Israel: February 9, 2005

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There's not going to be any permanent peace between Israel and the Arabs until the Arabs stop their belief that Israel must be destroyed and all Jews must be expelled from the Middle East. Arab (including Palestinian) news media are still full of strident, and often lurid, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda, that call for the destruction of Israel. This has been going on for about a century, and since 1948, has resulted in a war, or increased terrorism, by Arabs against Israel, every ten years or so. Consider 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1987, 2000. Each marks the beginning of a major war or terrorist campaign. Each time the Arabs lost. After every defeat, the Arabs vowed that they would try again. And each time they did. It's no different this time. Palestinian terrorists openly call the current negotiations aimed at getting a ceasefire, not a permanent peace. Arabs accepted, after 1973, that there was no point in fighting a conventional war with Israel. At least not until there were sufficient internal reforms in Arab societies that would enable Arab troops to match Israelis in battlefield skills. But this would involve the formation of Arab democracies, something too many Arab political and religious leaders wanted no part of. So for the last three decades, Arab groups have used terrorism against Israel, again without much success. But one advantage of terrorist operations is that there are no spectacular battlefield defeats either. With the use of clever media manipulation, you can even turn defeats into victories. Terrorism is also cheaper, in terms of money and Arab lives, than conventional war. The Arabs have no incentive to give up their terror war against Israel, and they won't. 

 

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