Israeli government. We are free to criticize, just as we
sometimes are critical of
Britain or France or China or Japan. Regardless, about Israel's
national security
interests there should be no question.
Now is the time for resolute support to be given Israel so that
it can continue to
stand up to Hamas and other Muslim terrorists. And Israel is the
"Land of the Bible,"
of much in our own cultural traditions, none of which are in the
least Islamic.
the Crusades, to reverse centuries of Muslim aggression that led
to the loss of the Holy Land
and many Christian countries to Arab invaders.
Appeasement of Islam is not in our best interests. It is
antithetical to those interests.
of Muslim states, including Iran.
of aid to Hamas.
of what we --and Israel-- most needs.
The more time passes, with exceptions noted, the more disgusted
many Americans become.
Now we know what to expect from a president who is sympathetic
to Islam.
Fearing this outcome, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bowed to
US President Barack Obama's demand that Israel set up an Israeli
inquest of the Mavi Marmara takeover and permit foreigners to oversee
its proceedings.
Netanyahu also agreed to scale back Israel's blockade
significantly, and allow international bodies to have a role in its far
more lax enforcement. Netanyahu has made these concessions with the
full knowledge that they will strengthen Hamas in the hopes that they
would weaken the international onslaught against Israel.
Unfortunately, it took no time at all to see that his hopes were
misplaced. Even before Netanyahu announced these concessions, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon already announced that they make no
difference to him or to his friends in Washington and Brussels.
They will move ahead with their plans to appoint a new kangaroo
court charged with asserting that Israel has no right to defend itself.
AS BAD as all of this is, in truth, it is unimportant relative to
the other consequences of the flotilla incident. The impact of the
diplomatic campaign now being waged against Israel will be felt in the
medium and long term. In the immediate term, Israel is facing two
threats that dwarf what it faces from the UN.
Recent statements by the leaders of Iran, Turkey, Syria, Hamas and
Hizbullah make clear that the members of the Iranian axis view the Mavi
Marmara episode as a strategic victory in their ongoing campaign
against Israel. The international stampede against Israel at the UN,
the White House and throughout Europe exposed Israel's Achilles heel.
The Mavi Marmara demonstrated that on the one hand the IDF cannot
enforce its blockade of Gaza without the use of force. On the other
hands it taught Israel's enemies that by forcing Israel to use force,
Iran, Turkey and their allies incited a UN-EU-US lynch mob against
Israel.
Iran, Turkey, Syria, Hamas and Hizbullah are moving rapidly to
exploit their new discovery.
In the very near future, Israel will face off against Iranian,
Lebanese and Turkish ships complemented by ships full of Israel-hating
German Jews and other Jewish and non-Jewish Hamas supporters.
The Mavi Marmara showed Iran and its allies that they can win
strategic victories against Israel by giving the IDF no option other
than using force against them. This means that Israel can bank on the
prospect that all the ships they are dispatching will be populated by
suicide protesters. Indeed the Iranians have openly admitted this.
Mohammad Ali Nouraee is one of the regime officials involved in
dispatching the Iranian ships to the Gaza coast. In an interview this
week with Iran's official IRNA news agency, Nouraee said that the
passengers aboard the ships "are willing to become martyred in this
way."
The Lebanese ships are being organized by Hizbullah-affiliated
individuals and the Turkish ships are being organized by the IHH terror
group that organized the Mavi Marmara.
Hizbullah's penchant for dispatching suicide squads is of course
well known. And the IHH showed its devotion to suicide protests on the
Mavi Marmara. So it is fairly clear that the passengers aboard the
ships from both countries intend to force the IDF to kill them.
The intensification of the suicide protest campaign against Israel
is dangerous for two reasons.
First, it is a model that can be and in all likelihood will be
replicated on air and land and it can be replicated anywhere. Israel
can and should expect mobs of suicide protesters marching on Gaza to
force Israel to surrender control over its borders. Israel can expect
mobs of suicide protesters marching on Israeli embassies and other
government installations around the world in an attempt to increase its
diplomatic isolation.
In the air, Israel can expect charter flights to take off from
airports around the world with a few dozen kamikaze protesters who will
force the IAF to shoot them down as they approach Israeli airspace.
Iran and its allies have found a weak chink in Israel's armor.
They will use it any way they can.
Israel needs to quickly develop tactics and strategies for
contending with this.
THE SECOND and far more dangerous implication of Israel's enemies'
aggressive adoption of suicide protests is that by ensuring violence
will be used, they increase the chances of war.
Indeed, Iran and its allies clearly believe that suicide protests
are a vehicle for initiating a fullscale war against Israel on what
they view as favorable footing. According to Bahrain's Al Wasat press
service, Hussain Amir, Iran's ambassador to Bahrain, threatened this
week that, "If the [Zionist] entity dares to direct any aggressive
attack [against the Iranian ships], then it is certain that [Israel]
will be met by a much stronger and firm blow."
