Calling Israel’s Bluff

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Hamas and its international collaborators have a new plan. To forcibly end Israel's embargo of Gaza's seacoast, they intend to operate a "ferry" service that will sail from Cyprus to Gaza every couple of weeks. The plan was announced on Friday by American Hamas collaborator Paul Larudee. Larudee and 32 other Hamas collaborators from North America and Europe disguised themselves as "peace activists" last week as they ran the gauntlet of Israel's naval blockade in a bid to facilitate Hamas's unfettered access to the high seas.

Israel is fully cognizant of what these Hamas collaborators are up to. It knows they are trying to force the country to concede its vital interest in maintaining the blockade to prevent massive quantities of heavy weaponry from being brought into Iran's Hamas-controlled enclave. Israel understands what is at stake. But it has absolutely no idea how to contend with this new challenge. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post over the weekend, defense officials said that they have no policy for contending with additional ships in international waters that set sail for Gaza with the declared aim of ending Israel's blockade of the coastline.

The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government claims that its handling of last week's blockade runners was successful. By allowing the ships to sail to Gaza and then return to Cyprus, the government argues that it averted a public relations trap that Hamas and its collaborators set for it. Had Israel interdicted the ships, they argue, Hamas and its allies on board would have been able to demonize Israel by accusing it of preventing humanitarian aid from getting through to suffering Hamas supporters and regime officials in Gaza.

While Israel's decision to capitulate rather than defend its interests did in fact avert bad headlines, that success should be a comfort to no one. For Israel's decision to permit the ships to sail to and from Gaza exposed two of the government's most egregious and devastating strategic failings.

IN STANDING down in the face of Hamas's high seas challenge, Israel demonstrated yet again that it prefers to capitulate rather than pay a price to defend its vital interests. And Israel's readiness to surrender came as no surprise to either Hamas or its European and North American agents. They have watched for three years as Israel has taken no action to end Hamas's use of Gaza's border with Egypt to smuggle sufficient quantities of advanced weaponry into the area to transform Gaza from a tactical nuisance into a strategic threat to southern Israel. Through its refusal to launch a military operation to retake control over Gaza's international border, Israel has daily demonstrated its unwillingness to fight to secure its vital interests of ending Iranian encroachment on its borders, and weakening with the intent of overthrowing the Hamas regime in Gaza. Knowing this, Hamas and its international collaborators rightly assumed that Israel would similarly take no action to prevent their access to the high seas.

The blockade runners were also quick to capitalize on was Israel's other major failing: Its consistent refusal to recognize and contend with the role of international collaborators in advancing the Palestinian war effort against it. Hamas's international allies knew that Israel would take no action against the ships because they have watched for years as Israel has capitulated to their colleagues who challenge the IDF in support of Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria. They saw for instance in the weeks leading up to their decision to set sail to Gaza that the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government has preferred to humiliate and court martial IDF commanders operating against terror collaborators in Ni'ilin rather than formulate a coherent information and law enforcement strategy against them.

Since 2001, international groups posing as peace activists and human rights champions have enjoyed generous funding of European governments as they have violently challenged IDF counter-terror operations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Operating under the aegis of groups like the International Solidarity Movement, the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions, Anarchists Against the Wall, Rabbis for Human Rights and other EU-funded anti-Israel groups, these terror collaborators have actively engaged in criminal behavior to thwart lawful IDF actions.

They have illegally entered closed military zones. They have illegally interfered with IDF operations. They have worked openly with Palestinian terror masters including Marwan Barghouti and Ismail Haniyeh. In so doing, these groups have been fully integrated into the Palestinian information war against Israel which itself is a vital component of the overall Palestinian war effort against Israel.

Far from acting to expose these criminals as terror collaborators, and then targeting their European governmental financiers, outlawing them, and arresting, imprisoning or deporting their members, Israel has not even tried to challenge their false self-identification as "peace activists." In surrendering the war of words to its adversaries, Israel has facilitated their war efforts against it. In legitimizing Hamas's international allies, Israel has ensured that as they have promised, they will expand their use of blockade running ships to enable Hamas's free access to the high seas.

