home Point of View Editorial The world hears but refuses to understand – Israel is alone

The world hears but refuses to understand – Israel is alone

Apr 7, 2013

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It’s amazing to see how a weird country with a weird leader shakes the world as if it was a feather.

North Korea has proved again that the world and especially the U.S, does not understand the changes that took place on our planet in recent years.

It happened in Egypt, in Libya and in other places. But this crisis breaks all records. This weird leader of a very weird country is causing a world crisis and is probably laughing his head off looking at the reactions.

He acts on very current and solid realities. The new talks with Iran about this couintry’s nuclear programme are a bad joke. All the parties know that nothing except force will change things but they still prefer to meet, eat very good meals and talk seating on soft leather chairs.

How can the world be so dumb hoping that things will end in a way that will not harm anyone?

The simple answer is a mix of impotency and hypocrisy. This combination worked in recent crisis and is working again with the major one caused by North Korea.

The last events in the Middle East have been a wakening lesson for Israel. It must be said that the sleep was not full before that, but the awakening was very swift.

First came the desertion of ousted president Mubarak of Egypt by his big ally, the U.S. That was followed by the so called attacks of the coalition forces on Kaddafi’s troops in Libya and the “talk only” of the Americans and Europeans about the massive killings in Syria.

In unofficial talks with senior people from the Israeli defense establishment, they say very clearly that “to rely on U.S or European military intervention in case Israel is attacked by some Arab force simultaneously, is suicide”. This sentence is the basis for the new approach. Israel has to be capable of dealing with multiple attacks either by long range missiles or by air forces. The preparations are being made and most of them are classified.

One of the senior Israeli defense people said that he envisions a big press conference in an Israeli military base “there will be small sandwiches and soft drinks. After everybody is well fed, the prime minister or the defense minister go on the podium and point to a guarded facility behind them. In a few words they convey the message – we are not threatening anyone but if someone is stupid enough to try and attack us, there, in this guarded area, we have the means to retaliate in such a way that will simply destroy the attacker”. No one of course will know what the words referred to, but the tone will have the impact.

The Middle East has changed .The only stable country is Israel. In such a situation, it seems natural that Washington will rush to assist Israel in case of a real threat, but among the people of the defense establishment this historic belief has been shaken.

This will no question lead to a gradual change in the Israeli policy that never put the “retaliation equation” on the table. Now, that may happen and the U.S. must understand it but Washington in many cases has been slow in understating processes in the Middle East, and elsewhere.