Is the Window Closing on Israel?
In June 1967, with ex-Vice President Richard Nixon, this writer toured an Israeli military hospital full of wounded Egyptian soldiers.
An Israeli officer told us that in the hospital was an Egyptian officer he had captured in the 1956 Sinai campaign, and that he had asked the Egyptian: "We have fought three times now, and three times you have been defeated. Why do you keep fighting us?"
The Egyptian replied, "You may have defeated us three times, and you may defeat us 11 times. But the 12th time we win."
From that Six-Day War, wise Israelis took away two lessons.
First, they had to remain alert and strong enough to defeat all their neighbors at once. Second, the more important struggle was that they must win the acceptance of the Arab peoples to survive in an Arab sea.
The Israelis were not alert in 1973 when Egypt launched the attack of Yom Kippur that sent their army reeling along the Suez Canal.
President Nixon intervened with a massive airlift to save Israel.
Half a decade later, President Sadat and Menachem Begin agreed at Camp David to a trade of land for peace. Israel would give up all of Sinai captured in 1967 in return for a peace treaty with Cairo.
A treaty with King Hussein of Jordan followed.
Israel was on its way to winning acceptance in the Arab world.
In 1982, after an Israeli diplomat was mortally wounded by an assassin in London, Begin ordered an invasion of Lebanon. Gen. Ariel Sharon swiftly reached the suburbs of Beirut, and Yasser Arafat’s PLO was expelled to Tunis.
But as Yitzhak Rabin ruefully conceded, "We let the Shia genie out of the bottle."
In the south of Lebanon, quiescent Shiites had begun to fight the Israeli occupation in militias that came to be known as Hezbollah.
Bled for 18 years, the Israelis withdrew in 2000, leaving Hezbollah dominant in Lebanon.
Perhaps more critically, after the Six-Day War, the Israelis had annexed all of Jerusalem and begun to move settlers into East Jerusalem and onto the West Bank. In 1987 came the First Intifada, an uprising of the Palestinians using sticks and stones. Yet the movement of Israeli settlers continued. From a few thousand in the 1970s, the number has grown to half a million.
Having won peace with Egypt and Jordan, the Israelis began secret negotiations with the Palestinians. In 1994 came the Oslo Accords, an agreement to trade land for peace. As Sadat got back the Sinai by making peace with Israel, Palestinians would get a nation of their own in return for recognizing Israel.
Israel had broken out of her isolation and won acceptance from Egypt, Jordan and even Arafat’s PLO.
But in 1995, Prime Minister Rabin, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize for Oslo and had come to believe in the necessity of trading land for peace, was assassinated by an Israeli fanatic determined to prevent any surrender of West Bank land.
When Sharon came to power, he gave up Gaza, but refused to yield on Jerusalem or the West Bank. His successor, Ehud Olmert, like Rabin and Ehud Barak before him, came to believe that Israel had to give up the West Bank for peace, or she would never know peace.
But Olmert failed to negotiate that peace.
Looking back, Israel has prevailed in all her wars, from the War of Independence, to the Sinai campaign, to the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars, to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, to the first and second intifadas, the Lebanon War of 2006 and the Gaza War of 2008.
But today Israel is more isolated than she has ever been, and the prospects are bleak that she can break out of this isolation.
Hamas rules Gaza. Hezbollah rules Lebanon. The Turks have turned hostile. The Palestinian Authority has given up on Barack Obama and is demanding a state from the Security Council and U.N. General Assembly. Israel’s partner in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, is gone. The Israeli embassy in Cairo has been sacked. Mobs in Amman have sought to do the same.
George W. Bush was persuaded by neocons that an invasion of Iraq would start the dominoes of Arab tyranny falling and usher in an era of pro-Western democracies in the region.
Not quite. The Arab Spring that followed the U.S. invasion by a decade is bringing down the despots but also unleashing the demons of ethnonationalism and Islamic fundamentalism that are anti-American and anti-Zionist.
Israel’s great patron, America, is in retreat from the region, with her army in Iraq home by year’s end and her autocratic allies down in Egypt and Tunisia and tottering in Bahrain and Yemen.
By 2050, Palestinians west of the Jordan will outnumber Israelis two to one. Syria, Jordan and Egypt, which had 40 million people at the time of the Six-Day War, will have 170 million. Militarily, Israel remains dominant, but neither time nor demography seems to be on her side.
And Arab acceptance seems more distant than ever.
COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
Read more by Patrick J. Buchanan
- What 9/11 Wrought: The Bush Legacy – September 8th, 2011
- Looking Back at ‘The Good War’ – September 1st, 2011
- Why Are We Baiting the Bear? – August 22nd, 2011
- Is Obama Only Postponing the Inevitable? – June 23rd, 2011
- Fed Up With Freeloaders – June 16th, 2011
Loraine
September 22nd, 2011 at 9:20 pm
It's Israel's own fault—If they would change their ways, they would be accepted by other nations. And Netanyahu doesn't help at all. If he keeps going like he is, other nations will follow Turkey's lead.
RickR30
September 22nd, 2011 at 9:52 pm
There was a time not long ago when the leaders of nations valued peace. Today they and the cultures of most nations think of diplomacy and peace as something for kitties. War is the first and only way disagreeing people's can relate to one another these days. And yet none of these leaders, educated as they are, seem to be able to pierce through the mental fog of war to pick a history book. How well has war served African nations that are in perennial war? How well has it served the mighty (cough, cough) France? Or the US that has never seen a conflict it didn't want to meddle in? Bush may have inaugurated the new age of constant war (thanks neocon dreck!) but more nefarious has been netenyahoo's war on peace.
john
September 23rd, 2011 at 2:57 am
Bush/Cheney and the other neo-cons declared the end of history and announced that it would be they who create a reality to which the rest of the world will have to adjust,and while adjusting the neo-cons would be creating even new realities. Well, the reality they created bankrupted America both morally and financially, destroyed civil liberties, and now history is passing them by as The Palestinians define their own destiny, Turkey is no longer an ally of Israel, Mubarek is gone, and the other Western quislings must sleep with one eye open as they hear their citizens restless cries for change.
John_Muhammad
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:47 am
TIck… tick…tick… and the unstoppable wheel of time keeps rolling along and, as noted in the last full paragraph that great clock isn't on Israel's side. Even if all else fails, demographics alone will make the Israeli decline a fait accompli in the long run.
Ali
September 23rd, 2011 at 5:10 am
I beg your pardon, but Israel won the 2006 War of Lebanon and 2008 war of Gaza? How is that? While Condoleeza Rice was awaiting the birth pangs of the Middle of the new Middle East, after two weeks it became clear that what she is hearing is the death pangs of Israel, upon which the Western criminal elite scrambled into action and passed a resolution to separate the warring parties.
Israel found itself on the receiving end of about 10,000 missiles, lost over 50 Merkava tanks, a frigate, 60 IDF goons, a frigate and remains of the two goons in exchange for hundreds of Lebanese, which it had gone to war with Lebanon for. Hizbollah emerged abundantly stronger and went on to dominate the Lebanese politics. You call that victory? Tell that to the Winograd commission and they will run you out of town on account of making jokes at them.
The same with 2008 war of Gaza. Hamas is still there, stronger than ever. Mahmoud Abbas, once entirely owned by Israel and America, is making a fool of America and its allies at the UN and Israeli diplomats are quitting Arab Capitals in the Middle of the night disguised as Palestinians. Some victory.
But of course Israel is petrified. It is the death pangs of Israel all over again. And nothing shows it more than the fear that is reverberating in the words of no less than Patrick J. Buchanan. The fear that America is not the dominant power in the richest oil fields of the world. The fear that America cannot anymore just stroll in and kill and maim and send the bill to the killed and maimed. The fear that America is not up to changing and installing ministers and governments with a phone call anymore. The fear that America cannot anymore subsidize its killing and murdering with more killing and murdering.
To sum, Patric Buchanan, believes that Israel has won its last two wars because of the pointless killing of over 1,300 Lebanese and over 3,000 Palestinians. Disgusting.
Geo1671
September 23rd, 2011 at 5:58 am
Patty Cake–forgets that during all Israel's wars with the Arabs–in semi-secret USA/Brits/France/Germany/Canada military were accompluses. United States of Israel fought the Arabs.Sad but true :^/
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 6:27 am
The name of this website is Antiwar, not delayed war or future war. Somebody needs to knock down all this Bottom-side up bravado nonsense.
- The idea that populations can procreate their way to victory is madness. You don't believe that? Study a nation called Bangladesh, used to be called East Pakistan. Did their Islamic religion save them? No. Bangladesh is the poorest of the poor.
They lost to the nation of India.
What the United States needs to do is what is in its best interest for the long term. AIPAC, has the politicians (minus Ron Paul) bought and sold. The problem is a lack of US sovereignty. Obama foreign policy is its own failure. All this love of Islam stuff just keeps the tribes fighting each other.
