What Is Israel Doing Wrong?
In a recent interview session I was asked what Israel has done in the past couple of years that should have been done differently. It is, of course, always easy to dispense and dispose at a distance, especially if one is not in the trenches in the midst of a bitter and ongoing conflict. Safety promotes a facile omniscience. Nevertheless, close study and a sense of profound involvement can lead to insights and proposals that need not be entirely irrelevant, complacent, or fatuous.
To begin with, it is obvious that Israel has failed miserably to carry out an effective hasbara program, that is, public diplomacy, the circulation of information, pro-Israel activism. There is now a powerful psychological dimension in the war that is being waged against the Jewish state, a new media front in which the country is being demonstrably trounced. It is the Palestinians who have won the day with the clever deployment of their propaganda arsenal, in other words, disinformation, historical falsifications, and outright lies, the kind one sees animating the slanderous, campus-sponsored “Israel Apartheid Weeks.” France’s Ambassador for Human Rights François Zimeray is perfectly right when he urges Israel “to raise the drive to repair its international image to the level of a strategic imperative, or risk a situation in which the state itself was delegitimized.”
Israpundit’s Ted Belman is also correct when he points out that diehard “anti-Semites, leftists and Islamists” will not be persuaded by the facts, but he concedes that Israel should not “cease its PR efforts. … She should continue to provide her friends with the truth so that they maintain their friendship.” Israel should have invested — and should invest — enormous resources in a hasbara campaign, not only in an attempt to apprise people of Israel’s historical and incontrovertible legal claims to the Holy Land, but to ferret out the motives and biographical facts of its enemies, including Jewish anti-Semites and anti-Zionists.
Take for instance Richard Goldstone, the author of the odious UN report on Operation Cast Lead accusing Israel of crimes it did not commit while mainly acquitting Hamas for crimes it did. Why did it take so long to discover who Goldstone really is or was and to disseminate the facts? Why did Israeli intelligence have to wait for Alan Dershowitz and others to discover the truth about Goldstone’s apartheid past as a white South African hanging judge, sentencing 28 South African blacks to death and others to various forms of torture? Why is this scandal not robustly brought to the attention of the world’s chancelleries?
Similarly, as many have asked, why did Israel not release the exonerating Mavi Marmara videos immediately following the fatal travesty during the flotilla incident on May 31 to counter the virulent and mendacious anti-Israel media onslaught the flotilla was designed to incite? It’s reported that the higher echelons of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) wished to preserve the honor and reputation of the elite commando unit that rappelled into a cleverly devised trap. But the honor and reputation of the state should clearly have taken precedence. Shades of the infamous al-Dura hoax for which Israel rushed to apologize before the facts were ascertained and it became clear that the entire episode had been concocted by the Palestinians in collaboration with the French media.
Hasbara should also undertake effective measures to reveal Israel’s many projects intended to stimulate the Palestinian economy. Seth Wertheimer’s industrial park in Nazareth now being built to serve the Arab community is an excellent illustration of so proactive an experiment. The Nazareth project is only the latest in a series of such “peace through prosperity” ventures; yet for many of us in the West the practical application of this pivotal concept is almost totally unknown.
Secondly, it has become prudent, particularly in the light of an increasingly inimical American administration, if not to decouple from, at least to loosen and dilute the American connection. According to Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, there is already a “tectonic rift,” a “potentially irrevocable estrangement” between the two countries. If so, Israel must do its utmost to salvage what it can from the widening chasm. For example, Israel receives approximately $3 billion in United States aid annually, but most of this is funneled right back into the American defense industry in the form of purchases and contracts, helping to create American jobs while at the same time starving the potential of the Israeli defense network and drying up Israeli jobs. This situation need not continue. Israel surely has the technical know-how and the means to build its own fighter jets — just as Canada was able to produce the Arrow, the most sophisticated fighter plane of its time, before Prime Minister John Diefenbaker scrapped the project, doubtlessly submitting to American pressure.
In addition, with the worrisome decline of both American power and treaty-reliability under the administration of Barack Obama, the question may arise, to reconfigure Emerson: Why hitch your wagon to a falling star? Sarah Palin’s assessment of the dilemma for America’s allies is indisputable:
So while President Obama gets pushed around by the likes of Russia and China, our allies are left to wonder about the value of an alliance with our country anymore. They’re asking what is it worth.
She might also have mentioned belligerents like Iran, Syria, Turkey, and the Taliban that no longer take the United States seriously. Why, then, should Israel? Why should Israel have to ask the American administration for permission (and assent to its refusal) to bomb a convoy of Scud missiles being transferred from Syria to Hezbollah — missiles that will one day detonate on Israeli soil?
