by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span>he\u00a0New York Times<\/i>\u00a0editorial page published last Saturday a collection of short editorials on\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s campaign to neutralize Hezbollah. With the exception of Richard Perle\u2019s, most of the opinions represent the tired received wisdom that ignores the true cause of the conflict and relies on various silver bullets like \u201cdiplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Perle, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense now with the American Enterprise Institute, understands that Hezbollah and Hamas must be defeated: \u201cIsrael\u00a0must now deal a blow of such magnitude to those who would destroy it as to leave no doubt that its earlier policy of acquiescence is over.\u201d As for global whining about \u201cdisproportionate response,\u201d Perle rightly recognizes thatIsrael\u00a0is involved in an \u201cexistential struggle\u201d that makes its response entirely appropriate.<\/p>\n Perle identifies the core issue: not the \u201coccupation,\u201d not \u201cPalestinian national aspirations,\u201d but the century-long violent assault against Jews and\u00a0Israel\u00a0on the part of Muslims whose religion justifies their attempt to destroy the \u201cinfidel\u201d divinely destined to live under Islamic hegemony. All the other issues the world obsesses over are meaningless unless the survival of Israel is first guaranteed and Muslims prove that they are willing to coexist peacefully with Israel. But as the last six decades have shown,\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s survival depends on its own willingness to show its enemies that it will use force to defend itself.<\/p>\n As for the \u201coccupation\u201d and \u201cnationalist aspirations,\u201d these are smokescreens used to obscure this existential threat to\u00a0Israel\u00a0, the camouflage made necessary after three military attempts to destroy\u00a0Israel\u00a0ended in defeat and humiliation. And both excuses for violence against Israel depend on historical lies. When Rashid Khalid, a professor at\u00a0Columbia\u00a0and a notorious apologist for terrorism, writes in the\u00a0Times<\/i>\u00a0that the \u201cunderlying problems\u201d are \u201cthe denial of rights to Palestinians and the occupation of Arab lands,\u201d he indulges a monstrous distortion of history.<\/p>\n How did Judea and\u00a0Samaria\u00a0and\u00a0Jerusalem\u00a0, documented in history as the traditional Jewish homeland and capital, become the \u201coccupied\u00a0West Bank\u00a0\u201d and \u201cArab lands\u201d? Through violent conquest, of course. The true \u201coccupation\u201d is the Muslim continuing occupation of lands that were Jewish and Christian for centuries. That occupation ended in Palestine when the Ottoman Empire went to war on the side of Germany and, having lost, paid the price that aggressors always pay when they lose. The victors carved up the caliphate and created the states of the modern Middle East, including Israel. The failure of the Arabs to recognize a legitimate state created by the same historical process that created their own nations, and their continuing failure to recognize\u00a0Israel\u00a0in deeds rather than in words, are the root cause of the ongoing crisis.<\/p>\n S<\/span>ince Muslim hatred of\u00a0Israel\u00a0is the dynamic behind the crisis, the desperate calls for pie-in-the-sky solutions like an \u201cinternational\u00a0 trusteeship over the Palestinian territories\u201d (Avishai Margalit) or still another toothless U.N. resolution (Chibli Mallet) are useless, mere stop-gaps even if they could be implemented. But of course they won\u2019t be, because for these solutions to work someone would have to destroy Hamas and Hezbollah, and it simply isn\u2019t in anybody\u2019s interest other than\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s to do so \u2013\u2013 particularly given how messy a job it is to root out terrorists who have callously embedded themselves among non-combatants. Once again,\u00a0Israel\u00a0is compelled to be the Dirty Harry of theMiddle East\u00a0, the one nation with the nerve and skills to do the nasty work everybody else knows must be done but do not have stomach to do themselves.<\/p>\n The calls for \u201cdiplomacy\u201d chanted like a mantra by the rest of the\u00a0Times<\/i>editorials are even more delusional. Judith Kipper, from the Council of Foreign Relations, must live in some alternative universe to write that the U.S. needs to engage in \u201cmeaningful diplomacy\u201d that includes murderers like Hamas and Hezbollah. And what would be the goal of such talks? To \u201crevive the detailed peace plan already negotiated by the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\u201d But of course, Hamas, Hezbollah, their state sponsors Iran and Syria, and a significant majority of Palestinians do not endorse any \u201cpeace plan\u201d that allows Israel to exist without committing demographic suicide by admitting the mushrooming population of Palestinian \u201crefugees.\u201d Without genuine acceptance of Israel\u2019s existence on the part of Syria, Iran, and the Palestinian Arabs, agreements signed with Egypt, bought off with $2 billion a year in U.S. subsidies, or with Jordan, a pathetically weak state, do very little to solve the root problem.<\/p>\n We have already had decades of diplomacy, talks, \u201croad maps,\u201d and any number of various \u201cagreements\u201d that have all shipwrecked on Palestinian intransigence. Worse yet, every concession made by\u00a0Israel\u00a0to further the elusive \u201cpeace\u201d has been met with more attacks and more terrorism. Such concessions, most recently the withdrawal from Gaza, have been seen as signs of weakness, evidence that the long-term strategy of Israel\u2019s destruction by \u201cphases\u201d is bearing fruit. Such \u201cagreements\u201d simply buy time that allows the terrorists to consolidate their organization and rearm, as Hezbollah did in southern Lebanon after Israel withdrew.