History Itself
Richard Cohen argues that Israel is a mistake and should behave that way and hunker down and let the terrorists keep hitting it.
The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.
This is why the Israeli-Arab war, now transformed into the Israeli-Muslim war (Iran is not an Arab state), persists and widens. It is why the conflict mutates and festers. It is why Israel is now fighting an organization, Hezbollah, that did not exist 30 years ago and why Hezbollah is being supported by a nation, Iran, that was once a tacit ally of Israel's. The underlying, subterranean hatred of the Jewish state in the Islamic world just keeps bubbling to the surface. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and some other Arab countries may condemn Hezbollah, but I doubt the proverbial man in their street shares that view.
In hindsight, in a perfect world, it would have been cheaper in the long run to buy out every single Palestinian living in what is now Israel before creating that state. But that was not done, and it's now long past time it would work any longer. But Israel, regardless of what you think of how it was formed, is a solid, real democracy in a part of the world where that is not the norm. But this is the new litany of some of my commenters. "Israel is a mistake". Cohen is a fellow traveler.
It is also true, as some critics warned, that Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon was seen by its enemies — and claimed by Hezbollah — as a defeat for the mighty Jewish state. Hezbollah took credit for this, as well it should. Its persistent attacks bled Israel. In the end, Israel got out and the United Nations promised it a secure border. The Lebanese army would see to that. (And the check is in the mail.)
All that the critics warned has come true. But worse than what is happening now would be a retaking of those territories. That would put Israel smack back to where it was, subjugating a restless, angry population and having the world look on as it committed the inevitable sins of an occupying power. The smart choice is to pull back to defensible — but hardly impervious — borders. That includes getting out of most of the West Bank — and waiting (and hoping) that history will get distracted and move on to something else. This will take some time, and in the meantime terrorism and rocket attacks will continue.
Hunkering down is never a strategy for winning a war. It is a way to die. Israel did not choose this war, it was thrust on them. Sitting back and taking it will not make it better and will not fix the underlying problems. I do not profess to know the ultimate solution, but I highly doubt it is the one Mr. Cohen charts.
UPDATE: Oh, man. Cohen's email box will be in imminent danger of overload is my guess. Other's taking just a wee, teensy bit of exception to Mr. Cohen's column: Kesher Talk, Israel Matzav, Life of Rubin, Atlas Shrugs, Confederate Yankee, AbbaGav, Israel at Ground Level, Later pile-on is also not at all pleased: NRO Corner, Hot Air, Meryl Yourish, Iowa Voice, Shrink Wrapped, Right Wing News, Wow - this one is causing an uproar. Still more: The Real Ugly American, Captain's Quarters, STACLU, A Barbaric Yawp, Mac's Mind, Belmont Club, IMAO, Boker Tov, Boulder, Influence Peddler, Liberty and Justice,
Other Links to this Post
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UrbanGrounds » Blog Archive » Moron of the Moment: Richard Cohen — July 18, 2006 @ 9:22 am
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Don Singleton — July 18, 2006 @ 10:33 am
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Stop The ACLU — July 18, 2006 @ 10:38 am
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Liberty and Justice — July 18, 2006 @ 11:03 am
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A Barbaric Yawp » Blog Archive » A Good Fisking of Richard Cohen — July 18, 2006 @ 11:23 am
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The Real Ugly American.com » Blog Archive » Richard Cohen Offers some Bad Advice — July 18, 2006 @ 11:32 am
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A Blog For All — July 18, 2006 @ 11:50 am
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PartisanTimes.com — July 18, 2006 @ 1:32 pm
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Proportionality — July 25, 2006 @ 12:35 pm
By Roland Hesz, July 18, 2006 @ 1:22 am
Israel is not a mistake.
But you could argue that the handling of the situation, the forming of the country, the whole process has been plagued by mistakes, misconceptions, and blatant carelessness - we - the brits, the french, the whoever - are the colonizers, we do as we want.
The whole middle-east was messed up by europeans drawing country borders with a ledger - just look at Iraq and Iran, then the whole sunni - shiia conflict there, or Kuwait which was originally part of Iraq, but was chopped off make the line straight.
Somehow, this went wrong right at the beginnings, and it is like a chip of wood under the nail - it started with a small pain, and now, the doctor aproaches with a saw.
And we can’t deny, that we have created or at least intensified the the conflicts by the inept handling of the “set the colonies free” movement.
Both in the Middle-East and the African continent.
And by ‘we’ I don’t mean Hungary, we did not have any colonies
By debbie, July 18, 2006 @ 8:16 am
Israel is a mistake? Maybe cohen would like to tell this to G-D.