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Israel needs to be far more agonistic. Are we to believe that the nation that contrived the improbable 1976 Entebbe rescue mission is now incapable of freeing kidnapped Gilad Shalit from years of illegal Hamas captivity — even during the largely successful (but prematurely ended) Operation Cast Lead? Or of stiffening its treatment of imprisoned Hamas war criminals and aspiring suicide bombers rather than approving the use of cell phones and private TVs, correspondence courses from Israeli universities leading to earned degrees, and conjugal visits? What prevents Israel from unleashing systematic targeted assassinations against Hamas officials until Shalit is released? It required ten plagues for the pharaoh to relent and let his captives go, but I suspect in this case two or three plagues would be sufficient as the Hamas leadership is progressively lopped. Desperate expedients maybe, but assuredly feasible. One thing is certain: there is no way the young soldier should be allowed to remain in prolonged detention.
Mr Solway has written a rather theoretical essay – in the real world, where is the Israeli leadership to implement such a tough ”no more Mr Nice-Guy” approach?
He certainly can’t mean the Netanyahu/Ehud Barak coalition.
Israel could very well use Geert Wilders’s recent historical reminder that the only “Palestinian” state in the Middle East is Jordan to start making the truth once again known to most of a Western world suffering from suicidal amnesia.
I’m not sure it’s suicidal amnesia that afflicts the West. It might be abject fear combined with whistling past the graveyard.
What can Israel do to improve its image? Well, for starters, American Jews here in the United States should support a candidate for president that actually LIKES Israel and isn’t a pro-Muslim anti-semite. American Jews should be supporting a president, such as Richard Nixon, that sent a message around the world stating that he was even willing to go to nuclear war in order to save Israel (as he did during the Yom Kippur War of 1973). All Americans should be supporting a president that thinks it’s more important that we protect and assist the only successful democracy in the Middle East, Israel, rather than try to suck up to a bunch of Islamic thugs, dictators, and religious madmen, such as in Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and about a half a dozen other reprehensible Islamic states.
Why is the American president so important? Because he is the best public relations man for Israel. What he says is broadcast around the world immediately and people take note of it. The Muslim world may not like what they hear, but at least they know that they will have a hard time if they mess with a friend of the most powerful country on the planet.
Obama doesn’t really understand the damage he is doing to Israel and the danger he is placing it in. The Muslim states now just assume that Obama would never fully support Israel if it were threatened and, trust me, at some point they’re going to take advantage of that. Under Obama, would the United States risk a nuclear war if Tel Aviv disappears in a mushroom cloud? Would the Americans, under Obama, be willing to risk involvement in another Middle Eastern War if the Israelis were attacked the way they were during the Yom Kippur War in 1973? Would America, under Obama, risk having their oil supplies interrupted if the Hamas or Hezbollah exploded several “dirty bombs” inside of Israel? The Saudis are big protectors of the Palestinians and would not look kindly on massive retaliation against them by anyone, let alone the Jews, even if they used WMDs like dirty bombs.
So what do we do? Well folks, unfortunately we have two years to go. If the Republicans take back Congress in 2010, at least it can force the president through the power of the purse to at least support Israel with the weapons it needs to protect itself. As for the PR problem Israel has with the rest of the world, that will NOT get better until it has a better friend in the White House.
It’s necessary to distinguish between the U.S. government in its current incarnation and the American people themselves. Most Americans appear to be consistently pro-Israel.
Amen….
AGREED SIR!
you are really fool .. you defend the wronge side , may be it is conflict at you .. or it is not and you allow to kill people in palastine as you just hate arab and muslims … that is real face of the u.s.a and western plans … it is your mass media that israel controls that planned all this .. they put the idea that israel is the good side and arab are bad people should be killed , wake up folks and think about the children die everyday ..
It’s easy to preach toughness when you live five thousand miles away, it’s a lot different when you live in Israel and when you realize that most of the Jews living here have a much less aggressive attitude than those in the Diaspora.
Indeed, if the fellow who wrote this article were to talk to me he would come away with the feeling that Israelis see the Palestinians as the blood thirsty enemies they are, while if he were to talk to a Tel Aviv high tech worker he would find out that most Israelis are deeply concerned about which restaurant they will go to for lunch or where they will spend their vacation. And if the high tech fellow did have an opinion about the Arab Israeli conflict he would probably shrug his shoulders and tell you we can all get along together.
And if this writer came to Jerusalem and asked an ultra Orthodox Jew about the Palestinians, that Jew would probably tell him that he is late for Mincha or learning at his Kollel.
The painful truth is that most Israeli Jews are more concerned about their immediate personal affairs than the so called big war and peace isssues that Diaspora Jews worry so much about.
And the Israeli government reflects that attitude, don’t make waves, have a good time, take care of the overdraft, take the kids to the Luna Park, buy the wife a watch.
