May 14, 1948 marked the birth of Israel as a recognized Jewish state. Coincidentally, May 14 marked the 2,511th anniversary of the given birth date for Gautama Siddartha, a/k/a/ Buddha (ca. 563 - 482 BC). Also coincidentally, today mark the tenth anniversary of the passing of one of Israel's staunchest American supporters, Frank Sinatra. The Voice had a small part in the wonderful film, Cast a Giant Shadow (1966); the film tells the story of Gen. Mickey Marcus (played by Kirk Douglas), who helped Israel win its fight for survival but was killed by a sentry as the Jewish state's War for Independence ended. Ol' Blue Eyes came from a generation of Hollywood stars who warmly supported the Jewish state. Symbolic of Israel's reduced international standing today is that today's stars fawn over the Palestinians and mostly scorn Israel.
Former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke retells how Harry Truman and his ace adviser, Clark Clifford, pushed through US endorsement of Israel's declaration of independence, over ferocious opposition at the Defense and State Departments. Truman's reasons were more moral than strategic. Author Efraim Karsh details how Israelis tried to get Palestinians to stay in 1948, only to see the ravages of war and threats from the Arabs drive them out (the world blames Israel today, historical reality notwithstanding). Historian Michael Oren calls Israel America's closest ally, with the 1967 War cementing the relationship; but Oren traces also the many ups and downs before and since. National Review Online offers a fine Israel at 60 symposium to mark the anniversary, plus an article from Mona Charen re myriad Palestinian failures, and a personal remembrance from Lisa Schiffren. No less than revisionist Israeli historian Benny Morris, who until he recanted in 2000 maintained that Israel drove out the Palestinians in 1948, now concludes that Arab and Muslim rejectionism of the Jewish state will not go away, and is spreading within Israel's native Arab population; thus he concludes that Israel's future is bleak. That, as Mark Steyn notes, Israel has grown to a per capita GDP of nearly $30,000--compared to $5,000 for Egypt, the second biggest recipient of American largesse--affects not one whit the desire of Arabs and many Europeans (and some Americans) that Israel go quietly into Dylan Thomas's gentle night (or in ruins, if the Islamists get their way). Fouad Ajami writes that Arabs cannot reconcile the idea of Israel in the Mideast.
WSJ pundit Bret Stephens, a former editor of the Jerusalem Post, reminds us of the world's egregious anti-Israel bias. Between January 2003 and March 2008, the UN chastised Israel 635 times over human rights, compared to 180 times for the US and, yes, 60 times for North Korea. See a pattern here?
Much of this is due to Israel having killed 3 times as many Palestinians than vice-versa, in recent struggles. but Stephens proves that Israel, contrary to slanderous accusations from the international community, has not targeted civilians:
But drilling down into the data, something interesting turned up. At the time, 1,296 Palestinians had been killed by Israelis – of whom a grand total of 37, or 2.8%, were female. By contrast, of the 496 Israelis killed by Palestinians (including 138 soldiers and policemen), there were 126 female fatalities, or 25%.
To be female is a fairly reliable indicator of being a noncombatant. Females are also half the population. If Israel had been guilty of indiscriminate violence against Palestinians, the ratio of male-to-female fatalities would not have been 35-1.
Columnist-author Diana West notes that there is a term, the "Oslo Syndrome," that describes the delusional behavior underling Israel's willingness to bargain with Palestinian leaders committed to Israel's demise. Denial of evil intent, plus the delusion that one's own behavior causes an adversary's attacks, lead to more attacks and broken agreements. Indonesia's former President, a moderate Muslim who co-founded the world's largest moderate Muslim group, LibForAll, co-authored a WSJ op-ed that exemplifies the Oslo Syndrome--to be fair, its viewpoint mirrors that of most people in the West. Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby answers such fantasies with the story of Imad Sa'ad, a Palestinian policeman sentenced to death by a Palestinian Authority court for...you guessed it, tipping the Israelis off as to the whereabouts of four Palestinian terrorists. N.B., Dubya, Condi, this was a PA court, not Hamas.
