. spokesman has said that we will not allow the Palestinians to control the heights overlooking the coastal plain, including Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion airport. That would be suicidal for Israel, yet no Govt. spokesman is emphatically stating that publicly!
So while the Israeli people have been tempered by history to withstand any onslaught, we have a Govt. that is apparently prepared to give in to all Palestinian demands, forgetting the struggles and losses that brought us the defensive positions that we have.
But even this conciliation will not help us, for in the wings are the "other" Palestinians of Hamas, who will immediately reject any such agreement and if we ever do implement further withdrawals, they will then occupy that land and attack us from it, as they have done from Gaza and Hizbollah has done from Lebanon. Israel cannot make any agreement with Abbas unless it includes all Palestinians, which he manifestly does not represent.
The Arabs/Muslims on the contrary are perversely persistant at aggressively pursuing their goals. They have many people, and they are quite prepared to be killed or commit suicide in order to attain their goals. The surrounding Arab countries (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon) kept the Palestinians suffering in "refugee camps" for 60 years in appalling conditions, rather than assimilate them as every other country has done to their own refugees, in order to ensure the persistance of the problem. And the Palestinians have accepted this role and are still prepared to suffer and die for the cause. This is the result of religious/cultural indoctrination.
The Arabs/Muslims are very sensitive to perceived insults to their communal dignity. They regard all land ever controlled by Muslims as given to them by God and can never accept its loss. This applies to Israel (to them Palestine) as well as to Spain, Chechnya, Phillippines, Bali, etc. This is a problem for other claimants, since you can defeat the Muslims over and over again, as Israel has done, and they keep coming back with their terrorism and sense of victimhood.
We Jews can resist their attacks, but we are not good at offensive moves. Maybe this is a leanred response. We were caught completely off-guard by the Egyptian attack on Yom Kippur 1973, we were completely unprepared for the attacks of Hizbollah in 2005 that lead to the Second Lebanon War. It's as if wishful thinking sets in and we sit back and say, "Ah well, at least now we can enjoy some peace and quiet." We have been most successful when we have turned the tables on them. When the Egyptians under Nasser were preparing for an attack for weeks in 1967, we finally struck them and it was all over in 6 days. When Syria was secretly preparing a nuclear option with the N. Koreans recently, our air force struck and the danger was over.
But, we are not so good at negotiations, witness the fiasco of PM Barak at Taba, where he personally nearly gave away everything to Arafat, who luckily wanted more (now Barak is in the US as Min. of Defense). Of course, now the Palestinians (Fatah) want to start where Taba left off. They state their maximal positions and they will not budge from them, while by contrast our PM states over and over again what he is prepared to concede. There is no clear Israeli position stated as to what is our maximal position, what are our red lines. No Israeli Govt. spokesman has said that we will not allow the Palestinians to control the heights overlooking the coastal plain, including Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion airport. That would be suicidal for Israel, yet no Govt. spokesman is emphatically stating that publicly!
So while the Israeli people have been tempered by history to withstand any onslaught, we have a Govt. that is apparently prepared to give in to all Palestinian demands, forgetting the struggles and losses that brought us the defensive positions that we have.
But even this conciliation will not help us, for in the wings are the "other" Palestinians of Hamas, who will immediately reject any such agreement and if we ever do implement further withdrawals, they will then occupy that land and attack us from it, as they have done from Gaza and Hizbollah has done from Lebanon. Israel cannot make any agreement with Abbas unless it includes all Palestinians, which he manifestly does not represent.
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:36 AM
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