So sorry folks, if you want a fire breathing kick ‘em in the nuts, take no prisoners Israeli government, you are going to have to come here and vote it into power.
Otherwise you will get exactly what we Israelis voted into office!
Ken, that’s hilarious, even if not meant to be. I needed it to break the monotony.
Ken,
I’m not sure which diaspora is all ‘fire breathing’ and speaking for a strong Israel.. the majority of Jews in america appear to remain convinced that the greatest risk to Jewry is the evil, oppressive American evangelical Christian. they vote Democrat. They get what they want in an American government. I can’t tell you how many Jews I meet who are defensively, reflexively still supporting Obama– and who get angry when they hear that Israel is considering the affrontery of defending itself.
They’re leftists first, secularists second, and cultural Jews third, when it’s not too inconvenient.
Sometimes I think, even with all the millions saved from Jewish communities around the world by the formation of, and welcoming arms of, Israel, that American Jews still see Israel as a huge embarrassment to them and a needless complication in their lives– as they continue to pretend they’re not really Jews in any important sense of the word.
Maybe they’d ‘get religion’ if there were some sort of existential threat to Jewry… less likely if the threat is only to Israel… I’m reminded of Abba Kovner, who said of his fellow Jews that, when Nazis said they wanted to keep a few of them around and parade them through Berlin in a nice open car so that Germans never forget what a Jew is, too many of the Jews he knew were fighting for the right to get the free ride in the car.
I absolutely agree with Terry. This is yet another essay by a well-meaning supporter of Israel (wish there were more!) who is anxious for Israeli leaders to “get their house in order”. This ignores two major problems.
First, there is the fact that Israel has become psychologically beaten down by the failed results of the Oslo “peace” process over the last decade, coupled with the more recent alarming turn of the the world towards legitimizing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
Second, there’s the fact that Israel’s dysfunctional political culture makes it impossible for our leaders to form a stable government. The party system means that no one who is not a lifetime political hack can swim his or her way to the top(with the exception of senior military personnel who are routinely “parachuted” into realistic positions on party lists the moment they retire from active service).
Unlike the American system, in which the President can dictate foreign policy pretty much as a matter of personal fiat, in Israel, the hands of the Prime Minister are effectively tied, because it’s necessary to please everyone (no one), and pander to all sides in order to stay in office.
In other words, Bibi may want to “get tough.” But when you’re watching your back all the time, it’s very hard to move forward.
Sandy.
It’s not the general Israeli population that is psychologically beaten down, it’s our political elite. On the other hand, Mr Besig is also correct, many Israelis are far more concerned with their daily life than with politics.
But your description of our dysfunctional political system is sadly accurate. Actually, dysfunctional is an under-statement. It’s also a major reason for the alienation of many Israelis from politics. The Party system is a disaster. The lack of accountability creates nothing but irresponsibility. To call our politicians ”party hacks” is too kind. Add to that the bureaucratic immobilism left over from our failed socialist past & you have a recipe for disaster.
Nobody knows what to do. I guess that’s the real answer. Well, a better answer, internally, is for the ‘right-wing’ opposition to unite and provide a real counterweight to the ‘invisible’ power of the Left, or Establishment, through the High Court, the media and the big businessmen, most of whom agree with the two-state solution concept (in reality this has become the ‘four-state solution’ – Israel, Jordan, PA/West Bank and Hamas Gaza).
The comments by Ken about ‘come here and vote it into power’ and yours about ‘well-meaning supporters’ are essentially deflections. You are both basically saying ‘we can’t change anything so if you can’t come up with a better idea…’ That’s fine, and true to a point, but only to a point.
The reality is that the system, meaning the combination of the electoral/coalition system you have both described well, and the inability of the ‘right wing’ to be united and coherent in the face of intimidation by the establishment or ‘elites’ make that very difficult.
I agree that David’s piece is quite theoretical, but I would go beyond that. Israel needs to stop playing by the world’s rules, on every level. It does not really matter how many well-meaning American citizens support Israel, and there are a lot. The lack of belief in Israel’s legitimacy expressed by its own representatives – Oren being a great example – and the ongoing messages about how ‘we don’t want to occupy another people’ constantly provoke and inspire the enemies of Zionism.
I’m with Terry. It’s time to get past the defensiveness about criticism and change things.
Larry in the Silicon.
Larry my friend, lot’s of people here know what to do, most people, even those whose primary concern is their daily life, are right-wing as far as security goes, are against concessions, understand very well that the two-state BS will not bring peace, are in favour of military preemptive operations. So what? Who cares what we think? We vote right-wing & get Netanyahu married to Ehud Barak (as you said). I didn’t vote for Netanyahu, I voted for Lieberman because I didn’t trust Netanyahu.
