Arab world has changed colors, sects, tribes, organizations, opinions. Middle East is on fire
Photo: EPA
Surviving in an Arab-Muslim ocean
Op-ed: We may not see the attempt to achieve peace with the Palestinians as the most important thing, but the world and many Muslim states see it as Israel's ticket to survival in a hostile world.
Should we believe and trust the Arabs on issues of peace? The answer is no. Absolutely not. That's the reason why Israel's governments throughout the generations have been investing tens of billions of shekels every year in funding security.
All the political shouters, and there are many of those, can cry out every morning about the loss of values and faith and the rightness of our way, and quote from the State of Israel's kushan certificate, the Bible, but no one in the Muslim world and in the entire world gives a damn.
The main and real question which is put to the test on a daily basis here is the State of Israel's survival and ongoing existence, lest it drown in the Arab-Muslim ocean surrounding it from every direction.
Fatal Vote
Sever Plocker
Op-ed: Instead of an anti-Bibi front, centrist and leftist parties should create a front focusing on saving the Jewish state from a violent future.
The facts are that the eight million residents of the State of Israel are surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims from all sects and ethnic groups, and we must swim very well in this ocean filled with sharks and make sure not to drown.
Everyone likes to mock the saying, "The things you see from here look different from over there," but it's the truth: Only up there, at the top of the top, you see and know the full picture – and it's not pleasant, to say the least. Any person holding a responsible position in the state's leadership, who is intelligent and has got the brains, is concerned and very worried.
The fact is that screaming leaders who promised us all that they would pack their bags if they were asked to uproot communities or that they build their eternal private homes in the territories, and others who were admiringly referred to as "the father of settlements" and those who said that "withdrawing from the Golan Heights means abandoning the State of Israel's security," understood the situation from their seat in the Jerusalem – and also realized very quickly that they would not be able to keep their promises to their voters.
Israel's Knesset. 'The current election campaign is about our life here. Every leader and every big party or coalition of parties can determine our survival ability here, and mainly propose the way to survive' (Photo: Barel Efraim)
The question which will be put to the test in the near future is how long will we still be able to "drive the whole (Arab and general) world crazy," pinch the United States in the cheek and tell people that it's the pain of love, while we pickpocket the US at the same time? For how long will we be able to explain to the world that it was a good thing that we killed that Palestinian boy at the roadblock, because he will not have to live under the sole of our shoe for many years to come?
The upcoming election campaign, therefore, is not about the political fate of Benjamin Netanyahu, Moshe Kahlon or Tzipi Livni. It's about our life here (that's a big word, but it's so true).
Every election campaign is said to be fatal and decisive – and that's true. Every leader and every big party or coalition of parties can determine our survival ability here, and mainly propose the way to survive.
Those who are looking for physical force and divine justice and certificates from ancient books and prayers to God to save us from all evil in the future, must elect – and will elect – whoever offers such a way in the current election campaign. They believe that prayers, righteousness and repentance will eliminate the evil decree (by the way, we have a pretty bad historical experience with this formula).
The world around us has completely changed in the current generation. The Arab world has changed colors, sects, tribes, organizations, opinions. It's completely different. The Middle East is on fire.
Enemy states have been shattered to pieces (fine, God's hand was in it). Other states and people are rising up to destroy us, perhaps even with nuclear bombs. It's not by chance that the State of Israel has been giving its lifeblood in the past few years in an attempt to prevent a catastrophe.
The world rightfully, and perhaps not very rightfully, sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the main source of trouble in the entire world, definitely in the Middle East. Late prime ministers David Ben-Gurion (upon the state's establishment), Menachem Begin (with the peace agreement with Egypt) and Yitzhak Rabin (with the attempt to make peace with Syria and the Palestinians and the peace agreement with Jordan), made very bold decisions at the right time.
The attempt to achieve peace with the Palestinians might not be the most important thing as far as we are concerned, but in the eyes of the world and a large part of the Muslim world, it is the State of Israel's admission ticket into what we call "survival" in a hostile world.
