Israel Hayom..
21 March '12..
The term “national resilience” long ago turned into a research subject at universities and among decision-makers around the world. The question of what bolsters national resilience has also already shifted from being only an academic question to being a practical issue. Psychologists, especially those who deal with political psychology, research the human traits that enable us to deal with stressful circumstances as well as recover from blows and traumas. Political scientists search for answers in the fields of geopolitics, political leadership, the nature of government and citizens’ attitudes toward national threats.
In Israel, however, a new invention has become the essence of our national resilience: self-defense. No longer is psychological resilience important. No longer does it matter how we conduct ourselves geopolitically. The nature of the regime doesn’t matter either. Self-defense is the new response to any attack.
To deal with the threat of Palestinian terrorists, we built a fence dividing ourselves from them. Motorists on Route 6, the tollway that crosses Israel, will not see the danger or even know it exists, and life goes on as usual. Motorists on Route 443, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, are protected by concrete walls near the Qalandiya checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah and near Atarot, a community north of Ramallah. As a result, they do not see the hostile village on the other side. Driving on the Jerusalem tunnel road, the Palestinian village of Beit Jala is hidden by concrete arches, magically making security problems disappear.
These days, Israeli national resilience has taken yet another step forward. Brave Israel Air Force soldiers operate the Iron Dome defense system. This is the latest in sophisticated defense. For those who have not yet understood the role of Iron Dome in our national resilience, there is the following learned explanation: With the help of the Iron Dome, Israel can bear more attacks from Gaza.
The magnificence of contemporary national resilience is admirable. No longer is an unresilient Israel unable to bear rocket attacks on the houses of its residents. Thanks to our self-defense, Israel has graduated to a new level and we can look forward to the next round of violence with our heads held high.
At some point in the past, when we were fragile and lacked resilience, it was unthinkable to us that an enemy could be in shooting range of Kiryat Shmona. We even went to war in southern Lebanon to prevent it. But today we are resilient. Instead of demanding, like all the non-resilient nations of the world, that no one fire on our residents, we have devised a patent that will allow our enemies to launch another round of violence.
The question is whether Israel is willing to emerge from behind our self-defense to defend our sovereignty. Are our citizens willing to stand on the other side of the concrete wall to defend their country? Only a positive answer is indicative of true national resilience. Any other answer will just put us in bomb shelters while we wait for another round, which, if we are lucky, will preserve our lives until the round after that.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1597
The writer is a lecturer at the Ariel University Center of Samaria.
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