The right may be splintered into many political parties but mostly agree on essentials. If Netanyahu was a true leader & not just another crap politician, he would not have taken Labour into the coalition – he would still have had a majority of seats in the Knesset. But, he remembers the last go-around when Clinton in cooperation with our Left brought down his gov’t. – so, rather than be a leader & do the right thing (no pun intended), he goes for a broader, more stable, coalition.
Personally, I think he’s wrong – the more he stands up for our interests, the more popular support he would have.
Terry, I have a feeling, and it’s totally speculative, that Bibi’s personal antipathy to Livni helps motivate or justify his love affair with Ehud. The other factor, as enunciated by the very clever Caroline Glick, is that he ‘uses’ Barak to deflect American attempts to overthrow his gov’t. And in the process, he empowers Barak. In 1991-92, I worked at a company near Tel Aviv one of whose employees died in the training accident at Tseelim, in which I believe five soldiers died. Most versions of the event have Barak refusing to lend his CoS helicopter to help in the rescue and resuscitation attempts. I don’t know what to make of such a man or those who empower him.
I hope that Moshe Feiglin’s son recovers fully, and that Feiglin or someone else has the strength, the skills and more to finally create a true force that pulls the gov’t in a better direction.
Larry in the Silicon.
The story about Ehud Barak is accurate to my knowledge. The man is a treacherous opportunist, an unscrupulous, unprincipled, two-faced, liar. Netanyahu is a fool to trust him – Barak will try to undermine Netanyahu, which he is already doing. He also supports bringing Kadima into the coalition, no doubt in return for remaining Defense Minister in the larger coalition. Should Kadima join the coalition, possibly forcing either Shas or Lieberman out, then Netanyahu would be a minority in his own coalition.
I’m sure Livni hates Netanyahu as much as Netanyahu despises Livni.
I might add that Barak is Obama’s man within the Israeli gov’t.
Netanyahu is an expert player in our slimy political milieu so I’m sure he has a plan to out-manoeuver Barak.
But, in the meantime, the national interest suffers.
Just whose approval should we seek? A ” world community ” that is a moral cesspool? That is the opinion we should court?
Rather we should look for approval from The One whose promises are fulfilled before our eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7iHIRwpU2o
It is the penultimate irony, which will eventually cost Israel her life, that a nation which has advanced to the highest heights in technological and military prowess, has become a complete chickensh-t in protecting her place among the nations.Hear oh Israel……
Israel’s leaders, with its leftist media nudging them on, have become CAPTIVES of Stockholm Syndrome:Delusions of a Leadership Under Siege. In no small estimation, Israel’s leaders behave as if protecting their people is an uncivilized thing to do, as enemy ‘civilians’ will be hurt as a consequence
Consider the lunacy: what normal, rational, logical leaders (not gripped by Stockholme Syndrome)would drop leaflets !, text message !, and otherwise alert the enemy that their forces are coming? So, even IF they were wizards at public relations (hasbara, and they are NOT), how can they win a war when the enemy always knows they are coming, and is also coddled by Israel’s ‘social service’ squads, dressed as combat soldiers?
Therefore, IF they do not go for broke with the Iranian Hitler, the Third Temple will be destroyed, and they only have themselves to blame.
Absolutely.
“So, even IF they were wizards at public relations (hasbara, and they are NOT), how can they win a war when the enemy always knows they are coming, and is also coddled by Israel’s ’social service’ squads, dressed as combat soldiers?”
A classic summation of the reality. Add to this that the media and the post-Zionist crowd actively persecute any soldier suspected of violating this social worker role. Even the siege of Jenin, for which Israel was pilloried endlessly, was an example of social service warfare. And in the end 9 Arab civilians were confirmed killed, after widespread initial reports of ‘rapes’ and the ‘slaughter of 500 civilians’ – propagated by PA ‘moderates’ such as Saeb Erekat.
Thank you, Sandy. You’ve answered a question that has been in my mind for some time. That is, about Israel’s political system/culture.
OK, you’ve stated the problem, and formulated the solution, all that remains is to convince about half the country and most of the politions that you are right.
#3 Libertyship46
“Obama doesn’t really understand the damage he is doing to Israel, or the danger he is placing it in…”
NONSENSE. He knows,, or those who are his supporters know. It is DELIBERATE. He CANNOT be that stupid, or if so he is more a puppet than realised. Israel is not the main target, but proxy for his real object: the destruction of the West and especially the most western nation, the USA. For which he and his allies/troops have a pathological hatred. What the base for this hatred is can be left to cocktail party psychologists.He has demeaned through his person that nation in apologizing to homicidal tyrants, complied and excused war-like behaviours of announced enemies, and distanced from proven allies. He has LIED and LIED and LIED again about his aims and methods to his American population. HE has instituted via his Cabinet choices a deliberate and destructive belittling American ethos, and spirit. He HAS NOT DONE THIS ALONE,but with the support and help of all those who have publicly aligned themselves with him in his destructive journey from the White House, and those who have paved the way by “educating”, brainwashing the Western population through the past 50 or so years.
