It's not, as the Left and the media like to intimate, that the Israelis don't want peace. Nothing can be further from the truth, especially when you've been in a state of non-stop asymmetrical warfare for over half a century. No, unlike the president, who believes if only they stopped building settlements, or the pundits, who insist that retreating to here or surrendering there will make Israel immune to future criticism, Israelis have learned from current events, and are tired of replaying them over and over to the delight of another johnny come lately.
Evelyn Gordon, over at Contentions, lays out some recent history:
We were told that the 1993 Oslo Accords would bring us peace and international legitimacy. Instead, it brought our international position to an unprecedented low and terrorism to an unprecedented high: the first four years of the second intifada alone produced more Israeli victims of terror than the entire preceding 53 years.
We were told that withdrawing from Lebanon in 2000 would eliminate Beirut’s casus belli and hence bring us peace and international legitimacy. Instead, it allowed Hezbollah to take over southern Lebanon, build an arsenal far superior to anything it had before Israel left Lebanon, and launch cross-border attacks. One of those sparked the Second Lebanon War, which caused unprecedented destruction to northern Israel, more casualties than Israel averaged in six years pre-withdrawal, and massive international condemnation — of Israel, naturally.
We were told leaving Gaza in 2005 would bring peace and international legitimacy. Instead, it brought a Hamas takeover and incessant rocket fire on southern Israel. And when Israel finally struck back, in December 2008, international condemnation hit new heights, culminating in the infamous Goldstone report.
Gordon's concern is that Egypt will become another Gaza, with a psychotic religious leadership turning to war against the Jews to distract the people from their failings. And it may come to pass, but there is little anyone can do to control the destiny of the Arabs save the Arabs themselves; should they choose war, they will certainly get it.
But my takeaway from Gordon is that Israel has tried time and time again to follow the peace process as laid out by the Western elites: Surrender, fall back, walk away, turn the other cheek. And it has brought them nothing but death, destruction, and vilification, often from the very same nations that pushed Israel into some of these very bad "peace" deals.
Come to think of it, these same tactics have been used across Europe as a "defense" against the Islamic onslaught for over a decade; only in the past few weeks have the leadership of the continent come clean as to its failure.
But Barack Obama is not done with it, convinced that somehow he can succeed in taming the Arab madmen where others have failed, by squeezing yet one more concession out of Israel.
She refuses, preferring to sit in the bunker and peer anxiously at her horizons, as the world around her spins furiously. Obama has become increasingly enraged that this little nation will refuse to accede to his demands, and has joined the chorus of nay-sayers at the UN, which appears more and more to be converting itself into Lucifer's chamber upon the Earth.
Seeing what she sees, and having experienced what she has experienced - as a people and as a nation - is it any wonder that Israel hunkers in the bunker?
You can't blame her. Well, I suppose you can, but it would say more about you...
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