NEXT WEEK ON THE 44TH anniversary of the Six Day War Israel is expecting scenes comparable to those that accompanied “Nakba Day” (the establishment of the State of Israel) last month, when Israel’s boarders were challenged by Palestinians who, according to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, “…[attempted] to subvert our sovereignty and breach our borders on behalf of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas", adding that, “"Those actors," are expected to call for similar events in the coming days.
Already, according to the Jerusalem Post, Lebanon is declaring its borders with Israel a closed military zone. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has announced that it is taking precautions to defend Israel’s borders, while Israel’s navy is preparing for the arrival of another flotilla, larger than the one that was so controversially sent packing last year.
Hamas has called upon all Palestinians and their sympathisers from all parts of the globe to fly to Israel and demonstrate their support in Tel Aviv airport on the 44th anniversary of the Six day War.
The whole charade will no doubt attract criticism of Israel by “progressive” voices from within and without the media throughout the world. Israel will be made to look the aggressor as Palestinians provoke the kind of retaliatory action that can be filmed and shown on our screens.
The stage is being set and the actors (to use Netanyahu’s description) are rehearsing their parts for the great day. Savvy of the requirements of nearest photo journalist and film crew, the protestors will make sure that every injury will be magnified and exaggerated for the delectation of the Western viewer. The crying and wailing will be the focus of every lens, and terrorist groups such as Hamas know this and as front row cheer leaders will be the most outraged by the unfolding tragedy.
It amazes me that Israel is seen as the Goliath in all of this when she is surrounded, and has always surrounded, by enemies. Enemies like Iran, Syria, Hezbollah (if not Lebanon), and Hamas. Even Egypt, after the Arab spring can no longer be relied upon as, if not an ally, then at least a partner for peace.
Three times, including “Nakba Day”, has Israel had to fight for its very existence against overwhelming odds. The Six Day War in 1967 followed by Yom Kippur in 1973 were, alongside the War of Independence, lessons to be learnt; and these lessons were always to be prepared for war; but also to find accommodations wherever possible with your neighbours, without sacrificing you sovereignty as an independent Jewish state: and this had been the position regarding Israel’s relationship with Egypt since the signing of the Camp David Accords on September the 17th 1978 between Egypt’s Anwar El Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin.
BUT EVENTS SINCE Camp David have proven as illusive to a two state solution as they have always been. But today Israel faces dark times indeed. The Arab Spring has thrown a bloody great rock into the stream and caused, not ripples, but a tsunami that threatens once more, not only the Israeli state’s survival, but tests the West’s (particularly Europe’s) impartiality; an impartiality that has remained suspect by Israel (a suspicion that has its origins in the European Jewish Diaspora).
The history of this part of the world is complicated by a complicated history. So where to begin. I suggest with the right of the Jewish people to their own homeland after centuries of persecution within the Diaspora culminating in the Holocaust.
Only by accepting Israel’s right to exist can progress be made toward a solution. In other words, we must all, if not become Zionists, then accept that Zionism, as it is generally understood must not be dismissed. For to do so only prolongs the agony for all in the Middle East.
I am both a gentile and a Zionist, who at 61 years of age, have learnt that the Jews have to find an anchorage in order to evade the persecution that had haunted them for 2000 years within the Diaspora. Ever since ancient Judea was taken from them, they found themselves dispersed; encouraging both hatred and envy for their enterprising capabilities, which, when allowed free expression brought wealth to the communities they lived amongst.
The Jews anchorage has been their ancient homeland and the world had better get used to their occupancy of it. The state of Israel will not go back to their pre-1967 boarders, because since the territory of these pre-1967 borders was captured through a war of aggression aimed at destroying the Israeli state, then the post-1967 borders represent a buffer to further attempts by Israel’s enemies to once more seek its destruction.
The 1967 war was a pre-emptive attack by Israel upon her Arab neighbours, who were just days away from attacking the Jewish state, in another attempt to drive the Jews from what they, the Arabs, regarded as Palestine.
In 1967, Israel was on its guard. But in 1973 that guard seemed not to function. For during the spiritual day of Yom Kippur, when all Israelis were at prayer -including its civilian armed forces, the Arab world tried once more to drive the Jews from the Middle East; and this time nearly succeeded in their enterprise.
Israel has always to be on its guard until the Arab world fully accepts its right to exist. Until this day comes Israel will do whatever it needs to do militarily to ensure its survival as a fully functioning sovereign state, as independent, autonomous and self governing as any other.
For Israel will not go quietly into the night as many “progressive” types wish for – I would have liked to have said pray for, but it would not have been politically correct to have done so.
NEXT WEEK THE PRESSURE will once more be on Israel to show restraint by the West. What a young IDF soldier boarding part of the flotilla is supposed to do when faced with an iron railing torn from the ship’s deck and used to attack him, I do not know. If that young man or women, in the chaos which surrounds them kills their assailant who has sought to do the same to them, then what are they supposed to do?
For those of us who see our own country being annexed into a canton of Europe by our political leadership, the Israeli fight for national survival comes as a tonic. Perhaps this is why the English Defence League (LED) carries the Israeli flag on their demonstrations.
Israel is to be admired for her determination to survive as a nation and should be supported in her attempt to do so. If this country had Israel’s backbone then the people of the United Kingdom would not turn against the main parties and lend their support to the likes of UKIP. Or, in extremis, the BNP as they will do eventually.
WE MUST WAIT TO SEE what Israel’s enemies will do next week on the 44th anniversary of the Six Day War. My feeling is, is that the anniversary is nothing more than an opportunity for Hamas and Hezbollah to court publicity knowing that each misdemeanour caused by the IDF during the encroachment either from land, sea, or air, will count against Israel. As these groups lack the military might to overcome the state of Israel; they rely upon the Western media to promote their cause and ferment “progressive” opinion – especially among the student youth of the West.
The only solution for the Middle East is one that accepts Israel’s right to exist. There is no other possibility for a peaceful solution. For those “progressives” in the West who support the Palestinian cause had better encourage their protégés to reach an accommodation with Israel rather than just dismiss Zionism.
For Zionism means the state of Israel, and if those sympathisers of the Palestinian cause reject Zionism, then they reject the state of Israel and should have the courage of saying so - as Hamas has done.
But they lack such courage. Instead they berate Israel while supporting the Palestinians - they prefer to seek occupancy of the nearest convenient fence (like all liberals), afraid of committing whole heartedly to a position.
Israel will continue to exist in one form or another and the Arab world had better accommodate itself with this eventuality. If however, which seems likely, they repeat their historical mistakes and seek the destruction of the Jewish state through conflict, then so be it.
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