A week in Israel makes one wonder why Americans obsessed with
the Arab-Israeli pseudo-peace process think they know how to “save
Israel from itself.” They try incessantly to ram a deal down
Israel’s throat in which Israel makes concrete, irrevocable
concessions up front, in return for abstract, revocable promises
from the Palestinians. The formula produced serial disasters for
Israel: it traded land for lies in the 1993 Oslo Accords, when it
ceded land and got terror in return — when peace was promised. It
vacated southern Lebanon in 2000 and offered the Palestinians 97
percent of the West Bank, all of Gaza and three percent of Israeli
land adjacent to Gaza, with a land bridge between Gaza and the
West Bank, plus shared sovereignty in Jerusalem, only to see the
failure to allow Arabs to flood the Jewish state and extinguish it
led to the second Intifada suicide-bombing campaign. It vacated
Gaza in 2005, uprooting settlers, only to get 8,000 rockets in
return.
After land for lies, land for suicide bombers, and land
for rockets, you’d think those trying to push Israel to make even
more concessions would try something else. No such luck. President
Obama added a settlement freeze, the 1949 ceasefire lines as
bargaining baseline, and a Palestinian statehood vote at the UN to
the pot. In doing so he cratered any serious chance for peace
anytime soon. So perhaps we should learn from Israel instead.
Maybe, just maybe, they know things we don’t. A week in
Israel confirms that there is much the locals know that America
could learn from.
Start with this: reward your friends and punish your
enemies. Instead of rewarding Iran by letting the regime crush
opposition in 2009 and pursuing nuclear talks that had no plausible
chance to succeed, we could have pressed for regime change. Instead
of treating the defense budget as no different in priority than
high-speed rail, we could recognize that dangers are increasing;
with allies in Europe spending nothing either we shrink commitments
drastically or ante up. Instead of seeking the approval of hostile
Islamic regimes we could back our true friends to the
hilt.
Israel is surrounded by a quarter of a billion Arabs plus
other Islamic hostiles. It has no margin for error. It lives under
the perpetual prospect of being hanged in a fortnight, per Dr.
Johnson. Few Israelis think the Palestinians are ready to make
peace this generation. Yet Israel works diligently to improve the
economic prospects of Palestinians who fire rockets at them, hoping
that rocketeering will lose its allure. It treats the wounded and
sends them home, knowing they will live to fight again and probably
will do so. It is playing for the long term. Ceding land will only
whet enemy appetites. It uses its police presence in the West Bank
to discourage terrorist activity by catching or killing
those who commit such acts, or attempt to do so. Others may
decide to try useful activity instead.
Israel works hand in glove with the American military, to
enormous mutual benefit. But American diplomats create lots of
trouble for Israel, appeasing Palestinian sensibilities, looking
for moderates among Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood,
Hezbollah, and Hamas, and waffling on how much pressure to put on
Syria (next to none) and Iran (a decent amount, but not enough). In
effect, America’s left (diplomatic) hand undercuts much of the good
that America’s right (military) hand does.
We could even learn from Israel’s economic miracle.
The past decade has seen five percent annual growth, a boom in
employment, high-tech world-class leadership and a declining ratio
of debt to GDP. Less regulation has produced, among other benefits,
a country with the world’s highest ratio of cell phones to people
— 9 million phones for 7.5 million people.
The joke a generation ago was that Israel’s leaders, in
dire straits, came up with a plan: start a war with the United
States, lose, and get aid from Uncle Sucker. Twenty years ago there
was, after the Gulf war, a t-shirt with a picture of an F-15 and
the words: “Don’t worry, America. Israel is right behind you.”
Today our President “leads from behind”; the next t-shirt in
Israel should read: “Don’t worry, America. Israel is right in front
of you.” It is.
Maybe America should start a war with Israel, lose, and
then apply for aid.
