Will Israel Survive?

National Review Online: The Country At 60, Still Fighting For Its Survivial

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Lisa Schiffren.

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Israel’s Independence Day, celebrated this week, is an odd holiday for Jews. It is a happy day, with picnics and singing and joy at the existence, after all these millennia of wandering, of a Jewish homeland, which will provide, depending on your religious views, either “the dawn of (messianic) deliverance,” or, at the very least, a point from which to safeguard the physical wellbeing of Jews.

It’s astonishing how many Jewish holidays are days of mourning - commemorations of loss, observed with prayers, fasting, or moments of painful silence. That is also true for modern Israeli holidays. Two days ago was Yom Hazikaron - Remembrance Day for the soldiers who have died defending Israel, much like Memorial Day. A week ago was Yom Hashoah - to pay respect to the six million Jews slaughtered in Europe during the Holocaust.

Even our happiest, most light-hearted holidays, Hannukah and Purim, are about ultimate triumph in face of near-death experience. You could, as I used to, find this depressing. Or you could understand that the annihilation of peoples happens all the time. And what is extraordinary about the Jews is survival over thousands of years as a people with a God and a plan - even if, at the end of that time, there are only 15 million of us left. Though the question of longevity for the Jewish homeland is a different matter altogether.

Very early one June morning when I was about six, I wandered out to the living room to find my normally apolitical mother standing stock-still, listening to the news with tears in her eyes. Israel, she explained, had been attacked by all of the surrounding Arab nations. It was the start of the Six-Day War. And, unlike the wars to follow, the watching adults were not in the least sure that Israel would survive.

But survive it did. At the tender age of 19, the young state beat back an existential threat.

That war changed everything. It changed the way Jews the world over thought of themselves. Suddenly the world’s biggest victims were astonishing warriors. The sons of men and women who had come as living skeletons from the death camps of Europe 20 years earlier could defend their reclaimed homeland. Yeshiva boys in Brooklyn stopped tolerating bullying from their Irish and Italian neighbors. Even the United States of America re-evaluated its relationship with Israel, deciding that a serious alliance might be mutually beneficial.

Those of us Jews who grew up in that era may not have been able to fully grasp Israel’s genuine vulnerability.

In that short week in 1967, the adolescent state assumed a solidity it had not previously possessed. That should have been a pure good for a battered people looking for the normality of a homeland above all. But there are no unalloyed victories in this world. Israel’s newfound strength slowly, over the ensuing decades, became the genesis of the world’s case against the tiny nation - and, of course, the Jews who inhabit it.

It didn’t help that the attacking Arabs had encouraged Israeli Arabs to flee, and the less economically talented of them landed in refugee camps - in which their fellow Arabs have kept them through these many decades. The stunted, death-loving heirs of those unlucky Palestinians, who have, as one writer recently pointed out, created a failed state even before getting a state, became, over time, the cause of the world’s rising antipathy towards Israel. And they became the rationale for continuing Arab antipathy towards Israel, by nations who cannot bring their own people into a reasonable facsimile of modernity.

In 1968 a hit song in Israel was called “Mahar,” which means “tomorrow.” It is a bouncy if saccharine song about all of the happiness, friendship with the neighbors, and children playing in peace that will come, tomorrow. The song was still popular a decade later, when I was a student in Jerusalem. I heard the students at my children’s middle school sing that song last night, and it could not have been a more poignant testament to the naïve generation that hoped the Six Day War had settled matters and put an end to the Arab desire to destroy Israel militarily.

But naïveté is not a crime. And sometimes it is helpful. What would a 20-year-old Israeli in 1967, delighted to have Jerusalem reunited, have thought if you told him that the next 40 years would bring unending hot wars and cold peace? Would he have wanted to raise his children there through wars of attrition, intifadas, battles in Lebanon, Iraqi Scuds falling on Tel Aviv in 1992 because the world resisted a takeover of Kuwait, and terrorism unending? To be sure, for all of the Israelis who found it unbearable and left, others have stayed and turned an impoverished desert strip, founded within a year of Pakistan and Burma, into a democratic first-world outpost. They did that entirely by dint of human capital and hard labor, in the face of a genuinely stupid political system, peopled by politicians with all the usual weaknesses. But ordinary Israelis are tired of living at war.

