We are about to celebrate Hanukah, but the mood in Israel is not ready for celebration. Every time I call my family and friends in Israel since the Hezbollah war I feel their agony, sadness, and considerable lack of hope. They believe that all Israel’s neighbors want to kill them. First try to grasp it by reading the item below written during Saddam’s 1991 Scud rocket attacks on Israel, and then I will continue:

Why, as a matter of Fact?
By Yosef Lapid,

“The thought that scares me, in my sealed room with my mask on my face, is that all my life they have wanted to kill me.
Most of my childhood memories are connected to the fact that Germans and Hungarians were searching for me, and I was running away from them. Running away from a train, running away from the ghetto, running away from a group being led to extermination. There was something impolite, something provocative, in this stubbornness, in which I insisted on living. Had I agreed to die the Germans and t Hungarians would have been free to pursue more serious endeavors. I did not even ask myself, why, as a matter of fact, do they want to kill me? It seemed obvious to me. To the point where I felt guilty for not cooperating.
And now I sit with this absurd mask on my face, because some Arab in Baghdad wants to choke me. I do not know Saddam Hussein; I never did him any harm It's really strange that he has no more pressing and important a concern than this attempt to drop a missile on my head. He is really compulsive.
I guess there are people in the world who no one ever tried to kill. It must be an interesting feeling; you get up in the morning, and no one is trying to kill you.

This time I am not keeping quiet; I do not accept the judgment; this time I really want to know. With all due respect and in complete seriousness I ask: Why have they wanted to kill me all my life?”

Israelis see little hope and feel so powerless now because they believe their government is incompetent to deal with the mounting security crises. Theirs is a government without any military experience; no trusted figure of the old days is around any more: no Rabin, no Begin, Shamir, Sharon, or Dayan. The two remaining ex prime ministers, Netanyahu and Barak are not trusted; Barak for offering everything but the kitchen sink to Arafat and getting the Palestinian explosion in return.
They don’t see any leader there that can rise up to the multi challenges of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and all the other Muslim and especially Palestinian terrorist groups. Also the security Israel felt behind the mighty United States is now shaky in light of our failure to stem the uncontrolled religious wars in Iraq. The US Iran Study Group headed by ex Secretary of State James Baker is likely to sacrifice some of Israel’s interests to extract the US out of Iraq. Baker did pressure and scarified Israel’s interests under the previous Bush government on many occasions. Baker trust in negotiations with the enemy, now Syria and Iran, was proven mistaken before.

Everywhere the Israelis turn they see serious danger. And what makes it much worse, the Israeli feel they did all they could to be good neighbors. They, unlike any other country, do their utmost to minimize collateral killing of Arab civilians, often to the detriment of their own security. For example, both in the wars against Hezbollah and against Hamas in Gaza Israel made a mistake, in my opinion, by its gingerly counter attacks.

Israel tried Land for Peace with Egypt, and gave all the Sinai, but it is a farcical peace. True, Egypt has not gone to war against Israel for 33 years but there is no peace: no commerce, no tourism, and no cooperation from the Egyptian side. Oppositely, Egypt is the source of a lot of anti Israeli propaganda around the Arab world. Egypt is also reneging on its agreement with the US and Israel to stop the influx of more and more dangerous weapons into Gaza. Condoleezza Rice forced Israel to give control of the border with Egypt and she did it in a very undiplomatic way- take or we leave you.
Luckily, Jordan is still a reliable neighbor; it needs Israel’s protection to exist.

Israel dismantled all its communities in Gaza at tremendous monetary and emotional costs and several thousands Kassam rockets is the “reward.”
Even a temporary cease fire with Habbas and Hamas has not stopped the Kassam rockets from Gaza. The Palestinians use the tool Arabs have been using all the time: “it is not me”: another terrorist group emerges from nowhere to carry on the attacks; the PA and Hamas are thus innocent.
Hezbollah is rearmed by Iran via Syria while the multinational UNIFIL forces are doing nothing. Lebanon has its own continuous crises and is unable to control its own territory. Lebanon is on a shaky ground, a new civil war may emerge.
Iran is continuing rapidly to develop its nuclear weapons, and as any knowledgeable person would have known, the UN is unwilling to do anything about it. Russia and China, commercial partners of Iran, are opposing any effective UN action against Iran. A nuclear attack on Israel is well within the possibilities of a nuclear Iran. Mutual Assured Destruction [MAD] is not a threat to Iran’s “messianic” driven leadership.

However, some small lights are present in the economic area, which is critical to Israel security; the larger the economy the more money is available for a stronger defense.
One small light is a good relationship with the Indian government, who depends more and more on Israeli military technical know-how to improve its less than modern military. For a number of years now Israel upgraded fighters of the Indian Air force. Also, a few days ago India asked Israel to extract it from a technological mess in its military development program. If India relied on US or European companies to improve its military it could be subjected to political pressure, not so with Israel who needs India support.
On the other side, India is in serious competition with Israel high technology sector. As India continue to increase its penetration into the US as a low cost technology center, it competes with Israeli branches of important companies such as Motorola, Intel, Microsoft, that are a very important part of the Israeli economy.

China may be a possible source of light. A few days ago an eleven person delegation from the top political leadership of China came to evaluate potential relationships with Israel; no one can say what types and to what extent. Note that China is the biggest rising star in the global economic game growing at a rapid rate, more than twice the US economic growth rate, and it is already not so far behind the US in the size of its GDP.
Just ten years ago my brother, an editor of a prestigious Israeli historical journal, gave a series of talks in China on Israeli culture, Judaism and history to a country devoid of almost any grasp of these subjects. Let’s hope that China will pay some favorable attention to Israel industry because then their self interest may lead them to some support of Israel.

Another source of light comes from the second richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, who recently bought an Israeli manufacturing company for five billion dollars. Not only that, he announced that Israel is a very good place to do business in and he will advertise it in his famous yearly stockholders meeting where he is considered an oracle of sensible economic ownership.

Another positive item is the change in the media in the US and Canada, and sometimes even in Europe- they now see Israel in a new light. Gone are most of the one sided attacks on Israel and indirect support of “Palestinian Militants.” After Israel’s exit from Gaza more than a year ago that was rewarded by four thousands Kassam rockets on civilians, after Hezbollah indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilians, and also seeing how inhuman the Muslim’s sectarian wars in Iraq are, a new awakening is emerging in the media: maybe Israel is not always guilty.

As you see, Israelis have a lot to be concerned about and little to be hopeful for lately. However, their economy is doing much better than expected and the economic damage from the Lebanon war is lower than expected. Nonetheless, many are still suffering since the promised government compensation to the damaged North is still too little and too late. The current strike of much of the public sector is a serious burden to the economy losing over fifty million dollars in productivity every day. I believe it is driven by political forces rather than economic ones.

The list goes on, but this will give you a glimpse of the powerlessness that many Israelis feel and the lack of hope of finding a successful way out of the security dilemma they are in.
No clear, simple solution to any of these problems is evident now, and may not exist.
There are no good solutions; any direction Israeli will take will have serious negative impacts.

Life in Israel is rewarding, but also difficult and different from most places in the world; yet, there are well meaning people who do not live in Israel who “know” what is right for the Israelis. Let’s look at the current situation and try to help them, support them, and not pressure Israel to do what to us may seem sensible. We simply have no valid concept what it means to be an Israeli.

Please use DSL or CABLE to see a brief video on Hamas/Hezbollah dangers: http://www.jerusalemonline.com:80/4israel.asp
Matania
12/06