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Jewish World Review August 22, 2001 / 3 Elul, 5761
Michael Ledeen
It's especially entertaining of late to listen to them
giving military advice to Ariel Sharon, who knows a thing or
two about waging war. And it's a bothersome symptom of
our collective lack of understanding that the latest crowd of
what Scoop Jackson used to call "born again hawks" talks as
if all Israel has to do is smash the Palestinians, and then build
a strong wall to keep them out.
This easy counsel flies in the face of George Patton's
reflection that defensive fortifications are a monument to
human stupidity, as centuries of shattered barricades,
trenches, moats, and walls testify. As Israeli leaders
contemplate their plight, they surely know that such a strategy
will only postpone a serious reckoning, and pass the initiative
back to their enemies. The Israelis should not launch a violent
attack until and unless they can see a chance for a decisive
outcome, and that requires more than a purely military
strategy.
I think the key to a winning strategy has been presented by
Natan Sharansky, who survived years in the Soviet gulag and
now sits in Sharon's Cabinet. Sharansky has been at great
pains to point out that the problem with the Oslo Accords ---
and thereafter with the suicidal diplomacy conducted by a
series of Israeli governments, and fully endorsed by most
American diplomats and intellectuals -- is that they assumed
peace was possible with corrupt tyrants, when it should have
been clear that peace could only be achieved with virtuous
democrats.
The real problem with Arafat is not what he "wants," but with
what he is, and what he has created. There is no hope of a
durable peace with a tyrannical and corrupt Palestine. Arafat
and his cronies are as corrupt and autocratic as any of the
Middle East nasties, which is one reason they like him and
support him.
No amount of Israeli power can transform the Palestinian
Authority into a tolerant, pluralistic society, yet that must be
the goal of Israeli policy (as it should have been the goal of
"Western" policy from the outset). And since this sort of
transformation will not take place under Arafat, it follows that
Israel must work for his downfall, and must support any and
all Palestinians who offer the hope of a democratic Palestine.
In short, Israel needs not only military tactics to destroy the
terror network, but also political weapons to begin the
destruction of the Arafat-led tyranny. It is folly to limit
negotiations to the Palestinian "leaders," because Israel's
ultimate allies in this struggle should be the Palestinian people
themselves. Israel needs to appeal to them directly, just as we
appealed to the peoples of the Soviet Empire. Israel needs to
start broadcasting to them, along these lines:
In this way, and many other similar ways, Israel can take the
real fight to Arafat and his henchmen, and simultaneously lay
the basis for the kind of Middle East that fools like Shimon
Peres thought they could create by negotiating with the
leaders of the PLO, as if signatures on a piece of paper could
undo decades of evildoing.
Democratic societies, especially in Europe and the United
States, have an unfortunate ability to forget that freedom is
the most lethal weapon in the endless struggle against tyranny.
An entire generation of Americans forgot it, and was shocked
to see its awesome power when Ronald Reagan aimed it at
Moscow. A generation of Israelis forgot it, and need to
remind themselves of it as they grapple with their
life-threatening crisis.
Yes, Israel must respond, but the response must aim at a total
transformation of the current situation. In waging war in full
against Arafat's PLO, Israel must make it clear - to the
world at large, to the Palestinian people, and, perhaps most
importantly, to themselves - that the key issue is political.
The key issue is freedom.
If they can pull it off, it will save more than Israel. It might
even have an effect on the Department of
08/15/01: Bracing for war
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