What Israel has done for US lately

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 13AUG06 | YOSSI KUPERWASSER

[familyop]

Many pundits in Washington, among them supporters of Israel, anticipated better results from the month-long war against Hizbullah.

They were hoping for Israel to put Iran and Syria on the defensive by using IDF military might to eradicate Hizbullah much faster. Some have already concluded that this was an opportunity squandered.

The truth is that the last month has not been "a walk in the park" for Israel. We have been fighting a ruthless, well-armed and well-trained, albeit small, army that has spent the last six years preparing for this war while we have been busy on many other fronts.

Nevertheless, those in Washington who are disappointed with the results should consider a list of dividends that America has received from our campaign: First and foremost, Israel has sent a loud and clear message that any terrorist entity that carries out an act of aggression will pay a heavy price.

Moreover, we have proven that a "spoiled" Western society, as Hizbullah perceived Israel, can withstand barrages of rocket-fire on its civilians and still maintain an unfaltering resolution to stand up and fight.

Second, by exerting heavy military pressure on Hizbullah and the Lebanese government, we forced the collapse of Nasrallah's strategy that was based on unaccountability and terror-deterrence.

In so doing, we created the necessary conditions to compel the international community to take long-overdue measures to implement earlier UN resolutions that the free world hopes will ultimately turn Lebanon into an accountable, sovereign nation.

If this happens, Syria and Iran would be the main losers of this war. Security Council Resolution 1701 approved Friday is the direct result of that pressure, and now it is up to the international community to ensure that it is implemented.

Third, we helped people across the globe world understand the extent of the threat that Iranian radicalism poses to the entire free world, and why it is so important to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power.

Fourth, we exposed Syria's role in supporting terror - both by facilitating the transport of Iranian weapons to Hizbullah, and by supplying its own heavy, long-range rockets and other weaponry to this terror organization. You might be surprised to know that until this war, the international community had refused to acknowledge that Syria supplied these rockets to Hizbullah.

Fifth, we have shown how irresponsible the Russians were in supplying Syria with state-of-the-art weapons that have ended up in the hands of Hizbullah.

And finally, we helped the world to better understand the dangers posed by Hizbullah's fundamentalist brainwashing machine. In terms of the systematic and deliberate killing of civilians, the difference between Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah and Nazi Germany is that while the SS sought to conceal its deeds - including from German society - Hizbullah proudly proclaims its successes in killing Jewish civilians. This stream of distorted Islamist extremism is cut from the same cloth of twisted ideology to which the planners of the thwarted terror attacks on airliners flying out of London subscribe.

This is a short list of what Israel has achieved in the last month. These significant, concrete advances should go a long way to satisfying those wondering what Israel has done lately for those who live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The writer is a brigadier-general and former head of IDF Military Intelligence's research department.

[Basel2005]

"5 mlns nation of lazies vs 70 mlns fanatocally enstrenthen nation."

This statement bespeaks a mind completely addled with prejudice and ignorance. It is so at odds with the truth that only a lunatic or a vicious anti-Semite would even half believe it.

"If Israel had the technological advantage like if its foes carried bows and axes then it coul dbe. But when Iran has almost same as Israel and even in bigger amounts then Israel has no chances."

This is utter nonsense. Israel has fought on many occasions when the Arabs have had a far better advantage (as in 1948) or an equal advantage (as in 1967 and 1973) and still come out on top.

The difficulties faced by Israel are a direct result of having to fight a war in which her opponents have absolutely no problem with using civilians as human shields. When your enemy fires missiles from hospitals and builds bunkers directly under schools it becomes incredibly difficult to fight and win - if you are a decent and civilised nation like Israel that is. Israel could not do what Russia did in Chechenya. Russia's armed forces were badly equipped, badly trained, unmotivated, half-starved and none too bright - but they were able to win because they committed indiscriminate slaughter. This is something that neither Israel nor the United States can possibly do.

