There is a price for attacking Israel

By  Walter E. Block | October 28, 2024

The THAAD system being deployed in Israel in Oct. 21, 2024 | Photo: US Army Europe

From near and far, the call is going out: Watch out for aggressive, imperialist, colonist Israel. It is trying to take over the world, bit by bit, starting with an expansion in the Middle East. (I exaggerate here, but only by a little bit). They have already taken over Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank. Now, the Jewish State is in the process of absorbing southern Lebanon, and, who knows, by the time they get finished, with all of that country to the north of them. Which country is next? Who knows. You can’t tell with this steamroller of a country.

Who are the people warning not that the “British are coming” nor that the Russians are doing so, but ascribing this sort of world conquest to the Jews? According to Al-Jazeera: “Recent military escalations in Gaza and southern Lebanon, combined with provocative rhetoric from Israeli officials, suggest that the controversial idea of ‘Greater Israel’ is gaining traction among Israel’s hard-right factions. Key figures in the Netanyahu government are framing neighboring states as mere ‘entities,’ hinting at shifting territorial ambitions. As far-right ideologies resurface, the implications for Israel and its neighbours become increasingly critical.” (Speaking of “entities” which organizations refer to the Jewish state as the “Zionist entity?)

Commuters drive along a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024 (AFP / Atta Kenare)

In the critical view of the Middle East Political and Economic Institute: “The recent picture of an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier with a Greater Israel badge on the uniform provoked outrage in Arab countries (Middle East Monitor, 2024). The promised land of Israel, as described in the badge photo, includes regions from the Nile to the Euphrates, from Medina to Lebanon, including territories from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, entire Jordan, and Occupied Palestinian territories.”

Warned “The Week”: “”Is Lebanon part of Israel’s promised territory?” asked Mark Fish in the piece [in the Jerusalem Post], published on 25 September, which coincided with Israel’s assault on Lebanon and subsequent ground invasion. Fish suggested that the land promised to the ‘children of Israel’ in the Torah includes not only modern-day Israel, but the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.”

I have news for these worriers. There is a tried and true method for stopping the supposedly expansionist Israelis right in their tracks. Stop bombing them. Stop sending missiles in their direction. Ditto for drones. No more suicide bombers. No repeat of October 7, 2023, a day that will live in infamy forever. No more tunnels out from which spring terrorists at Israel’s throat. No more targeting of El Al. Stop attacking them in any other way. Then and only then will Israel cease and desist from its supposed maniacal attempt to ingest more and more real estate.

Proof of the pudding? Israel has been in quite a few wars since 1948. All of them have been defensive. The Hebrew state has not started any one of them. They have all been in reaction to threats or incursions from its many neighbors. At the end of them, yes, Israel found itself occupying what was previously enemy territory. It was supposed to have supinely given up these gains and returned them to the violators of the (very temporary previous) peace? Not a bit of it. If you start a war with this country, get used to the idea one, you will lose, and two, the IDF will end up occupying what was beforehand your territory. You don’t like losing terrain? Good, fine. Keep your mitts off of this country.

The Sinai Peninsula is a blatant counterexample to the thesis I am herein putting forth. Israel, with a little help from France and Great Britain, engaged in a war with Egypt in 1956 and 1967 due to Egyptian aggression. Whose fault was that little contretemps? Egypt’s, of course. At the end of the hostilities, the IDF controlled this bit of desert. If it had remained in the hands of the victor of these wars, Greater Israel would have been far bigger than it is now. However, justice was not served. Eisenhower compelled the Jews to leave. He later regretted this, calling it one of his biggest mistakes. Amen to that! (So close, but no cigar!) However, perhaps this can still serve a beneficial purpose. Egypt is now at peace with Israel. Should this ever change, and that country once again threaten Israel, and the future resembles the past in this regard, the territory of that country will be significantly reduced, in behalf of a Much Greater Israel. This time, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, I am willing to bet Israel will not give up any similarly conquered territory.

There is a price for attacking Israel. Your holdings are likely to be turned into rubble (take a peek at Gaza, nowadays and compare it with what existed before October 7). If not, you will likely lose some serious real estate (note what happened to the Golan Heights).

Yes, there is a lesson to be learned in all of this. Better to be a friend of Israel’s than an enemy. The goal of this country is not to expand. It is to turn the entire Middle East into a local Hong Kong, where technology, productivity, peace, free enterprise bring about prosperity for all concerned.