On 13 Sep 2001, at 21:58, Dan Minette wrote:
> I'd like to point out to other list members we have a person who has
> stated a willingness to die for Israel state that they need to pull
> back.
No..I would die in the DEFENCE of Israel. That's not the same as a
willingness to die FOR Israel. The peoper name of the Israelie army
is the IDF, Isralie Defence Force. Israel's mainstream military
planning is defensive...
> > > It was attacked again in 1968. This time it refused to give the
> > > lands back. In their defense, the original borders were hard to
> > > secure.
> >
> > Try imposible...look, Israel is TINY. From it's northern borders,
> > fighter jets can be over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in under half an
> > hour!
> >
> Well, it wasn't impossible...they somehow found a way to do it for
> about 20 years. :-) But, they would have lost everything in '73 with
> the origional borders. So, I'll stick by very very difficult...and
> cannot be done over and over.
We had to strike first in the 6-day war. Unfortunate, but pre-
empting an attack (by 2-3 days!) which would likely have destroyed
Israel. We also managed the victories we did because our first
strike was against the enemy air forces...
And yes, we would have lost the You Kippur war without the
extended borders - but NOT the West Bank, the Golan Heights
were the decsisive factor.
The thing is, times have changed, in the military. What was once
imposible is not posible..and Israel more than ever needs buffer
zones. We can consider giving up part of the East Bank precisely
BECAUSE we are at peace with Jordan, have been for many years,
are favoured by the Jordanian King (the old king was downright
POPULAR is israel..) and have poured massive investments into
Jordan...
> > In the 6 day war, Isreal struck first, a few days before the
planned
> > arab offensiuve
> My memory was that the first warlike act was blocking shipping out of
> Israel.
Oh, there was posturing on both sides, but Israel struck first.
Andy
Dawn Falcon