The terror-enabling ships' successful challenge of the government demonstrated once again that under the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government, Israel's deterrent capacity has utterly collapsed. In international affairs, deterrence is the only truly effective way to prevent war. Deterrence is predicated on a state's ability and willingness to credibly threaten its adversaries' vital interests if its own are endangered. Under the Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government, Israel's deterrence has collapsed because the government freely dispenses threats that it has no intention of carrying through. Rather than frighten its enemies and so convince them to relent in their attacks against the country, Israel's reckless recourse to empty threats under the current government has emboldened them and so placed the country in ever greater jeopardy.

THIS ABYSMAL and dangerous state of affairs was fully in evidence with the government's decision last week to tell the local media that it had just "reached a strategic decision" not to permit Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Showing again its contempt for Israel's empty sloganeering, Iran announced it has finished installing 4,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear facility, that it is preparing an additional 3,000 centrifuges for use, and that it has armed Hizbullah with long range missiles.

In light of our enemies' open contempt for the government's continued use of empty threats it is clear that far from preventing war, the government's continued utilization of threats actually increases the likelihood of war. The question that necessarily arises then is why is the government still making threats that its enemies do not believe?

THE ANSWER to that central question was provided on Sunday morning at the government's weekly meeting. That meeting was dominated by statements by Kadima ministers who are running to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in this month's party leadership race. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, and Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter all outdid one another in their criticisms of Olmert's last ditch bid to conclude and accord with Palestinian Authority figurehead Mahmoud Abbas that will commit Israel to surrender Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the Hamas-dominated PA before he leaves office.

Their criticisms of Olmert were shocking for what they say about the fundamental cynicism of Kadima's would-be leaders. After all, in his feverish attempts to strike his deal with Abbas, Olmert is simply dischargi
ng the policies that all of them have repeatedly signed off on. Indeed, Livni has chaired Israel's negotiating team, and Mofaz and Dichter, like Shas leader Eli Yishai have repeatedly supported Olmert's and Livni's efforts in the face of outspoken criticism from Likud.

The cynicism of Kadima's would-be leaders exposes the actual target audience of the government's wholly discredited threats against Israel's enemies. That audience is not Israel's enemies, but the Israeli people. The government knows full well that none of Israel's enemies take its threats seriously. Between Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas, Fatah and their international collaborators, not a day goes by when Israel's bluff isn't called. The government makes those threats not because it actually intends to defend the country, but because it wants us all to believe that it will defend the country despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

BUT BEYOND that, the criticisms that Olmert's own Kadima colleagues launched Sunday against the policies he is advancing with their full support and participation tells us two fundamental truths about the nature of the Israeli public.

First, it shows us that Kadima's leaders understand that in advancing the cause of capitulation to the Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, they are acting against the wishes not only of the general public, but of their own party members. Livni, Mofaz and Dichter are vying for the support of some 70,000 Kadima members who alone have the right to vote in their primaries. By attacking Olmert for carrying out capitulationist policies they themselves have supported, they are signaling that they understand that those policies are opposed not only by their political opponents, but by their political supporters.

The second fundamental fact that their condemnations of Olmert exposes is a troubling one. While Livni, Mofaz and Dichter – like Yishai – understand that Israel's enemies are unmoved by their protestations of readiness to protect the country – they all believe that Kadima members and the Israeli public as a whole are willing to believe their cynical lies. And the polls seem to back them up. Despite the Kadima-Labor-Shas government's systematic destruction of Israel's deterrent capacity, public opinion polls show that one in five Israelis still intend to vote for Kadima in the next elections. Shas's support has not been significantly degraded since the last elections. As for the Labor party, its recent fall in the polls is due to the exposure of a new corruption scandal surrounding Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his wife, not to Barak's facilitation of Hamas's entrenchment in Gaza. Although Likud still leads Kadima in the polls, the Right's projected parliamentary majority is a narrow one.

The Kadima ministers' cynical manipulation of public opinion so prominently on display on Sunday morning together with the utter collapse of Israel's deterrent capacity makes clear the Right's central political challenge today. Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and his allies must convince the public to call the government's bluff, just as Israel's enemies have. Until the public stops its habit of believing wholly discredited threats and declarations on the part of the government, the incompetent politicians scuttling Israel's national security will continue their failed policies. Moreover, they will stand a chance of winning the public's trust to continue on this disastrous course for years to come.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

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7 Comments

  • Marc Handelsman, USA 09/01/2008 at 22:53

    The strategic blunders of the current Israeli regime have ominous implications for the country. Once Russia sells advanced weapon systems to Iran and Syria, the die will be cast for the next Mid-East war. The point of no return has been reached with Iran and its proxies. As soon as the US or Israel attack Iranian nuclear installations, the time for bluffing will end. Israel has no more cards to play because its strategic deterrence is gone. The upcoming regional war will change the face of Israel and the Middle East.

