Soccer Dad

Gaza and entebbe; the lessons

Charles Krauthammer who supported the withdrawal of Israelis from Gaza has written a remarkable essay in Time Magazine Remember What Happened Here pointing out that the violence we are currently seeing from the Palestinian Authority is not part of a cycle of violence, but, as he calls it, an arrow

That is no cycle. That is an arrow. That is action with a purpose. The action began 59 years ago when the U.N. voted to solve the Palestine conundrum then ruled by Britain by creating a Jewish state and a Palestinian state side by side. The Jews accepted the compromise; the Palestinians rejected it and joined five outside Arab countries in a war to destroy the Jewish state and take all the territory for themselves.

Missing from the article is any mention of whether or not he has reconsidered his position. Still an important reminder that disenagement, rather than reducing the grievance of the Palestinians has increased their opportunities to strike at Israel.

In a different look at Israel, Jeff Jacoby questions whether Israel still has the will to defend itself as it did 30 years ago when it raided Entebbe airport to bring back the hostages taken by terrorists.

Looking at the headlines from the Middle East, a Rip Van Winkle just waking from a slumber of nearly 30 years might suppose that Israel's mettle and resolve are as tenacious as ever. Last Sunday, Hamas gunmen from Gaza attacked a military outpost inside Israel, killing two Israeli troops, wounding several others, and capturing 19-year-old Gilad Shalit, the first Israeli soldier to be taken alive by Palestinians since 1994.

In response, Israel moved into the Gaza Strip, pounding government buildings, taking out bridges, and vowing not to leave without retrieving Shalit. Simultaneously, 64 members of Hamas were arrested, among them 23 Palestinian Authority legislators and a third of the Palestinian cabinet. Israel even sent warplanes to buzz the residence of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad , who harbors Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus. ``If you are in the terrorist business," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, ``you can't be surprised if Israel acts against you."

But far from demonstrating that ``Entebbe rules" still guide Israeli policy, the latest crisis merely proves what folly it was to abandon them.

Both columnists come to similar conclusions. Krauthammer

... this war is not about occupation, but about Israel's very existence. The so-called cycle will continue until the arrow is abandoned and the Palestinians accept a compromise--or until the arrow finds its mark and Israel dies.

Jacoby

But Israel will either defeat its enemies or be defeated by them; ``disengaging" from them is not an option. In 1976, Israelis understood that in their bones. Thirty years later, do they still?

Technorati tags: Charles Krauthammer, Jeff Jacoby, Israel, Gaza, Entebbe.