It is not politically expedient to be a prophet of doom. But an existential threat against Israel is gathering steam. Instead of talking about it, the PM is talking about how he is being hounded by the investigations against him. Somebody has to talk about the threat building up against us. Until now, my strategic forecasts have been quite accurate. When I see something coming, I do not feel that it is responsible to keep it to myself and not to share it with you.
As the new year, 5778 approaches, 70 years since the State of Israel was established, an existential threat possibly even more serious than what we faced in 1948 is building up. Perhaps it is reminiscent of the period before the Six Day War. The difference is that in 1948 and 1967, the public understood the situation. Today, the public busies itself with stories of various investigations and scandals, divided between Right and Left. Corruption is a very serious problem and when I was an MK, I dove deep into that swamp. However, we are currently faced with an existential threat that is the result of Israel’s identity crisis.
When you flee your identity, you do not dare to say, “I am here and I have been here for 3000 years. I am the cornerstone of the Middle East. I am the superpower here. I am taking responsibility for the Syrian refugees and so I will be the country bombing the Syrian Air Force if it drops chemical bombs on the children there.”
If you sit back and do nothing, you become temporary, a guest. You came to this Land after a major pogrom in Europe but it is only a way-station. The cornerstone of existence in this Land becomes the Arab, praised by everyone.
PM Netanyahu, when you said that we are not taking sides in the Syrian conflict, what were you thinking? Did you think that the vacuum in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and soon Jordan wouldn’t suck you in, as well?
Putin has a great laugh every time that you come to visit him. What will you do now that Putin couldn’t care less about you? Will you make another speech before both Houses of the Russian Congress? If you didn’t know how to position yourself as a regional strategic factor, if you can’t even put up a metal detector in the heart of your capital, at your nation’s holiest site, do you really think that anybody takes your ‘red lines’ seriously?
And so, under a Russian umbrella that was enabled by the vacuum that you left, Israel’s Air Force can no longer do what it did in the past. In the 70s, Israeli pilots engaged in aerial dogfights with Soviet planes. But you will not dare to do that. When you do not believe in yourself, in who you are; when you create a head-in-the-sand policy - you get to a situation in which the Iranians, under the Russian umbrella and protected by their most sophisticated systems, have created a land corridor from Iran, through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon – and soon Jordan – let there be no mistake about that, and from the south, via Yemen – all of this, including the Hezbollah, is now sitting on our eastern border.
Just as we got used to the fact that Iran has nuclear capabilities, while Netanyahu did nothing but pass the responsibility on to Obama, now we are getting used to the same conduct with Putin. This entire monstrosity will be entrenched on our eastern border in 5778, and we cannot even identify the enemy. We certainly will not carry out a pre-emptive strike. That is something that only a leftist government will do. A rightist government will not dare make a significant first strike.
The news reports that the Iranians are building sophisticated military installations near our borders. The public hears the news, but does not understand it significance because they are constantly being fed stories about Netanyahu’s alleged corruption. The Iranians are building installations that will make all the missiles pointed at us guided missiles. 150,000 guided missiles aimed at every strategic military and civilian location in Israel. Power plants, broadcasting centers, airports, military installations, ambulance and police stations. This is a grave strategic threat.
There is a solution. The Chief of Staff is preparing the IDF for these threats. But we have to take the initiative. First of all, the public must be prepared so that it understands what we are up against. This means, for example, recalling our ambassador from Russia for consultations. We must understand that Putin is creating an existential threat over Israel. This is a step toward restoring public legitimacy for the new reality. It means a pre-emptive strike. But when Netanyahu even dared to ask then Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and then head of the Mossad Dagan to begin to prepare a strike against Iran, they refused his orders. Did he fire them? No. He gave in.
The generals of 1948 and 1967 threatened to resign if Israel would not attack first. Today’s generals, after two decades of Oslo and the peace industry, who have been trained to do everything other than win. For the past two decades, the IDF has become an army that freezes the situation as is. It is more or less an international peace-keeping force. This is the prevailing mentality in the IDF. The last soldier who acted as a soldier should is now sitting in jail. They made an example of him so that all the soldiers would understand the spirit of the IDF.
The IDF has the technological ability to make a concentrated pre-emptive strike and greatly reduce the potential damage that the Hezbollah and Iranian weapons systems can wreak on Israel. But it must strike first, as it did in the Six Day War.
The Prime Minister does not have the backbone of strong identity to carry out a pre-emptive strike. That lack of identity has morphed into an existential threat for Israel.
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