MOSHE SHARON IN 2006: CLEAN OUT THE STABLES AND PREPARE FOR WAR
http://www.acpr.org.il/english-nativ/09-issue/sharon-9.htm
The second Lebanon War (the “Three Weeks of Mourning War”) of the summer of 2006 has not yet come to an end. As this is being written, one round of the war has concluded in an intermission. It is only an introduction to the prologue. Even now our enemies are aligning for another war and another one after that, for many years to come. Over the last decade and a half, ever since the foolishness of the Oslo Accords, everything has been done to erode the nation’s resolve, its strength, and its belief in the justness of its path.
Contributing to this phenomenon has been a media mobilized to the insane idea of “peace” and a “new Middle East,” various intellectuals who depicted peace as being just around the corner and prevented by the “occupation,” which, if it were only to end, the End of Days would arrive immediately and Islam would lovingly accept the Jewish state.
Orientalists and Islamists swept under the rug all of the truths crying out to them from every document that they researched, from the pages of every Arab newspaper that they read. They told the nation just how peace-loving the Syrians and the Palestinians were, how their only desire was that the occupation cease and a small state be established alongside Israel; things which do not appear in any authorized or semi-authorized Arab-Islamic document.
They did not report about that which was openly stated nor did they relate to what anyone could read on the MEMRI website: That the demand to end the occupation is just a pretext to separate Israel from the few strategic assets still under its control and hold it hostage to the kassams of Hamas and the katyushas of Hizbullah.
They repressed the fact, which they knew better than anyone else, that since 1979, when the 15th century of Islam (according to the Muslim calendar) began, the majority of the Muslim world has been engulfed in the fire of messianic expectations.
From that point on, the molten lava of jihad, shot forth, poured into the Middle East and the world in general, and began to flow through the pathways and tunnels of fanatical Islamic fundamentalism, kindling half-dormant hopes and arousing the fire of hatred for everything non-Muslim everywhere. Over the course of an entire generation it has been boiling and blistering and amassing power daily. In its wake lie the Twin Towers from September 11 along with thousands of dead in Europe, the United States and in the Arab countries themselves, especially in Iraq.
Today it is clear to everyone who is prepared to confront unadorned reality, and they are the majority of people in Israeli society with the wish to live, that we have to take advantage of the short period of time left to us to prepare the army for the inevitable next war. It is already on the way.
The UN Resolution – A Worthless Piece of Paper
Hizbullah is the immediate enemy. No one will disarm it because it has no intention of disarming and there is no one to coerce it to do so. The UN resolution on the issue was filed away long ago. The UN is collaborating with Hizbullah and none of its member nations has any interest in dealing with it. Why make life easier for Israel? Kofi Annan has already gone to Hizbullah’s Canossa and shaken the hand of the murderer from South Beirut. As Hizbullah has no one to fear – and now not even Israel – it has no reason in the world to relinquish the power that renders it master of Lebanon.
After many years, during which the Shiites were the most wretched, backward and destitute segment of their country’s population, they have now become the masters who can do whatever they please in Lebanon. They are supported by two countries that arm them to the teeth, provide them with massive economic support, and enable them to emerge as the spearhead in Islam’s war against Israel. Thus, there is no reason for them to lay down their weapons willingly. In the world in which we live, arms are strength and that is all the more true in the Middle East. It is absolutely clear, therefore, that the Hizbullah will not emerge weakened from this stage of the battle but, instead, will become much more powerful. This interlude will enable it to learn the lessons of the campaign. The Iranians and Syrians have learned something as well. They will provide Hizbullah with anti-aircraft missiles and a significant quantity of anti-tank missiles as well as more accurate medium and long-range missiles.
A War That Accomplished Nothing
The Hizbullah army will not abandon even one position in the south. We will soon see how they upgrade positions and dig bunkers before the eyes and cameras of the IDF and the Israeli Government; the legions of journalists, intellectuals and peace-seekers will relate how quiet and good and beautiful it is in the flourishing, prosperous north; and the bed and breakfasts, yes, we mustn’t forget the bed and breakfasts! That which transpired from mid-July to mid-August 2006, will be repressed in a collection of memories that ruin the picture and are best left forgotten. Let’s say it clearly: Nothing was achieved in this war except for a ridiculous UN document and an interlude during which the enemy will have the opportunity to better entrench itself 700 or 70 meters from the border, in and under villages that were virtually undamaged. In the wadis surrounding them thousand of rockets and other tools of destruction are stockpiled. If the organization lost some fighters (not many more than the IDF losses) that has not weaken it at all, as it has the ability to recruit thousands from within Lebanon and abroad in a short time: Shi`ites craving martyrdom are always available. They will come from Iran, Iraq and other Shi`ite communities. However, even without them, the pool of Shi`ites in Lebanon is huge, and several hundred of these Shi`ites have been undergoing guerilla warfare training in Iran for some time already. The Hizbullah army does not need to be large in terms of manpower. Hizbullah does not require divisions. It functions in small, fast units, which can easily hide in the houses, and the natural surroundings that they know better than anyone else. They are equipped with excellent anti-tank missiles and operate cheap missile launchers against civilian populations in order to spread death and devastation with no pangs of conscience. Conscience is not a commodity with which Hizbullah is equipped vis-à-vis the Lebanese citizens and certainly not vis-à-vis Israel. Therefore, the homes of the fellow Lebanese are its shelters and their babies are its human shield, and it has learned that it is dealing with Israeli fools for whom the lives of their enemies very often take precedence over the lives of their soldiers and civilians.
