In every way that really matters, Israel’s war is our war, and our war is Israel’s war. In meetings — along with my ACLJ colleagues — with members of the Knesset, former IDF officers, and other government officials, that fundamental reality has been driven home again and again.
Serving a year in Iraq’s Diayala Province with the 2d Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, I was exposed to our jihadist enemy at close range. I saw their tactics, I learned their mindset, and we all experienced their absolute depravity. In conversations with Israelis who’ve been on the front lines of their own fight with Hamas and Hezbollah, the same themes and tactics emerge.
“We would track them and as they ran, they’d grab children by the arms and pull them along for protection.”
“They traveled in ambulances, and fired out the back.”
“Their weapons are hidden in mosques and they put missiles in the courtyards of schools.”
And, most haunting of all:
“My friends died protecting Palestinian civilians, while their whole purpose is to kill our women and children.”
Yet again and again we treat the “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict as if it is separate and apart from our own war against jihadists. We tell ourselves that Israel’s conflict can be solved by the right signatures on the right pieces of paper when we hold no similar illusions for our own wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There, we understand that the only prelude to real peace is victory over the jihadists. But when it comes to the Israelis, president after president — Republican and Democrat — works to stay Israel’s hand.
Why the difference? Perhaps one answer can be found in the title of this post. In a particularly memorable meeting, a high-ranking official was describing Israel’s friendship with America, and he added: “We don’t ask your sons and daughters to die on our soil. We believe we can and should defend ourselves with our own soldiers. Your soldiers are in Europe, in Japan, in Korea, and elsewhere in the Middle East, but not here.”
While this fierce independence has spared American presidents from making hard decisions regarding American lives, perhaps it has also created a false sense of separation. Without that shared sacrifice and shared experience we fail to understand our common enemy.
To be clear, I’m not advocating an American military presence in Israel. I’m not arguing that the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment should clear Gaza. But we should, however, be aware that their fight is our fight; that the lines between Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban are more blurred than we realize, and if Israel is going to continue to defend itself with its own sons and daughters, we should not actively work to deprive it of defensible borders nor should we restrain Israel’s legitimate acts of self-defense.
After all, we should know that true jihad cannot be moderated, only defeated.
I found very telling that the US military has not made Tel Aviv the primary theatre R&R venue for US forces in Iraq and the Gulf. TA is one of the world's great cosmopolitan party towns, is on the beach, is a short drive from Biblical, Roman, an Crusader historical sites, and is a short hop by air from Baghdad.
How much strategic and logistical cost has the US military incurred since April 2002 in order to appease the Arab states by ignoring the huge in-theatre assets available in and from our staunchest ally?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd there is the crux of the problem: Islam, in its purest, most orthodox, scripture-following form is for the extermination of the Jews (and Christians). One will never see an entire state or region of devoted Muslims officially adopt the Jewish nation and forever have peace. It just won't happen. I wish it would, and I 100% support Israel but it just won't be. The jihadists are far too in bed with the general Palestinian population at this point. This is going to take a cultural reorientation i.e. Japan post WWII. Good luck.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe truth is that jihad can indeed not be moderated; but it can't be defeated either, at least not once and for all. It will need to be defeated every day for centuries, and it will keep trying. The best comparison to Israel is with the Netherlands: they spent centuries fighting the sea, and know up to this day that a large flood remains possible. What's important is to be stronger than the sea; but it won't disappear, and there is no point in trying to negotiate with it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Yet again and again we treat the 'Israeli-Palestinian' conflict as if it is separate and apart from our own war against jihadists. We tell ourselves that Israel’s conflict can be solved by the right signatures on the right pieces of paper when we hold no similar illusions for our own wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
It is the same self-deluded hypocrisy that has put the whole of Europe into an Islamist-overrun boiling pot.
Europe is now waking up to the mess they are in, but it does not appear Europe sees how that relates back to their positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
If we in the U.S. can avoid taking as long as Europe to wake up to our mistakes, and we are able to connect the dots of how we are in the same fight as Israel in the war against jihad, then we can recover.
If not, and we let American presidents like Obama execute hypocritical policies against Israel, then we are doomed to the same fate as European nations, to become the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of radical Islam.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHmmm, I dunno, I'm still under the impression that Israel is an actual separate country, and that therefore they actually SHOULD fight their own fights, and their enemies are actually their enemies.
Look, just because we share some common interests (stability in the middle east) and there is partial overlap in who our Islamic enemies are and their tactics, their war is NOT our war. And even if it were, it doesn't make our interests the same as Israels- in WW2, Stalin's war was our war to a large extent, but thank God we never lost sight entirely that our interests were quite separate.
Sure, if you are a partisan advocate for Israel's interests making Israel's war the USA's war is great, who wouldn't want the biggest guy on the block to fight their enemies? But this post contains no information on why someone who prioritizes American interests should desire this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEasy fix - starve the beast.
The West must stop importing fuel from our enemies (including Russia) and Drill Baby Drill.
We have hundreds of years of natural gas and coal which can be readily liquified into fuel for our cars and trucks. It can be done at a cost comparable to $.98/gallon vs the $4.00 we pay now.