I do not see the problem with the Arab nations or even Iran or Syria. The problem lies with Russia which is providing arms willy-nilly to nations like Syria and allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The greatest threat to Israel and indeed the entire world comes from the ex-KGB thug who is currently running Russia. How bitterly ironic it is that the nation which developed the Pale of Settlement and the pogrom and whose anti-Semitic policies set in train the emigration of millions of Jews should now be so deeply involved in the attempt to destroy the State of Israel.

[nathanbedford]

RusIvan

Previously posted, but what you said:

I even remember posting about the time of the invasion of Iraq my hope that the international inspectors would find weapons of mass distraction because, "God help me"(acknowledging that I thought we must go to war) I thought it imperative that we invade Iraq and achieve regime change. I took this position not so that we could impose a Jeffersonian democracy on Iraq but because I feared then, and continue to fear now , that the gravest danger to the United States consists of a terrorist group, with a suicide bent, striking our homeland with a weapon of mass destruction especially an atomic weapon. I consider this threat to be nothing less than an existential threat to the very survival of the Republic. I have many times posted my fear that once such a weapon is used in the heartland, our resolve will crumble and the left will force us into appeasement which ultimately will mean the destruction of our democracy. The reaction of the Spanish to the terrorist attacks on their country is evidence of how easily the left can exploit these disasters to seize power and when they do so, they will embark on appeasement. Lenin's peace with Germany is also instructive in this regard, the left will do anything to further its own quest for power.

So, I believe that it was necessary to effect a regime change in Iraq to prevent this bloody dictator from passing weapons of mass distraction off to a crazed terrorist group. The fact that weapons of mass destruction have not been found, at least according to popular belief, have weakened the rationale for this policy, but not fatally, because the sanction regime was crumbling and about to give way entirely and Saddam would then have been free, with his restored access to petrodollars, to fund the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction. I have no doubt he would have done so if left in power, although one cannot be sure that he would have passed them off to terrorists.

I say that the absence of WMD's weakens this policy rationale but is not fatal to it. But it has been fatal to the Bush doctrine, which, if not entirely dead, is certainly comatose and cannot be revived apart from another massive strike on our homeland which I believe is coming and which I pray will not be done with WMD's. In addition to being fatal to the Bush doctrine of preemption, the absence of the WMD's has been nearly fatal to America's moral position around the world. This becomes terribly important as the world perceives America, rightly or wrongly, to be unable to cope with the insurgency in Iraq. It becomes terribly important as Israel is seen to be unable to cope with the situation in Lebanon and the world identifies Israel as America's puppet.

The result of all this is that America, inextricably joined at the hip with Israel in the world's perception, is seen as a thug and an inept thug to boot. The invasion of Lebanon is seen as a ghastly replay of the invasion of Iraq, unjustified and unsuccessful.

Now I would not normally be so terribly concerned about world opinion if the world situation were different. But three grim realities confronts us, and we have markedly wounded our ability to deal with them because we have lost world opinion. They are:

1. The proliferation of nuclear weapons to North Korea and Iran; the former having demonstrated a historical proclivity to sell to anyone every weapon they ever possessed, and the latter being a regime wholly given over to a bizarre and cataclysmic Muslim fundamentalism which could be even so extreme as to deliberately provoke gotterdammerung. Iran has a history of funding murderous terrorists and it has openly called for the destruction of the United States, not to mention Israel. It must be the primary foreign policy objective of the United States to prevent Iran from obtaining atomic weapons. Because America has lost many of its allies (see the next paragraph), and seen the Bush doctrine die, we cannot organize the world for really effective sanctions and we will be forced to a position of appeasement or war, and war which we must conduct alone, with attenuated forces, and the prospect of $100 oil. We simply do not have the resources to occupy Iran in the fashion that we have occupied Iraq, and we have no allies to help us do it. Can air power alone disrupts Iran's nuclear program? Clearly air power alone cannot effect regime change in Iran and so cannot grant us a permanent solution.