Syrian President Bashar Assad told the BBC Wednesday that the
region is moving towards war. And the Turkish government is continuing
to escalate its assaults on Israel. On Thursday Turkey threatened to
cut off diplomatic relations with Israel if Israel does not issue a
formal apology for its takeover of the Mavi Marmara and pay restitution
to the families of the terrorists killed on board the ship.
Obviously the most disturbing aspect of the war threats is the
specter of Turkish naval vessels attacking the Israel Navy. If Turkey -
a NATO member - participates in a war against Israel, the repercussions
for Israel's relations with NATO member states, including the US, as
well as the EU, are liable to be unprecedented.
While going to war against Israel would be a major gamble for
Turkey, in recent years it has not shied away from high stakes
challenges to its NATO allies. Indeed, one of Turkey's ruling AKP
party's first actions upon taking power in 2003 was to deny the US
military the right to invade Iraq from its territory. The deleterious
impact of Turkey's refusal to come to the aid of its NATO ally at the
time has been felt by US forces in Iraq ever since.
IN THE days and weeks to come, Israel's political and military
leaders must move resolutely to prepare to withstand these new threats
that have arisen in the aftermath of the Mavi Marmara episode. To meet
the expected deluge of suicide protesters on sea, land and air, Israel
must immediately acquire non-lethal means to disperse these protests.
This involves purchasing and producing tear gas, water cannons, rubber
bullets and other non-lethal weaponry.
These non-lethal weapons must be rapidly distributed to IDF units
deployed along the frontier with Gaza and to the navy. They must also
be supplied to Israeli security teams tasked with protecting government
installations worldwide.
Forces must undergo intense and immediate training in crowd
control and mob dispersal to be ready to meet what is clearly on the
way.
Diplomatically, Israel needs to hold its new line on the Gaza
blockade. Netanyahu's buckling to US-EU-UN pressure has encouraged them
to redouble their assault on Israel. The new line must be held at all
costs. Otherwise, Israel will have no diplomatic line of defense as the
approaching threats become reality.
Strategically, our leaders need to consider what our aims will be
in the coming war. For instance, as far as Turkey is concerned,
Israel's aim will be to end the war as quickly as possible.
Here the tools of diplomacy with NATO members and public diplomacy
with the American people will be crucial to convincing Turkey to stand
down. They must be aggressively and energetically utilized without
delay.
From a military perspective, evasion is preferable to
confrontation. This understanding must guide naval operations towards
Turkish forces.
As for Iran, Israel's aim must be to prolong the war as long as
necessary to secure its strategic objective of denying Iran nuclear
weapons.
Moreover, it is important to use both kinetic and non-kinetic
means to change the relative power balance between the Iranian people
and the Iranian regime. While in all likelihood today the Iranian
opposition green movement is unable to overthrow the regime, if Iran
initiates a war against Israel, Israel must use the opportunity the war
affords to change that balance of power.
Once Israel's political and military leaders determine the
strategic goals of a regional war, they must move swiftly to outfit and
train the IDF to fight it. This war will certainly be different from
its predecessors and Israel's strategic goals - and the clear strategic
and tactical preferences of its enemies - dictate the training that the
IDF must initiate immediately.
The longer-term lesson of the Mavi Marmara incident, and the
threats that emerged in its wake, is that war is too serious a subject
to leave to generals. The IDF and the Defense Ministry clearly
misunderstood the nature of the threat posed by the Turkish-Hamas
flotilla.
Indeed, recent reports that until the Mavi Marmara Israel wasn't
even collecting intelligence on Turkey despite its obvious, multiyear
transformation from ally to enemy underlines the fact that the IDF is
woefully incapable of assessing, understanding and preparing for the
threats Israel faces.
In light of the IDF's failure to understand Turkey's
transformation from ally to enemy in a timely manner, its incompetent
planning for the Mavi Marmara takeover and its problematic performance
in both Operation Cast Lead and the Second Lebanon War, Netanyahu must
create an external body empowered to assess and dictate the means for
preparing for emerging threats. This body can either be a new
department in the Prime Minister's Bureau or the National Security
Council can be empowered to perform this function. While this is not
the most urgent matter on the national agenda, the establishment of
such a body should be a central mission of the government.
The Iranian ships are already en route, and the ships from Lebanon
could appear at any moment. The mass demonstrations against Israel
throughout the world and the threatened violence from the
Hamas-supporting Israeli Arab leadership indicate that mobs of suicide
protesters could appear anywhere with no prior warning.
Time is of the essence. No, Israel does not want another Goldstone
kangaroo court. But right now, kangaroo courts are not our biggest
problem.
