They’re preparing for another war: Is Israel?

Everything that the Arab leadership does is calculated to move Israel to a militarily weaker positionóa position that brings her closer to extinction.
The Arab goal of eliminating the Jewish state is as clearly stated as was Hitler’s plans for the Jewish people in “Mein Kampf.” Extinction means not just the disappearance of the state of Israel itself, but also the extermination of all who live there. Nowhere is this seen better than in Muhammed Dahlan’s studied actions regarding his next strategic target.
Dahlan, Mahmoud Abbas’ number two, is simultaneously negotiating with Israel about the withdrawal from Gaza and orchestrating the violence during that withdrawal which includes rockets aimed at the Israeli town of Netiv Ha’asara. Astute observer Josef Budansky tells us that Netiv Ha’asara ..”and neighboring kibbutzim (are) all essentially Ashkelon suburbs situated inside the Green LineÖ” The point Budansky makes is that “we may be witnessing nothing less than the germination of the next set of demands to fuel further conflict following the projected completion of the disengagement for Gaza.”
This is a well-worn path for Israel’s enemies. They never accept an Israeli concession without creating a lingering dispute or some potential future flash point. After taking back the vast Sinai Peninsula, along with its Israeli developed oil and numerous settlements, Egypt insisted on a tiny sliver of land at its tip. The world convened and found against Israel who then gave Taba to the Egyptians.
When Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon, Hizbollah was quick to dispute ownership of an area called Shaba Farms, and the violence accompanying that claim still regularly costs Israeli lives. (The UN validated Israel’s sovereignty, but the violence continues.) Dahlan is now preparing Israel and the world for his next aggressive claims which no doubt will be accompanied by some arguable rationale and continued violence against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Focused as they are only on Israeli concession, our State Department misses all of this and absent any strong moral leadership, the rest of the world falls into line. Arab claims of Israeli intransigence find automatic adherents in the world’s maddrasses and places where opposition to Jews and Israel are imbibed with mother’s milk. Closer to home, The New York Times and Tom Friedman, natural champions of the next Arab claim against Israel, will soon learn how to spell Netiv Ha’asara. Always willing to advocate any Israeli price for peace, they’ll decry her “occupation.” But it is the audience that always surfaces inside Israel that makes this all possible. Academics who never miss a beat in their criticism of their own country and a relentless Israeli media will reflexively line up as proponents for the new Arab argument. It is this audience that Dahlan stirs when he lays the groundwork for his predatory claims.
After Gaza, and it is necessary for the Israeli right to realize that there will be an Israel after Gaza, there will be relentless pressure on Israel to weaken her strategic position. That the State Department will provide the initial pressure is already apparent in Secretary Rice’s recent statements (See Elliot Jager on page 11), but the full force of that pressure against Israel is yet to come. This makes it important for all of Israel to join together again and fight for Israel’s continued existence. It is also key for her and her friends not to confuse Gaza with the onslaught to come.
Gaza is about disengagement from over a million Arabs. It is also about an Israeli retrenchment to essential areas that are fully defensible physically and morally and absolutely necessary for Israel’s survival. Gaza might be about several principles that ring true, but Gaza is not about Israel’s existence. Choosing the best arguments to make and the best ground to defend is what the future is about. There is no doubt that Israel has a superior historical, moral and legal claim to the land in Gaza, but it does not have possession of it and that’s why it is impossible to retain. If Israelis are intent on the survival of their country, they must reach a consensus on what is obtainable and what is not, what to defend and what to leave behind.
Netiv Ha’asara is about the Green Line. It is about Israel proper. It is about Israel’s superior claim to the land and about Israel’s possession of it too. It is about Jerusalem, Ariel, the Golan and the large towns and cities, wherever they are west of the Jordan River. It is about the Jordan Valley, it is about foiling Iranian designs. It is about the places where Israelis will willingly send their sons and daughters. It is about doing whatever is necessary for Israel to survive and acknowledging that survival trumps all the other principles. This is the essence of the Sharon policy.
For Arik Sharon, it is not about guarding every convoy and every hilltop. It is about striking out and creating inviolable strategic realities. His whole career speaks to this. With a million more olim, Israel’s borders and lines might have been different, but Israel can only protect what it is capable of defending today. The Israeli Right must awaken to this reality and come together with the rest of the Israeli polity as its most vibrant part and again defend those inviolable lines.
Just as her adversaries prepare the next blow to Israel’s existence, so must Israelis put the last battle aside and ensure that their enemies don’t succeed.

–nrg

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