A Visit in Israel, Part II
David Steinmann reporting on the 20th JINSA Flag and General Officers Trip to Israel:
The IDF is clear that this is a war with strategic consequences; the people recognize that and are determined to win. Israel had allowed its deterrent ability to erode so completely that the Palestinians, indeed all the Arabs, were misled (as they were about America until September 11th) into believing that they had Israel on the run. In the Middle East, that only invites more attacks. It will now take time to reestablish deterrence, but Israelis are determined to do so.
David Steinmann reporting on the 20th JINSA Flag and General Officers Trip to Israel:
The IDF is clear that this is a war with strategic consequences; the people recognize that and are determined to win. Israel had allowed its deterrent ability to erode so completely that the Palestinians, indeed all the Arabs, were misled (as they were about America until September 11th) into believing that they had Israel on the run. In the Middle East, that only invites more attacks. It will now take time to reestablish deterrence, but Israelis are determined to do so.
At the same time, every Israeli we met expressed recognition of the tragedy befalling the Palestinian people as a result of corrupt and venal Palestinian leadership. Israelis aren’t happy inflicting hardship on Palestinian civilians by isolating and entering the towns from which attacks are launched, but despite the world’s willful blindness about cause and effect, Israel will no longer be attacked without responding.
The critics can’t wait for the next successful Palestinian homicide bombing so they can claim Israel’s military effort didn’t work. But in some ways it did work. One of the extraordinary results of the Palestinian war against the Jews is that the exact opposite of what the Palestinians expected happened. Instead of Israeli society crumbling under the pressure of homicide bombers, Israelis became stronger and more determined. This was an enormous miscalculation by Arafat and his henchmen.
Israel took the offensive in April, arresting murderers, destroying terrorist infrastructure and disrupting terrorist plans. And the IDF will keep doing it until the Palestinians figure out that they cannot kill Jews with impunity and that they will get nothing more than what they have now – a miserable existence with no future, filled with hatred and children wanting to kill themselves in order to kill Jews. “Peace” is likely many, many years away, and until we get there deterrence will have to suffice.
One thing we learned. When Americans go to Israel, we are at home in a liberal, Western democracy, with people who share our values and treasure our friendship. They need our support and need us to come and visit. Israelis are showing enormous courage under trying circumstances. If you want to be on the right side of a battle that is ours as much as it is Israel’s, then get on an airplane and go there! You’ll have a fabulous time. The people will greet you with open arms and, most important, you’ll be doing something you don’t get to do that often – the right thing.
Israel is on the front line of the fight for the future of the Western world. We will win, as President Bush said. But when history looks at these times, it will reflect that one small country in a sea of Moslem hostility held the line and stood with America, when most of our European “allies” were doing their traditional kow-towing to the forces of evil.
Israel is a remarkable friend and a real ally. If one is known by the quality of those, both America and Israel have a lot to be proud of!