The Shi`ah of Hizbullah took control of Lebanon with the generous help of Iran and Syria and it will not relinquish it even if this means bringing about its total destruction. Lebanon will gradually be emptied of its remaining Christian population and zealous Islam will have achieved an important objective: One of the only two non-Muslim countries in the Middle East will just disappear.
Preparations for the next war must begin immediately in every sense: Both the forces at the front and the defense of the rear. The national list of priorities must be reordered, and defense must be elevated form fifth to first place in the existing distorted list of priorities, as without a country there is also no one to whom to distribute benefits; for a welfare state there must first be a state. At the same time it is imperative to shatter the myth which the State of Israel has been force fed by the guardians of morality, bleeding heart liberals, various peace camps and proponents of the new Middle East: There is no peace. There is no new Middle East. On the contrary, the old Middle East of the Middle Ages is still alive and well, a Middle East inundated by, zealous, combative, messianic and apocalyptic Islam, led by clerics filled with hatred for anything non-Muslim, and by their servants who have emblazoned on their banner the restoration of the caliphate and world domination. Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad is not the only one who is giving public expression to this Islam; and he, despite the monstrosity of his turn of phrase, is not the most outspoken among them. It is worth listening to Yusuf Qardawi, the oracle of Muslim intellectuals, anti-Semitic from head to toe and the beloved of Ken Livingstone, mayor of London.
Ahmadinezhad expresses just a small part of the Islamic political and military doctrine and not a particularly zealous brand of Islam, but rather an accepted, traditional Islam. However, modern Islamic zealotry has taken this tradition and singled out the doctrine of war and the hatred of the non-Muslim world, particularly the Jews. This Islamic zealotry encompasses large communities and speaks to the masses in a language that they like to hear. There is no point in engaging in armchair psychological analysis of the reasons for this. The facts speak for themselves. This is the Islam that sees bloodshed as a supreme value.
To Murder, Slaughter and Decapitate
A clear example of this was the demonstration held in London a few months ago in protest against the publication of several caricatures criticizing Islamic terrorism, employing the image of Mohammed (about a year after they were published!). This was a massive demonstration of Muslims. The banners brandished by the demonstrators included just the words: “Kill,” “Slaughter,” “Decapitate,” “Prepare for the next holocaust” and other linguistic flourishes of this kind. In every demonstration held in Lebanon, Gaza, Nabulus, Ramallah, Iraq and many other places in the Muslim world, the demonstrators brandish any weapon on which they can lay their hands: rifles, missile launchers, hand grenades. The unfortunate among them can only brandish pistols. All this is accompanied by cries of hatred, the burning of flags and effigies and by promises of murder and destruction, especially for the Jews: “Slaughter the Jews!” is the oldest slogan.
Islam – The Imperial Fighting Religion
Islam came into being as a fighting religion. Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, imposed his authority, first and foremost, by means of his military strength. He understood that even when speaking in the name of Allah, this must be accompanied by tens of thousands of fighters with drawn swords. Islam established an empire even before it crystallized as a systematic religion. It established its institutions, developed its theories, built its culture, and created its theological and legal systems only after it had established an empire. The imperial and religious aspects of Islam are interconnected. Without an empire – without a massive political framework, loose though it may be – Islam feels that it lacks a home.
The empire expressed Islamic power, prominence and virility. Islam was born in order to rule, to be great, as is only fitting for the religion of Allah which is one and exclusive. Allah’s words in the Qur`an have guided the Muslims throughout the generations. They engraved them on their coins and repeated them at every opportunity: “It is He (Allah) who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that he may uplift it above every religion…” (Sura 9 verse 33). Mohammed is the last prophet and the greatest of all the chosen Messengers of God. Never before did a prophet of his caliber arise and never again will one arise. There is no prophetic mission greater than his and there is no validity to theories that preceded him if he did not validate them. The Jews and Christians, some of whose prophets’ names appear in the Qur`an, cannot claim that they possess true, holy scriptures as all of the holy scriptures must be identical to the Qur`an. If in the Bible and the New Testament there are things that differ or are opposed to what is written in the Qur`an, the only possible conclusion is that the Jews and Christians are in possession of forged books. They, “the People of the Book,” “changed and replaced” in their iniquity, that which is in their holy scriptures. There remains only one true prophecy and one true book and one universal legal system: The prophecy of Mohammed and the book of Allah – the Qur`an and the legal system of Islam which obligates the entire world forever.