And now, sometimes the Israeli future seems just a little less clear. There is no sudden news report to instill fear, of course. But there is a daily, incremental accretion of threats to Israel’s existence: A particularly ineffectual prime minister, looking to compensate for his failure in a war, makes untenable concessions of land and sovereignty. An American secretary of state who sees the Palestinians as the oppressed blacks of her Alabama childhood pretends to deplore, yet turns a blind eye to, their willful renunciation of peace and embrace of terror. The terror groups that run the Palestinian territories continue to execute anyone who tips off the Israelis to terrorist threats. A nearby nation, under the sway of radical Islam and finally Jew-free after 2,500 years, threatens to annihilate Israel with nuclear weapons it is building. An American presidential candidate wants to chat with that state’s leaders.

The Arabs have long noted that the Crusaders came to the Holy Land, won some battles, and built some fortresses, but were chased out after a couple hundred years. They could outlast the Israeli invaders too. When I first heard that, a long time ago, Islam seemed weaker than it might have under Saladin, or than it does now. I am sure I sneered. But now a couple of hundred years does not seem like so long a time for a nation. Sixty is just a start.

So, for Israel at 60, the question of survival is still an open one. I can only say that for the first time in my life I now understand the nation’s vulnerability, and the fears its supporters must live with.

[guitar102]

Take a trip to Israel. Enjoy the view because Israel won't be around much longer. It wouldn't be around now without the endless aid given them by the US their one and only ally. This includes state of the art weaponry, loans that never have to be repaid. And what does the US taxpayer get in return? enemies. Israel's #1 export to America is enemies. Certainly should these tireless taxpayers wake up to see who their representatives are really representing - an awareness that is growing day by day thanks to the internet, Israel will have earned even more enemies! It's basically your classic parasite/host relationship. They've never been very good at holding onto real estate for very long! I'd give them 10-15 years tops.

[cthetruth1]

The fog of war is often clearer than the smog of peace. Everything is clouded and very little makes any sense when the conflicting facts of all your comments are placed side by side. When the buildup reaches critical mass... war.
Read the history of the leading up to WWI and WWII, the denials, the payoffs, the apathy and the view becomes clearer. Soon, the boiling point will be reached in the middle east as world oil, energy and economy become unstable to the point of a world depression or major recession. Then, the ethnic cleansing on many levels begins. Let us hope that leaders on both sides create transparency and reason before it is too late. Would the citizens holding them to a higher standard make any difference? Democracy is still young and has yet to prove itself.
With so much misunderstood and so little really clear, I think that again, great trouble ahead.

[microchip470-2009]

To IDNNSG, I understand how the government in Iran works, and even though the Ayatollah hasn''t made public statements about destroying Israel, he never the less has the mind set that it shouldn''t be there. Also, when I was mentioning about Hamas it was in reference to this article because Israel doesn''t communicate with Hamas, and people have been complaining that Israel should. Anyway, the big thing to take away from this is that these people are set in their ways, and no matter how much you talk to them, they are not going to change their opinions. These people are not like normal sovereign countries, they are radical militants (Iranians too, remember how they came to power) who don''t value human life. The only thing that will make these countries happy is to see Israel disappear off the map. To say that if Iran put a statement in their constitution to destroy Israel and then Israel should talk to them and Iran would change its position is ludicrous. By having such a statement in their constitution shows their deep hatred for Israel and diplomatic talks are not going to change these deeply rooted beliefs.

[microchip470-2009]

To galloglaigh, I have been to Israel, and from what I saw there, Muslims and Christians were fully able to get to their areas of prayer. As for Palestinians not being able to get into Israel easily, this is because Palestinians are seen as a security risk to Israel, and if you let them into the country easily, there would be many more militant attacks (maybe that''s what you want). If the US knew there was the possibility of terrorists pouring over the border from Mexico, I think you find that security would become a lot tighter in that area. Over all Israel is smart and has an effective security plan, which you can''t clearly see, are you Palestinian?

[bluestardad]

SO LETS GET THIS STRAIGHT???

WE ARE FIGHTING THE SUNNIS IN IRAQ? OR WHO EVER THREATENS OUR OIL...

WE ARE FUNDING THE SUNNIS IN LEBANON TO DESTABLIZE THAT COUNTRY???

BUSH IS SENDING AID TO ISRAEL IN THE BILLIONS...

BUSH IS SENDING AID TO THE PALESTINIANS IN THE MILLIONS THRU ISRAELI BANKS???