Many people cannot, do not wish to understand what is in front of their eyes.
Cannot believe such evil, such delliberate destructiveness in apparently adult, rational humans with privileges only dreamt of by ordinary mortals. And so he continues his destrucive swathe through the world until the wilfully blind do/must see. AND ACCEPT THE FACT THAT THE BEST HIDING PLACE IS IN PLAIN SIGHT. And then what …?
Yes…Obama is that stupid.
Q: What is Israel doing wrong?
A: It’s existing (so sayeth the world)
Agreed that Israel advocacy is failing, but there are many problems with this article.
Mr. Solway wrote:
“What the Zionist patriot Ze’ev Jabotinsky said of the Jewish Regiment in World War II”
***
But there was no Jewish Regiment in World War II. Jabotinsky died in 1940. He was talking of the Jewish Regiment in WW I. That was a creation of the Zionist movement that served the British as long as it pleased them and then was dismantled when it no longer served British interests. It is not a model for Israel today, unless we want to be at the mercy of the British again. And it shows the limitation of arms without political independence. The Jews got guns, but they could only use them in service of the British – not to defend themselves afterwards in Palestine. There is a lesson to be learned from the Jewish Regiment, but not the one you have extracted.
Israel should be more independent of the US militarily, but there are some limitations. We do not have the alloy or nozzle technology to make jet engines. We don’t even have the industrial know-how to make tank engines – these are imported. So Israel would always be vulnerable to embargoes of vital parts and spares.
In order to develop more independence, Israel needs to invest in a better industrial base, and in more science and engineering education. But right wing governments have gutted Israeli higher education in favor of subsidizing Torah studies, and Israel is burdened with supporting a population of ultra-orthodox Jews who at least officially do not work and pay taxes in many cases, and draw on the public largess for the perpetual Talmud studies. Israel must also spend a lot of its defense budget on policing the territories, a factor that has changed the character of the IDF since 1967.
The Netanyahu government did try the approach you suggest at the start of its term. FM Lieberman made some statements about peace negotiations being a waste of time, and Netanyahu was opposed to both a settlement freeze and a two state solution. As everyone knows, a great deal of pressure was put on the government, and the hypothetical friends of Israel who supposedly support those policies were nowhere to be seen. They are still not visible. It is usually not possible to get 200 supporters of Israel together to demonstrate in favor of Israel. Ahmadinejad’s arrival in USA should have been greeted by a protest of millions. None of them showed up. Where were they?
Israel doesn’t need “PR.” We are not selling soap or political candidates. We are “selling” ideas, and that’s a different business. For that we need informed, moderate political advocacy that can speak to common values of the largest segment of our audience. We have a case, but nobody is making it. Certainly not Ted Belman and his friends. Every “PR” campaign based on advertising principles has backfired for Israel. Palestinians do not do “PR” – they do grass roots political advocacy campaigns. And we do not need to convince our friends as you advocate. Our friends are already convinced. We need to convince the majority of people, who really have no information about the Middle East other than what they hear from their friends or see in the media.
Outside the Muslim world, most of the people out there – there are 6 billion of them – are not Jews. They are not friends of Israel or particularly enemies of Israel. The Middle East forms a tiny part of their concerns, ranking much lower than economic worries, Mondiale scores and other concerns. The Palestinian advocates are succeeding because they reach those people with a message that is tailored to their values and concerns, not by bashing the President of the United States.
Israel’s problem did not being with Mr. Obama. The campaign to delegitimize Israel – the boycotts, the apartheid slogans etc. was geared up about 10 years ago and the opening sally in the latest round was fired in the Durban conference. The Bush administration, like every administration before it, paid lip service to the alliance with Israel, but never recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. And more than one administration has insisted that settlements are illegal. Those are the facts, and they are the same facts regardless of what party you support in the USA. A change of administration in the USA will help Israel only marginally.
Until Israeli hasbara “experts” learn the basics of advocacy and grass roots organization, Israeli hasbara will continue to fail, and all the “experts” will continue to wail that “everyone hates us” and that Israel needs to be more adamant in its demands and spend more on “PR.”
More about Israel advocacy: http://zionism-israel.com/israel_advocacy.pdf
Ami Isseroff
1- The Zion Mule Corp. provided the office cadre and training for early self defense organizations.
2- The age of miniaturization of combat platforms has changed the rules of engagement. The only thing lacking is the will to use them.