Jews, Christians and the Islamic World Order
It is possible that Jews and Christians may be allowed to exist until Judgment Day, when their fate will be ultimately determined: The Muslims will then kill all the Jews, because without this, all the conditions for Judgment Day will not have been fulfilled and the great “Hour” will not arrive. Those Christians who still remain, will certainly be sent to burn in Hell. Until that moment, Jews and Christians may only live in the shadow of Islam and only in accordance with the Islamic legal system. They will always have the status of dhimmis, that is they will live under the patronage of Islam, which will implement the canonical rule established by the Prophet: “Islam is supreme and nothing is superior to it.”
This is the Muslim world order and it is alive and well and still functioning to this moment. It guides the Muslim outlook on life, the way in which they view the Islamic mission and the role of Islam in history, and it guides the attitude of the Muslims to the world beyond them. If two generations ago, these concepts were limited to the scholars and students in Muslim seminaries, today they are a political program, a means of action, a basis for political thought, a guide for fighters and a guide for government. One must look at the constitution of Hamas, which guides the Palestinian Authority in its war against Israel, in order to understand that these are not archaic religious theories, but rather the supreme ideas of conduct mandated by Islam and Muslims in the modern era.
Muslims are obligated to preserve and implement the Islamic world order and defend it against anyone who attempts to violate it. This is the natural order determined by Allah: One God, one religion, one prophet and one law, the law of God, the law that guides the community of Muslim believers – it and it alone is the community of Allah. Anyone challenging this Muslim law of nature rebels against Allah and should not be allowed to exist. Jews can live under Muslim rule, subservient to this law, but woe unto them if they try to emerge from the status of dhimmi, which the Islamic law destined for them. Therefore, the establishment of the State of Israel in which the Jews not only are not under Muslim patronage but they even rule over Muslims, has created a situation which is in contravention of the laws of nature. This is a distortion of history and there is no possibility that Islam will agree to accept it and certainly not to grant even its implicit approval. The establishment of a Jewish state on Islamic land is an open rebellion against Islamic law, insolence towards its prophet and impudence towards Allah.
Longings for the Caliphate
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a great tragedy befell the world of Islam, the critical nature of which, it has only revealed in recent years. It is not “imperialism and colonialism” (the two words so beloved by those seeking the causes for the backwardness of society in others rather than in themselves), but rather the abrogation of the caliphate by Kemal Ata Turk, the father of modern, secular, westernized Turkey. All at once the Muslim Empire was beheaded and it matters not that by then it has already been only a virtual empire. At least on paper, there exists a massive Muslim world populated by a billion and a quarter believers, awaiting reunification under the leadership of a Commander of the Faithful, Amir al-Mu`minin, as in the days of its glory. The Commander of the Faithful is a symbol of Islamic authority, a hint of its greatness, the head of the sleeping giant of the Empire that is slowly awakening. The caliphate is the great dream of contemporary Muslim leaders and of every Muslim. It is a dream of the past, veiled in a romantic aura. One only need enter the Khilafah (caliphate) websites on the Internet in order to understand how alive and vibrant the dream is: To renew the great momentum of the days of the Prophet and his successors, and arrive at a situation where the entire world will be ruled by the Islamic legal system according to which one Muslim government will be established with Commander of the Faithful at its head. However, in order to realize this, the Muslim world must be prepared to make sacrifices. Every Muslim is called upon to sacrifice, and first and foremost to want to sacrifice his life for the sake of this holy objective.
This is not merely romantic enthusiasm, but rather a political and military program. Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, President of Iran, recently gave a speech before a group of Iranian scholars on the subject of Islamic art. The President declared that true art is martyrdom. The death of the martyr, he said, is the most sublime expression of true art, and added in his flowery language, which sounds so good in Persian, that with the help of Allah, Islam will soon be raised to the highest peaks from which it will rule the entire world. Inshallah. (may it be the will of Allah).
Terrorism
In the last generation, this zealous and combative Islam, which directly influences the lives and the thoughts of many millions of people, has discovered the way to fight the enemies of Islam around the world. It discovered that through the combination of education to hatred, zealotry, and martyrdom, with cheap, unsophisticated weapons and a few kilograms of explosives, it was possible to undermine the security of western societies, to damage the framework of their lives and to expose the helplessness of the large empires. We call acts of horror that indiscriminately strike at innocent people, terrorism. However the Muslims, who engage in those acts, call them jihad, holy war, which Islam declared against the whole world from its very inception.
