[(Continued from p.2)]
lost faith in their government, then weakness, cynicism, and despondency follow." Ineffective leadership produces, as Hamilton put it, a " 'loss of virtue'. But a strong and effective government raises morale just as a strong officer raises the self-confidence of his men."The above-named organization provides welcome proof that not all Israeli academics fall into the class of "Post-Zionists" (or what Steven Plaut calls "professors for auto-genocide") described in Professor Shlomo Sharan's article in this issue.
Following is the statement issued on March 5: "Professors for a Strong Israel demands of the Prime Minister that he immediately declare war on the Palestinian Terror Authority and lead the nation and the army to victory over it. The goal must be the elimination of the Palestinian occupation army, removal of the Authority from the country, and absolute exclusion of the idea of a Palestinian state in the western portion of the Land of Israel. The war must be pursued to a clear and decisive military outcome. We also call on the Prime Minister to convene a Government of National Emergency, composed exclusively of ministers who support these ends." The statement concludes by declaring that "if the Prime Minister is unwilling to recognize that the existing condition is one of war -- the Oslo War -- and to act accordingly, then we demand immediate elections for a new Knesset (and a new Prime Minister)."
Much of the Israeli right is now rallying around former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As writer-editor Jonathan Tobin reminds us, "been there, done that." Notes Tobin: "It was Bibi who had his pocket picked by Arafat and Bill Clinton in the Hebron agreement. And it was Bibi who was taken to diplomacy school by the same duo at the 1998 Wye Plantation talks. Theodore Roosevelt's dictum was 'talk softly but carry a big stick.' Bibi made bellicose statements while never backing them up with tough action, giving him the worst of both worlds. Does anyone really think such a person would stand up more firmly against foreign pressure than Sharon?"
For those not convinced by experience, Netanyahu has described his "strategy" to Time magazine (March 25). He would deport Arafat, strip his paramilitary police, Hamas and Islamic Jihad of their weapons, then pull back to an unspecified "security border" about which he will say only that it will not be as far back as the border of 1967. He will then build a network of fences and defensive positions, i.e. a version of the "Wall" whose impracticality is described by Meir Indor in this Outpost.
Even if Netanyahu carried out his plan (and he is extremely unlikely to stand up to U.S. pressure against any portion of it), where would that leave Israel? With an indefensible territory beside a new terror state beyond an ineffective "Wall."
If Israel cannot bring forward a new leadership untainted by Oslo and capable of thinking in terms beyond retreat and pie-in-the-sky alternative "moderate" Palestinian leaders, it will not survive.
On March 22, the New York Times carried a full page ad with hundreds of signatures, many of them rabbinic (including both abysmal South American imports from New York's "oh-so-progressive" Bnai Jeshurun synagogue) proving, if more proof was needed, that Jews, far from having a disproportionate number of intelligent people, actually labor under the burden of a vastly disproportionate number of those who might charitably be termed "mentally-challenged." The ad was billed as an expression of support for a group of Israeli army reservists who refuse to defend Israel beyond the old Green Line (in the United States they would presumably have balked at going to Afghanistan, refusing to take their rifles beyond Ground Zero).
But the high comedy was in the self-description of the organization -- Michael Lerner's "Tikkun Community" -- that sponsored the ad. Billing itself as "the progressive pro-Israel [sic!] alternative to AIPAC," the Tikkun Community describes itself as committed to a "New Planetary Consciousness--recognizing that our well-being depends on the well-being of every single person on this planet, fighting for economic justice, building a world based on love and generosity, open heartedness, human rights" -- enough, you get the idea. To top it off, the ad invites readers of this ludicrous psycho-babble to join this "strategically sophisticated movement to bring peace to the Middle East."
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Outpost - 10 - April 2002