The article "State of War" by Steve Kramer came to me today in an e-mail directly from Steve who is an old friend of mine who immigrated to Israel in 1990 with his family. He lives on the West Bank today and works for a publishing house in Israel proper. He also writes for several newspapers in Israel and the US. I decided to re-publish it here because I believe his views accurately represent a significant segment of Jewish opinion both in Israel and the U.S. today. Mind you his views are not necessarily mine nor am I publishing this to underline my own position on this topic. I've known this man for over 50 yrs. and I know that his views are honest, deeply felt and well thought through.
> STATE OF WAR by Steve Kramer
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> The fundamental question Israelis must face is whether we are at war, or merely engaged in a police action with the Palestinians. If it's the latter, then we are obliged to provide the Palestinian civilian population of the West Bank and Gaza certain necessities and services to ensure their safety and well-being. But, if we really are at war with the Palestinians, we owe our adversaries only the minimum requirements of the Geneva Convention.
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> I recently heard a BBC radio report of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's remarks that Israel must repair the Palestinian power station which we damaged, allow UN agencies unlimited access to the Palestinian population, cease our incursions into Gaza, etc. Annan uttered not a word to the Palestinian government to immediately free our kidnapped soldier and to halt all missile attacks on Israel. Now that Hezbollah has made the conflict a two-front war for Israel, will Mr. Annan order Israel to repair its damage to the Beirut Airport?
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> A year ago the world watched Israel withdraw all its troops, evacuate its citizens, and abandon all of its communities in Gaza. The ostensible purpose of that (ill-conceived) maneuver was to safeguard our troops, to preserve "Israeli democracy" because of the (arguable) "demographic problem", and to give the Palestinians the freedom to construct a pre-state society. In addition, we gave up our control over Gaza's border with Egypt, which has resulted in an open season for welcoming foreign terrorists and importing materiel (ammunition and armaments) into Gaza in unprecedented amounts. Israel looked away as the European border supervisors ignored the traffic from Egypt. While the UN tells us that we must succor the Palestinians by opening the border to Gaza from Israel, which is often closed due to terrorist attack warnings, the possibility of the Arab world supplying Gaza via the Egyptian crossing point is ignored.
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> For both Israelis and Palestinians, almost nothing positive has come from our withdrawal from Gaza. Instead of positive and useful activities by the Palestinians to improve life in Gaza, efforts to terrorize Israelis in the nearby Negev Desert communities and in Ashkelon, to the north, have increased. Despite continued missile attacks against Israel and the Palestinians' failure to even attempt to build a viable state, world opinion still agonizes over the "poor Palestinians".
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> In addition to the one-sided view which the UN and the Muslim states ceaselessly promote, Israelis are subjected to the naive opinions of our own well-meaning peaceniks. A recent example is former diplomat David Kimche's essay in the Jerusalem Post on 7 July. He thoughtfully pointed out that Israel couldn't hope to convince the Palestinians to live peacefully alongside of us when we bomb them and destroy their infrastructure. While I applaud Mr. Kimche's humanitarianism, I think it is misplaced. Israel must respond to terrorist attacks from beyond its borders.
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> Imagine if similar arguments were made 60-some years ago when London was being bombed daily or when the Allies were pounding German cities and the countryside. If the Allies had worried about the sensibilities of the German populace, it would not have succeeded in forcing Germany's unconditional surrender - which led to the democratic, peaceful state of West Germany. A less potent strategy against Germany wouldn't have forced the German people to renounce Nazi goals and to seek a place of leadership in a peaceful Europe.
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> So, are Kimche and his cohorts correct in thinking that we must placate our adversaries, or is a more hardnosed approach better? If we review the government's reasoning, we will observe that prime ministers Barak and Sharon both believed that if Israel totally withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza, respectively, there would remain no justification for continued conflict in those areas. Yet, the opposite has proven to be the case. It matters not a whit that Israel has withdrawn its forces, because the Arabs' fight with Israel is not about the land. It is purely a battle to eradicate the Jewish state.
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> Just across Israel's northern border, Hezbollah has installed a massive array of 12,000 missiles aimed at northern and central Israel. Hezbollah and Lebanon insist that Israel has not withdrawn totally from Lebanon, despite UN approval of the Israeli withdrawal. Syria and Iran materially support the strong Hezbollah offensive arsenal, which limits Israel's military options in the north because we fear a firestorm of missiles. Now Syrian and Iran have decided to give Hezbollah the green light to use those weapons all over northern Israel. Evidently, they view the Palestinian initiative in the south of Israel as an opportunity. It is possible that a third front will be opened by Palestinians in Judea and Samaria - the West Bank. However, since Israeli troops have not been withdrawn (yet) from there, Palestinian actions are much more constrained. .
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> Unfortunately, relying on the Palestinians to agree "to live side-by-side in peace" with Israel is fruitless. They have continued to educate their youth, from infancy, that Israel sits on "Palestinian land" and that a victorious State of Palestine will stretch from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, replacing Israel. This is a war that the Palestinians cannot win. A ragtag nation has never defeated a bigger, stronger, well-organized society defending its own land. But the Palestinian leaders will not compromise by accepting a state alongside of Israel. So, their only recourse is to continue fighting Israel, justifying their existence with an unending struggle.
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> It is likely that the West, and even most of the rest of the world, will eventually tire of the Palestinians' fruitless struggle, which has spilled over into many countries via Islamic jihad. The Palestinians, unable to totally defeat Israel, will ultimately have to cooperate with the neighboring Arab states in some sort of confederation. If not, it is likely that their territory would be divided between Egypt and Jordan. Let me remind my readers that between 1949 and 1967 this was precisely the case: Egypt controlled Gaza and the Jordanian king ruled the West Bank.
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> The reality is that Israel is not engaged in a dispute with the Palestinian people that can be satisfied with compromises. Our habit of unreciprocated "confidence building measures" has only hardened their stance. Likewise, in Lebanon, Israel's acquiescence to Hezbollah's military buildup on the border was unwise. The Lebanese public disdained Israel's steadfastness while cheering on the Iranian-Syrian supported terrorists. Now both Palestinians and Lebanese are feeling the consequences of their overconfidence.
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> Yona Baumel, whose son Zack has been an MIA since a previous war in Lebanon in 1982, said the following in an interview in the Jerusalem Post of 14 July, 2006: "There is no such thing as a bloodless war, but this conflict was thrust upon us. If the conflict is put off, it will just be worse [later]. The time has come for action, not words. I fear that something must be done; otherwise it will become increasingly difficult for us to continue to live here."
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> Israelis must realize that we need leaders with the moral and Zionist resolve to defeat our antagonists decisively. A prerequisite for leadership must be the fundamental belief that we belong here in the Land of Israel. Hopefully, we have such leaders now. We Israelis are engaged in a real war against our enemies, who, unfortunately, leave us no other choice.