<\/p>\n The idea that \u201cdiplomacy\u201d is the silver bullet that will slay the monster of Middle-Eastern dysfunction is founded on false assumptions. Diplomacy works when both sides sincerely want an agreement and pledge in good faith to adhere to the terms of the agreement, when they have what contract lawyers call a \u201cmeeting of the minds.\u201d And diplomacy works when there is a credible, serious deterrent to violations of the agreements. None of these requirements have been met by the major players in the Muslim Middle East. Indeed, for decades the Palestinians have continued to receive billions in aid from the West even as it has failed to live up to the core requirements of the various agreements: dismantling the terrorist networks and sincerely endorsing, in deeds rather than words, Israel\u2019s right to exist.<\/p>\n The false assumption in the West has been that the Palestinians accept the \u201ctwo-state\u201d framework and have negotiated in good faith to that end. Yet precious few deeds exist that provide evidence that a critical mass of Palestinians want their own state rather than the destruction of Israel. In fact, most of the evidence, such as the recent election of Hamas, suggest otherwise. There may be Palestinians and other Muslims who sincerely accept Israel\u2019s existence and want to live in peace, but those few voices have been drowned out by those who cheer Al Qaeda, who begged for Hussein to rain SCUDS on Israel, who put up posters of the \u201cmartyrs\u201d who go out to murder Israelis, who dress their toddlers in toy suicide belts and AK-47\u2019s, and who voted into power an organization whose reason for being is the destruction of Israel.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the West and most of the Western media continue to peddle the melodrama of Palestinian suffering and Israeli oppression. They chant \u201cdiplomacy\u201d and bumper-sticker bromides like \u201cforce solves nothing\u201d when in fact force has done plenty for Israel for the last sixty years: allowed it to exist. And force will continue to insure Israel\u2019s survival until a critical mass of Palestinian Arabs and other Middle Eastern Muslims sincerely accept Israel\u2019s existence, and demonstrate that acceptance with concrete actions rather than with the sly rhetoric that dupes gullible Westerners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0editorial page published last Saturday a collection of short editorials on\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s campaign to neutralize Hezbollah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,772],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1kZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5556,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-impossible-peace-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5145,"position":0},"title":"The Impossible Peace","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0editorial page published last Saturday a collection of short editorials on\u00a0Israel\u00a0\u2019s campaign to neutralize Hezbollah. With the exception of Richard Perle\u2019s, most of the opinions represent the tired received wisdom that ignores the true cause of the conflict and relies on various\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5547,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/inside-the-cease-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":5145,"position":1},"title":"Inside the “Cease-fire”","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"U.N.'s looming failure reveals West's moral confusion by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers With every crisis in the war against Islamic jihad, the West displays a suicidal appeasement that heartens the enemy and lessens any chance of victory. The absurd \u201ccease fire\u201d the U.N. recently hammered out between Israel and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5553,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-resolution-at-all-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5145,"position":2},"title":"No Resolution At All","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the U.N. can't solve the problem of Hezbollah by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror. According to the resolution, the current impotent U.N.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5142,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-resolution-at-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":5145,"position":3},"title":"No Resolution At All","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the U.N. can't solve the problem of Hezbollah. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror. According to the resolution, the current impotent U.N.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4137,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fantasy-and-worse-from-the-los-angeles-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":5145,"position":4},"title":"Fantasy and Worse from the Los Angeles Times","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton and Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers [Editor\u2019s Note: In the Sunday February 5, 2006 edition of the\u00a0Los Angeles Times Magazine, Fresno-based\u00a0Times\u00a0reporter Mark Arax published an essay purportedly about how acrimony over 9\/11 issues, Iraq, and the war on terror has divided his community\u00a0\"The Valley's Not So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3003,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/israels-fight-for-survival\/","url_meta":{"origin":5145,"position":5},"title":"Israel’s Fight for Survival","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Israel\u2019s fight for survival is not only against Hamas, Hezbollah, and their state sponsors Syria and Iran. Equally formidable, if more insidious, are those in the West whose virulent hatred of Israel imperils her existence. This antipathy among Western academics, commentators, and reporters is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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