In the past thirty years or so, similar circumstances have existed. Does anyone remember Baumel, Feldman and Katz or Ron Arad? But in the past thirty years, Israel has never once experienced the kind of transformation currently taking hold.
This war has galvanized Israeli society and spurred it to action of a united and concerted kind. All the religious-secular, left-right, rich-poor and other differences have been put aside. The population of Israel is unified. Polls consistently show 90% or more in support of the war, and all other differences are marginalized, at least temporarily, in favor of unity at a time of national crisis.
Foreign governments have been quick and consistent in their support of Israel, or at least their condemnation of Hizbullah. Even the Arab governments of the world, save for three, have condemned Hizbullah's actions. Some have gone so far as to call for their liquidation and for the government of Lebanon to take full control of that country.
With the exception of some idiocy from the United Nations and some further idiocy from Israel's left0wing extremist fringe, there is wall-to-wall support for Israel's position both domestically and internationally.
Now we must awaken from the dream. Let us examine this support and see what we can gain from it.
First, we must take note that the support we currently enjoy has been achieved without any of our leaders exerting too much effort to attain it. Perhaps this can be a lesson in statesmanship – apologetics will get you nowhere. When an Israeli leader or spokesman stands up and tries to explain Israeli policy, and why that policy really is just, or sensible, or justified, or proper, that leader has already lost the point. Israel is an independent sovereign country. We should not need to explain our positions ad nauseam like some in our political echelon believe. What other independent sovereign country feels the need to do so? They just carry on with carrying out their policies, and anyone who chooses to oppose those policies can make that choice. The impressive support Israel currently enjoys comes from other countries – without Israel making any apologies for anything it is doing.
Second, the wall-to-wall support the government currently enjoys among Israeli citizens exists because the government is finally, after close to 20 years of unending terrorism, decided to take the gloves off and actually fight back. When the Israeli government stands up for its citizens and for Jews everywhere, and tells our enemies that we are not going to take it anymore, when the Israeli government fulfills the underlying mission of the Jewish State, which is to protect Jews from our enemies through all the means available to a sovereign state, then the government of Israel enjoys near unanimous support among Israelis and among Jews around the world.
But if the Israeli government engages in concessions to those who will only use those concessions to continue killing and maiming innocent Jews, when the policy of choice is a policy of cowardice, when retreat and disengagement are the rule, when granting terrorists land and weapons from which to launch such wars is the decision of the Israeli government, then society is rife with divisions of all kinds, which threaten the existence and progress of our nation no less than armed enemies ranged along our borders.
Ehud Olmert has the opportunity no other Israeli prime minister has had in over 20 years. He can make a true mark on this region, on how the Jewish nation is viewed around the world, and on relations within Israel. He can fundamentally change the relationships within Israel and between Israel and countries and organizations abroad. He can succeed at this wildly – or he can fail miserably.
In order to succeed, Olmert needs to build upon the unity within Israel and the support from abroad. He needs to push the point hard that the current Hamas and Hizbullah attacks are being initiated by Iran and Syria. He needs to demand that the international community finish the job that Israel has started in fighting terrorism at its source – or alternatively, that the international community give Israel a free hand and necessary support to do the job ourselves. The Iranian nuclear program needs to be wiped out militarily within the next six months. The Syrian regime must be forced to end its support of terrorism or be overthrown. Hizbullah must be thoroughly crushed. And Hamas must be driven from the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.
Israel must tell the world that terrorism has a price. The price must be the loss of all the terrorists claim, beginning with any claim to the Land of Israel between the Jordan and the Mediterannean. The price must include the completion of the population exchange that was begun with the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands in the 1950s. The price must include the relegation of the United Nations – which has never proven effective at anything except aiding and abetting the murder of Israelis – to an advisory role with no enforcement power, and the reduction of its budget from western countries.
Olmert is in a position to make these demands and to make them work.
Alternatively, after this war is over, Olmert can go back to his ill-conceived notions of withdrawal and "convergence", behaving as if this war never happened. He can resume the policies that threatened to rip this nation asunder and wipe out its very core strength – its underlying unity of purpose.
The question is: Will Olmert learn his lesson?
Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
