YORAM ETTINGER: DEFIANCE….NOT INHIBITION
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=399
Israel’s battle against Palestinian terrorism and conventional military
threats must not be inhibited by its ties with the USA and Egypt.
In 1982, Prime Minister Begin launched a comprehensive war on PLO terrorist
headquarters in Lebanon. In 1981, he ordered the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear
reactor. Both operations were executed irrespective of bullying US pressure
and notwithstanding the fragile 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Begin
realized that a failure to eradicate these threats would imperil Israel’s
survival, erode its posture of deterrence, thus undermining the
deterrence-driven peace with Egypt and the strategic cooperation with the
USA.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Israel-Egypt peace treaty did not
collapse. Once again, Arab leaders did not rush to rescue the PLO,
demonstrating that the Palestinian issue was not a crown jewel of Arab
policy-making. Moreover, Egypt – just like all other Arab countries – would
not sacrifice its own national interests on the altar of the Palestinian
issue.
While the US Administration condemned Israel for the large scale preemptive
military operations, and imposed a brief military embargo, these operations
yielded the 1981 and the 1983 strategic Memoranda of Understanding between
the two countries, which enhanced joint national security projects,
upgrading Israel’s long-term strategic posture.
From 1983 to1992, Prime Minister Shamir was severely criticized by
Presidents Reagan and Bush for crushing Palestinian terrorism during the 1st
Intifadah and expanding Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern
Jerusalem. However, US-Israel strategic cooperation was unprecedently
augmented during his terms in office. Washington recognized that US-Israel
cooperation never evolved around the Arab-Israeli conflict. The
mutually-beneficial US-Israel ties are based upon shared values, mutual
threats, such as Islamic terrorism, ballistic missiles and rogue regimes and
joint interests, such as research & development and job-creation in the
high-tech market and in the defense industries.
In August,1948, the US Ambassador to Israel, James McDonald, recorded Prime
Minister Ben Gurion’s response to the American demand (accompanied by a
regional military embargo) to end the “occupation” of Arab land or agree to
a land swap, to accept the internationalization of Jerusalem and to allow
the return of the Arab refugees: “Speaking with solemn emphasis, [Ben
Gurion] added that much as Israel desired friendship with the US and full
cooperation with it and the UN, there were limits beyond which it could not
go. Israel could not yield at any point which, in its judgment, would
threaten its independence or its security. The very fact that Israel was a
small State made more necessary the scrupulous defense of its own interests;
otherwise it would be lost…Ben Gurion warned President Truman and the
Department of State that they would be gravely mistaken if they assumed that
the threat or even the use of UN sanctions would force Israel to yield on
issues considered vital to its independence and security. [He] left no
doubt that he was determined to resist at whatever cost ‘unjust and
impossible demands.’ On these he could not compromise (My Mission. 1951, pp
49-50).”
Ben Gurion’s defiance transformed the image of the Jewish State in
Washington – from a strategic liability to a potential strategic asset.
In1973, Prime Minister Golda Meir subordinated Israel’s national security
concerns to its ties with the USA, rejecting the advice to preempt the
pending Egyptian-Syrian offensive, lest Israel be perceived as the
aggressor. Irrespective of Israel’s military victory, the trauma of the
3,000 Israeli fatalities and the near elimination of Israel still haunt
Israelis and embolden Israel’s enemies.
In 2011, Israel benefits from a robust economy, demography and military and
from the growing Western awareness to the threat of Islamic terrorism and to
the violence and volatility of the Arab Street. Therefore, Israel should
not refrain from flexing its decisive military muscle in face of military
threats, lest it reaffirm the image of a restrained and indecisive Israel,
thus inflaming anti-Israel and anti-Western terrorism.
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