2. We are involved in a world war of generational duration for the preservation of the Republic as we know it. I have already alluded to a propensity of the left to appease, this has two fields of play: the first is the world at large, but especially Europe, from which we will ultimately be left alone as one nation after another is peeled off like Spain into the oblivion of appeasement and neutrality and ultimate thralldom. This is not inevitable, of course, but it is the strategic aim of the Moslem fanatics. The second field of play is our own homeland which is half blue and which is the practical equivalent of Europe and it is just as vulnerable to the sirens of appeasement as Spain. We are always only one election away from being Europe. If the stars misalign, if Europe succumbs, if America turns blue, then we are unlikely to be equal to the challenge of atomic terrorism (or to the challenge of a nuclearizing Iran). We cannot win this war alone with one arm is already tied behind our back (read Democratic Party) at home. We must lead the entire world against islamo-fundamentalism. We simply cannot win alone. Our primary weapon in this war must be intelligence-an area which events have demonstrated us to be willfully inadequate. Without the cooperation of the intelligence agencies of virtually every country of the world, I do not see how the Western world can prevent terrorist attacks in their respective homelands with weapons of mass destruction. When that happens, the game is over. It must be stopped before it happens and that means we must have the intelligence to stop it and that means we must have the cooperation of virtually every country in the world (especially Muslim countries) to coordinate every scrap of technological and human intelligence. It is impossible to assess how well the administration is doing this job since the rude awakening of 9/11. We can only say that we have not yet been struck at home.

3. The third reality, which I suspect you are not going to like, is the hard truth that this war against Muslim terrorism can only be won by Muslims. Certainly the amen chorus for Israel will not like this reality at all. America must have its own war aims, just as Israel had its own aims when it suborned Pollock to spy against us. This hard truth means that in the war against Muslim terrorism, Muslim allies are even more important than European allies and certainly more important to victory than Israel. That portion of the Muslim world which retains rationality must be cultivated and deployed against the part gone mad. In a war which turns on intelligence, it will be the Muslim world which provides it. In a world with 1.4 billion Muslims we cannot hope to prevail by exchanging casualties with madmen. We must deploy the Muslim world against the Muslim world. This can only happen if the rational part comes to believe that its own survival depends on extinguishing the crazy part. Finally, we cannot hope to mount a campaign by Muslims against fanatic Muslims so long as it's so unpopular in the Muslim world to do so that any leader who attempts a jihad against islamo fascism would be immediately taken down.

These are strategic truths which have to do with America winning America's war against terrorism. Nowhere among them do we see any benefit from Israel's war in Lebanon and very little from our own war in Iraq. I wish this were otherwise. In fact, the longer these two wars persist, the worse our strategic position becomes. So far in Lebanon the Israelis have confirmed what the Americans have betrayed in Iraq: Western technology is not sufficiently superior to suicide tactics in a war of insurgency. Hence America and Israel have lost their aura of invincibility while gaining virtually nothing in these campaigns. (In the political world of policy making, perception is everything. So 2600 war deaths in three years fighting in Iraq seem excessive to an American public which has been conditioned by the left-wing press. This perception will remain until the next strike on the homeland.)

In Iraq, America may well have succeeded in legitimatizing a Shi'ite regime whose writ may ultimately run, with its connection to the Hezbollah, from the mountains of Pakistan to the shores of the Mediterranean. The war in Lebanon may have made it impossible for any sane Muslim leader to openly cooperate with the United States of America.

[Basel2005]

"Truth time,Israel lost big time and they got to be dancing in the streets in Tehran."

And in bybyill's house.

[Basel2005]

"Certainly the amen chorus for Israel will not like this reality at all"

To everyone else. Simply read this sentence and ignore the rest. You know where he's coming from, so why waste your time.

[RusIvan]

How bitterly ironic it is that the nation which developed the Pale of Settlement and the pogrom and whose anti-Semitic policies set in train the emigration of millions of Jews should now be so deeply involved in the attempt to destroy the State of Israel. ==

The "pogroms" wasn't on the territory of Russia but in Ukraine and Moldavia.

The "Pale of Settlement" was developed by czars. It is the document of its times.
Jews in Russia was foreign body but the "multuculturism" ideology was developped 100 year later. Russian Empire wasn't about the "multuculturism" you know. It was Russian not jewish so czar did everything to keep her that way.

