Israel's "Samson Option"

Choice in the Absence of Choice?

By Alexander Maistrovoy,

Israeli journalist with the Russian-language Israeli newspaper Novosty Nedely

 

Signs of the times

 

Jerusalem

 

Home

Note: Remember Samson. He disobeyed God, lost his strength and was captured by Israel's enemies, the Philistines who "cut out his eyes." Tied to a pillar in a large pagan temple, Samson prayed for strength, and God granted his request. When Sampson pushed the supporting pillar, the temple collapsed killing everyone. He won the battle but lost his life. (Judges 16:21-30)

"When people speak about human rights, everyone has in mind his own ones", a German scientist and publicist Wilhelm Schwebel wrote. His words perfectly reflect the issue of "breaking" the Gaza blockade. These actions are as related to human rights as Josef Stalin's "fight for peace".

Till now not a single person has died of hunger in Gaza. They die in the other point of the world, in Kirghizia , but nobody cares about it. The rights of Palestinians are above the rights of Uzbek people as well as the Sudanese Christians, Iraqi Kurds, Boers in Southern Africa, "Ahmadyya" in Pakistan and Baha’is in Iran. Palestinians are the high caste of mankind because fortunately they are up against Israel, and the international community has its own rights and interests in this conflict.

What are they? The interests of all the players are very clear except for the West.

The goal of Iran is to strengthen its base on the Mediterranean Sea coast to escalate the confrontation with Israel and moderate Sunni Arab regimes, and at the same time to distract the world attention from its nuclear program.

The goal of Turkish Justice and Development Party led by Erdogan is to get points before the elections, make Turkey the leader of the Sunni world and to revive the national ambitions lost with the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Russia is supporting Iran and Turkey in attempt to restore the previous Soviet influence, push the US out of the region, and recover the lost imperial greatness.

The aims of these powers are completely contrary to the aims of the other two leading players in the region: Israel and the moderate Arab regimes.

The goal of Israel is to provide its safety by weakening HAMAS and depriving it of its life support: weaponry, rockets and building materials to fortify smuggling and transportation tunnels and defensive bunkers.

The goal of the moderate Arab regimes coincides with that of Israel. Arabs fear the Iranian Shiites. Nor do they want Turkey, which they also dislike, to raise its role in the Middle East . Least of all they are interested in strengthening the Palestinian enclave where the Iranians and Turks will rule. First of all it concerns the Mubarak regime that fears the Muslim Brotherhood's (of which Palestinian HAMAS is an offshoot) popularity.

Theoretically both Israel and the Arab regimes are allies of the West. So it would be right to assume that the West will protect them from regional predators. Alas! Common sense and political expediency do not work. Why? There are two reasons: irreparable losses of spiritual and cultural values by once the greatest world civilization and banal political cowardice.

The radical left and liberal part of the Western elite has voluntary deprived itself of its own heritage, values and ideals. It has refused itself right to exist, reconciled to the secondary role and even recognized its own uselessness.

The supposed "Alliance of Civilizations" of Zapatero and Obama is nothing else but accepting voluntary the status of dhimmitude, the invitation of an alien strong, dominant, and aggressive civilization to take the place of their own bankrupt and degrading one. Obama's bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a mosque in the place of WTC, kūfīyä on Zapatero's neck, the Libyan terrorist who had blown up the plane over Lockerby released "for health reasons" - all are the displays of this outlook. As Israel is the main irritant to Muslims, it loses its right to exist.

Zapatero recognizes the idea almost openly, Obama does it less obviously, but the essence does not change. His recent demands of Israel to open its nuclear program for IAEA oversight and to remove Gaza ’s blockade are more eloquent than any other words.

The other part of the Western political elite, the European right and social-democrats, don't accept this attitude. However, they don’t have any outlook at all. Their only goal is to keep their power up to the following elections and not to "rock the boat".

The ideology of surviving at all costs leads to the policy of appeasement. Sarkozy ("Disproportionate application of force" by Israel ) and Kouchner ("Recognize Palestinian state before the agreement between Israel and the PA is signed"); Brown ("Labourites have a lot in common with Muslims") and Miliband ("More respect" to Muslims), Baroness Ashton (The blockade is "unacceptable and politically counterproductive") and Berlusconi kissing the hands of Muammar Kaddafi are certainly not anti-Semitic.

Some of them are even Jews. They have nothing against Israel, as it is. They have little concern for the simple fact that the Muslim "sea" floods their own house washing away its foundations. So what use to speak about Israel , Mubarak and the Hashemite dynasty? Why speak at all, if it is so comfortable to be silent? Especially, if there are big business, EU officials, "Greens" and anti-globalists, "Human Rights Watch" and their own cultural elite to resist? So they meekly follow the "Alliance of Civilizations".

The more timorous is the policy of the West, the more aggressive Ahmadinejad and Erdogan become. The USA and Western Europe encourage these hysterical politicians, and their wild behavior can lead to uncontrollable consequences.

Fall of moderate Arab regimes... Israel will be backed into a corner

If the situation does not change (that is extremely improbable), we will witness a two-act drama. The first act will be the fall of moderate Arab regimes in Egypt, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states. If it happens, the second act will follow. Israel will be backed into his corner, surrounded by uncontrollable mad regimes. It will face the total Islamic hysteria. It will see how the circle of its enemies such as Turkey, Syria, Iran and their puppets in Lebanon and Gaza unite with "revolutionary" Muslim brothers in Egypt and Jordan.

It will see the silent indifference of the West at best and shouts of triumph and jeering at worst. The next Holocaust will cease to be an abstraction and become a reality.

Israel will be left with only two options: to die without a fight or to be lost, having destroyed the enemies. The option of falling victim to genocide or the "Option of Samson".  Zapatero and Obama believe that Israel will choose the first one. Considering the tragic and painful history of Jews, from Maccabeus and Jerusalem’s zealots to the Warsaw ghetto and the Six-day war, I would not hurry up with conclusions. And in this case there will be no outside observers…

 

Posted with permission

 

Alexander Maistrovoy’s bio: "I was born in Moscow in 1960. In the 80s I began working in journalism and my work was published in various Moscow newspapers. I immigrated to Israel in 1988 where I work for the Russian-language Israeli press. For about fifteen years I’ve been a political analyst and journalist at the newspaper Novosty Nedely (“News of the Week”). I live in Jerusalem, write about politics, social life and religion. A number of English Internet editions and websites have published my work."

 

Mr. Maistrovoy can be reached at amaist@lycos.com

 

See Signs of the times and Media-made "Foes" and Deceptive "Friends"

Home | Articles | Charts | Quotes