From the Editor

The Trap

Editor's Note: This excerpt from "The Trap" written in 1970 by Dr.Jochanan Bloch, then professor of philosophy at Ben Gurion University, has twice over the years been reprinted in Outpost. Dr. Bloch was writing in reaction to the decision of the Israeli government to accept a ceasefire at the Suez Canal, and at the time no Israeli newspaper would print his article. He was told it was too "frightening" and an "overreaction." As the Barak government prepares to give up the Golan Heights, the late Professor Bloch's prophecy of 30 years ago assumes even greater force.

The worse our position becomes, the more we will be dependent upon the help of the United States. Yet the more our situation deteriorates, the more the United States will hesitate to come to our assistance, for fear of confrontation with our enemies, and she will demand with greater sternness our retreat, a retreat we have in any case agreed to and signed. If we point to the dangers involved in a retreat, the principle of "protection" will be extended whether we want it or not. As answer to any risk they will offer us the guarantees we have invited.

If there is worry about Sinai becoming a base for Egyptian aggression, they will offer us its demilitarization under great power supervision. All kinds of U.N. forces will sit in Sinai, perhaps Russian, English, and French forces, and they will give us all kinds of "guarantees." If we have any fears about enemy forces on the West Bank, close to our population centers, they will propose guarantees: mixed police forces will watch the West Bank, King Hussein himself will guarantee no terrorists enter that area, and even Russia will guarantee the integrity of our borders.

What the government does not realize at this point is that we will essentially have to retreat to the borders of 1949. A peace treaty we won't get; we'll get guarantees. Here there will be demilitarization; there will sit a UN force; here shared administration; there an enclave. Immigration will stop, for such a state will not be able to attract newcomers. Emigration will resume and reach dimensions which we have never known....Defense expenditures will not decrease but grow in direct proportion to the worsening of our situation.

And peace? It is clear that the Palestinian forces will increase their activity with the support of the Arab states, even if for the time being those states don't enter into war with us. Our defensive capability will be desperately handicapped in the choking collar of the "peace borders," and the international guard forces. And then we shall turn to our friendly protecting powers, and will ask for their help. And it isn't hard to guess what they will say.

They'll tell us that they are not willing to get involved in a world war, that we must not bring war upon the world. The process of blackmail will begin. If immigration has not yet ceased by itself, they'll demand that we stop it. And the guaranteeing powers will explain to us that it is evil for us to exist on this outdated Zionist principle that can drag us to war...

We will, in fact, be returning to the Mandate period and in two or three years they will say in America that the "experiment of the Jewish state" has failed, and that it is necessary to find a reasonable solution for the problem of Israel. And why not a Palestinian state in which one will "guarantee" the lives of the Jews?

What began with the silly slogan "territories for peace" is likely to end with the liquidation of the state, unless we can retrace our steps and escape from the nightmarish trap we have fashioned with our own hands.

Scoop Jackson's Wisdom

"One hears a great deal these days, from people whose vision is shorter even than their memories, about the wisdom of international guarantees as a means of assuring Israeli security. I can't imagine a more misdirected policy than to ask Israel, which has been the model of the self-reliant ally, to transform iself into an American dependency...Much of the history of international guarantees is the history of countries who have lost their territory, their freedom and even their sons and daughters...It is a history that the Israelis, for their reasons, and we, for ours, ought to do everything to avoid."

--Senator Henry M. Jackson, December 18, 1973.

Outpost               - 2 -               December 1999