But seeing how much wrong did this idea of "multuculturism" on the West I wouldn't comdenm russian czar for refusing multiculturism on jewish example 100 years before.

This is utter nonsense. Israel has fought on many occasions when the Arabs have had a far better advantage (as in 1948) or an equal advantage (as in 1967 and 1973) and still come out on top. ==

As I said, since that Arabs and muslims learned how to fight. So it shall not that easy then before. And given the absense of the thecnological advantage the fight between Israel and Iran is very predictable.

The problem lies with Russia which is providing arms willy-nilly to nations like Syria and allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons. ==

Russia doesn't "supply" no one but provide the ligitimate business. She runs the Gun Fare. Everyone with money may come and buy the guns. She sells to 50+ countries not excusively to Syria and Iran.

BTW Russia hold only 2d position in the world gun trades. Guess who hold 1st position?:) SO Russia has the good example before her eyes.

[nathanbedford]

Bullshit!

Play the anti semite card when you are out of answers. "To everyone else," you can read that and understand why we are in the fix we are in.

If you can't face facts, arguments or opinions, you can't fix it. So just keep playing that card.

[Basel2005]

"Jews in Russia was foreign body but the "multuculturism" ideology was developped 100 year later. Russian Empire wasn't about the "multuculturism" you know. It was Russian not jewish so czar did everything to keep her that way."

With these words you confirm everything I wrote about Russia's vicious anti-Semitism. You also confirm that in your own little neck of the woods nothing much has changed in the intervening years.

"Russia doesn't "supply" no one but provide the ligitimate business. She runs the Gun Fare. Everyone with money may come and buy the guns. She sells to 50+ countries not excusively to Syria and Iran."

The decisions to supply Syria with missiles and Iran indirectly with nuclear weapons were taken right at the top by Putin. It is an attempt by him to on one hand slap the United States in the face and on the other to destroy the State of Israel. Given her history, I imagine that Russians would embrace the deaths of over 5 million Jews with much joy and appreciation. I am sure that Putin is well aware of this.

[RusIvan]

3. The third reality, which I suspect you are not going to like, is the hard truth that this war against Muslim terrorism can only be won by Muslims. ==

I agree almost with everything especially point 3. Why you said that "I wouldn't like it"? I like it very much because Russia in Chechnya did exctly same thing in lesser scale however.
The war in Chechnya now run by the moderate Chechens with the federals vs islamists. So it is muslims vs muslims. And first party wins.

The problem is that America couldn't find such the moderate Muslims because of Israel. All muslims don't like Israel and won't be in one camp with it.

The technological adnvatage and the worrior skills of Muslims increase. So next war and next after next may end Israel. They may just overrun her.

I see only one way to Israel survival now. The nuclier weapon use. Israel for herself or America for Israel should use nuclier bomb and scare Islamic world. After that it should be new Cold war now against Islam. Under MAD deterrence Israel could continue to exists on ME.

[Basel2005]

"Play the anti semite card when you are out of answers"

I never once mentioned anti-Semitism. But while individuals like yourself play the "Father Coughlin card" for all it's worth, you can expect to be called on it.

"Nathan Bedford" is such a very appropriate nickname.

[RusIvan]

"Jews in Russia was foreign body but the "multuculturism" ideology was developped 100 year later. Russian Empire wasn't about the "multuculturism" you know. It was Russian not jewish so czar did everything to keep her that way."

With these words you confirm everything I wrote about Russia's vicious anti-Semitism.==

Heh:) It is not anti-Semitism but anti-"multiculturism".

I praise each nation on her lands. Russians in Russia. Ukranians in Ukraine. Germans in Gernamy. Poles in Polands. And so on. And of cause I praise Jews in Israel.

So live there not here and prosper as whatever you can. But I have nothing to resolving with your problems. I act in my interests but you act in yours. That is simple.

[Basel2005]

"The problem is that America couldn't find such the moderate Muslims because of Israel. All muslims don't like Israel and won't be in one camp with it."