16 OF THE 19 HIJACKERS WERE FROM SAUDI...

CHENEY AND HALIBURTON ARE TIGHT WITH THE SAUDIS...

RUMFELD BROKERED CHEMICAL WEAPONS TO SADDAM IN THE 80S...TO FIGHT IRAN

WE ATTACHED IRAQ TO GET RID OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS...

RICHARD PEARL A DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING ISRAELI AMERICAN NEOCON IS BROKERING AN OIL DEAL WITH THE KURDS...

TURKEY IS FIGHTING THE KURDS...

BILLIONS OF AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST!

4000 PLUS AMERICANS HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES FIGHTING A CHANGING ENEMY WHO ONE DAY CHANGES FROM ONE SIDE TO THE NEXT...AND WHOS POLITICIANS ARE ON THE TAKE AS BAD AS AMERICAN POLITICIANS ARE?

MISS NO ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE CONDI RICE IS RUNNING THE STATE DEPARTMENT!

WHO IS RUNNING THIS MIDDLE EAST TRAIN?

START WAR CRIMES NOW!

AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[sharncedar]

Israel is a fantasy, an attempt by modern humans to create Bible playland, as if they were living 3000 years ago. As such, it doesn''t even exist now, let alone can Israel survive, it is nothing more than a fantasy in the mind of rich Americans of Jewish descent and certain blasphemous bilbe-thumping and child-humping "Christians"..

[tbweb]

The huge influx of Jews from other countries, especially Russia, hasn''t helped the situation. The fact that Israel''s population has outgrown its borders does not give them the right to simply "take" neighboring land from other nations.

Posted by down-ndirty at 02:39 AM : May 10, 2008,,,

Common sense was never too common as it were and now with the advent of computers everywhere a lack of common sense is even worst! That''s the biggest change I notice around the world, people being locked into what a computer screen says they can and cannot do! There was a time when human to human communications worked out and resolved many issues, now you hear things like the computer program won''t let me do that, sorry! Redrawing some world borders or temporarily letting others use land not being used is not the big deal many make it out to be. For many years Russia and China was at each other throats with millions of troops on each others borders, now Russia lets China use and develop land in the Russian Far East, if its not a big deal now, why was it a big deal for so long? If Israel needs more land and its not being used or developed let them use it. Hopefully when the Palestinians get their state and have something to lose things will get better for them and have a positive influence in Lebanon too.

[andylance1]

Obama represents the radical left-wing politics of George McGovern''s 1972 candidacy, which won only one state. It looks like 2008 is going to be a goldmine for the Republicans.

Assuming Obama wins the nomination, Jewish voters no longer have a home in the Democratic party. The nation of Israel turns 60 this year. Czar Nancy goes off to visit the President Asad of Syria and Jimmy Carter gets super friendly with Hezbollah and Hamas. The big question is: will Israel ever see its 70 birthday if Obama is elected president?

Latinos have a lot to be worried about also. Obama supports farm subsidies for corn and bio-fuels/Ethanol. Not only does this raise the prices at the grocery store but also causes starvation in Mexico.

[cthetruth1]

History repeats itself time and time again.
Apathy, indifference, greed, different shades of truth and lies, atrocities beyond comprehension or imagination, the poison of racial hate,
the human history of violence all lead to catastrophy. There is an inevitable collapse of all empires and nations that lose connection with reality,
lose touch with the simplest standards of morality, and who fail to look back at history and human nature as a looking glass to the future. Each side has their arguments and justifications. The violence to come will only parallel the insanity that exists in governments and the people to whom they serve. The difference between the past and the present are the weapons and the potential for human destruction. Based on human history... I see great, great trouble ahead.

[johnshaft4]

At times, it is difficult to fathom that people are killing each over what is one of the most worthless pieces of real estate on the planet. They are equally insane.

[idnnsg]

"when countries like Iran repeatily call for Israel''s destruction" - microchip470

The country of Iran has not repeatedly called for Israel''s destruction. You are confusing one not very powerful president, Ahmadinejad, with the entire country. Iran''s prez used to be just a figurehead, with most powers held by the prime minister. Since 89, the office of the PM and prez merged. However, the prez does not command the armed forces or have the power to declare war. That''s up to the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, aka the Supreme Leader.

