Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
02 February '10
So here is the logic of DM Ehud Barak - the military genius who opposed buying submarines that could launch Jericho missiles because he didn't think Israel needed a second strike capability:
#1. "If the other side believes it is possible to bring down Israel...it will prefer to do so"
#2. "Just like the familiar reality in the Middle East, we will immediately sit down [with Syria] after such a war and negotiate on the exact same issues we have been discussing with them for the past 15 years."
Questions:
#1. And if, thanks to an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, Syria "believes it is possible to bring down Israel" then what?
#2. And if Israel sits down with Syria after a war, why conclude that there would be any greater logic to make a dangerous concession of leaving the Golan just because there was a war? The Egyptian Sinai model, with a huge peninsula available for different levels of demilitarization - far away from Cairo, is hardly comparable to the tiny Golan that puts Damascus within easy striking range - and the move was premised on the assertion that somehow the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973 convinced Egypt that Israel could not be beaten (I appreciate that this logic is hard to follow - since by the same token the message of the Yom Kippur War could have just as easily been for Egypt that they should switch to American weapons before trying to destroy the Jewish State but that's not the popular narrative).
#3. Here's a novel suggestion for the people drawing salaries in the Israeli defense field: how about coming up with some ideas so that should Syria indeed decide to attack the Jewish State in the coming years, that the consequences for Damascus be so serious that at the end of the exchange they are the ones telling their citizens that the task of restoring the Golan will have ton be assigned to a future generation?
(Click here for full post w/Barak: War with Syria won't solve diplomatic issues)
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Ehud Barak is beyond stupid. And the Palestinians' lack of democratic voting rights is due entirely to their leaders' egos, not due to any fault of Israel. There is NO occupation. The Israeli army does not rule over a single Arab in either Area A in Yesha or in Gaza. But this lie that Israel is ruling millions of Arabs against their will has been allowed to stand uncorrected. Lots of countries have autonomy for minorities. That doesn't make them an "apartheid state." And pace Barak, the real existential problem facing Israel is Iran. The Palestinians at most are an irritant for Israel.
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