Russia 1906 - "It's all the fault of the Jews"

Russia 2006 - "It's all the fault of the Jews"

I'm not surprised that you and Nathan Bedford are having such a love-in here.

[Basel2005]

"I praise each nation on her lands. Russians in Russia. Ukranians in Ukraine. Germans in Gernamy. Poles in Polands. And so on. And of cause I praise Jews in Israel."

In other words: "Jews out of Russia!"

If you are not an anti-Semite, neither was Hitler.

[nathanbedford]

As I indicated in my opening line, that message had been previously posted and that part of it was not addressed specifically to you.

I think you've got the sense of the strategic problem. Any more "successes" like we now see in Lebanon and nuclear war becomes more likely. Just as the discrediting of the Bush Doctrine has made war over Iran more likely.

[RusIvan]

The decisions to supply Syria with missiles and Iran indirectly with nuclear weapons were taken right at the top by Putin. It is an attempt by him to on one hand slap the United States in the face and on the other to destroy the State of Israel. ==

Hah:) It is the attempt to earn money for developing the Russian weapon industries and feed russian workers. Russia acts only in her interests since America and Israel act in thier own and disregard Russians.

You want from Russia to stop gun sales but what you give her in return? Nothing.
That is not the way how the cooperation works. If you want something from Russia then give something in return not whining. Should I teach you? Jews was always good in trades.

[RusIvan]

In other words: "Jews out of Russia!"

If you are not an anti-Semite, neither was Hitler.==

Jews should live in thier national state Israel. I'm for it. Don't you agree?

Again if you don't understand I'm against the "multiculturism" as the wrong and evil idea. I praise each nation in thier own home but not in MY home. Is it difficult to understand?

But you are for "multiculturism"? So why then Israel refuses the return of millions of Arab refugees?:) (As anti-multiculturist I support Israel refuse.)

[nathanbedford]

FReeper announces breakthrough in cure for the Ad Hominem Distemper-an Analogue of Tourette's Syndrome

I have pondered a while now the best way to help you with your condition. It is indeed perplexing because the regular nostrums like Ritalin seem to be of no avail. I debated offering personal counseling and I considered that I could recommend some rehabilitation centers where they can, with modern drugs, ease you through withdrawal before you embark on a 12-step program. But these are usually quite expensive and, barring a successful intervention, the patient has a very poor prognosis because he is unwilling to accept the treatment.

All the modern authorities report that the majority of patients once released from rehab inevitably wander back to their keyboards and commit the sin of personal attacks within a matter of hours. Alas, the hard and bitter truth is that the AD HOMINEM DISTEMPER which afflicts you and so many others with access to the Internet, has no known cure, as a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine under this very title has concluded. The statistical relapse rate has been truly disheartening. That is, until now for I have by the grace of a benign Providence hit upon the solution to your compulsion which no doubt will be published in the next edition of the Journal under the working title, FReeper announces breakthrough to cure the Ad Hominem Distemper-an Analogue of Tourette's Syndrome. I will be pleased to send you a reprint upon request.

It all came to me as an epiphany when I contemplated your symptoms. The malady is easy to describe: The unfortunate patient, unable to deal with the substance of what he reads and bereft of factual answer for it, resorts to attacks against those whom he regards to be the author of his misery, much like the ancient Pharaohs who cut off the heads of messengers bearing bad news. Our modern Pharoah cannot, of course, physically decapitate anyone in ether-space so he becomes a mighty potentate astride his own keyboard and lashes out to assassinate the character of these cyber devils. After he has pushed the Reply button and sent his screed into cyberspace, he enjoys a rush of adrenaline and a psychotic high which, of course, is inevitably followed by a deeper low from which he cannot emerge until he finds another victim for his calumnies. The disease is progressive and up until now there has been no known cure. But I have found the certain cure and I am willing to give it away, free and without charge, out of Christian concern and solicitude for a fellow conservative. You may consider this to be charity but I am also motivated in the interests of science. Since my motives are altruistic you will observe below the absence of any claim of copyright for my breakthrough, I exact no excise for my good works. I do this not just to save you - but for all humanity, that is, to save all humanity from you.