The GOP Israel-can-do-no-wrong Amen quarter is very wrong, but so is the pie-in-the-sky Islamists. Palestine should be recognized by the UN, but guess what – it does not mean they get to take the whole pie.
Terrance&Philip
September 23rd, 2011 at 6:36 am
FTA: "The Israelis were not alert in 1973 when Egypt launched the attack of Yom Kippur that sent their army reeling along the Suez Canal. President Nixon intervened with a massive airlift to save Israel."
And the Arabs launched the first oil boycott in reprisal for our pulling Israel's chestnuts from the fire. (Some say after Golda Meir threatened to go nuclear if the American president didn't intervene.)
This was the beginning of America's long, sad, slow economic decline, and I hope our grandchildren, when we hand over to them a 3rd world country, don't curse us for our having destroyed ourselves for a self-righteous, ungrateful and mendacious Israel.
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 6:38 am
partly right. The problem is Israel (as well as the other cheaters) keeps changing the goal posts. In the 1956 War, the United States (Eisenhower administration) stuck up to the British for Egypt's sake against France and Israel. This week, Zbigniew Brzezinski, said that the United States is losing the viewpoint from the Arab world as being neutral. Obama's UN vote is wrong, that is why they are trying ever trick in the book to keep from a vote. The problem is the US becoming too close to Israel, which gives Israel permission to behave badly. Abbas, is fighting and by the rules. It is the sold out Democrats and Republicans that are shown to be what they are: either one sided or disinterested
Terrance&Philip
September 23rd, 2011 at 6:38 am
When they unreservedly proclaimed that history had ended, all of us should have recognized they were insane.
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 6:47 am
Lebanon stuck up for themselves, but they went crying to the world community for the Isrealis to stop.. Had Lebanon been all Hezbollah, they would of continued to have been bombed to defeat. Lets not get into the armaments and the military aspect. Yes, the Lebanese defeated the Merkava tank in a few well defended valleys. A longer war would changed the outcome. Wikipedia and other neutral sources can prove my point, galore. War is disgusting. The continued Palestinian-Israeli conflict is disgusting. If people want peace fine, this is good. Patrick Buchanan proves his points well.
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 7:08 am
The leader of Turkey said "(current government)of ) Israel acts like a spoiled child". Instead of all this suck-up crap Obama and the other Politico say about Israel ( the list is sickeningly endless). He needs to say "if you keep pulling your sisters hair, I am going to turn around smack the crap out of you".
VietnamWarVet1966
September 23rd, 2011 at 7:31 am
There is NOT another nation so controlled by Zionists as is the US – NOT another nation so stupid as the US to sacrifice its own interests to benefit Israel – IF and when the US wakes up and begins to regard its own interests as a priority instead of those of Israel – what then for Israel? – NOT another nation will support Israel as has the US.
One day – perhaps – the American people will wake up to the fact that Israel is NOT now and has NEVER been a friend or an ally of the US – that the US would NOT have any enemies in the Middle East if not for our blind support of Israel's war crimes.
Benjacomin Bozart
September 23rd, 2011 at 8:32 am
Just ask the families and survivors of the USS Liberty.
Ali
September 23rd, 2011 at 8:34 am
Lebanon, did not start the war, and naturally it wanted the war to stop from the beginning. It was Israel that started the war with clearly stated goals, none of which was accomplished in the end. And after two weeks, when it became clear that Israel is not only not advancing but is being pushed back, and after signs of reverse immigration from the Zionist occupied territory, was clearly manifested in addition to military defeat on all fronts, it was Israel that went crying to America and all European capitals to have a resolution passed, providing it a path of retreat from its own folly. You, should not fool yourself.
And according to the logic of casualties, yours and Buchanan's and Israel's that is, Nazi Germany is the undisputed winner of the WWII. of the 70,000,000 casualties of that war, only a small proportion were German. So Germany won the Russian front, the French front and every front that it came to attempt. What fools the Germans for over 60 years, to think they have been defeated.
The only point that Buchanan's proves, and he has done it on many occasions is that the man that regularly call Washington, "Israeli occupied territory" is now appealing to Israel to acknowledge America's setbacks for the sake of Israel.
pendulum
September 23rd, 2011 at 9:58 am
In 73 Egypt tried very hard to reach an agreement with Isreal but, and get this straight, isreal attacked Egypt and Syria. In Egypt they got their ass kicked and would have been squashed but for massive US intervention.
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:29 am
The conflict began when militants from the group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence.[32]<–wikipedia
Hezbollah got pushed back from being closer range. There is a distinction between Hezbollah and Lebanon.