Terrorism is not a new Islamic discovery. It appeared as quite an effective tool among the early Muslims a short while after they established their imperial institutions and it has accompanied their history in various degrees of intensity. At times it is the terrorism of a small group or terrorism at the initiative of individuals and at times it is organized terrorism, relying on education and indoctrination. Political and military objectives, primarily designed to undermine the security of their opponents, were always the motivation for terrorism in Islamic history – unless it was a matter of a private vendetta. The Kharijites and the Hashishiyun, in medieval times, were conspicuous examples of blatant, impudent, horrific terrorism; in other words every terrorist attack sent out shockwaves that continued to influence their surroundings long after it had been perpetrated.
The Shi`ite Hashíshiyún, between the 11th and the 13th century, gave their name to Europeans who pronounced it “assassin” (following the colloquial: Hashsáshín) and used it in order to describe an ambush killer, hired killer or a killer in cold blood. Today, the world is filled with Muslim assassins, who, like the Hashíshiyún of the Middle Ages, undergo a long process of indoctrination and are happy to be martyrs and reach the next world quickly. During the Middle Ages only the suicide martyrs themselves were indoctrinated; in the modern Islamic world, an entire public is being indoctrinated. This indoctrination is carried out in every possible manner: Directly by preachers in mosques and in religious study groups; in all the electronic and print media; by the Muslim intellectual elites – writers and artists, filmmakers and playwrights, actors and singers; in schoolbooks, in schools, in and out of class. Most of the public in Israel and abroad does not read or understand Arabic and is certainly unaware of the power of the incessantly published material promoting terrorism and disseminating hatred of the enemies of Islam and especially the Jews. In the Arabic and Persian material, they no longer use the code word “Zionism” as a cover up for anti-Semitism.
The thrust of Muslim propaganda is directed against the Jews. From European anti-Semitic sources the Muslim authors collect everything that describes the Jews as the filth of humanity fit only for destruction. And to what they gather from Europe’s rich anti-Semitic literature they add much more of their own. Arabic and Persian anti-Semitic literature long ago surpassed its more experienced French, German and English progenitors. The topics are similar and repeat themselves: The Jews control the world, ruin its economy, incite wars, poison wells, spread disease, and cause men to be sterile. All these are negligible when compared to the Moslem versatility at fabrication. In Egypt, a book called “The Bomb” was recently published. What is the bomb? It is a sensational “revelation” by the author, containing “scientific” proof, that the Jews are descendants of apes and swine. He produces pictures of skeletons with tails as the ultimate evidence for his great discovery and the indisputable proof for what was written in the Qur`an: That the Jews were transformed into monkeys and pigs. Thus, since proof has been found for the Jews being no more than impure animals, not even human beings; there is nothing to stand in the way of their annihilation.
Much has already been written about the anti-Semitic best-sellers in the Arab and Islamic world: Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a best seller, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is not only a best seller, but also a source of inspiration for Muslim scholars artists and writers. The talented Egyptian author, Abbás Mahmúd al-‘Aqqád, whom orientalists love to describe as a “modernist,” wrote an introduction to the Protocols. He refers to the book once as a “wonderful book” and again as a “satanic book.” Even if it is a forgery, he says, its contents are true, because it describes the Jews as they are. Egypt (“peace!”) is at the vanguard of the publication of the Protocols as well as a huge volume of other anti-Semitic literature. At a book fair in Alexandria, the Protocols were placed next to a Torah scroll, indicating that they both represented true Judaism. On Egyptian television, a series based on the Protocols was broadcast over a period of several weeks. It enjoyed enormous ratings throughout the Arab world. Many Arab scholars, who deal with Jewish history, cite the Protocols as an authentic source of Jewish history even though many of them certainly know that it was already proved to have been a forgery by the beginning of the previous century.
Blood Libel
The blood libel is also alive and well in the world of Islam. Thus, for example, in a film which has been shown in the Hizbullah television al-Manár (“The Lighthouse”) on a regular basis, a group of Jews is seen slaughtering a Muslim child and using his blood to prepare unleavened bread. The Jews in the film are portrayed in the best Nazi Der Stürmer tradition: Long-bearded, hook-nosed, black-clad with wide-brimmed hats. This film and other similar ones are distributed on Islamic internet sites and are also sent, with translation, to many sites in the West and the Far East. Thousands of caricatures have been and continue to be published in all the Arab media, in which Jews are portrayed as horned goats, with tails, jumping around on rats’ legs or dining on a meal of Palestinian corpses. The blood libel and the graphic material accompanying it seep into Muslim public consciousness and reinforce the certainty that for the good of the world in general, and not only the good of Islam, the Jews should be wiped off the face of the earth.
