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Defiance of US pressure – critical to Israel’s national security

The Ben Gurion role model

*In 2021, Secretary of State Blinken pressures Israel to refrain from unilateral military actions against the rogue Iranian regime, to halt construction in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and East Jerusalem (while tolerating and encouraging expanded Arab construction), to re-divide Jerusalem, and to retreat to the pre-1967 ceasefire lines, which were termed “Auschwitz Lines” by Abba Eban, Israel’s dovish Foreign Minister.

*Defiance of US and global pressure was a critical attribute of Israel’s pro-US Founding Fathers – from David Ben Gurion in 1948 through Yitzhak Shamir in 1992 – which triggered a series of short term US-Israel frictions, but earned long term respect for Israel, while providing the US with a unique force-multiplier in the Middle East. On a rainy day, the US prefers a principle-driven ally, which does not retreat in the face of US and global pressure and refuses to sacrifice its own independent national security action on the altar diplomatic and economic convenience.

*In 1948/49, the US, UN and Britain threatened Israel with economic and diplomatic sanctions, unless the newly-born Jewish State ended “occupation” of areas in the Galilee, coastal plain, the Negev and West Jerusalem, and absorbed Palestinian refugees. Prime Minister Ben Gurion rejected each of these demands, stating (with a meager population of 650,000 Jews and insignificant economic and military infrastructure):

“‘Much as Israel desired friendship with the United States 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 (My Mission in Israel 1948-1951, James McDonald, 1st US Ambassador to Israel, p. 49) ….

“‘The United States is a powerful country; Israel is a small and weak one.  We can be crushed, but we will not commit suicide…. (ibid, p. 182)’

“Ben Gurion warned President Truman and the Department of State through me [US Ambassador McDonald] 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…. I reiterated [Ben Gurion’s] solemn warning: If tiny Israel were convinced that its independence or national security were at stake it would resist a UN decision even if that resistance threatened to bring down overwhelming economic sanctions (ibid, p. 55) ….

“The more I studied and observed the manner in which he met the burdens placed upon him, the more convinced I became that he was one of the few great statesmen of our day…. The comparison [to Winston Churchill] did not exaggerate the Israel Prime Minister’s natural qualities of leadership…. Small in stature [5 feet], he was big in spirit…. He had unfaltering faith in the future of Israel…. The Prime Minister had no fear (ibid, pp. 241, 242, 247) ….

It was Ben Gurion’s defiance of pressure, which laid the foundations of Israel as an independent force-multiplier for the US, rather than a compliant ally, whose survival depends upon the presence of US soldiers.

US pressure assessed by conviction-driven Israeli Prime Ministers

*Irrespective of US pressure, US-Israel strategic cooperation has expanded dramatically as a result of Israel’s unique qualities (technologically, scientifically, militarily, agriculturally and medically), Israel’s unique contributions to the US economy and national security and Israel’s conviction-driven Prime Ministers.

*Israel’s pro-US conviction-driven Prime Ministers demonstrated that neither the US, nor the UN, nor Europe could force Israel’s hand when it came to Israel’s deep roots in the Land of Israel and critical national security issues.

*They were aware of the crucial difference between the easily attained short-term popularity and the tough and costly challenge of earning long-term strategic respect.

*They recognized that US pressure is an integral feature of the bilateral relations, testing Israel’s resolve and reliability as an ally in the face of mutual threats. They knew that there were no “free lunches”; that bowing to pressure would yield rougher pressure, undermining Israel’s posture of deterrence and stature as a worthy strategic ally; would embolden Israel’s enemies and severely injure its national security.

*They were aware that simultaneously with pressure by the US Executive, there was systematic support (since 1948) by the co-equal Legislature and most of the American people (which persists until today); and, that submission to pressure undermines the position of Israel’s supporters on Capitol Hill and in the US at-large.

*They concluded that principle-driven defiance of pressure bolstered Israel’s standing as a reliable and effective ally of the US; upgraded Israel’s posture of deterrence in the Middle East in the face of rogue regimes and Islamic terrorists; and enhanced Israel’s national security.

US pressure – track record

The documentation of US pressure on Israel from 1948-2017, demonstrates that it was driven by the worldview of the State Department, which has systematically misread the Middle East (e.g., opposing the establishment of Israel’s establishment, as well as embracing Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the PLO, while pressuring Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates).

Moreover, Israel’s destruction of Iraq’s and Syria’s nuclear reactors in 1981 and 2007 – in defiance of US pressure – spared the US and the world a potential nuclear confrontation in 1991 and a potential nuclearized civil war in Syria.

From 1961-1969, Prime Ministers Ben Gurion, Eshkol and Golda Meir rebuffed severe US pressure to allow inspection of Israel’s nuclear installations. Israel’s steadfastness has dramatically bolstered its posture of deterrence, which plays a key role in minimizing regional instability and alleviating lethal threats to every pro-US Arab regime.