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It is falling-off-the-log-simple.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"While this fierce independence has spared American presidents from making hard decisions regarding American lives, perhaps it has also created a false sense of separation. Without that shared sacrifice and shared experience we fail to understand our common enemy."
US troops have shared little sacrifice or combat experience with the Koreans since 1953, very little sacrifice or combat experience with the Germans since 2001, and NO sacrifice or combat experience with the Japanese. Therefore occupying (or basing troops in) these countries does not create some sort of bond, or at least, not one that is obvious to me.
Basing our troops in Korea, Germany, and Japan allows them to slack on defense spending and compete with us economically. And they don't even like us for it!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou.
The Palestinians are fighting to establish their own nation on their own land. I'd say that's pretty fundamentally different than Al Qaeda. Disagree with Hamas methods: absolutely. Nevertheless, Israel's war is not our war, and the US would be best served by making Israel find a peaceful solution.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWith who????????
The Palestinians have no interest in a "peaceful solution."
How do you propose to "make Israel find a peaceful solution" with a people who are only willing to negotiate the method by which Israel commits national suicide?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSmithers-Jones,
The problem is, the Palestinians consider ALL of the land from the Jordan to the sea as THEIR land, in spite of the fact that there have been Jews there for 3500+ years. In addition, while Israel has Arab/Muslim citizens, the Palestinians (and other Muslim groups in the area) have expelled Jews from all area under their control. Many of the so-called "settlements" are villages which have been Jewish for centuries if not millennia.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"the US would be best served by making Israel find a peaceful solution."
Ignorance is bliss. Israel is not a US territory, so 'making' them would take military action. Then again, your premise is severely incorrect. Israel's only peaceful solution rests on the 'Palestinians' and whether or not they accept a RIGHT TO LIVE. Will they stop launching rockets? blowing themselves up at cafe's? carving up kids?
The 'Middle East Peace Process' begins and ends with the same thing: The Right to Live. Land swaps, settlements, or other bs are sideshows. If the surrounding nations weren't incompetent this would've been settled decades ago. Israel and it's peoples are a strong ally.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere is a definable consistency regarding Israel;
Those who understand Israel's history and current state of affairs support it and do not have a favorable view of their neighbors.
Those expressing willful ignorance fully support the plight of the poor, defenseless, downtrodden Palestinians.
It's really quite that simple.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRight on.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf Israels war is our war then lets sign a defense treaty with them. Put the Senate on record.
Otherwise I would ask the more than 100 still living survivors of the USS Liberty what a great friend Israel is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe West--USA, Canada, most of Europe, Israel, Australia--could put an end to jihad in a weekend if we chose to do so. An utter destruction of Iranian, Syrian, Gazan, Palestinian military assets, a statement of uncompromising, unflinching mutual support to Israel, an expulsion of all non-citizen Muslims from our lands. Starve the SOBs in Saudi and elsewhere by boycotting all Muslim-derived oil.
This would be painful for 6 or 8 months, as we adjusted to the need to do without Saudi oil. After that, the advantages of living in a world without jihad, including but not limited to the improvement in our personal freedoms that would result, would make this cost well worth paying.
After all, we sacrificed to win WW2, did we not?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe anti-Israel lobby has been very active across the commentsphere since the infamous Obama speech, and the Liberty incident seems to be what they suppose is their trump card.
Say, what was an American spy ship doing off the coast of Egypt during the combat operations of the Six Day War? I wonder how the US command would respond to the presence of, say, an Israeli spy ship off the coast of a country against which the US was at war... a country Israel was known to prefer would not suffer serious damage from US combat operations?
There are no friends in geopolitics. There are only interests.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"There are no friends in geopolitics. There are only interests."
Yes, thank you, so Israel is NOT our friend, and their fight is NOT our fight. We do share some partial overlap in who our enemies are, and some shared interests, but this misty eyed gratitude that Israel has spared us from having to fight on their behalf (gee thanks guys!) is absurd. We should give qualified, limited support to Israel just as far as it helps the USA, period, per Mr. Kotik's quote.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"their fight is our fight"... I don't agree. There are some common enemies and common misguided worldviews that the U.S. and Israel are both fighting, but Israel's fight is it's fight. The U.S. should not consider itself responsible for the well being of Israel (or any other nation). Israel is not blameless in this dispute and the U.S. should never link itself to another country we can't control.
The phrase "their fight is our fight" lacks nuance. It leads to "Israel, right or wrong." Israel can be wrong and the U.S. needs the room to speak out when it is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSpeaking of nuance..."Israel is not blameless"...How so? Moral equivalence demands equal standing. What is your example? Moral posturing may soothe your PC sensibility ...but it is nonsense masquerading as compassion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"How so?"
Really Bob? Let's see... There were a lot of Palestinians forcibly removed from the land on which they were living when Israel came into being in 1948. Then there's the ongoing settlement process... How do you justify the settlements?
I'm not saying Israel's misdeeds are just as bad as those of the Palestinians (moral equivalence), I'm saying Israel is not blameless. There's a difference. Or is that too nuanced for you?
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