"...or when it''s part of Hamas''s constitution that Israel should be destroyed"

We''re talking about Iran, then you veered off topic. No matter what Hamas'' constitution says, it has no bearing on whether or not our leaders should talk with Iran. But even if Iran''s constitution did say Israel should be destroyed, that is NOT a reason to refuse to talk to them. If people talk to one another, it''s entirely possible that they will see that there''s no need for them to destroy each another. They just might find something that is mutually beneficial and discover that BOTH will be better off if no country tries to destroy the other.

If you want to continue to live in fear of your neighbors, and you don''t want to talk to them, then you are destined to imagine the worst of them and you are destined to suffer.

A life of fear is not life at all. It is self-destructive in.san.ity.

[galloglaigh]

It%u2019s clear reading through the comments that many of you are misinformed and have never been to Israel to really know what life is like there. I would first like to clear up the myth that Israel has de facto apartheid. All Israelis, Jewish, Muslim, Chrisitian, Druze, and others are given equal rights, ...
Posted by microchip470 at 05:28 PM : May 10, 2008

Really?? Tell that to the christians who live there and to the many Palestinians who are "isolated" from their friends and families because Israel has set up conected communities with barriers that Palestinians are not allowed to cross.

If you have been there and can still write that crapp, then you must have had your eyes closed, or perhaps you stayed in the city. LOL!!!

Those statements discredit the rest of your rants.

[galloglaigh]

you should had said that in arabic...
Posted by algoresarse at 03:52 AM : May 10, 2008

Are there Bibles in Saudi Arabia?
Posted by juwboy at 05:16 AM : May 10, 2008
______________________________


Ha Ha!! You are be so narrow minded...and so illiterate. Being a christian or an arab in Israel is not picnic.

Israel''s belligerence to its neighbors, and its citizens, is going to our downfall. In fact, it''s happening now. Our chauvinistic support of Israel and its human rights violations is causing the Arabs, with the support of Russia and China, to bring down our economy and ultimately weaken our country''s defenses. Why do you think we are paying $4/gallon of gas now? And a year from now we will think that was a bargain.

How effing dumb can you get?

juwboy and algoresarse don''t have a clue...they are just along for the ride on the chauvinist bandwagon and can''t think or reason for themselves. LOL!!!

[karl2m]

The author uses the term "holy land". Can anybody explain to me what is holy about it? i would rather call it the most desecrated piece of land on earth.

[microchip470-2009]

Somehow, to Lisa Schiffren, the mere willingness to talk with another country''''s leaders poses a gigantic threat to her beloved Israel! What a sick little mind this girl must have! If you don''t talk to people, you can''t find out what they want, what they "need", what they plan to do, or what things you may have in common. In that case, you are doomed!

-I agree that sovereign states should talk to one another, however, when countries like Iran repeatily call for Israel%u2019s destruction or when it%u2019s part of Hamas%u2019s constitution that Israel should be destroyed it is not so sick and really quite logical why you wouldn%u2019t or shouldn%u2019t talk to these people. Negotiations won%u2019t matter to these people because they have a clear goal in mind, the destruction of Israel, and will stop at nothing to achieve it. Talking to these people only wastes time, time that can be used to deter these people from creating the very doom you speak of.

[microchip470-2009]

(continued from before)There is a misconception that the US is targeted because it supports Israel. This is false; radicals, who hate the US, hate western values all together. Extremists see Israel, a country who embraces western values, as a way of attacking the US and the west. If they were able to destroy Israel, they would still hate the US and the west. There is also a myth that if Israel is a Jewish state, then it is not a democracy. Again, another false claim, the Jewishness of Israel is more about the culture of Israel, than about it imposing Jewish law on all of its citizens. First, Jewish law is not used as the civic law of Israel, and it is only used for religious matters, as is sharia law for the Muslims in Israel. Second, Israel was created because Jews had been persecuted globally and throughout history, and Israel gave Jews a haven where they could be free from such persecution. Israel was not created out of sympathy from the holocaust, but rather the holocaust was the last straw in Jews being persecuted. Thirdly, non-Jews in Israel are freely able to live normal lives and to freely practice their religion. Many of Israel%u2019s Jews are secular and do not really follow many of the Jewish laws. If these minorities really have a problem living is Israel, then they can move. Most of them don%u2019t because they realize how well off they are in Israel compared to any of the other Middle Eastern countries.

