Middle East Forecast

With the Israel-Hezbo war on hold for the moment a great deal is being said and written about the impact of the war and of the cease-fire.

I agree with David Frum that the biggest single lesson learned or issue made clear from this war is that neither the Palestinians nor any other Arab group or country considers a Palestinian state in the "Two State Solution" mode to be their goal. They consider Israel proper to be "occupied" territory and they are going to destroy it or die trying.

Israel "unoccupied" Southern Lebanon six years ago. At that time there was a lot of commentary on whether that would be interpreted as Israeli weakness or as Israeli generosity. The jury is now in: weakness. The opponents of that withdrawal pointed out that giving up territory for no concessions in the hope of being recognized as the good guys was a fool's mission.

Israel "unoccupied" Gaza last year. The same debate took place as did regarding the Lebanon pull out six years ago. The result was the same. A fool's mission.

Israel is, and will continue to come under attack until it eventually succumbs. I am hopeful that the battle to kill it will last 1000's of years, but the battle will never stop.

It is a bizarre world indeed wherein the fiction of a country of Jews being plopped down in the Middle East due to the guilty conscience of Europeans actually gains traction.

It is a bizarre world indeed wherein the only country ever created by UN Resolution (as far as I know) finds the UN unwilling to defend its existence and actively engaged in making it as difficult as possible for Israel to defend itself.

In January 2006 an official UN meeting on the subject of Palestinian relief took place in the UN building. A map of the Middle East was displayed. There was no Israel on the map.

Jews have been hunted down and killed like animals all over Europe and the Middle East for 1000's of years. We are long past asking what we have done to make everyone hate us. It doesn't seem to matter. They do. The arabs most stridently, at the moment.

For most of the 1000's of years of our being slaughtered by various arabs and europeans and slavs we did not defend ourselves. Happily those days are long over and killing off the rest of us is going to be a long, expensive and bloody task.