3- The canard that “ultra – orthodox ” neither fight nor pay taxes is pure baloney. Firstly, Jews are Jews. Some more observant than others or choose a different dress code than others. Observant traditional Jews make up a large part of Israels combat units and officer corp. They are among the most motivated and reliable troops Israel has. There are plenty of groups, sadly, that suffer from poverty. I see no complaint from you that muslim arabs receive child benefits or a complaint that muslim arabs are the biggest tax dodgers in Israel. That Israel must spend additional money to guarantee the safety of its citizens who live away from its major population centers is a duty and a national honor. Ask the citizens of Sderot if they are better off now that Israel doesn’t have to police Gaza.
4- You are right that the arrival of Irans Little Hitler should have resulted in millions of protesters. To place the responsibility for that on the shoulders of only Jews is silly. Iran is a threat to the entire world. Where were all the protesters?
5- Ted Bellman and his friends are trying their best and doing something. Perhaps you have some personal gripe but you can’t complain about lack of protest and then defame those that do show up to protest.
6- Israels problems did not begin with Obama. However Obama has demonstrated by word and deed that he has no respect for Israel and no respect for Jews. He will use either to his own ends but one does not indoctrinate ones own children with anti-semitism if one doesn’t subscribe to it himself ( and herself, by the way ).
oil money fuels the incessant yapping the deranged bullsh*t moslems like to spread around. people eat up this crap (yum yum) even while it is poisoning their own societies and killing them for the same reason germans stuck up their arms and threw roses at hitler. it is in their nature. thinking and discerning what is truth and what is a lie takes brainwork. that sort of effort, as is evident in our non-productive, soon to be impoverished and declining western culture is sadly lacking.
israel will probably end up killing the bastards. i support that. i wish we would do it here. but it isn’t in our nature.
Dear 12
Much to discuss here. But you are certainly correct about dates. A slip of the finger on the keyboard where I hit the capital “I” twice added 20 or so superfluous years to the timetable. I’ve always been impressed by Jabotinsky who got a bum rap from many of the soi-disant enlightened. Shmuel Katz’s two-volume biography, Lone Wolf, is a must-read.
David
The major problem for Israel is that it has a European style government.
Parliamentary govt, by its’ nature, is inherently weak. There is no fixed period of time that gives a leader a chance to try a strategy, his opposition votes ‘no confidence’ and there is in effect a forced election and change in govt.
The majority of so called ‘free’ countries work in this manner.
Either Israel changes its’ style of governance or it will always have the same problems that its’ adversaries will exploit – including its’ internal enemies.
Israel has been put in the defensive position of ‘The Emperor has no clothes’.
David, I think Yisrael Meidad was a protege of Katz’. I used to read Shmuel’s opeds in Maariv back in the day. His main theme was his frustration with Begin over Camp David.
I imagine you and Meidad could collaborate on an interesting piece propounding some of the ‘pure’ Revisionist theory of Shmuel Katz. I believe that Camp David I did enormous damage to Israel in the sense of ‘Laborizing’ the movement. It was Begin’s (reluctant) opportunity to join the establishment and be kashered; simultaneously it destroyed the raison d’etre of Herut. Of course, Ariel Sharon really set the stage for the destruction of Herut with the formation of the Likud. A person could make the argument that Begin began to deconstruct Israeli revisionism then (1971). Both he and Sharon had nearly primal urges to be accepted by the Mapai establishment.
Many of Katz’s op-eds are online. His insights seem even more remarkable today.
http://shmuelkatz.com/
Mr. Solway’s insights are all good and commenters have added additional insight. But I have read many good articles over the years, all making essentially the same points. At some point, a strategy has to be formulated that accepts as a precondition that Israel’s political structure is incapable of producing effective leadership. I believe we are slowly confronting this same problem – albeit under different circumstances – here in America. The whole concept of looking to political leadership to solve problems is oversold.
The world respects strength. Weakness attracts predators. What else is new?
Israel’s problems are rooted in classic Jew-hatred that long predates modern Zionism or the formation of a modern Jewish state. And that will not me overturned with hasbara, intellect or logic.
Classic anti-semitism is found only among Christians and Muslims albeit in significantly different proportion. Buddhists and Hindus do not hate Jews reflexively and they do not hate them especially.The jealous and murderous psychological and cultural tangle that sparks the fear and hatred of Jews is not easily unraveled or severed. The hatred has and will continue to survive long past the derivative religions that ignited it.
Pagan Jew-hatred preceded Christianity and Islam, of course. The Helenized Syryians levelled Solomon’s Temple and the Romans levelled Herod’s. Though both Helenes and Latins crowned their victory by sacrificing pigs on the Jewish altar in the Jews’ Holy of Holies,their hatred was essentially geopolitical.
The new religions were born into direct competition with Judaism. Young Gods bent on parricide of the Titans who fathered them. Jewish culture was for loot. Its Holy Days, ceremonies, literature,liturgy and song to be copied, improved and redirected to serve the new faiths in their turn.
