I slightly envy the French. One mass murder on their soil (what we in Israel euphemistically call an “attack”) and it is clear to everyone there that they are at war.
When the Oslo Accords fell upon us, crowded buses and busy restaurants began to explode in Israel. Carnage on a Parisian scale became completely routine here. But the prime minister, Shimon Peres, insisted that the victims were “sacrifices for peace.”
Here in Israel, we still insist on not integrating the simple French realization that we are at war. The peace industry established by Peres and his friends has been alive and kicking since Oslo and will not allow the facts to confuse it.
Despite all that, it is better to be Israeli than French. Because just like the Americans after 9/11, the French beating on the war drums today cannot really identify the enemy. They cannot fight him and they cannot defeat him. Modern day nation-states need to fight against other states. Otherwise, they have no return address, for modern nation-states are based on nationalism and territory. An enemy that is not nationalist and is not territorial is outside the realm of their experience. He may see them, but they don’t see him.
Just as the Americans after 9/11 conquered Iraq and ultimately lost the battle (in other words, they elected a president called Hussein, fled Iraq and left an extremist Islamic regime in its wake, signed a surrender accord with the nuclear Ayatollahs, and are now surrendering their hegemony in the Middle East to Putin), Europe will also lose. Just like the Americans after 9/11, Europe’s citizens are about to see countless bombers taking off and landing. But they will lose.
So why is it better to be Israeli? After all, we also bomb empty lots just to satisfy public opinion. We also bribe our enemy with about 10 percent of our annual budget (more than one trillion shekels since Oslo – more than all the natural gas discoveries) in order to keep the number of murdered Israelis below a level that would endanger the peace industry. What is the difference between Israel and Europe?
“With you, I can manage,” said an Arab MK to me once in a personal conversation (after I explained to him that I am not willing to surrender even a millimeter of the Land of Israel). The Jewish Nation has foundations that run far deeper than nationalism or territory; foundations that the Arabs understand, and the Europeans – much less.
These foundations are profound and enduring. Islam and the Christian “enlightenment” collapsing before it cannot hold a candle to it. Islam will bow its head before a modern, Jewish liberty state – a state connected to its identity and the secret of its eternity.
I do not know who and what will be in the U.S. or Europe in another fifty years. I do not know what the Middle East will look like. But Israel? We will be here.