What if Israel Disappeared?
Posted October 8, 2004
By Michael Glueck
For as long as there has been a State of Israel, there has been a temptation to believe that if Israel could somehow conveniently disappear -- then the United States and the Arabs would have no major disagreements. It takes two to tangle, right? The Arab-Israeli conflict could be settled.
Witness the assessment of UPI columnist Claude Salhani who recently wrote that "Another crisis also worsening by the day is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. . . which many analysts agree is the principal generator of anti-Western feeling in the region."
Fifty years ago, this notion may have held a certain plausibility. We had no major entanglements, indeed few contacts of any kind beyond the oil business. And many Arabs viewed us favorably, if only because we made the right noises about British and French imperialism. Perhaps even ten years ago, a comprehensive peace and the establishment of an independent Palestine might have dampened, if not eliminated, the hostility.
No more. Today, the destruction of Israel is only one item on a long Jihadi check-list. And it's vital to be clear about two things: IsraelÌs significance in this new situation and how, in the long run, Israel and the United States (and the civilized world) can triumph together.
Sometimes, an anecdote reveals more than a policy tome.
"A few years ago," says Philip Gold, Seattle-based author of Take Back the Right, "Burger King opened a kosher restaurant in East Jerusalem. Bad publicity in the U.S. and the threat of a worldwide Arab boycott forced them to close the outlet. I remember reading the statement of one Palestinian cleric who shrugged it off. He said, '"Who cares if it's Jerusalem or Madrid? It's all Islamic land."'
And there be the essence of the Jihadi agenda. It's all Islamic land . . . and all the world a stage for the forcible subjugation and/or conversion of the human race. Few Islamic radicals, from Falluja to France, hide the fact that the establishment of a new Umma under Islamic law is their ultimate goal. Their publications and their web sites proclaim it clearly and proudly. And however delusional the quest may seem to us, it's not a good idea to ignore the goals of people ready to kill and die for them.
In this sense, were Israel to disappear, terrorism against the West would probably not decrease but rather increase: one less target to absorb their enmity, yet another victory to encourage them. The Israeli land of milk and honey would soon be destroyed. Perhaps like Lebanon there would emerge dueling suicide bombers from all factions.
But Israel is unlikely to disappear. And it's important to understand why. Her nuclear deterrent makes a difference, of course. So does the sorrowful fact that, did Israel (and the United States) not exist, the Arabs would have to invent them in order to explain away their own failures and excesses.
Israeli expertise is invaluable to us at all levels, from intelligence to tactical operations. And lets not forget that the true motivator of Jihad wasn't Israel but Afghanistan, where for the first time in centuries, Islamic fighters beat a major power. Yes with our help -- but we abandoned them literally the day after the last Russian soldier left.
According to Gold many on the domestic Left and in the so-called world community liken the Israelis to Nazis. This is nonsense. If the Israelis were Nazis, there would have been a lot more territory-grabbing and a Palestinian "Final Solution" long ago, and the Left and the UN wouldn't have done a darn thing about it. What the Israelis have done is keep the situation under control, not so much by violence, as by their very option to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza.
Everybody knows that would result in a Palestinian civil war that would probably be won by the most radical and violent sects. The Israelis don't want that. Neither do many Palestinians. That may be one reason why Israeli intelligence is so good, why they've been able to get the information and do those targeted killings. He believes there must be an independent State of Palestine and believes it matters who runs it. So do a lot of Palestinians.
In essence, the Israelis are hanging on, pending the rise of some group or faction or individual capable of making peace and preventing Palestinian civil war. But is there any reason to believe this could happen, or that the West could help bring it about?
Yes. And therein may lie some hope for America's struggle against
terrorism.
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple-award-winning writer who comments on medical-legal and allied policy issues.
OK, I like the point about Jihadis thinking all land is muslim land. And that if israel didn't exist the muslims would have to come up with some other excuse for their failures.
But why the unexplained surety that Israel will survive? This is not a given at all. It's something we will have to fight for, not to simply stand back and pretend it will exist no matter what. Iran is getting nukes, and Pakistan recently gave them away like candy. Isn't it inevitable for muslim terrorists to get nuclear bombs? How is Israel supposed to defend itself with any surety? Nuclear deterrance assumes you know which country hit you and you hit the people who did it to you. What if the mullahs in Iran sneak a few weapons to some terrorist groups? Given Iran's very extensive support of terrorist groups, I think THAT is a given. Let's help israel to survive by fighting for it, and being honest about the threats.