By Ted Belman
Boogie Yaalon, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, gave a talk last evening in the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem I was there. He appeared to be talking about the government’s position rather than his own.
In point form he said;
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– Time is not working against us, as many say. It is working in our favour because me make use of time. We build, we develop. we grow, we invent, we have babies. Time works for those who make use of it
– Israel will continue to build in Jerusalem and the settlements
– We keep emphasizing our security needs to the exclusion of our rights. This must change.
– The Arabs are not going to agree to our basic requirements, so there is no solution. Not all problems have a solution. That’s OK. Our policy is to manage the problem. In this regard, [I got the feeling, that Israel’s policy is to play the game while managing the problem and using time, rather than to abort the peace process. The later course would just add to our problems. Steady as she goes.]
– The Arabs know they can’t beat us with terror or with military might. They thought we would fold like a house of cards but now see that we are unified and willing to take the hits.
– In the short term, the turmoil among our neighbours, is no threat to us. In the long term, with the move toward Islamist governments, it may. He believes this movement started in 1979 with the Iranian revolution.
– If Iran got the bomb, it would be a game changer. It must be stopped. It is not just our problem, it is problem for the west.
– Those who warned of the coming diplomatic tsunami were wrong.
– The government is taking about the death penalty but he wasn’t sure if there is enough support for it.
All in all, it was a very upbeat messager.
Bibi is really a (Martin) Buber-bot, Philosopher, Hebrew U Prof. of Brit Shalom (1920-30’s forerunner of Peace Now)(See Yoram Hazony’s book).
Don’t know what you are talking about we have have had secular PM’s since and including BG. The aim of the Eshkol Govt’t was not to increase territory but to deflect Arab intended aggression against Israel and they offered it all back after the war for a treaty of Peace. Under secular government Israel in 56 captured all of Sinai and returned it all albeit under duress from Ike and Dulles. Begin a secular but traditional Jew gave Sinai back to Egypt for a treaty and a flag in Cairo prodded by two other secular Jews the brother-in law Dayan and Weitzman, with Sharon approving. Are you inferring they weren’t Jews or Zionists?
Jews may or may not be idiots but the rabbis didn’t give up the Mount, it was Dayan. Rav Goren pleaded to destroy the desecrations on the mount when we had the perfect opportunity, he was threatened with prison.
Rav Goren dissented.
Dayan also left the keys of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in the Waqf’s hands. But in Hebron, the Jews refused to surrender their rights, so the government was forced – despite threats of a religious war – to grant equal prayer time to Jews and Arabs. And over the last 33 years, despite Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of Muslims at prayer and other grave incidents, both Muslims and Jews have grown used to the status quo.
What’s your point?
I’ll pass on what I could say. 🙂
A whole hundred years!! Wow a whole hundred years; and then got their asses kicked by the Muslims.
A matter of opinion but there is no doubt they were lousy fighters and they were losers every one.
You already said that what else you got?
Since all of your complaints and critisms reflect our secular PM’s I think it’s time for non secular PM.
Hi, Sol
I wish you were right, in your implication that the American people are Israel’s chief friend. It is true, that many Americans support Israel deeply, and the vast majority of Americans support Israel’s side vis a vis the Palestinians. It’s also true that President Obama, through his continual arm-twisting of Israel’s leaders, through his subversive contacts with Israeli opposition leaders and and meddling in Israeli internal politics, with his attempts to micro-manage Israel for the benefit of its enemies, with his repeated calls for Israel to surrender territory vital to its security, is the most anti-Israel President in American history.
The greatest friend Israel ever had, though, has historically been Jews: Jews like Herzl, who inspired his people to dream big dreams and then take action to build upon them; Jews like Jabotinsky, who warned his brethren of the struggle ahead, and gave them practical avenues to prepare for it; Jews like Bibi Netanyahu’s father, who worked hard to raise the funds needed to birth the state of Israel, or like Tzipi Livni’s father, who engineered the escape of Jewish prisoners under the British; American Jews, who set aside hard-earned money for the Israel Fund, year after year… The list goes on and on, of Jews working together, world-wide, with mutual good-will, with energy and with commonness of cause.
That’s all blown to hell nowadays, to where Israel’s greatest detractors seem to be Jewish actors and newspapermen, even in Israel itself. Israel has lost its greatest friend already. Lots of Americans love Israel, much more than many contributors to Israpundit give them credit for; but they are not Jews: Their first loyalty is to their wives and children, and to their countrymen; and they can only be of help as long as they are strong. But America is under spiritual attack, just like Israel: we are facing what one Israeli Christian pastor described as a “spiritual implosion” in the upcoming generation; a generation devoid of Biblical input and immersed in a culture of atheism and superstition.
God bless and keep Israel. God help the Jewish people.
Israel has one friend in the world and if Obama is re-elected (better than 50-50) there goes the friend.