My prescription, like all brilliant breakthroughs which are obvious only in hindsight for their simplicity and brevity, is analogous to the practice which has developed on the Rush Limbaugh radio program in which the caller, to express a whole series of complementary observations merely has to say: Dittos -and all is perfectly understood by everyone with no trouble or bother or any loss of time.

My antidote for your Ad Hominem Distemper is simplicity itself: Whenever you feel an attack coming on do not resist, for that only leads to the cold sweats, rather, you should embrace it because, after all, acceptance of the disease and your powerlessness over it are the first steps in your recovery. Do not try to avoid your keyboard but eagerly reach out for it. We know that you have nothing to say about the substance of the matter, we know that you've been confused by the reality with which you have been confronted, we know how feverish and insecure you feel as a result, we know how much you feel the need to blackguard someone. Nevertheless, go confidently to your keyboard without any anxiety that you will compulsively vituperate - as though you were some wretched victim of Tourette's syndrome - and take your keyboard stoutly in hand to gallantly type the following:

TOUCHÉ

(recent results of phase lll clinical trials have shown that the better course of therapy is to encourage the patient to write the word in italics and in bold letters because it seems to bolster self-esteem, a pathological deficiency common to all these unfortunates)

Now there, don’t you see how much easier and lighter you feel in your soul? Instead of betraying to the world the poverty of your intellectual estate, you have made a clean breast of your ignorance, which is different from rank stupidity, and it is anyway the first step in your recovery program. More, you will be awarded points because you show the world that you are a bigger man and by no means petty. The therapeutic effects of this balm cannot be overestimated. Phase llB and pivotal phase lll clinical trials have shown that, although my remedy may be sublime, it is not wholly perfect because it brings no cheap and easy rush, no high, but then no crash either, no withdrawal, no need for the next fix. Instead, you can have your life back.

Your friend,

Nathan

[Smokin' Joe]

However, our military strategy was incapable of stopping supplies and men from flowing south. To do that we would have had to expand the ground war into Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

Political constraints stopped that from happening, not military ones. Bombing ships at the pier and blockading and mining harbors would have stopped many supplies before they even got started south.

THe decisions not to do so were political ones. Militarily, it made the utmost sense to destroy the materiel before it was disseminated.

In Korea as well, the objectives and 'limited goals' were under constraint by political forces. Had LeMay and Mac Arthur had their way, there would have been a decisive victory.

Both situations had one thing in common, They were not decided on the battlefield by soldiers so much as at the conference table by politicians. Make of that what you will, but I'd let the soldiers do their job.

[UCANSEE2]

"Israel showed that it didn't have the leadership to do what was needed."

Sorry. I disagree.

Your statement should read "Israel showed it didn't do what I think should be done."

Can't you see the wisdom of this intervention?

Maybe you are right, maybe you are wrong. Only time will tell. I still back President Bush, Ms. Rice, and Mr. Olmert. This is a very complicated game, and it leaves Iran, Syria, and the Hizb'allah with very few choices.

When the Nutjob running Iran can't come through on his plans to dominate the world, or produce the 12th Immam, his leadership will fall.

Syria won't do anything without Iran leading the way.
The Hizb'allah will grow weak without funding.
Cut off their money.
If we keep cutting off their heads, we only encourage the Muslim populations to follow the fanatics.

[Dark Skies]

Unfortunately I think you are correct, Iran will have to attack US first before President Bush could get a consensus to stop their madness.

Which is why some people believe what's going on in Lebanon is designed to sucker Syria and Iran into the fray so they can be attacked with impugnity.

For the most part, countries in Europe would not mind preventing Iran from getting nukes because they fear they will be held hostage to a potential attack. The greatest howls will come from Russia, China, and the islamic UN...but if Iran and Syria can be teased into the conflict, they are fair game.

[mdmathis6]

So do you think the AdminMod's continue to allow RusIvan on so men shall know him mad?

If you and I spouted of the way he does in his anti-semitism we would have been Zotted a long time ago...

but just in case...IBTZ!