Wars are almost always about pride. If both sides think they won and nobody is dying. I say all the better. The world wants peace.
Hezbollah must get their missiles shipped through Syria, or by air from Iran. Israel just has the military might. How does Hezbollah get resupplied? Iran and Syria is not going to be able to pull it off. They are sitting ducks in a war with air dominance. Russia is not going to supply Syria in an active war. They have to sneak them in under no conflict. 44 Israeli civilians died.
There are many military oriented websites that can compare the munitions of Israel vs Hezbollah. The Soviet industry when the Germans where tied down in Africa, and Italy reversed the War where 28 Million Soviets died. The Stalingrad defenders tied down the Nazis, but it was munitions and manpower than won Operation Uranus and ultimately the war. Even in the battle of Kurskt, the Soviets lost more soldiers than all the war total of the other allies combined. Hezbollah vs Israel was a 34 day conflict. No comparison. Buchanan is still right, but hope springs eternal. The Palestinians need a future, not some pie-in-sky religion similar to what oxymoron Christian Zionist want to push on the US. Life can becomes a disaster and the Shi'a branch of Islam from Hezbollah can only do so much. I choose the intellect of Buchanan over hope.
{32} the International Herald Tribune (12 July 2006). "Clashes spread to Lebanon as Hezbollah raids Israel". Retrieved 16 August 2007.
liberranter
September 23rd, 2011 at 10:41 am
Who have repeatedly, over the last four-and-a-half decades, been stonewalled and threatened by Israel and its Amerikan proxies in their quest for truth and remuneration.
Jamie N
September 23rd, 2011 at 11:14 am
Everything was already mentioned in the other posts.Israels time is up both America and Israel if smart better change course fast.We are against war but if there is war we can't stop I hope the ones in the right win.In these cases I hope its the Arabs and I'm a white Canadian.
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 11:49 am
Egypt was miffed because Israel had taken the other side of the Suez Canal. Egypt decided to attack with Syria even though Soviets refused them aircraft. Jordon's King got in a helicopter to warn Israel. You are right that US resupply of Israel saved Israel, yet, the reserve units of Israeli Armor and mindfields stopped the Syrians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_October_War
A good documentary was "The day the Mossad failed". Just like you have people who think Israel always right and always wins, you have people who think Arab nations always right.
dink
September 23rd, 2011 at 11:57 am
I would argue the beginning of America's decline was after the end of the Soviet Union, and the war on terror. In 1973, Nixon was pushing to include China as an Alliance against the Soviet Union. The Soviets where trying to stop Egypt from fighting because they would not give them fighter aircraft. Now that Obama, is vetoing the Palestinian's resolution that used the US's own words for a Palestinian state shows a loss of US sovereignty and that the US has got too close to Israel. Like many of antiwar says it has became an over expanded empire.
Terrance&Philip
September 23rd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
One of the best pieces I've seen laying to rest the myth that Israel is an ally.
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/05/26/th…
That an alliance with Israel remains a legal impossibility deserves to be known by every rational American.
monst0r
September 23rd, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Nixon sent the airlift because Israel was about to launch their nuclear missiles. The Arabs would have taken over a million casualties and would have to bargain for their capitals. Back then Israel had only 13 nukes. Now its 400. These days, if Israel is losing a real war the consequences would be far more biblical than the possible consequences in 1973.
Jamie N
September 23rd, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Israel better lose the war if the launch Pakistan aside from Russia an China would wipe Israel of the map 10 times over and still have many nukes.Israel nows this and I would call therew bluff before letting them continue on there evil path.Take your Samson Option and shove it don't belive you are brave or stupid enough to use it or by by Israel.You will hert much of the world but there is more than half that would remain untoached evin if you lauched every nuck you had.Russia is so big that many would servive after an Israely nucular attack.They just have to make sure Americas stay out of the air or both countrys will be tottaly destroyed.America does stupid things daily but don't thinbk they are that stupid or crazy just gready and tyranicle.
thedissenter
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:33 pm
"From that Six-Day War, wise Israelis took away two lessons.
First, they had to remain alert and strong enough to defeat all their neighbors at once. Second, the more important struggle was that they must win the acceptance of the Arab peoples to survive in an Arab sea."
We know all too well about their military supremacy and resulting brutality but how's #2 working out for them, eh?