[microchip470-2009]

(continued from before)During this feud with the Palestinians, Israel was able to make peace with Egypt and Jordan, countries who both wanted to make peace with Israel and believed in a lasting peace. The reason why the Israelis haven%u2019t made peace with the Palestinians is that Israel recognizes the Palestinians%u2019 lack of desire for a long-term peace and do not want to commit suicide for the nation of Israel. Lastly, I would like to talk about how Israel and the US have many things in common. There are claims that since Israel is a Jewish country, the US cannot or should not have relations with it. Spain considers itself a Catholic country, the Vatican is a Catholic country, and yet the US is able to have very good relations with these countries. The determining factor of whether or not the US should maintain strong relations with a country is in the overall similarities in values. These values are the practice of a free democracy, equal rights for its citizens, the willingness to protect its civilians, having a capitalistic economy, etc. Israel embodies all of these values, and it should be no surprise that the US and Israel has strong relations and such relations should continue into the future%u2026continued

[microchip470-2009]

(continued from before)This brings us to a statement, that Israel had the chance to go back to the 1967 borders, but it chose not to, and thus ruined itself. Again, this claim is false. The Israelis several times conceded land to the Palestinians, but it was the Palestinians who rejected such offers and it is thus the Palestinians%u2019 fault that they don%u2019t have a state right now. There have been some proposals by the Palestinians, and other Arab countries that Israel has rejected, but that is because is posed a security problem to Israel. Also, at the time, and even still now, there was the idea amongst the Palestinians that they would temporarily recognize the pre-1967 borders, but would then use these new borders to attack Israel. This idea can been seen when Israel recently disengaged from the Gaza Strip. Palestinians quickly destroyed greenhouses from Israeli settlers, which could have helped their economy, once the settlers left. There was also a continuation of rocket fire and militant attacks from Gaza because people in the Gaza strip saw the disengagement as a victory from years of attacks, and thought that if they continue to attack Israel, they will concede more land. Essentially, there overall goal is to wipe out Israel, which was even repeated by their president Mahmoud Abbas, who hinted that he does not intend to keep a long-term peace with Israel%u2026continued

[microchip470-2009]

(continued from before)People also claim that both sides target civilians so no one is really worse of than the other. This claim is completely false. It is true at times %u201Cinnocent%u201D Palestinians are killed by Israelis but there is a difference. First, Israel does not deliberately target innocent Palestinians as Palestinians deliberately target innocent Israelis. Second, many of the so called innocent Palestinian victims are really not that innocent and many times are throwing rocks at armed soldiers or tanks. This is really not a smart idea, as most of us would know, and even after being warned by the Israeli military to stop throwing rocks, they continue, and it should be no surprise that they are shot. Thirdly, many of the militants hide behind civilians when they fire rockets or live amongst them so that if Israel were to attack them, they would most likely hit civilians as well, and make Israel look bad in the media. Basically, the militants are using civilians as human shields. Fourthly, we hear about how an innocent family is on the beach and an Israeli shell kills the entire family. However, what usually isn%u2019t reported is that it is actually Palestinian militants who actually fired on the family and the Israelis were firing at the militants. Another thing that isn%u2019t reported is that civilians and militants who are injured in Israelis attacks or mis-happed militant attacks are taken to Israeli, yes Israeli, hospitals to be treated%u2026continued

[microchip470-2009]

(continued from before)What is also omitted from these stories is that the people in the Palestinians Government take a large percentage of the money that is given in foreign aid and keep it for themselves and disperse only a small percentage of it to the rest of the people. Further, the Palestinians are quite capable of helping themselves, but they refuse to do so because they understand what their situation looks like in the media, and they want to try to win the sympathy of the rest of the world. In addition, 80% of the Palestinian population supports attacks on Israel, mainly through suicide bombs, which explicitly target civilians. Whether or not this 80% takes part in the actual militant action, they still support it and are considered by Israel to pose a threat. What is also omitted from the media is that Palestinians, who are caught tipping Israel off about militants or who stop attacks, wind up being executed by militants who many times also go after that person%u2019s family. Going back to the radical Mexican example. If 80% of Mexico supported the radical Mexican groups who wanted to take over the US, and if these radicals were constantly firing rockets over the border so people in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California were unable to attend school, work, the grocery store, etc, it would be no surprise the US would attack Mexico. However, when Israel employs the same policy it gets criticized through out the world%u2026continued