Symbolic of the Oslo delusion is the outbreak of real war in Beirut but three years after the Syrian pulled out their forces in May 2005. Violence spread Sunday, to the northern city of Tripoli. A Jerusalem Post analysis puts the real conflict as one between the radical Islamists, backed by Teheran and Damascus, versus Arab regimes backing the Americans, and this latest round echoing the Hamas takeover of Gaza, which was a huge defeat for the U.S. Defeating America but crushing Lebanese democracy deserves far more attention than Washington seems to be giving it. A second JP analysis sees Hezbollah's move as a bow-shot to the Lebanese government that actions designed to impair the "state within a state" status of Hezbollah will lead to civil war. According to one Hamas official, Hezbollah's 2008 Lebanon move is the latest effort of Islamists (spearheaded by the Muslim Brotherhood, which liberals fantasize to be a social services organization whose terrorist goals can be co-opted) to redraw the Mideast map, after Gaza in 2008, and with Jordan in 2009 and Egypt in 2010 to be targeted next. JP columnist Caroline Glick sees Lebanon as lost.
The seeds, writes the New York Sun's Benny Avni, were planted by the Taif Accord in 1989, when the Syrians were given suzerainty over Lebanon to end the 15-year civil war; the Syrians, with Iran, used the next 17 years to arm Hezbollah. Terrorism maven Olivier Gutta sees the $30 billion invested in Hezbollah by Iran & Syria paying off; oh, and Hezbollah now has 45,000 rockets in Lebanon, vastly more (at least triple) what it had in 2006. Thus the consequences of Israel's failure to defeat Hezbollah in 2006, despite being given five weeks by the Bush administration to do so. Claudia Rosett fears (rightly) that the international community will stand by, impotent, as Lebanese freedom is snuffed out. Only regime change in Teheran can save Lebanese democracy (which CR witnesses aborning, firsthand, in 2005, during the Cedar Revolution). WSJ editor Bret Stephens sees "Hezzbollahstan" emerging from the ashes of the Cedar Revolution's immolation. Stephens suggests that the US press sanctions against Syria, to try to counter Hezbollah's takeover. This, he acknowledges, will not happen, despite Syria's aid to Hezbollah and its nuclear reactor gambit with North Korea. The Bush people talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. They are, it seems, in full appeasement mode.
The Bush administration continues its absurdly quixotic pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians--which if somehow leads to a signed treaty the Palestinians will not honor it--resolutely ignoring evidence that no such outcome is in prospect. Israel seeks to give up the Golan Heights in return for a Syrian "promise" of peace, easily revocable at will. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has rebuilt its forces under the blind eye of UN forces supposed to prevent just that, after the 2006 war. Hezbollah controls West Beirut and the Rafik Hariri International Airport. Sunni, Christian and Druze are lining up against the better-armed Iran- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah. Simply put, whether Lebanon becomes a Iran-controlled terror state, or remains a fragile democracy, is at stake. At least, as of Monday night, the Lebanese Army bestirred itself to join the fray. The Washington Times reports that the Druze (an offshoot of Islam that incorporates non-Islamic elements) have asked for American military aid to help stop Hezbollah. Good luck to them--they will need it. That meanwhile America and Israel, like Nero, fiddle while Rome burns (and the UN fans the flames), augurs ill for Lebanese freedom.
In our Orwellian international political world, such facts simply do not matter. Then again, George Orwell's novel, 1984, turns 60 this year as well (as do the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, both of which the UN honors more in the breach than in observance) . Hillel Halkin writes that Israel should learn from the 2006 debacle that it can never rely upon the international community for protection. Bill Kristol marks Israel's 60th by quoting (as does Steyn) philosopher Eric Hoffer (the longshoreman savant who wrote The True Believer), who said in 1948 that if Israel perished there would be another Holocaust. Although the UN is too thick to grasp this, if Israel, a state birthed by the UN, perishes, so will, inevitably, the UN itself.
So Israel's 60th is no time for celebration. Cast a Giant Shadow was made in 1966, one year before Israel attained its apogee, after the 1967 War. And as the vultures of militant Islam and a complaisant international community circle--a WSJ op-ed notes that Germans have a less favorable view of Israel than...the United Arab Emirates--casting their ghoulish shadows, there is no Mickey Marcus in sight.
Comments