    Reply
  • Timothy Kriete FOR ISRAEL FOREVER AMEN 09/02/2008 at 2:30

    Dear Caroline Glick My PRECIOUS Sister FOR
    ZION’S SAKE (Genesis 12:1-3,Isaiah 62,Habakkuk
    2:1-3 AMEN); STAY STRONG MY SISTER AND PLEASE
    CAROLINE I BEG YOU MY PRECIOUS SISTER, NEVER
    EVER STOP OR PAUSE IN YOUR EFFORTS FOR ZION’S
    SAKE TO RELENTLESSLY SOUND THE SHOFAR AMEN. I
    Pray Daily For The LORD Our God To Strengthen
    You And To Eternally Bless The Efforts Of Your
    Mind, Your Hands, And YOUR HEART Caroline Glick.
    (ISAIAH 54:17 , ISAIAH 59:19, PSALM 144 AMEN)
    For ZION’S SAKE I Truly Wish You Were WRONG
    In Your Assessment Of The Situation In ISRAEL
    And World Wide BUT I TRULY BELIEVE YOU HAVE BEEN
    RAISED UP FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS CAROLINE AS IT
    IS WRITTEN IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ESTHER 4:14
    AMEN. Please Know That You Have A Brother In
    The USA That TRULY LOVES ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH
    PEOPLE WORLD WIDE AMEN, I WOULD GLADLY GIVE MY
    LIFE TO PROTECT ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE NO
    HESITATION WHAT SO EVER AMEN. I Lament With You
    and MANY Others Caroline, Yet I Know What The
    Biblical Scriptures WRITTEN BY THE HANDS OF THE
    HEBREW PROPHETS SAY ABOUT THE DAYS WE NOW LIVE
    IN SIS. I Seek WISDOM DAILY Led By The Holy
    Spirit Of Jehovah EL Shaddai Caroline Glick My
    Precious Holy Ghost Annoited Sister Whom Dwells
    BLESSED AND PROTECTED BY THE LORD OUR GOD IN
    JERUSALEM THE ETERNAL CAPITAL CITY OF ISRAEL.
    ISRAEL THE ETERNAL APPLE OF GOD’S EYES AMEN LET
    EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE YE THE LORD
    ELOHIM WHOM IS FOREVER MORE MY JEHOVAH EL
    SHADDAI BY HIS GRACE ALONE (GENESIS 1:26-28)
    AMEN! 🙂 Proverbs 3:1-12 Gives US ALL Daily
    Instructions To Trust IN THE LORD And Lean NOT
    Upon OUR OWN Understanding AMEN. “Heavenly
    Father/ABBA, In The Name Of Yeshua The ONLY
    Messiah The HEBREW RABBI Through Your Holy
    Spirit OUR Teacher And Comforter I Beg You
    LORD, Eternally Blind, Confuse, Confound, DEFEAT
    and TOTALLY BANKRUPT ALL ENEMIES OF ISRAEL AND
    MY JEWISH AND GENTILE BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHOM
    ARE CALLED BY YOUR NAME LORD OUR GOD. Send The
    Dew Of The Heavens, The HEALING RAIN AND THE
    GLORY CLOUD, YOUR SHAKINA GLORY Upon Your People
    Israel World Wide LORD, Let The Heathen LAMENT
    AND TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS IN ACCORDANCE
    WITH THY WORD 2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 23,51-150
    LORD. Show Thyself To THY People, MANIFEST THY
    GLORY THROUGH THY PEOPLE THAT THE HEATHEN SHALL
