For Israel to be capable of carrying out an attack against Iran’s nuclear installations it will need to receive U.S. and NATO backing for the move. The majority of international security analysts agree that Israeli fighter bombers en route to Iran will need to fly over Iraqi airspace and may even need to refuel in Iraq. Turkish bases may also be necessary. Given this, Israel is today in dire need of leadership capable of handling some of the most sensitive and monumental diplomacy in its history – even if such leadership were only able to convince others to carry out the attacks in our place.
The genocidal anti-Semitism that lies at the root of Iran’s quest to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons is also the source of Palestinian-led terror war against Israel. Yet, unlike the case of Iran, whose wherewithal to match its desire to destroy Israel with actual military capabilities has been uninfluenced by Israeli actions, the Palestinians’ terror capabilities have been vastly expanded as a direct result of Israeli policies.
Today, as the Palestinian Authority has ceased to operate in any coherent manner; as the Egyptian border with Gaza has been open for terror traffic for three months; and as Hamas has emerged as the most prevalent force in Palestinian politics and society, it is impossible to deny that Sharon’s decision to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza and northern Samaria has vastly empowered Palestinian terrorists.
Today the Gaza Strip has become one of the most active and dangerous bases for jihadi terrorism in the world. And yet, the rapid transformation of Gaza into the most active terror base in the Arab world has not led to calls by the international community for Israel to take the military measures necessary to destroy the emerging threat. To the contrary: The international community, led by the Bush Administration, has greeted Gaza’s mutation into what Palestinians refer to as a new Somalia, and what for Israelis and Westerners in general is more comparable to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, with ever more strident demands for continued Israeli appeasement of Palestinian terrorists.
The latest testimony to Israel’s unprecedented diplomatic weakness in Washington came with President Bush’s demand that Israel allow Arab residents of Jerusalem to vote in the upcoming Palestinian elections – elections in which Hamas is expected to receive a plurality, if not a majority, of votes.
Amid the threat now constituted by Gaza and the rising chaos in Palestinian society generally, three weeks before the Palestinian elections Israel’s defense and diplomatic establishments have no answers to give. Israel has no coherent policy to speak of for dealing with the acquisition of Strella anti-aircraft missiles or Katyusha missiles by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. It has no policy for contending with the fact that Al Qaeda has now become an actor in the Palestinian areas and in south Lebanon. It has no effective policy for dealing with the repeated attacks against its vital infrastructures in Ashkelon or with assumption that the Palestinians will soon transfer their newfound capabilities from Gaza to Judea and Samaria. Israel’s security brass has no policy for contending with the manifest links between the Iranian regime and Palestinian terror groups.
The befuddlement of Israeli leadership was perhaps most sharply manifested by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who in a public statement laid out Israel’s conditions for opening a dialogue with Hamas. Mofaz’s statement was not merely ill-advised. It was completely irrational.
Hamas, like the Iranian ayatollahs, is a terror group totally committed to the eradication of Israel. This fact was brought home clearly in an Egyptian television interview given by Mariam Farahat, aka Umm Nidal, the mother of three dead Hamas terrorists, on December 21. Farahat is considered a moderate Hamas member and is a Hamas candidate in the Palestinian elections. In a transcript published by MEMRI, Farahat, who justified the murder of all Israelis everywhere as a legitimate means of jihad, spelled out what “peace” with the Jews means for Hamas. For her, “Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea. When this is accomplished – if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards.”