Mr. Olmert Goes to Washington...And the Song Remains the Same

So far selling the next Disengagement and the next stage of the dismantling of the State of Israel is proceeding much the same as has every step of the peace process.

1. The Israeli government claims US support for its position. In public the President makes encouraging noises, though in fact the American position is to set demands far in excess of the Israeli position and expect them to be eventually carried out. In 1992 Israel's position was an autonomous territory for the Palestinians. America's position was a Palestinian state on most of the territory of 1967 and the dismantlement of the settlements. Now that Israel's position is seemingly in line with America, America has made it clear that they will only accept such a state on the condition that the Palestinians agree to such a state. In other words even giving the Palestinians the state isn't enough, it has to come by the agreement of the Palestinians and the fulfillment of all their demands. In other words no matter what concessions Israel offers, the resolution will always remain hostage to Palestinian Arab demands.

As usual though politicians like Rabin, Peres, Sharon and Olmert use their public appearances with American Presidents and speeches in Congress to fool the Israeli public into believing that America supports their position, when in reality America supports a position more extreme than ever theirs.

2. To argue, Ein Breirah, There's no alternative. The advocates of withdrawal, appeasement and surrender repeatedly argue that there is no other course of action, the presumption being that continuing to resist the Palestinian takeover of Israeli lands is untenable and that only withdrawing behind borders with safe demographics is feasible.

There are a number of ways to deconstruct this piece of absurdity. One, the lack of a better active course of action doesn't justify national suicide. Problems can often be unsolvable at a given moment, something secularists with their embrace of a godless universe have trouble understanding. Indeed Israel's military men have been frustrated precisely because they are used to making grand decisions and believing that they must either embrace an aggressive strategy or lose. When they failed to find an aggressive feasible strategy for immediate victory, they accepted defeat and began the process of retreat.

This is ultimately why generals are good in the field but bad in office. They lack the moral vision and faith of a true leader who can see the bigger picture and understand that political and national struggles aren't won in the short term but the long term. The Palestinians have been winning because they understand that and accept it. We are losing because we exist in the short attention span of the Western mindset that demands immediate results.

Secondly, adopting the old joke about Egypt copying Russia's WW2 strategy in 1967 of retreating and waiting for snow, is not a viable option for Israel which has nowhere to retreat to. By accepting the premise that there is an actual difference between Israeli Arabs and Palestinian Arabs, Israel is only swallowing the propaganda the Arabs have been selling to the West for decades. In fact there are no real differences. If Arabs are demographically destined to outstrip the Jewish population, they will do so behind the Green Line anyway. If any sizable Arab population inside Israel will demand self-government, they will also do so inside Israel's borders, especially now that the Palestinian struggle is no longer dominated by Arab Socialism but by the universal Muslim religion.

Israel as it is currently set up is not an island. It depends on Arab labor. As long as this goes on there will be no seperation from an Arab state and the powerful business figures and industrialists who financed Kadima will accept terrorist attacks as a valid exchange for cheap labor.

Missiles in any case recognize no borders. Pilotless drones which can use GPS transmitters and extensive satellite maps of Israel to strike any target will soon be deployed in addition to the mortars and shells.

There are no such things as safe demographics or borders for Israel secured by any other means then a vigorous national defense. Retreat is not only the burden of guilty cowards, it always leads to a national implosion, look at Post-Algerian France and consider how long it took America to recover from the national trauma of Vietnam. Consider the fallout in Germany after their defeat in WWI. Or Russia after Afghanistan. And that is when your enemies are courteous enough to leave you alone to stew in your own nationwide psychological breakdown.

The Arabs are not likely to give us even that option.