Posted on 02/14/2014 5:40:22 AM PST by SJackson
- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com -
‘Friends’ Tell Israel: Take Risks, Endanger Yourself
Posted By P. David Hornik On February 14, 2014 @ 12:45 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments
Since 2014 began theres been a spike in rocket firings from Gaza at Israelover 30 rockets in six weeks. They have either landed in open fields or been downed by Israels Iron Dome system. Israel has responded with some pinpoint strikes on military targets and individual terrorists.
Among other things, having a rocket fall on your country about three out of every four daysin a period considered relatively quietis not conducive to optimism about a purported peace process. A poll late last month found 71% of Israelis not believing that the current Israeli-Palestinians talks, initiated and relentlessly driven by Secretary of State John Kerry, will lead to peace. A grand total of 7% strongly believed they will.
According to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, the sides have already stopped talking to each other and are negotiating only with Kerry. The sides, Kerry says himself, would not even have to agree to the framework deal he is now trying to concoctbut the pious hope is that it would get them talking to each other again.
If it all sounds desperate and pathetic, colliding once again with the Palestinian inability to come near even highly accommodating Israeli positionsit is. But whether the appropriate lessons cannow or everbe learned is a different matter.
Earlier this week columnist Jeffrey Goldberg criticized Kerry for warning Israel about boycotts and other kinds of things if the peace talks fail. Goldberg accused Kerry of terrifying Israelisbut added: and terrified Israelis are not the sort of people who will make dangerous compromises for peace.
But that, in turn, raises the question: should one ever make dangerous compromises for peace? If peace is supposed to be in the offing, the prize you get in return, why should the compromises be dangerous in the first place?
Goldbergs phrase is actually a mantrathat is, a substitute for thoughtgoing back decades. Googling Israel take risks for peace yields 137 million results.
Risks for peace has never caught on in Israel; not even the left uses it.
It would, after all, grate on peoples ears. Risk whommy children? Risk is not an abstract concept in Israel.
Instead of using inane phrases like framework deal and dangerous compromises, and running up repeatedly against the same wallessentially, the profound gap in culture and values between Israel and its neighbors, including the Palestinianshow much better it would be if Israels purported friends, the Kerrys and Goldbergs, could try on some new notions instead of the same old stale, discredited platitudes:
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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The US insists Israel release terrorists in the name of peace. The US freaks out when Karzi releases terrorists.
There might be an odd way for Israel to solve much of its projectile problem. For them to float tethered observation blimps.
Typically, counter battery fire has little effect, because the Paleos have figured out how to make rocket launchers with timers, so after they are set up, they leave before they could be killed by such fire.
But observation blimps could overcome this in several ways. To start with, the Paleos would be under continual recorded observation. So not only would they see rocket launchers and rockets before they were set up, but you would see who set them up, and where they, and the rocket launchers, came from.
This would allow the Israelis to take out the rocket launchers before they fired, and their crews, and the buildings where they were stored, and the buildings where they were made. And all on video.
While not a perfect system, of course, it would significantly increase the degree of difficulty.
“This would allow the Israelis to take out the rocket launchers before they fired, and their crews, and the buildings where they were stored, and the buildings where they were made. And all on video.”
I have a different perspective.
Kill a high value Pali target and when 100,000 present and future Pali terrorists show up for the funeral, MOAB.
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