    KNOW THAT THE LORD OUR GOD THE ONLY TRUE LIVING
    GOD DWELLS FOREVER MORE IN ZION AND HAS WRITTEN
    HIS NAME IN JERUSALEM FOREVER MORE AMEN!!!
    Chasten ALL Nations And ALL People Whom Harbor
    EVIL In Their HEARTS Against THY WILL, And
    Against THY People LORD, Thou Art Our Shield
    And Exceeding GREAT REWARD(Genesis 15:1-6 AMEN).
    I Eternally Praise You LORD Our God, Thou ALONE
    Art Worthy Of The ETERNAL Praise, Glory, And
    Thanksgiving LORD Our God. I ETERNALLY Pray
    For The Peace (Jehovah Shalom) Of Jerusalem,
    Israel’s Eternal Capital (Psalm 122 AMEN).
    “Jerusalem, THE CITY WHERE EMPIRES DIE, SHALL
    AMERICA DIE AT JERUSALEM???” Quote From DR.
    Lester Frank Sumrall The GOSPEL Globe Trotter
    FOR ZION’S SAKE AMEN PRAISE THE LORD :):):)”
    Respectfully Submitted With The TOTAL Agape’
    Love Of Yeshua The ONLY Messiah The HEBREW
    RABBI AMEN, I LOVE YOU ALL AND YOU CANNOT DO
    ANYTHING ABOUT IT AMEN! I DAILY Truly Pray For
    And AGAPE’ Love OUR LOST Muslim AND HEATHEN
    Brothers And Sisters WORLD WIDE. If THE LORD
    OUR GOD CAN Truly And MIRACULOUSLY Circumcise
    The HEART, A SUPER-NATURAL HOLY SPIRIT ACT OF
    THE LORD GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB SUCH
    AS THE FORMER P.L.O. TERRORIST Walid
    Shoebat WHOM NOW DAILY SPEAKS OUT ON BEHALF OF
    ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE WORLD WIDE, THEN
    THE WORD OF GOD MUST BE TRUE THEN AMEN??? 🙂
    Jeremiah 29:11,31:1-14 & 31-34, 32:26-27,
    33:1-3 & 6-26 AMEN Caroline Glick FEAR NOT My
    Precious Sister The LORD Has Declared Thee To
    ALL Nations & ALL Peoples, “Rejoice Daughter Of
    ZION, The LORD Is THY Everlasting ROCK Of
    Salvation (Isaiah 26:1-4 AMEN). Love Thy
    Enemies And Pray For Those Whom Persecute Thee
    Daughter Of ZION, The LORD Worketh Miracles
    DAILY FOR HIS GLORY=WALID SHOEBAT, This Is The
    Day The LORD Hath Made, Let Us REJOICE And Be
    Glad Psalm 118:24. Learn This Parable Sis:
    I.S.L.A.M.=I Sincerly Love All Muslims, Thus
    Loving Thy Enemies And Praying For Them DAILY
    (NOT BEING WEAK AND CAPITULATING TO THEM SIS)
    NOTHING Is Impossible For The SERVANTS Of The
    LORD Most High (Jeremiah 32:26-27), The PROOF
    Is Walid Shoebat, Dr. Michael Youssef, Emir
    Fethi Caner, Ergun Mehmet Caner, And MILLIONS
    OF MUSLIMS WORLD WIDE Having The True AGAPE’
    Love Of Jehovah EL Shaddai Being Poured Out ON
    Them By Jews And TRUE CHRISTIANS Such As Benny
    Hinn, Sid Roth, LOVE THE HATE OUT OF THEM, IT
    CAN BE DONE, NOT BEING WEAK AND CAPITULATING
    TO THEM AND THEIR HATRED SIS, LOVING THEM AND
    PRAYING FOR THEM WITHOUT CEASING. The Results
    Are There For ALL To See And Hear, NEVER LOSE
    HOPE CAROLINE GLICK MY PRECIOUS SISTER AMEN 🙂