The Passover Seder became the Last Supper, the matzoh and wine the body and blood of our own Holy King-Messiah whom we stubbornly refused to recognize for our savior. Yom Kippur, our day of penance and fast before Holy Judgement, became a forty day gathering of fast and feast around a meteorite harking back to stone and star (Ishtar, Easter, ie Baal) worship specifically prohibited in the Bible.
Even the Jews themselves, body and soul were to be replaced. New wine to be poured into their old skins. To be Dhimmized and marked by special dress for contempt and oppression.
What stands in in favor of Jews today is that Christianity, like Judaism, is a modern, evolved faith whose finer aspects have overcome its more primitive predatory inclinations. There are even, among the Christians, those who actually read ancient Hebrew literature, albeit in translation, and connect their faith to the Jews without hostiility.
In the Anglosphere, they are a minority in a sea of post-christian and post-Jewish secular-moderns. But they support Jews and Zion. And they have since the mid-nineteenth century when the Holy Land was the dirty and forgotten Turkish backwater described by Mark Twain. (Read Barbara Tuchman’s, Bible and Sword.)
I am not the first to remark on the odd fact that practicing Jews who keep the Sabbath Day holy and don’t eat what is Biblically proscribed are more receptive to Evangelical Christians than the more than ninety percent of their brethren who, though some come fully equipped with synagogues, cantors and rabbis are post-Biblical. (Indeed, the offfhand confession that one has never cracked the old doorstop is a mark of sophistication among cooler, more with-it Jews.)
Jews need to link more closely with their Evangelical bretheren is this longwinded Hebrew’s advice to his fellow Hebrews. The original Gentile followers of the Jewish way gravitated to our good and healthy example in life and worship. They came as honest admirers and friends. It was for them the Gentile Gate was built.
Post-Biblical Jews fear the Evangelicals and loudly cite their horrific and glorious “eschatology,” pointing out that the Jewish fate is truly horrible while the Christians get all the glory. Such sophisticated hysteria needs to be ignored.
Fears of the Evangelicals evangelizing and stealing Jewish souls are likewise silly. Jews have never been converted in any significant number by anything other than outright and brutal coercion. Our defense is our intellect and our commitment to true history.
There is precious little that separates Christians and Jews. The entire Christian Canon, Hebrew and Greek alike, is Jewish in authorship. And belief in a Messiah–even a specific Messiah–was never a bar to Judaism.
Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism will only be answered with strength. American Evangelicals have clout. Welcoming their generously offered good fellowship in a spiritually meaningful way would go far toward getting the American Jewish community’s head out of the deeper recesses of its ass.
an addendum:
Israels’ lack of a constitution aids its’ adversaries claims that Israel lacks moral authority for its’ views and actions.
BTW – I have visited Israel my kids have been educated in Israel and I grieve for the stupidity and shortsightedness of ALL our Jewish friends and family.
Yes, Israel needs to get tough, but moreover it as a sovereign state needs to disregard the opinion of Barrack Obama.
Israel needs to be the Israel as tough as when it was founded. Allowing the continuous chipping away of it’s independence by those like Obama will weaken it. Obama is a here today, gone tomorrow President, without some astronomical occurence(like amnesty to the illegal aliens) he is just a bad chapter of US history.
Survival means never having to say “I’m sorry.” Mr. Sollway points out that no other state would tolerate or be required to tolerate continuous terrorism and thousands of enemy bombs falling on its citizens without retaliating. In that vein, it is worth remembering that in the aftermath of 9/11 near unanimous support in the US and the West generally for retaliation against the Taliban included those who now wring their hands and vilify Israel for its acts of self-defense.
the solution is actually simlpe. wait until Obama is out of office.
There are about a million people under the control of Hamas. once we have a pro Israeli president, Israel should send 10000 troop to Gaza. Round everone up. each sloders should shoot 10 people a day point blank. gang style. just like did a few weeks ago on the ship. this job will be finished in 10 days and everything is happily ever after..
If your fellow Iranians are not careful, Israel will be killing 10 million at a time, not 10.
Mr. Solway, regarding the possibility of a homemade Israeli jet fighter-bomber, please see the Lavi developed by the Israel Aircraft Industries in the 80s as a cheaper version of the F16 and nixed by the U.S. Certainly Israel has the know-how and capability. But the U.S. won’t allow McDonnell Douglas to be undercut, and an Israel less dependent on the U.S. for the biggest of its big ticket defense items will be that much less amenable to guidance and pressure.
Miriam,
Now you are losing your credibility with histrionics.
Right now Israeli nuclear armed subs backed by an air fleet armed and ready to go, protected by an enormous US armada sits waiting for orders.
No time to get upset.
