IN ORDER TO SURVIVE, the still modern state of Israel needs to remain vigilant and continue to remember why they are, where they are. There is only one force that can destroy the Jewish state, and it is internal division and apathy. The Jewish people must be ever ready to sacrifice themselves for the state of Israel: this you may think is an axiom among all nations – to protect the homeland.
Well, yes, it should be. But as far as most Western countries are concerned, it has become more of a rhetorical device than a call to action.
Israel is different, it has had to fight three wars, first for its existence and two others to hang on to its existence during its 64 years. It is surrounded by enemies who can attack at any time and whose total numbers overwhelm the state of Israel by many millions. Egypt (especially after the Arab Spring); Syria, Lebanon (Hezbollah), and Jordan; as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are all on the prowl and ready to take advantage of any weakness among the Israelis.
Israel’s population, now reaching eight million people, is not nearly enough to sustain a prolonged war. Its armed forces are mainly civilian who work to keep the economy afloat and cannot be spared for a drawn out war. Which means that militarily, it needs to be ahead of the game technologically, in order to keep its enemies at bay. It still relies upon American support for much of this, and as long as they keep it, the wolf pack will be kept slavering safely in the background.
SINCE THE FOUNDING of the Israeli state its civilian population have been well aware of what citizenship meant. It has meant being prepared at short notice to turn the ploughs into swords to keep their country in existence. But I fear that today there is not the same belief as their once was. When, for instance, the country’s leaders exchange several hundred Palestinian prisoners for a single army captive, then it sends their enemies a message of hope and encourages the kidnapping of more soldiers to be traded for more terrorists, who will then kill more Israelis.
To put such a high premium on a single Israeli life is indeed laudable. But to Israel’s enemies it represents a weak spot. If Israel is to survive, its sacrifices will have to be counted without a premium put upon the numbers they are prepared to see killed. The founding fathers would never have supported such an arrangement…especially after the concentration camps.
According to reports in the British press, the exchange of prisoners was supported by the majority of Israelis. As a gentile who supports Israel, this saddened me. It did so because it suggests the current generation in Israel are no longer prepared to be conscripted to maintain the necessity of defending militarily, the state of Israel. I hope I am wrong. I want to be wrong. Israel can only survive if its people are prepared to sacrifice themselves, and continue to do so, until the Arab world is finally convinced that the Jews are here to stay; as part of a Jewish state prepared to live peacefully with any nation in the region that is prepared to accept the state of Israel’s legitimacy.
Until such a time arrives, today’s people in Israel had better get used to the suffering that their ancestors experienced before them. The Diaspora is a cold and barren wasteland for many thousands of Jews. Anti-Semitism, like racism, may not be as severe as in the past; but in certain East European countries there remains stasis and the persecution, if not on the same scale, is equally severe as in the past. For as long as the Jewish people remain in the Diaspora they will remain the scapegoats for whatever economic failure that may overcome whatever country they are the citizens of.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is needed. The history of the Jewish people proves its necessity. But more than just the history of the Jews experience in the Diaspora; a Jewish state is as legitimate as any other, including the British state.
Indeed its legitimacy predates our own. The ancient land of Judea also predates Palestine, which was the creation of the Romans. The Jews are the legitimate householders of the land they now live in; and because, if for no other reason, their treatment in the Diaspora demands them a homeland to escape the historical persecution culminating in the holocaust.
Israel will succumb if its people are not prepared to continue with their ancestors sacrifices. If the good life now enjoyed by many of Israel’s young people causes them to betray their history, by not being prepared to make the sacrifices needed to hold on to the state of Israel, then the Jewish state will perish.
Israel’s young must be prepared to die, in extremis, en-mass for their country. Israel’s politicians had better be prepared to sacrifice such of their ill-afforded population if they wish to hang on to, and make Israel flourish. The price of nationhood does not come cheap, as my nation, the UK, has learned throughout its history; and I am as sceptical of my own people’s preparedness to keep our nation afloat, as I am of the Israeli peoples to keep their nation afloat.
The Jewish people are used to sacrifice. But sacrifices made on behalf of the state of Israel will represent the ultimate ones. For decades still to come, the average Israeli will have to wake up in the morning to answer a call to war that never existed when they went to bed. Like ancient Sparta, Israel will have to remain, first of all, a military society pure and simple. Whereas, in other democracies, military budgets are never given priority; in Israel, because of its unique position, surrounded as she is by real and potential enemies; her armed forces have to be supported, even at the expense of other public departments.
I HAVE A LIFE LONG admiration for the state of Israel; and that admiration has never been stronger than today. In the UK over the past 40 years or so, our leaders have sought to guide a eurosceptic people into a European super state which would require our diminution from a nation to a mere region of a United States of Europe.
Israel keeps the flag of nationhood flying, and has, since its creation, always prepared itself for the next war in order to keep Israel breathing as a nation. It was, and will continue to be, the blood of its people that keeps the Jewish homeland real and alive, until the whole Arab world comes to its senses and excepts the right of Israel to exist.
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