    Reply
  • Marcel Cousineau 09/02/2008 at 14:23

    The Israel I once knew no longer exists.
    It has become an insane nation which stands for nothing and only knows the art of appeasment and capitulation.
    From that day in June of 1967 when General Moshe Dayan returned control of the Temple Mount to Israel’s avowed enemies,it’s sure march to the brink of destruction we are now witnessing was set in stone.
    The more correct name for Israel today under her corrupt leadership and sheeple silently headed for slaughter ,again without a fight,is Capitulate.
    That is all your enemies see ,always without fail.
    The retreat from Gaza and South Lebanon laid more of the same Dayan foundation for what Israel is threatened by today.
    Your marriage to the Road Map has erased any deterrence you had.
    Israel’s actions do not lead to peace but something that make the death camps of Germany look peaceful. You alone Israel have even encourage Iran by your actions.
    Today Israel has decided to surrender Sheba Farms to those intent on Israel’s extermination.Another of many moves that invites never again, Again.
    All of your moves lead directly to disaster.
    How could P.M. Olmert still be sitting in power after all he has done and not have been driven out long ago ? You are marching to the death camps with the same unchanged godless,corrupt faithless leadership.
    The Masada moment has returned full force.
    How could you become so stupid and insane in such short time ?
    Israel no longer stands for anything or believes in anything as only the best liar and criminals are chosen to lead the nation to calamity.
    Everyone today ,especially Israel’s enemies knows Israel is all about surrender and defeat, so why not just keep pushing the willing Jews into the gas chambers again ? In fact Israel supplies the poison gas by way of the never ending flood of appeasments that only embolden’s the Sami Kuntar clan’s preparing another extermination .You go out of your way to help them ,only concerned about good P.R. and appear acceptable to the world as you march into the death chambers.
    Your sickness of being accepted by the world while you ignore God has brought you to the precipice of hell.
    We see how Israel is so willing to sacrifice her own people for nothing in return.The people of Gush Katif were sacrificed for what ? Gilad Shalit remains imprisoned in Gaza as a show of Israeli incompetence, ineptitude,appeasment,stupidity and cowardice. Israel has become so pathetic that it cannot ever request the release of a Jewish hero Jonathan Pollard from incarceration under the boot of a supposed friend and ally.Another example of a people who have lost their soul,traded it for lies of peace and nothing more.
    Who in their right mind would stand with such spineless cowards who will not stand for anything but are ready to surrender everything for nothing ?
    Do you think I’m going to stand and fight with cowards like Barak,Olmert and Livin who surrender and run and always capitulate everything and anything to those determined to destroy them ?

    Reply
  • Timothy Kriete FOR ISRAEL FOREVER AMEN 09/02/2008 at 17:23

    Caroline STAY STRONG BABY GIRL I Have What
    APPEARS (Not Certain But ALL The Signs Say So)
    To Be A HAMAS Collaborator Whom Reminds Me Of
    Abu Mazen (Wears Designer Fig Leaves Instead
    Of The Standard Issue Saudi Arabian Wardrobe)
    BUT HIS HEART IS WITH SAUDI ARABIA AND NOT THE
    USA, YET HE IS A LOCAL CONGRESSIONAL
    REPRESENTATIVE NAMED ANDRE’ CARSON. Forgive Me
    I Am NOT Attempting To Falsely Accuse Anyone But
    I Believe What He Does, AND What He Says Since
    Taking Office CLEARLY TELLS ME ABU MAZEN AND
    ANDRE’ CARSON ARE BROTHERS TO THE BONE, AGAINST
    THE USA AND ISRAEL ALL THE WAY! I Am Thinking
    The E.U., U.N., And The Islamic Countries That
    Clearly HATE ISRAEL AND THE USA Would Throw A
    Big Welcoming Party For Abu Mazen And Andre’
    Carson In Mecca And Medina, I PRAY I AM WRONG
    ABOUT ANDRE’ CARSON BUT ABU MAZEN I KNOW HIS
    HEART IS THAT OF PURE EVIL AMEN. Stay Strong
    Sis……Tim

    Reply
  • Marc Handelsman, USA 09/03/2008 at 5:21

    Although the current state of affairs is frustrating to many, cynicism won’t help either. Soon Prime Minister Olmert will leave office, and eventually Kadima will fold. The Likud Party has been in the political wilderness for a long time, and the public will eventually come to its senses. Sadly, it might take a regional war to bring the electorate back to reality. Israel’s strategic deterrent is dormant, but will return when the right man becomes premier. And let’s pray that new elections will restore Likud back to power.

    Reply
  • Cindy 09/05/2008 at 22:32

    (Palin’s not Pentecostal.)

    Reply
  • John Nosser 09/30/2008 at 7:20

    I have always liked Binyamin Netanyahu. He is a very strong leader. I am glad to know he is still working in the Israeli political system, and is now the Chairman of the Likud Party. I really believe that the Likud Party can put up a candidate who can lead Israel out of the mess it presently finds itself in. I pray that this can be done before Israel is painted into a corner by its enemies who are intent only in the destruction of Israel. I also pray that any attack these enemies plan for Israel will be turned back upon them when they launch it and not one grain of sand in Israel will be disturbed, while your enemies will suffer in the same way as those who plotted against Esther.

    Reply

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