Spin
most of the zionists are athiests or agnostics. They tend to believe in Darwin;s natural selection for survval.
yet they cannot see that a jewish state in the middle east is not sustainable in the long run. they believe that Israel’s military superiority would sustain Israel as a nation state. They cannot forsee a grounds war by die hard muslims and arab nationalists that would put an end to Israel.
If Israe;’s military engages Lebanon in the future with its airforce and its tanks roll in, what is to keep pockets of 5-10 arab muslim groups from entering Israeli land and when a target is approached from detonating themselves.
Will Israel be able to monitor all these grouplets? Will it bomb these grouplets if they make inroads far enough into Israel? Can Israel prevent its Arab population from turning against it, once the tide seems to be in favor of these grouplets?
Today, it is only a matter of distance and transmission of ideas that has kept Israel alive. If you only get a group like the Afghani and Pakistani Talibanis on the border with Israel, then its nothing less than assmetric warfare with Israel being the ultimate loser.
The only thing that has so far kept Israel intact is lack of Talibani thinking in Lebanon and in south Lebanon more specifically. And it is only a matter of time before Lebanese become radicalized enough to adopt Talibani strategies and thinking.
Israel, one may argue, will unleash its power against Lebanon. Do you really think it matters to a Talibani whether his homeland is destroyed or not? Talibanis infact are blowing up fellow Afghanis and Pakistanis. So that mode of retaliation until surrender will not work with Talibani headed groups…
It;s only a matter of time and Darwin made it crystal clear. But who will listen?
Perhaps the lesson is to make arabic sound more familiar- it sure seems BHO feels at home-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJNRW3TKULA
I generally agree with the substance of most of the comments. I do however have a cavil. In describing alternate assessments on politics and society the received method is “left-wing”/ “right-wing”. Left being good/humane, and right evil/inhumane. Western, among others, language/cultures used left/sinister and right/dextrous as old latin based descriptions.Most Western European languages are significantly latin based . Now out-moded? The NEW (NEW AGE?)fashion has turned these meanings upside down. BUT BUT Orwell, among others, warned that to get control- automatic/unconscious – control of minds/behaviours, the FIRST — AND LAST — TACTIC is to control the language. Generally by “education”/propaganda/usage. Using “right-wing- left-wing” automatically, given the NEW connotations, much of the goal of the destruction of Western societies/nations is done by the very people who are to be the victims of that destruction. Accepting tbe language of the “creators of the New World Order” whatever they name themselves: Socialist, Communist, Nazi, Internationalist, One Worlders, Multiculturalist, … the field of debate/discussion/conflict has been ceded. THEY KNOW THIS AND THEY USE THIS. How is it possible to have a strong and effective opposition if the opposition has already accepted the conflict in their territory, AND THEIR TERMS of surrender by “signing onto THEIR language”?
You are absolutely correct (I almost wrote “right”, but, as you noted, that is now a loaded word). Orwell and Dostoevsky were the two people to most accurately predict the “utopian” world of the 20th century, with all its horrors and intellectual dead weight, and two more dissimilar people can hardly be imagined.
But history doesn’t stand still, and social orders which are not sustainable collapse. No one has yet totally controlled the human mind and the human imagination, and no one has ever controlled an economy, it simply can’t be done.
What is the point. Good or bad Isreal is surounded by idiots and always will be. That none of the countries around them have not advanced progress in the last thousand years. n
Strong, courageous and energizing article, M. Solway. You express exactly what I was thinking since months. This is the way Israël should act.
Israelis are nice. Being nice is not suicidal and certainly not antithetical to being tough. It is nice to kick the cr*p out of someone who is trying to murder your family, friends, and neighbors. The people who are not nice are those who strap bombs to their friends and families while firing rockets into playgrounds. It’s time for all nice people to stomp on the not-nice people.
excellent article, Mr. Solway. Michael Oren said that there were “positives and negatives” to the changing relationship between America and Israel. seems to me that the positives are precious few, but one is sure: Israel should no longer wait for our permission to defend itself.
Obama has clearly shown that he is no friend to Israel. he’s not entirely responsible, but he has definitely helped to make anti-Semitism acceptable again. since Israel cannot do anything right except to roll over and surrender, Israel should ignore Obama and world opinion and defend itself.
and a good place to start would be to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities. what’s going to happen…the UN will condemn them? so what? that’s just a regular working day at the UN.
oops hit “submit” too soon.
a word to my Jewish brothers and sisters posting on here from Israel: please know that our disagraceful president DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ALL AMERICANS. most Americans–Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, whatever–love and support Israel, and we’re appalled at what Obama’s doing.
please hang on, if you can–hopefully you’ll only have to wait until 2012…but just know that we are with you!
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/14940084/1081556618/name/22419673-13.wmv