In response to the September 1982 Reagan Plan, which pressured Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 ceasefire lines – which would have transformed Israel into a 9-15-mile sliver along the Mediterranean, denying the US a proven ally – Prime Minister Begin wrote the US President:

“What some call the ‘West Bank’, Mr. President, is Judea and Samaria, and this simple historic truth will never change…. Geography and history have ordained that Judea and Samaria be a mountainous country and that 2/3 of our population dwell in the coastal plain, dominated by those mountains…. Such being the case, a friend does not weaken a friend, an ally does not put his ally in jeopardy.  This would be the inevitable consequence were [the Reagan Plan] to become reality.  I believe it won’t….”

As evidenced by additional examples on October 27, 2021, Israel’s defiance of US pressure advanced US national security interests, bolstered Israel’s posture of deterrence, enhanced its role as a unique force-multiplier for the US, constrained the capabilities of anti-US Sunni and Shite Islamic terrorists, and therefore, reduced the scope of war and terrorism in the stormy Middle East.

Support Appreciated

 

 




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US-sponsored anti-Israel UN Security Council statement – acumen

*The US’ co-sponsorship of an anti-Israel UN Security Council Statement reflects the return of the State Department’s worldview to the center stage of US foreign policy-making. This was the first time, in six years, that the US enabled the UN Security Council to act against Israel.

*This is not merely a worldview, which is highly critical of Israel, as has been the case since 1948, when Foggy Bottom led the charge against the re-establishment of the Jewish State.

This worldview has systematically undermined US interests, by subordinating the unilateral, independent US national security policy (on Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian issue, etc.) to a multilateral common denominator with the anti-US and anti-Israel UN and international organizations, as well as the vacillating and terrorists-appeasing Europe.

*It has sacrificed Middle East reality on the altar of wishful-thinking, assuming that the establishment of a Palestinian state would fulfill Palestinian aspirations, advance the cause of peace, reduce terrorism and regional instability; thus, enhancing US interests.

*However, the reality of the Middle East and Jordan and the rogue Palestinian track record lend credence to the assumption that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River, yielding traumatic ripple effects, regionally and globally:

^Replace the relatively-moderate Hashemite regime with either a rogue Palestinian regime, a Muslim Brotherhood regime, or other rogue regimes;
^Transform Jordan into a chaotic state, similar to Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which would be leveraged by Iran’s Ayatollahs to intensify their encirclement of the pro-US Saudi regime;
^Convert Jordan into a major arena of regional and global Islamic terrorism;
^Trigger a domino scenario into the Arabian Peninsula, which could topple all pro-US, oil-producing Arab regimes;
^Imperil the supply of Persian Gulf oil, which would be held hostage by anti-US entities, catapulting the price at the pump;
^Jeopardize major naval routes of global trade between Asia and Europe through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal;
^Intensify epicenters of regional and global terrorism and drug trafficking;
^Generate a robust tailwind to US’ adversaries (Russia and China) and enemies (Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS) and a powerful headwind to US economic and national security interests.

*The State Department assumes that Palestinian terrorism – just like Islamic terrorism – is driven by despair, ignoring the fact that Palestinian terrorism has been driven (for the last 100 years) by the vision to erase the “infidel” Jewish entity from “the abode of Islam,” as stated by the charters of Fatah (1959) and the PLO (1964), 8 and 3 years before the Jewish State reunited Jerusalem and reasserted itself in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

*Aspiring for a Palestinian state, and viewing Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria as an obstacle to peace, ignores the Arab view of the Palestinians as a role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism, corruption and treachery. Moreover, the State Department has held the view that the Palestinian issue is the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a central to Arab interests, which has been refuted by the Abraham Accords. The latter ignored the State Department, sidestepped the Palestinian issue and therefore came to fruition.

*The State Department overlooks the centrality of the Palestinian Authority’s hate education, which has become the most effective production-line of terrorists, and the most authentic reflection of the Palestinian Authority’s worldview and vision.

*The State Department has also taken lightly the Palestinian Authority’s mosque incitement, public glorification of terrorists and monthly allowances to families of terrorists, which have documented its rogue and terroristic nature (walk), notwithstanding its peaceful diplomatic rhetoric (talk).

*The State Department’s eagerness to welcome the Palestinian issue in a “red carpet” manner – contrary to the “shabby doormat” extended to Palestinians by Arabs – and its determination to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state, along with its embrace of Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood, have been interpreted by rogue regimes and organizations as weakness.

Experience suggests that weakness invites the wolves, including wolves which aim to bring “The Great Satan” to submission throughout the world as well as the US mainland.

Support Appreciated

 




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