In Syria, Mustafa Tlas, who was the Syrian Minister of War (the Arabs don’t have “Defense Ministers”), wrote his doctorate on the Jewish use of blood for ritual purposes and called it “The Unleavened Bread of Zion.” The topic that he “researched” was the famous 1840 blood libel known as the “Damascus Affair,” in which the French ambassador in Damascus played a central role in its augmentation and incitement. The thesis was immediately published as a book in which Tlas “proves” that the Jews indeed use blood in unleavened bread and that the Damascus libel was completely true. The cover of the book tells its story: A band of ugly Jews slaughtering a person and pouring his blood into a bowl. Tlas’ book was published in several editions and it too is one of the best sellers in the Arab world.
Mahmoud Abbas, the person that the Israeli press likes so much to refer to by his revolutionary name, Abu-Mazen, wrote a doctorate for the Soviet Lumumba University, in which he sought to prove the close cooperation between the Zionist movement and the Nazi regime. Not only does the book contain a denial of the Holocaust, based on the works of European Holocaust deniers; it also provides “proof” that those responsible for the deaths of a certain number of Jews among the millions who died in the war – were the Jews themselves. In other places in the world he would be put on trial; in Israel he is portrayed as a man of peace.
Educating the Masses
This indoctrination of the masses, which has infiltrated every aspect of public life, intellectual, educational, religious and political, can be seen everywhere: In the press, schoolbooks, bulletin boards, graffiti on the walls, speeches of preachers and endless hate letters. It contributes to the creation of the regular army as well as the reserves of suicide bombers craving to reach the special paradise that Allah has prepared for the soldiers fighting in his army. Paradise provides everything a person might lack in this world – and in quantities: Food and drink, shade, streams of water and black-eyed women stretched out on their beds. What is there for a person to seek in this world if these and more are the pleasures awaiting him in the world to come if he is a martyr? Traditionalists, authors and preachers, schoolteachers and artists depict paradise in great detail and martyrdom accompanies the Muslim from the day he is born.
Is it any wonder that films are being disseminated that portray a three year old(!) girl whose mother is teaching her to recite anti-Semitic slogans saying that the Jews are pigs and monkeys and speaking about the beauty of martyrdom? Two Palestinian girls, aged 11 and 12 are interviewed on official Palestinian television (of the “Authority” that Israel initiated and established in the name of peace as part of the new Middle East) and say in fluent Arabic that there is nothing that they want more than martyrdom. The interviewer asks if they would want martyrdom even if all of the Palestinian rights were to be realized. They answer: Martyrdom has nothing to do with “rights.” Martyrdom will continue to be their aspiration and is not connected with the fulfillment of the Palestinian demands. “Is there anything more wonderful than paradise?” one of them said and the other agrees with her.
When a Muslim, unceasingly exposed to this volume of hatred, looks at the map of the Middle East and sees a tiny patch stuck in the heart of the Arab-Islamic world like a dagger, and he knows that the patch is controlled by Jews, in refutation of the entire Muslim doctrine, he inevitably sees it as shocking violation of all he believes in. With its independent existence and all the trappings of sovereignty, the Jew is challenging the truth of Islam; this cannot be permitted!
Thus, the time has come for the Jews in that little patch, who live in the bubble that they have created for themselves and inside of which they play peace games, to internalize the simple, clearly manifest truth: there is no peace nor will there be peace in the Middle East as long as an independent Jewish state exists in which Jews and Muslims enjoy equal rights. There is not and there will not be peace as long as such challenge to Allah and his believers exists. There is not and there will not be peace in the Middle East unless it is in accordance with Islam: the total destruction of the Jewish state, the destruction of most of its Jewish residents and the transformation of Palestine into an integral part of the Muslim world. If after the destruction, the expulsion and the mass slaughter some Jews remain in Palestine, they might be allowed to receive second-class citizen status, living in the shadow of Islam and according to its laws. That is the only Islamic plan! It is not a secret plan. It is publicized, advertised, preached, taught but on the whole, unfortunately ignored, minimized, and in many western circles “explained,” tolerated and even excused.
The concept of peace in the spirit of the prophets of Israel, which the Israeli leaders have entertained for more than three generations, does not exist in the Islamic perception. Peace exists solely in an Islamic world ruled by Muslims. (Civil wars in Islam are an internal matter; misunderstandings that occur in every good family). Everything outside the Islamic world is defined as the “house of war” meaning the area against which Islam is obligated to wage war until its annexation to the Islamic world. Therefore, any territory that was ever Muslim becomes sacred to Islam and no man has the right to relinquish it. If the territory is conquered by enemies of Islam, like Spain, Palestine or parts of Europe, it does not lose its Islamic status and it is incumbent upon Islam to do everything to restore it to Islamic rule. This obligation can never be diminished and will never cease, as the Islamic status of these territories will never be annulled.
