Home
In this issue

July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 28, 2006 / 28 Adar, 5766

The disengagement delusion

By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.



Printer Friendly Version

Email this article



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Today, even more than is usually the case, Israel is the Free World's "canary in the mine shaft." Its voters are poised to vote for a policy approach their American counterparts are being tempted to embrace in the months ahead. Call it the "disengagement delusion."


Israeli polls suggest that today's elections will ratify an idea that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon applied last year to the Gaza Strip and — but for a career-ending stroke — one he seemed determined next to apply to the West Bank: Unilateral withdrawal of Jews from much, if not virtually all, of the disputed territories in which they had built fortifications, homes and communities in the decades since Israel wrested such lands from enemies trying to destroy it in the 1967 Six-Day War.


A barrier would then be completed to divide the Palestinians who would assume full control over such ceded territories from their Israeli neighbors. The theory, as Robert Frost famously put it, seems to be that "Good fences make good neighbors" — or at least this arrangement will make it possible for Israel to live with security next to bad ones.


If Israel's voters do, in fact, give a mandate to Ehud Olmert, the man who now leads the Kadima Party created by Sharon in the months before his illness, they will actually be indulging in not one delusion, but two.


The first delusion is that the Israeli electorate is voting — as it has done time and time again over the past fourteen years — for someone who promises them security in the face of an increasingly virulent threat from the Palestinian community. Currently, the Palestinians are led by Hamas, a terrorist organization explicitly committed to the destruction of the Jewish State. A succession of previous prime ministers have run on such a platform, then proceeded to indulge in various diplomatic maneuvers that have put Israel at still greater risk.


The second delusion is that what amounts to cutting-and-running — in this case, it is running behind a security fence, yet remaining within easy range of artillery and rocket fire — will make matters better. In fact, Olmert's plan for turning over much of the high ground of the West Bank, its vital aquifers and strategic depth in the immediate wake of Hamas' electoral victory can only embolden those and other Islamofascist enemies of freedom. It will compound the danger they pose, not only to Israel but to all of us.


This is not idle speculation. The results of Sharon's earlier disengagement from Gaza are already evident: The ascendancy of the most unabashedly hostile of Israel's foes; the creation of new Taliban-style safe-havens for terrorists (including al Qaeda); and a metastasizing threat as Russia, the European Union and the United Nations seek to legitimate Hamas, even as Kadima proposes to reward it with further territorial concessions.


Unfortunately, polls in America suggest that the voters in this country are prone to a similar strain of the disengagement delusion. Majorities now declare their desire to withdraw from Iraq, evidence of the cumulative effect of relentless negative reports about the difficulties confronting Iraqis aspiring to freedom, and the Coalition forces seeking to help them.


Much as in Israel, American politicians, pundits and anti-war activists are blithely suggesting that disengaging from Iraq by pulling U.S. troops out will not only reduce the costs to us of conflict there. It supposedly will also mitigate international hostility against us, making us more secure. Nothing could be farther from the truth.


As is the case for Israeli withdrawals, an American disengagement from Iraq under present circumstances will be portrayed by our enemies in-country — and amongst Islamofascist movements worldwide — as further proof of our inevitable defeat. It will encourage a redoubling of their deadly activities, not their slackening. Any respite will be as fleeting as it is artificial; the War for the Free World will simply be fought on different battlefields, including here in the United States.


A recent, shameful depiction by two prominent academics — one of whom is a dean at Harvard University — of American solidarity with the Jewish State as a product of some massive conspiracy they dub "the Israel Lobby" (of which the Center for Security Policy is said to be a part) misses an inconvenient, but far more plausible, explanation for what binds the two nations together: Common values, common enemies and common needs to protect from the latter open societies that cherish the former.



BUY THE BOOK

Click HERE to purchase. (Sales help fund JWR.).


Our ability to assure such protection is put at grave risk when one other common quality takes a holiday — common sense. It is understandable, but not acceptable, for voters to tire of the costs, human, financial and psychological of being under assault. Another Harvard University professor (and psychiatrist), Dr. Kenneth Levin, has authored an excellent book on the phenomenon, The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege. As he put it recently:


"It is characteristic of people under siege or chronic attack — whether you're talking about minorities that are marginalized, defamed and attacked or a small state under attack by larger neighbors — it is characteristic of portions of those populations to embrace the indictments, however bizarre, and to believe that if they perform in a way consistent with those indictments, then the siege will end."


It is simply a delusion — and a highly dangerous one at that — to kid ourselves that the enemy will be mollified by the retreat they demand of us today. Only by remaining on offense can countries like Israel and the United States hope to prevail in this War for the Free World.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. heads the Center for Security Policy. Comments by clicking here.

Archives

BUY FRANK'S LATEST
"War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World"  

America has been at war for years, but until now, it has not been clear with whom or precisely for what. And we have not been using the full resources we need to win.

With the publication of War Footing, lead-authored by Frank Gaffney, it not only becomes clear who the enemy is and how high the stakes are, but also exactly how we can prevail.

War Footing shows that we are engaged in nothing less than a War for the Free World. This is a fight to the death with Islamofascists, Muslim extremists driven by a totalitarian political ideology that, like Nazism or Communism before it, is determined to destroy freedom and the people who love it. Sales help fund JWR.


© 2006, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.