Gabi Ashkenazi and I may root for the same IFL football team, but I think his headline-grabbing proposal to give the Golan to Syria is worse than fokokt. It's dangerous and suicidal. It's much worse than Disengagement, being that the Golan overlooks northern Israel and was used by Syria to attack innocent Israelis during the nineteen difficult years Syria held it. With today's weaponry, Israel wouldn't survive. I don't know what is going on in Ashenazi's mind, but if he thinks that this is his key to a new career, I suggest that he stay in the Kraft Stadium bleachers and enjoy his retirement.
All of the recent rioting in the neighboring Arab world should prove to him how dangerous it is to think that Syria would remain quiet if fed such a juicy piece of real estate.
Syria looms enormous compared to the Golan and Israel.
- Why put the Arabs any closer to us?
- Why forcibly remove more innocent Israelis from their homes?
- Why reward our enemies with our Land?
21 comments:
Nice article, thanks for the information.
Dunno, Batya. You write, "...Golan...was used by Syria to attack innocent Israelis..." Surely you aren't suggesting that were the Israelis guilty of something it would be okay to attack! Instead of "innocent Israelis" consider referring to the population as "Israeli civilians" or "Israeli citizens" or "Israeli residents". What do other readers think of this terminology?
Sara L. I use the term "innocent Israelis," because the media and other la la Leftists use it to describe Arabs who may have been injured by Jews. The Arabs are always "innocent" according to them.
Then you are saying:
1) the political left sets the tone and language for all
2) their agenda necessarily must infiltrate our thoughts
3) we must accept and not evaluate, or challenge
Batya, it seems to me that in using their terminology we are not only undermining responsible writing and journalism but part of the problem. Why not try to fix it?
The point is that Arabs want us dead whether we're innocent or guilty. They want us gone.
Batya, do you remember the Gulf War in '91? [Yes, that was a rhetorical question.] Remember how people in Israel had mere minutes' warning of Scud attacks? The reason we had even just those few minutes of warning was thanks to Israel's being on the Golan Heights. Without the facilities on the Golan Heights we would have been effectively blinded.
Maoz, yes I remember. Does Gabi Ashkenazi?
IMHO it is irrelevant what the Arabs want. Likewise, it isn't an issue of innocence or guilt in describing Israelis. My point being I think referring to us as Israeli civilians or Israeli citizens or Israeli residents asserts our claim to our land in general and the Golan Heights in particular.
btw: applying the terms of innocent or guilt is a legal definition and becomes meaningless jargon the politically left and media use in their misguided agenda. That's why we need to focus on our agenda and not adopt their words as we forge ahead.
MAOZ said...
Batya, do you remember the Gulf War in '91? [Yes, that was a rhetorical question.] Remember how people in Israel had mere minutes' warning of Scud attacks? The reason we had even just those few minutes of warning was thanks to Israel's being on the Golan Heights. Without the facilities on the Golan Heights we would have been effectively blinded.
-------------------------------
Not that I would think of giving back even one milimeter to Syria but I recall that the Scud launches were detected by US defense satellites.
Perhaps there were tracking systems on the Golan for monitoring the approach, once Scuds came within range but by that time, we were all in our sealed rooms donning gas masks.
The technical question would then be what difference would it have made, in time, safety, etc., had the tracking systems been located in the Upper Galilee mountains instead of on the Golan. We would need a real military science geek to answer that.
Shy, does that mean that we don't need the Golan? The Syrians did do target practice on Jewish towns, villages and kibbutzim from it pre-June 1967.
Batya, where did I say such a thing?
And read my first sentence.
I was dealing with the specific claim made here and nothing else.
Shalom!
I took "innocent Israelis" to mean that all Israelis are innocent and therefore no Israelis are a legitimate target for Syria's missiles. Most readers have been so conditioned by the left wing media that seeing "Israelis" alone brings images of an aggressor. Adding "innocent" to "Israelis" creates a different image. In this case, IMHO, it's not a matter of caving into the left's use of language, but rather stressing what should be obvious, and often isn't.
Shy Guy, I've read reports that the American technology used during the Gulf War wasn't so great and that at least some of the successes were pure miracles, as opposed to miracles-carried-out-by-natural-means. I don't have specifics, but I'd look into the matter before I got too excited about the Scud blocking capabilities.
Shalom!
That last comment was mine, even though my husband's name was on it.
Hadassa
Shy, the fact that you said that having the Golan didn't help...
Hadassa, yes, I agree
Hadassa, I discussed Scud detection and tracking technology - not Scud interception technology, the latter essentially being the early version of the US Patriot missile system which was deployed here.
Batya, my point was a technical one, wires and silicon boards, plain and simple. Gaining this or that military advantage is a nice benefit from having the Golan but it is not the raison d'être for declaring it sovereign Israeli territory and telling the Syrians that they've lost it forever and they can go suck eggs.
OK, Shy, and what's Gabi Ashkenazi's rationale? Do you know?
Ashkenazi's rationale is the same as Begin's when signing a piece agreement with Egypt and returning all of Sinai.
even though the topography etc are totally different?
I must say, again, that Tzachi Hanegbi was right when he said, pre-Disengagement, that Begin changed all the rules and established the precendent. That was part of his rationale.
Yes, Batya, if you imagine you can make peace with Syria, you can rationalize away any disadvantage, topography included.
Let's keep him entertained watching football.
Post a Comment