?The lower officers shall then continue speaking to the people and say, ?Is there any man among you who is afraid or faint-hearted? Let him go home rather than have his cowardliness demoralize his brethren.?? ? Deuteronomy 20:8
I don?t think I?m going out on a limb when I say Saddam Hussein is not going to play ball with the United Nations inspectors once they ask to see what?s in his underwear drawer at Palace #12. This in turn is going to provoke a nasty reaction from US and British naval, air and ground forces, at least one quarter of a million of whom are mobilizing as I write. The part that gets fuzzy is, what will Mr. Potato Head do about it?
My guess is that Saddam will do what any normal, red blooded Arab would do in a hopeless situation like that: blow himself up and try to take as many Jews with him as possible. He?ll probably try to package whatever garbage he?s been able to cook up these past 10 years and FedEx it to Israel. One would like to think that both the Americans and the Israelis have rehearsed this war game a few thousand times on their PlayStations and have a plan all figured out by now. Then again, "military intelligence" is still the classic oxymoron, "fog of war" one of the truest metaphors and the law of unintended consequences has never been repealed.
Hopefully, all of Iraq?s space junk will fall harmlessly into the sea, or even better, on Arafat?s compound in Ramallah. But what if they get lucky, like they did in the Arabian desert during the Gulf War, and Saddam kills a few sheep on Ariel Sharon?s farm? Then it gets interesting, and serious. Israel will face a crucial choice that will affect the well-being of the country for at least a decade and perhaps well beyond. That was certainly the case when then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir decided to hold back in 1991. At the time, it completely reversed a positive political trend (for the Right), brought the US down on the Arab side against Israel, brought Rabin/Peres to power, gave rise to Oslo illusions and then the very real Oslo War. It?s reasonable to surmise that a similar show of misguided timidity by Israel in similar circumstances next year will have similar results.
Whenever Jews put their faith in the kindness of strangers, strangers are quick to get the message: the Jews think they are too weak to take care of themselves, they have lost confidence in the G-d of Israel. That is an opportunity and a temptation strangers, even some friends, can?t resist. That?s why, for their good and ours, we should never allow it to happen (Leaning on Israel never does the gentiles any good either, but that?s another story for another time).
In the current trendy parlance, this is all "existential," a matter of life and death. Clearly, here is a debate that should be raging in Israeli society, but I see little evidence of that. As the election campaign begins in earnest, the parties owe it to the electorate to bring the issue front and center. And the people should demand to know where they stand before casting their ballots.
In ninety days or so Israel will have a new Knesset, a new government and a new cabinet. It will not be perfect, but it will almost certainly be more patriotic, stronger and more proudly Jewish than the crowd in power today. Around the same time, Israel?s new leadership will be in the War Room witnessing an event never seen in our lifetime - America and Britain destroying an Arab regime. It?s certainly possible they will be forced to decide whether Israel and Israelis should hunker down in their cellars and quiver behind their gas masks, or come out in strength and give the enemy his due. Before they make up their minds, they need to look forward and back to the future.
Jews and the Jewish nation are at a turning point, again. We can ill afford yet another tragic mistake made in our names. Everything gained in January could be lost in February.
--------------------------------------------------------
Dovid Ben Chaim is a writer living in New York. He can be reached at dovidbenchaim@myway.com.
I don?t think I?m going out on a limb when I say Saddam Hussein is not going to play ball with the United Nations inspectors once they ask to see what?s in his underwear drawer at Palace #12. This in turn is going to provoke a nasty reaction from US and British naval, air and ground forces, at least one quarter of a million of whom are mobilizing as I write. The part that gets fuzzy is, what will Mr. Potato Head do about it?
My guess is that Saddam will do what any normal, red blooded Arab would do in a hopeless situation like that: blow himself up and try to take as many Jews with him as possible. He?ll probably try to package whatever garbage he?s been able to cook up these past 10 years and FedEx it to Israel. One would like to think that both the Americans and the Israelis have rehearsed this war game a few thousand times on their PlayStations and have a plan all figured out by now. Then again, "military intelligence" is still the classic oxymoron, "fog of war" one of the truest metaphors and the law of unintended consequences has never been repealed.
Hopefully, all of Iraq?s space junk will fall harmlessly into the sea, or even better, on Arafat?s compound in Ramallah. But what if they get lucky, like they did in the Arabian desert during the Gulf War, and Saddam kills a few sheep on Ariel Sharon?s farm? Then it gets interesting, and serious. Israel will face a crucial choice that will affect the well-being of the country for at least a decade and perhaps well beyond. That was certainly the case when then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir decided to hold back in 1991. At the time, it completely reversed a positive political trend (for the Right), brought the US down on the Arab side against Israel, brought Rabin/Peres to power, gave rise to Oslo illusions and then the very real Oslo War. It?s reasonable to surmise that a similar show of misguided timidity by Israel in similar circumstances next year will have similar results.
Whenever Jews put their faith in the kindness of strangers, strangers are quick to get the message: the Jews think they are too weak to take care of themselves, they have lost confidence in the G-d of Israel. That is an opportunity and a temptation strangers, even some friends, can?t resist. That?s why, for their good and ours, we should never allow it to happen (Leaning on Israel never does the gentiles any good either, but that?s another story for another time).
In the current trendy parlance, this is all "existential," a matter of life and death. Clearly, here is a debate that should be raging in Israeli society, but I see little evidence of that. As the election campaign begins in earnest, the parties owe it to the electorate to bring the issue front and center. And the people should demand to know where they stand before casting their ballots.
In ninety days or so Israel will have a new Knesset, a new government and a new cabinet. It will not be perfect, but it will almost certainly be more patriotic, stronger and more proudly Jewish than the crowd in power today. Around the same time, Israel?s new leadership will be in the War Room witnessing an event never seen in our lifetime - America and Britain destroying an Arab regime. It?s certainly possible they will be forced to decide whether Israel and Israelis should hunker down in their cellars and quiver behind their gas masks, or come out in strength and give the enemy his due. Before they make up their minds, they need to look forward and back to the future.
Jews and the Jewish nation are at a turning point, again. We can ill afford yet another tragic mistake made in our names. Everything gained in January could be lost in February.
--------------------------------------------------------
Dovid Ben Chaim is a writer living in New York. He can be reached at dovidbenchaim@myway.com.