May 17, 2003

“The Powerful Threat to Israel”

Thomas Friedman writing in the New York Times said, “the US having eliminated the most powerful threat to Israel—the regime of Saddam Hussein…” makes the same erroneous assumption as may others. Iraq with or without Saddam is an enemy but was never “a powerful threat”. The Mesopotamian country does not share a border with Israel as do Syria and Egypt and is not within Israel’s borders as are the Palestinians. Israel’s most powerful threat is Egypt and most dangerous enemy is its neighbor, the Palestinians.

It could be argued that Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty and since then not a single shot has been fired and for this we must be grateful. But Friedman wrote about a “threat to Israel”. Egypt was and remains the most serious threat to Israel’s survival. The peace treaty produced a very cold peace. Mubarak permits state owned news and media to lie about Israel and publish and broadcast a continuous litany of hatred for Israel and the Jews. America’s annual aid to Egypt to the tune of more than two and a half billion dollars is what keeps Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from turning hostile towards Israel.

Mubarak is a very practical leader. He takes our money in one hand and encourages the Egyptian street to spew hatred against American and its ally, Israel. Should something happen to Mubarak and a less pragmatic leader take his place, Egypt, the most populous mideastern country could turn violently against Israel.

Dictators have always used hate and war as expedient compensations for the lack of food and impoverishment of their subjects. The Arab world cannot be seen in the same light as the societies of Europe or for that matter anyplace else in the world. Democracy can be found in almost every society on earth in varying degrees. Arab countries however are led by despots and autocrats. Many Arab intellectuals insist that this is the right way because the Arab mindset is different. This is sheer nonsense. Were it true, then America’s war in Iraq was an exercise in futility, as the Iraqis would reemerge with another Saddam like government.

War continuously looms as a threat in all totalitarian-governed countries. Dictators must justify expending inordinate sums for armies needed to
keep them in power. External enemies are created and for Arab autocrats, Israel is essential and will forever be postured as the enemy. A logical conclusion in the search for peace in that troubled region is the democratization of at least the countries on Israel’s boarder. Egypt is the one that should concern us most. Cairo, its capital and metropolis teems with revolutionaries, hard-core fanatic, communists and fascists. It’s army, unlike Iraq or Syria is equipped with the latest American weaponry. Egypt has everything militarily that Israel does and a much larger armed force. Janes, the respected British military magazine, gives Israel a small military edge over Egypt. Syria’s weapons and airplanes are like those of Iraq. They were made in the former Soviet Union and with the exception of missiles recently obtained for North Korea are rusty and outdated, posing a much lesser threat than Egypt.

The new Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas was appointed by Arafat, an Arab dictator. Arafat can fire him. Saddam’s friend Arafat is every bit the corrupt and murderous gangster terrorist as the deposed Iraqi dictator. Should Israel now be forced to relinquish strategically important land to a non-democratic group that vehemently opposed America’s successful destruction of the Saddam tyranny? Should Israel be subject to a new Arab State upon its soil whose leaders are the remaining apostles of Saddam?

I pray and hope for peace in the Middle East with each living breath. Serious discussions for peace however, should not take place until Arab terror has stopped and its perpetrators incarcerated. Once the terror has abated and incitement to it in the media and school texts have ended, then free and supervised elections should be held. This election must have a genuine competition for office. Those democratically elected will then negotiate a respected and genuine peace with Israel. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but I haven’t heard a better idea.

Shabbat Shalom