Should Israel be invited to join NATO?
Reader comment on item: Does Israel Need a Plan?

Submitted by Sam Lewis (United States), Feb 2, 2003 at 16:53

I found Mr. Pipes article extremely interesting. His suggested approach is one that addresses the failures and weaknesses of ALL the plans and hopes for peace in the Middle East. He points to the "change of heart" that must take place among the Palestinians - that the victory thus gained by Israel would bring even more benefits to the Pali people than even to the Israeli people. But, Mr. Pipes, how do we arrive at the "change of heart"? Certainly, recognition by the United States of Jerusalem as the Capitol of Israel is one step. But, I think it has to be accomplished by another, even bigger step. Probably, preceeded by this bigger step.

A couple of months ago, I read the speech given by James Woolsey to the National War College (16 November 2002). I assume you are aware of it - if not, I would be pleased to forward same to you. (That sounds presumptuous, and I do not want to
be thought so. I am sure you have ready access to the speech.)

In his speech, Mr. Woolsey states that he, like Eliot Cohen, believes that we are presently engaged in World War IV. That this war is being directed at the entire Western World. Our enemies are "the Islamist Shia, the ruling circles, the ruling Clerics, the Mullahs of Iran.......who sponsor and back Hezbollah".

"A second group is the fascists....the Baathist parties of Iraq and really Syria as well....they're totalitarian, they're anti-Semetic, they,re fascist......

The third group, ....is the Islamist Sunni. And this is the most. ....virulent.....".

He went on to say a lot of things, but what I most remember was "These people don't hate us for what we've done wrong. They hate us for what we do right.....we're hated because of freedom of speech, because of freedom of religion, because of our economic freedom, because of our equal...treatment of women, because of all the good things we do"

He continues, saying that "we have given some evidence of being what bin Laden has actually called a paper tiger". He gave some examples via conversations with a Japanese officer after World War II. He said we were regarded as "a rich,spoiled, feckless country" - that what we did after December 7, 1941 stunned them.

Woolsey says he thinks we gave a lot of evidence to Saddam and to the islamist Shia in Teheran and Hezbollah and to the Islamist Sunni that we wouldn't fight. In Iran in 1979, in Beirut in 1983, in various terrorist acts throughout the 1980s we liigated but did not fight.l In 1991, we fought for Kuwait, and left without finishing the job. We encouraged the Kurds to rebel and left them to be massacered. In 1993, Saddam tried to assassinate former President Bush, and we did practically nothing. In 1993, our helicopters were shot down in Mogadishu and we left. We did nothing about the Cole bombing. And ,so, on September 11th, bin Laden blew up our buildings in New York and finally, we reacted. We surprised our enemies by what we did in Afghanistan and probably scared them.

However, the terrorism goes on. It goes on, mainly, against Israel - but, we fear it will come here. Our infrastructure is open and accessible. We know the terrorists of Israel are connected to the terrorists who would attack us and the rest of the world.
We KNOW who sponsors them and enables them. Saddam has to be taken down and the other sponsors and enablers have to be put on notice. WE ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED. We are the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. Fortunately, for that world, we only want good. But we must show our enemies and wouldbe enemies that we mean business. TERRORISM ANYWHERE is NOT to be tolerated.

Our first step is Iraq. Our next step is to tell our enemies that our friends are off limits to their terror. INVITE ISRAEL TO JOIN NATO! He who would attack our allies, attacks us. And, we will fight to protect them.

Then, we can recognize Jerusalem. Then, can we FORCE the change of heart among the Pali. Then, we can FORCE both Israel and the new proposed State of Palestine to each accept safe and secure borders. Then, we will have accomplished what all the other plans and hopes have not been able to do.

And, if it cannot be NATO for whatever reason, then something like it.

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