There is No Peace in the “House of War”
The Muslims consider the State of Israel to be an advance position of the “house of war” established on Islamic territory conquered from Islam. This territory is nothing less than a sacred Islamic endowment, a Muslim waqf, that was expropriated from Muslim hands in a momentary tragedy and therefore must be returned to Islamic hands. Israel therefore must first disappear. All paths to that end are legitimate. Sometimes various sophisticated political tools have to be employed. It is possible and permissible, according to Islamic law, to reach a cessation of combat, a temporary postponement of the jihad, as Mohammed did with his enemies. (Recently the Hamas following exactly Muhammad precedence suggested 10 years armistice – hudnah – with Israel). Ceasing combat for a fixed period of time is sometimes necessary for the purpose of regaining strength, rearming, revitalization and in order to lull the enemy to sleep. Cessation of combat can even have the characteristics of a “peace agreement” as then the enemy is willing to sacrifice vital interests and, without paying attention, expose itself to the Muslim attack that will eventually come. What the Jews, for example, call “peace agreements” are nothing more than a tactic in the jihad – Holy War, which is the ideal situation, not peace.
The holy war is the strategy and therefore the agreements (“peace”) with Egypt and Jordan are a sort of interlude in the war. They are agreements between governments, in which the Arab side fulfills only a bare minimum of its clauses. It is not peace between the nations. Egypt, which committed itself to stopping the atrocious propaganda against Israel and to normalizing relations, is the leader of anti-Semitic activity in the Arab world. The Egyptian authorities, turn a blind eye, or worse, allow the unimpeded flow of arms, above and below ground, to terrorist organizations in Gaza. Egypt acts enthusiastically against Israel in international bodies and the Islamic zealots there assume the leading parts in the orchestra of all the Jew-haters in the Islamic world. Along with the blatant and overt education of the masses to hatred of the Jews in every mass media outlet, Egypt has been preparing an enormous military infrastructure for years, with the courteous assistance of the United States and the European countries. Is it necessary to ask, to fight against whom did Egypt create an army of close to a million soldiers?
The Shi`ah
To this point we have addressed Islam in general, however it is necessary to pay special attention to Shi`ite Islam against which the State of Israel just fought and will have to fight under more difficult conditions in the future. Shi`ite Islam is the more messianic branch of Islam. It has built itself up as a religio-political body, concentrating its hopes, beliefs and aspirations around the image of the “hidden imám,” the Mahdi whose imminent appearance from his hiding place is anticipated at any moment. The Shi`ite messianic concept is unlike the Sunnis and Jewish ones. In contrast to these, according to which the identity of the Messiah is not precisely determined, the Mahdi of the Shi`ah is a living Messiah. His personal identity is known, he is a direct descendent of Muhammad; he has a name (also Muhammad), his father and his ancestors are known; he is alive and well in his hiding place in this world and awaiting the opportunity to appear. It will be an impressive appearance with a drawn sword and blood and fire. He will go to war against the whole world (including Sunni Islam). The Mahdi will win; and finally, a descendant of the Prophet will rule over Islam in its entirety – the one, true Amir al-Mu`minin – Commander of the Faithful.
The Shiites have always been and remain a minority. Throughout their history they bear on their foreheads the mark of Cain for the murder (in 680CE) of the third imam, Imam Hussein. True, they did not murder him; it was the representatives of the Sunni government who did it; however they feel that they were accomplices to the crime, and that, in their eyes, was a terrible sin against God. The sin of standing idly by when Hussein was murdered rests on every Shi`ite wherever he may be and cannot be expiated. It is a bloody stain that cannot be erased. All the Shi`ites can do is to remember the murder every moment of their lives and attempt to feel some of the pain that Hussein felt on the day he died. Therefore, the Shi`ites perform their “ ‘Ashurá” ceremonies (called ta‘ziyah) in public. They cut themselves with knives, daggers and swords, spill each other’s blood and even spill the blood of babies in their cradles in an outburst of mass ecstasy, and they aspire to die at that moment as an act of identification with the death of the Prophet’s grandson. These horrific acts are displayed publicly in the media in the entire world and no one draws the conclusions concerning the nature of a religion that sanctifies bloodshed even of its own members. This one day, the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year, expresses, perhaps more than anything else, the death wish, the desire for martyrdom and the thirst for suffering, pain and blood.
