Tuesday, January 27, 2009

from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals The Stories Behind the News

from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals
The Stories Behind the News

Posted: 26 Jan 2009 06:41 PM PST

Let's cut through all the debates. The issue here isn't really
White Phosphorus or fuel for Hamas or terrorists using
ambulances and hospitals as cover, or the morality of

human shields. None of those were ever really the issue,

no more than the spindly 45 kilometers of Gaza were

the impetus for war.

Israel is being held to a double standard, but there is one single core

at the heart of that double standard. And it has nothing to do with

how much land Israel is or isn't willing to give back, how many
checkpoints Israel has to keep terrorists out, or whether the

Separation Wall should swing one kilometer left or right.

None of those are the issue. Only this is.

Does Israel have the right to exist. Israel withdrew from Gaza,

ethnically cleansed its own population to do it, turned over the land,

and then watched Gaza be taken over by Hamas, a group that's first

cousin to Al Queda, which refused to even negotiate any permanent
peace, and began lobbing rockets at Israel. After all that, some might

have foolishly assumed that if Israel used troops to stop the attacks,

that the world would be behind it.

Of course that was not the case. And the simple reason is that those who
do not support Israel going after Hamas, do not support Israel's right
to exist.

If it were otherwise, why would a shell falling on an Israeli town have

less moral weight, than one falling on an Arab town? If it were
otherwise, why would a dead Israeli child have less value than an

Arab one? Why was Gaza occupied Palestinian territory when it

was in Israeli hands, and yet considered rightfully belonging to

Egypt before 1967?

The answer of course is that they wouldn't. The double standard

isn't a simple matter of bias, and those who suffer from it, sooner or
later tip their case, by raising the question of whether Israel should

exist at all or not.

While Israelis continue to believe that there is anything they
can do to change the picture, the double standard is not rooted in anything
that Israel does or doesn't do. It really doesn't matter what Israel does, the
problem for both Muslims and their supporters in the West, is that Israel
exists. Period.

Anything survival oriented that Israel does, will meet with instant

condemnation from them. If Israel kills terrorists, it's a terrorist state.

If Israel builds a wall to keep the terrorists out while giving up the land to

them, Israel is practicing Apartheid, say the very same people who have

been demanding that Israel give up the land. If Israel blockades Iranian

arms, it's starving the "People of Gaza".

Even when Israel begins making concessions, these are only used as proof

of how evil Israel is. If Israel sits down to negotiate, it's accused of
plotting to rob the terrorists. If Israel offers 99 percent of the land,
it's blamed for not offering 100 percent of the land. If it offers a 100

percent of the land, that too is clearly another trick, say its maddened

critics. If it negotiates with Fatah, it's subverting democracy by locking

out Hamas, despite the fact that Hamas believes in theocracy, not

democracy. If it negotiates with Hamas, it's subverting Fatah, which

is just another example of Zionist treachery.

Israel is accused of using Fatah as its puppet and is accused of creating

Hamas to destroy Fatah, by the very people blasting Israel for striking

Hamas. Israel is blamed for the situation in Gaza, despite giving up Gaza.

They demand that Israel offer a ceasefire, when Israel does

and Hamas refuses it, they blame Israel.

When Israel declares a unilateral ceasefire, they naturally blame

Israel.

The madness never ends. And it's never meant to.

There's nothing rational that powers this double standard.

There is nothing you can argue or debate with. When you

cut to the emotional core of it, what motivates the other

side is a deeply held belief that Israel should not exist.

Humanitarian behavior by Israel only further maddens its

critics. By trying to escape their propaganda, Israel only earns

further vitriol, and it is as futile as sending protest letters to the

German government was in 1941.

You cannot convince people who are deeply determined that you

should not exist otherwise by offering them a hug.

The correct response to people who think you shouldn't exist,

is to fight for your own existance harder than ever.

Anything else is foolish and self-defeating.

There are various reasons why Israel's enemies believe it

should not exist, from the theological to the political to the

economic. But those cannot and will not be changed by Israel's

actions. The same people who believed Israel should not exist

in 1948 were not temporarily silenced by Israel's show of

humanitarian nobility, but by Israel demonstrating over and

over again that it could survive and thrive, even against the
odds.

Nothing deters a would be murderer and his accomplices, half
as well as the proposed victim buying a shotgun and a pair of
dobermans, and leaving the last intruder's body out on the lawn.

The frenzied display of hatred for Israel is not produced by

Israeli military action or supposed atrocities, but the lack

of conclusive victories.

Each setback for Israel drives its enemies into a new frenzy of
excitement, certain that they are on the verge of achieving their

final solution. A drawn out conflict in turn draws the press, which

always loves an unsolvable problem, and smells the decay that

comes from failure. Both can be dissuaded only by strong
Israeli leadership delivering solid defeats to the terrorists the

enemy has pinned their hopes on.

Had Israel destroyed Hamas and Hizbullah, the criticism would
quickly die down to an annoyed mutter. The fanatics would
retire to raving in a corner. But Israel turned back

from doing so, and so the hate will increase, the incitement

will grow viler and the attacks will grow more dangerous.

Because nothing emboldens the enemy like failure.

A month after Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the
Anti-War movement were marginalized buffoons.

Two years and they were media darlings. The

difference was the perception of success for the war

effort. Had the issue been moral, then the Iraq War

would have been wrong regardless of how successful it
seemed to be.

But the issue is never moral, it's political.

The US effort throughout and after WW2 was barraged by

criticism, a criticism now forgotten primarily because the far

right and far left journalists responsible for it and their words
became irrelevant, as as US demonstrated that it had succeeded.

The Iraq War or the Vietnam War would have been no different.

Meanwhile since the intifada began, each Israeli concession has

not made Israel safer, has not made the Arabs who live inside
Israel better off, but has given those who hate Israel fresh hope