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Jewish World Review Nov. 2, 2005 / 30 Tishrei, 5766 Israel will do what it needs to survive — ‘world opinion’ be damned By Ed Koch
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last week, the recently-elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the world that Israel "must be wiped off the map." Countries that recognize Israel, he said, would "burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury."
World leaders such as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed dismay at these remarks. Some countries, like France, called their ambassadors home. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain said, "If they carry on like this, the question people will be asking us is — when are you going to do something about Iran? Can you imagine a state like that with an attitude like that having nuclear weapons?"
There is little substance behind this show of support for Israel. If Iran were to launch a nuclear attack against Israel, there would be little chance of any of these countries coming to Israel's defense. The UN Security Council would be prevented by Russian and Chinese vetoes from adopting any resolution that authorized UN military involvement on the side of Israel. Both countries are courting the good will of Iran, seeking to access its enormous oil reserves and vendor contracts.
Great Britain is now in the throes of a continuing anti-Blair campaign that's being waged by the left wing of the New Labour party, which wants him to step down because of his close alliance with the U.S. in Iraq. The U.S., for its part, has its military forces overwhelmingly committed to the war in Iraq, with the President grievously wounded by scandal here at home and by mounting military casualties in Iraq. The latest poll shows the President's approval rating at "the lowest the poll has recorded during Bush's presidency, down from 45 percent in a survey taken September 26-28, and the disapproval rating was up from 50 percent," according to CNN. American deaths now exceed 2,000, and more than 25,000 American personnel have suffered non-lethal, but grievous wounds. Iraqi civilian casualties exceed 25,000, of which an estimated 6,000 are deaths resulting from Sunni-led terrorism.
So who will come to Israel's aid? I fear that no nation will. While the U.S. and Great Britain will undoubtedly provide arms to Israel, as did President Nixon in the 1973 war, that beleaguered country, a staunch ally of the U.S. with Western values, will be left to defend itself on its own as it repeatedly has since 1948.
Israel's population, which now comprises five million Jews and one million Arabs, has always been minute compared with that of immediately surrounding Arab states which now have a population of over 120 million. The Israelis have repelled invasions from the surrounding Arab states five times since 1948, because they had no choice — ayn breirah.
Israel has the right to self-defense under UN Charter Article 51, as does every other UN member country. Must Israel wait until Iran's nuclear bomb is launched against it or should it act now to defend its people?
In 1981, when Saddam Hussein threatened Israel with destruction, Israel bombed and destroyed Iraq's nuclear bomb facility, and was condemned at the UN with Vice President George H.W. Bush joining in the chorus of denunciation. Yet, how lucky were the UN and the coalition nations in the first Gulf War against Iraq ten years later (in 1991) when the coalition forces with UN sanction and under U.S. leadership threw Iraq out of Kuwait and prevented Iraq's threatened invasion of Saudi Arabia. Thanks to Israel, coalition forces did not have to worry about Iraq using nuclear weapons. It was then that voices were raised around the world expressing appreciation to the Israelis for their having taken on Iraq in 1981, notwithstanding the slings and arrows hurled at it by most world leaders at the time.
So what should Israel do now? Obviously, Israel's military leadership will advise its civilian government what Israel can and should do militarily. I have no doubt that if the military leadership counsels that Israel can and should destroy Iran's nuclear bomb capability, it will.
Given its minute size, Israel cannot afford to be attacked with nuclear weapons. Any such attack would also be the start of a wider nuclear war. Israel is undoubtedly ready to fight back in kind.
Regrettably, it appears that world opinion does not accept the fact that the fanatic Islamists, comprised of many millions of Muslims worldwide, believe that Christians, Jews, Hindus and others are infidels — not accepting the supremacy of Islam — and therefore they should die. Over the weekend, Islamic terrorists in India killed 59 people and injured more than 200 mostly civilian Hindus. This kind of terrorism goes on throughout the world. We are in a war of civilizations. Those who refuse to recognize it as such have their heads in the sand, or elsewhere.
Many Americans would like to see President Bush politically weakened, even though we are at war. Of course, criticism of the President on a host of issues is justified, and I join in it regularly. But when it comes to foreign policy, criticism should be respectful and responsible, and not done with glee and venom, as is often now the case. America and its future should be our paramount concern, not partisan political advantage.
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JWR contributor Edward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York, can be heard on Bloomberg Radio (WBBR 1130 AM) every Sunday from 9-10 am . Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, Ed Koch |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