Throughout their history, the Shi`ites have sought to achieve some sort of legitimacy for themselves in the Sunni world, in whose eyes they are considered “dissenters.” Now they believe that they have found the way to accomplish that: The destruction of Israel will provide the desired legitimacy. Over the course of more than 50 years, the Islamic Sunni world – headed by the huge Arab world, surrounding Israel like a ring – has been unsuccessful in getting rid of the Jewish state. Now Iran, the only Shi`ite country in the world, is sure that it can do it. Under its leadership the Shi`ites will assume leadership of the jihad, the holy war against the entire world and they will start it from Israel. The aspiration to acquire nuclear weapons is part of the plan. Iran plans to use it and if in the process millions of Muslims die, all the better – paradise has room for all the martyrs. Perhaps that is what the Mahdi is waiting for, that the entire world be drawn into a colossal Armageddon. Surely he cannot remain indifferent when such mega-war takes place. The apocalypse is the appropriate backdrop for his appearance. He will certainly choose to appear surfing on waves of blood, blazing fire, and the billows of smoke of a radioactive world, and bring an end to the humiliation of Islam by the infidels and salvation to the world – a Muslim world free of Jews ruled by the laws of the Mahdi. Ahmadinezhad truly believes that he is destined to hasten his coming.
Great Satan, Little Satan
Hizbullah is a Shi`ite organization whose name means “Party of Allah.” This name incorporates a patently Islamic idea – Hizbullah is actually the entire Islamic world, as all Muslims are Allah’s party, all Muslims are his nation, all Muslims are his army; and they are obligated, as the Qur`an states explicitly, to fight for him in order to impose his law on the entire world. The Hizbullah of Lebanon is avant-garde, the front line camp of Allah’s army and as such it fulfills the role of fighting against the front line of the Satan – Israel. This explains the demonological imagery that we see and hear on a daily basis in the Arab media outlets: Israel is the devil’s son, the “little Satan”; America, England and the Western world in general are the great Satan: that is to say, the ultimate negative force confronting Allah and the entire Muslim nation. The great Satan confronts the Great Hizbullah – the Islamic nation in its entirety. Dealing with the great Satan is an-all Islamic duty, and this is the responsibility of the all-Muslim great fighting organization: al-Qa‘ida spreading far its octopus-like arms, and supported as it is by the massive economic wealth of the Muslims. The little Lebanese Hizbullah confronts the little Satan.
All that was written above should have been known to the Israeli governments and its leaders, as it is known to every orientalist who isn’t deluding himself and does not allow his political inclinations take precedence over the professional truth. However, the truth most of them have deluded themselves, and it is doubtful if, when the facts are thrown in their faces, they will admit it and disavow their previous positions.
The End of the “Era of Peace”
Therefore here is the reality as it truly is:
The end of the era of make-believe “peace” has arrived. There never was any such thing. There is only the era of war – past, present and future – and that alone must be dealt with and preparations must be made only for its difficult developments. The Jewish public does not go to war happily. It prefers even a spark of calm over war. It prefers to go to sleep with “A Star Is Born” TV program or similar nonsense, and is willing to fall asleep to the cooing of Shimon Peres’ doves of peace. Therefore it is surprised when it is awakened by the sound of the explosions of missiles.
By establishing war as the only existing alternative in this part of the world (“agreements” are also part of it), the public justifiably asks: How long? And the answer is: Until the Muslims lose all hope of liquidating us, and that means forever. The Arabs and Islam in general will never be able to come to terms with the reality expressed in the simple question posed on a daily basis by one or another Muslim leader: How is it possible that a billion and a half Muslims, who control massive resources, cannot wipe out (another) six million Jews ensnared in a fifty-kilometer-wide death trap. This reality offends the honor of the Muslims, angers them, and unceasingly incites feelings of revenge within them.
Anyone unwilling to understand that this is the genuine reality with which we must live and anyone unwilling to deal with it, does not belong in the Middle East – the old, cruel Middle East. It is possible that he doesn’t belong in Europe either because it has already surrendered; it has lost.
Back to Classical Wars
We must, therefore, return to classical warfare. Not a “small, smart army,” like the one suggested by Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister who brought the Party of God down on our heads, but a big, strong army. We need all the power: A large regular army, emergency warehouses filled to capacity and beyond, a reserve-force trained and skilled to the utmost capability. An end to all the various exemptions and an end to draft-dodging for reasons of conscience or for any other reason. Every healthy young man to the army, to combat units! A fundamental change of values, a reordering of national priorities: Everything for an offensive force, not a defensive one; a well-trained military force standing ready to attack with maximum power with maximum force. No longer the Israel Defense Force but the Israel Offense Force: A Jewish jihad in our time of need. Our enemy is already standing at our doorstep.