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:39 pm
I found it interest that the News gave Bibi about 25 seconds to cry about being a victim to being attacked then cut him off. That dog just does not hunt anymore. The Arab gave a very good well thought out document and clearly pointed out the disgusting attacks by the settlers who are basically a paid mob used to steal land. The IDF understand that they will not be able to stop the State from being formed and there will be thousands of IDF charged as war criminals if they do not distance from the present attacks. Once the settlers lost the protection of the army they will leave very quicly because they basically are thugs and welfare collectors. Without the army they will leave their bones in the ground and that will be the end of them. Things are very bleak for israel if they do not change.
I for one hope that they do. I am so tired of sending money to a rich nation who really is nothing but a bunch of trouble makers.
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:44 pm
You are correct but they can be killed one at a time after the nuclear bombs end. Once the first nuke goes off you can be sure that the entire nation of Irsrael will face rocket attacks and they are basically people who like to live in clusters which give even small bombs great killing power. The USA is broke and banking and the stock market employers so many that opesn the question of even in victor what do you think they will have? That is those that survive the massive number killed on all sizes. The biggest nightmare will be the very long day after eday war which they cannot use the nukes but have hundred thousand to two hundred thousands IDF tired up sucking up all the money in israel and none from the bankrupt europe or bankrupt usa.
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Israel does not need to win the war to lose. It just has to be brought into a conflict which hundres of IDF get killed and it goes on from years. That is a very possible thing that can happen. The USA does not have the man power to support another war and I do not think you can get the public to go along sending our kids to support what is clearly going on in the middle east. They lost the good guy badge and that is what will be the biggest problem for israel.
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 4:52 pm
God Bless those 34 victims who waved hello to the Israel jets just before they turned and attacked. The IDF claimed at first they were hunting a submarines but their jets were armed with Napalm. Who drops Napalm on a submarine? When that did not work they claimed it was and Egypt horse transport ship 1/2 the size of the Liberty. There was thousands of Liberty class ships constructed so it was without a doubt the most common ship on the sea. Also there was only one ship attacked outside of a port. That was the USS Liberty. So why did they attack one ship and only one ship. The government of israel and the Government of the United States have tapes of the conversations of those who flew the planes and drove the boats. They have the orders given to the pilots and boats. Both government refuse to release the tapes which states that the attack was murder so they will not release the documents which would prove that statement to be false.
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 5:00 pm
You make it sound like the Egypt were mean and attacked without reason. In April 1967 the IDF attacked and destroyed the Syria air force in a minor water dispute. It was a very much of an over reaction until one realized that they needed to eliminate the syrian air force so they could sent all the aircraft to sneak attack the Egypt air force on the ground.
It is easy to keep track of the fact that every military conflict involving Israel was statedy Israel except 1973 and they all could have and should have been avoided. They were usually long thought out sneak attacks. The arabs were occupied for hundreds of years and the idea that they had any real military force after WWII is not true. They did died and fight during wwII which is more than the zionist did.
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 5:04 pm
God bless Israel and cut them lose. We cannot afford them and they clearly can have our entire congress and their staff. There is nothing in our support of Israel which is good for the United States
Let the Israel be free and give them the ability to live to what every they can on their money and not mine.
tomofsnj
September 23rd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
You forgot the part of Israel invading and stealing the land. I guess you are very young and you do not know your history. BTW Israel invaded lebanon in 1982 and the USA had to send the marines to save them. After years of being killed in large numbers the IDF elected they could not continue to take the number of injuries that it took to occupy Lebanon. It will only get worse as Israel gets bigger. The only reason they can get away with the west bank games is because they have the military and only children to fight. Be careful about what you wish because you can end up with a conflict with hundreds of dead IDF every week year in and year out. If the jews do not already population probably try plucking a 10,000 a year in a useless are and see what it gets you
alzurzin
September 23rd, 2011 at 7:07 pm
a very god, historical summary. thanks.
MvGuy
September 23rd, 2011 at 8:42 pm
"…either one sided or disinterested…." Maybe ya wanna try political WHORES.,…. Wake Up, it's election time…
MvGuy
September 23rd, 2011 at 8:47 pm
"There is NOT another nation so controlled by Zionists as is the US"
I nominate Georgia.
martin
September 24th, 2011 at 3:13 am
I 'd say the decline was the starting of the Federal Reserve or the genocide
martin
September 25th, 2011 at 3:40 am
Actually there was Jewish Brigade which went into Italy, but there casualties were quite light.
Wiezman had been wanting a Jewish Bidgade so that Hitler got the idea that EVERY Jew was against him. Probably incase he missed their declaration of war in 1933 as reported by the Daily Express.
This is not to say that there weren't Jews fighting for the allies in regular service. Wiezman lost a son who was pilot.
yolanda samos
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Patrick it is time to close the window on yourself.