Israel will get the chance to prove its strength very soon:
(1) The US is withdrawing completely from Iraq by the end of this year. That will leave the area clear of any US aircraft and other forces who would otherwise have interfered with an Israeli attack on Iran. What’s more, Iraq itself is likely to become “Iran Annex”, leaving only a rather defenseless Jordan between Israel and Khameini. Will Israel attack? Only if it is strong.
(2) ditto for Turkey in Syria, which may become a forward base of Turkey in the same way that Lebanon was once a forward base of Syria.
Both Syria and Turkey (along with its newly found Egyptian ally) are openly belligerent against Israel. Turkey has nuclear weapons, and Iran is acquiring them. Lately, DEBKA has been portraying Turkey and Iran as enemies of each other; but this can change in a trice — especially after Iraq and Syria fall, where both powers have interests.
Israel is fast approaching a time, similar to 1967, where it must decide to either strike preemptively or be annihilated by overwhelmingly superior firepower. Its victory or defeat will be decided not by numbers, but by the sagacity of its rulers. At present, Israel does not appear to have war-capable rulers. Instead, it has a song-and-dance PM, a knesset filled with suck-ups, a High Court that actually fights against Israel’s interests, and a divided rabbinate that doesn’t know Torah from a hole in the wall. This is not a formula for effective crisis leadership.
That’s the problem, Yamit. When Israel had Secular PMs, it expanded to control all of Sinai. Under the Jews and Zionists, it has only lost ground. Jews are idiots. The rabbis gave away the Temple Mount. The Pope lives in the Vatican: He’s no idiot. The Crusaders took Jerusalem, and completely CONTROLLED it for almost a hundred years. They were not idiots. But the Jews? They’re idiots. The last thing Israel needs, is Jewish leaders.
Ted, this article is cropped wrong. How can you expect anyone to believe that Israel is strong, when you sandwich this between stories of (1) how Israel incarcerates Jews for offending Mohammed (the Pig!) and (2) how Israel’s rabbis gave away their holiest place to Moslem control.
Israel is NOT strong. It is protected by the same God who protects drunks; otherwise, it would have sunk into the sea long ago.
No not a Reagan, I was never a fan and still am not; if anything even more opposed to his 8 years. I want a Jewish PM of courage and principles (Jewish principles).
I thought the 2nd paragraph was also referring to Ya’alon. If he would have stood some ground of any value, he would have resigned long ago.
Ya’alon is just cover. At least he is being used as such.
Keep in mind that while Ya’alon resigned as the IDF’s commander in chief just a very short while before the Gush Katif expulsion, all of the training and preparations were under his watch, without a squeak coming out of him.
Ya’alon is just a fig leaf. Stop wasting your praises.
If you’re looking for an Israeli Ronald Reagan, I don’t see one in sight.
Israel doesn’t have leaders, it has a bunch of followers.
I don’t see a leader in the present government or in the opposition who says things can’t go on the way they are and effect a change.
Don’t look for Israel to do what needs to be done in the future.
I don’t see it. No one has ever noted BB willing to pay a price for something dear to him. There is no contradiction.
If you can find one, please do tell us!
If a guy from out of town says he is going to kill, you, is it your problem, or the problem of a neighbour in the next street. If you read/hear the out of towner is trying to aquire a gun,does that make the prblem more accute.In these terms the answer is obvious, so with Iran ,Israel, and the rest of the world what changes things.
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BS! This is a weasel excuse for not doing what must and should have been done years ago. It is political and national cowardice. Every Jew who dies or is wounded because of this cowardly policy is Ya’alon’s responsibility no less than BB’s. Shy calls him a right winger? I call him an oportunist. BB promised him the DM job then threw him aside like so many others. Ya’alon took the blow and kept his mouth shut.
No, it’s our problem and saying it’s a problem of the west is like saying it’s nobodies problem. Saying it’s the west’s problems is saying we won’t do anything to stop Iran at least militarily.
What chutzpa saying this a week after Israel caved to her enemy by realesing 500 murderers from prisons. We took unnecessary hits like over 10,000 rocket and mortar attacks with almost no response. We took it on the chin in the 2nd Lebanon war. The whole of the north was evacuated and after a month the IDF couldn’t stop the missiles. It was if I am not mistaken Ya’alon’s government that imosed a building freeze officially for almost a year but in actuality from the first day of this administration. My list is longer than what I present here.
It took Israel over 5 years to bring the intifada under control, is that what he meant by we are able to take their hits?
Aluf Ya’alon would be better served if he just shut up. He is part of our problem not our cure.
IMO, your second paragraph completely contradicts the first.
He’s a good man. I can’t say the same for Netanyahu who has no real core beliefs.
Not that any one has found any on which he would be willing to stand his ground.
Maybe. Still, can’t fault him for his optimism. Reading Haaretz makes one want to slash one’s wrists.
Ya’alon is a patsy front for Netanyahu. A toothless example par excellence of a mediocre right-winger, one of several Netanyahu surrounded himself with at the top of the food chain to give himself a false facade of legitimacy within the Likud.