The War’s Objective: Syria Must Be Destroyed
Ceterum censeo Syriam esse delendam (“In addition, I believe that Syria must be destroyed” following Cato the Elder who ended every speech before the Roman Senate: Ceterum censeo Cartaginem esse delendam “In addition, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed.”)
In the recent war we were not far from being routed; and to a great extent, in the eyes of the enemy it was in fact a rout. As I write these lines, I hear the Syrian President announce our defeat. He is probably correct as he is still alive and able to speak.
It is not against Lebanon that we should have fought this war, but rather against Syria, Hizbullah’s patron and the link connecting Iran and Hizbullah. Syria should have been totally destroyed. No infrastructure, economic or otherwise should exist today – the airports, the fuel storage facilities, the dams on the Euphrates, the army headquarters, the missile systems and the presidential palaces all should have become heaps of ruins and the Israeli army should have been on the outskirts of Damascus. That was the result of the war that the entire enlightened world anticipated. Instead, it was astounded to see the lack of decisiveness, the vacillation over “a limited action” and “a little here a little there” while Hizbullah fire blanketed the country, reaching its center. This fire would have ended eventually and all of the war’s objectives would have been achieved the moment that Syria was reduced to rubble. That could have been accomplished if Israel had a bold leadership, which understood precisely the significance of the comprehensive battle for survival against which Israel is standing. Iran, too, would certainly have begun thinking differently.
Strategic Depth
And another classical concept of warfare – strategic depth. This is a commodity that Israel requires above all else with its back to the sea. Before 1967, Israel lacked strategic depth and it literally fought from within its capital city. The Six Day War provided it with limited strategic depth, until the Oslo fools came along and relinquished it to our worst enemies; Arafat’s gangs, whose declared aim is the destruction of Israel. However, the army retains control of the “killing area” of the Jordan Valley, and backed by the Jewish settlements it can control the mountain region. The withdrawal fools relinquished territories of the highest strategic importance in Gaza and exposed the country to missile terrorism, and other withdrawal fools seek to cede the last remaining strategic depths in Judea and Samaria. If that, God forbid, were to happen, Israel would become a narrow coastal country, like the post-1187 Crusader state, which will eternally tempt its enemies to destroy it. What a disaster it will be if the Palestinian holy warriors acquire even a fraction of the Hizbullah’s power. The residents of the north fled to the center of the country. Where will the residents of the Tel Aviv bubble flee when not Katyushas, but merely primitive kassams and mortars are fired upon it from Samaria? Into the sea to fulfill the Arabs’ great dream?
A substitute for the strategic depth that we lost in Lebanon has not and will not be found. The result of that loss is the destruction of the Galilee and the helpless stance in the face of the barrage of missiles. When the IDF fled Lebanon in 2000 under orders from the blind Israeli government, the adherents of the flight said that there would be no more fatalities in Lebanon. The price, they said, was steep: 25 dead per year. In the present war, we are mourning our dead – we have paid exorbitant interest in dead, wounded, disabled, and destruction for each of those six years.
The Palestinians
And regarding the Palestinians. Here we must sharply and decisively do away with that nonsense called the Palestinian state. Not because of a “messianic” vision as the opponents of Jewish settlement in the mountains say, but rather because a Palestinian state which will be a member of the Arab League and which will control the coastal plain from the mountains, is a surefire recipe for destruction. Therefore in the framework of reordering the national priorities, the settlement in the mountains should be established as a fundamental component in the new order right after rehabilitation of the military force. This is also an excellent way to combat terrorism. For every casualty of terrorism, Israel should announce the establishment of a new settlement. There is no doubt that the enemy would quickly understand the implications. Had we acted this way in the past, there would be dense Jewish population in the mountains providing support for the army (just as it did in Gush Katif before it was ruined) and the various terrorists would have to think hard whether it is worthwhile to kill Jews. The Jewish state needs every inch in the east in order to defend the residents of the bubble and the heart of the state. This is an existential need, not ambitions of occupation, as there is no occupation here. A nation cannot occupy its own country.
Therefore, the nonsense of building a “security fence” should be halted and the billions saved should be earmarked first for the army and for investment in other vital needs. A fighting nation does not hide behind a joke of cement and barbed wire fence. Even the Great Wall of China did not halt invaders.
Is there leadership in the State of Israel capable of facing this truth without fear, a far-sighted leadership, leadership that will develop Israeli might to an extent that its enemies will be forced to postpone the jihad against it indefinitely?
Is there leadership that will begin to establish fundamental values in the state that are based on truth and not on empty fantasies that have humiliated it and placed its very existence in danger?
Perhaps such leadership can be found after the stables are cleaned.
Comments are closed.
