War or Not War on The Syrian Front?

Please don't get me wrong. I don't like war. So when I recommend fighting our (Israel's) enemies it's not from a love of fighting.  It's strictly because I want us to live and survive.  It's like chemotherapy and surgery as a cure for cancer.  I've never heard of anyone who enjoys and looks forward to that. But if you want to live in good health, sometimes you must take difficult, unpleasant and risky steps.

As of late, Israel doing just that with Syria on our northern border.  Our military actions there are G-d willing going to prevent that enemy of world peace, Syria, from getting stronger and more dangerous.  Arlene Kushner has been writing some excellent articles about the issue/situation.  Here's the latest.

The original expectation that Syria would not retaliate for Israel's hits inside of that country appears to be holding true:
A Syrian government official has indicated that Syria would not be responding "immediately:  "Syria will respond to the Israeli aggression and will choose the moment to do so. It might not be immediate because Israel now is on high alert.  We will wait but we will answer."
It has been suggested that statements by Israel regarding the need to prevent Iranian weaponry from making its way to Hezbollah provides a possible out for Syria. While indeed, the strikes were on Syrian soil, they weren't intended as attacks on Syria -- which would require a response. (complete article)

And of course the best way to prevent war is prevention.  This Times of Israel article explains that.

photo credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90

On June 7, 1981, eight F-16s destroyed Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Less than a day later, the government of prime minister Menachem Begin acknowledged that the Israel Air Force was behind the attack, acting on the imperative to prevent an enemy state from obtaining nuclear weapons.

In 2013, three airstrikes were carried out in Syria — one on January 30 and two over the past weekend — that reportedly destroyed weapons convoys on their way to Israel’s enemies in Lebanon. All three attacks were blamed on Israel, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained radio silence. (In February, then-defense minister Ehud Barak hinted at Israeli involvement in the earlier strike but stopped short of directly acknowledging it.)  (complete article)

Israel is celebrating Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, tonight and tomorrow.  It's now forty-six (46) years since the 1967 Six Days War, when Israel survived a war against three enemy states, Egypt Jordan and Syria.  Their expressed and publicized aim had been to destroy Israel push all Israelis into the sea to die.  This was no surprise attack.  They, Ehypt, Syria and Jordan proudly announced this to all as they gathered their troops. Egypt ordered the United Nations to take away the "peacekeeper" forces that had been stationed just to prevent such an attack. And the United Nations quickly complied with Nasser's demands.

World Jewry prayed and the world stood by, watched and waited to see what would happen.  That's why when I hear those useless, bombastic promises by American leaders to "stand by" Israel if we're attacked, I find no comfort.  I remember what standing by really means.  It's waiting like vultures to pick up the scraps that would be left, G-d forbid, if Israel was to be destroyed. We can't count on anyone, just G-d and ourselves.

There's an Israel Hayom article by Dr. Ronen Yitzchak that discusses how unreliable United States President Barack Hussein Obama and other western leaders are when it comes to following through on their threats.

The West does not really want to intervene

In a December 4 speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Obama said "I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command, the world is watching. The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

Damascus received warnings from other European leaders as well. British Prime Minister David Cameron warned of a military option should Assad cross the red line and French president Francois Hollande declared unequivocally that "the international community will not stand idly by."

...

This is Obama's moment of truth. The lack of an appropriate military response in Syria will prove to the world, and especially to Iran, that his threats hold no weight. The conclusion is obvious: In the long run, Israel will not be able to rely on Western threats against Iran's nuclear program, because when push comes to shove they could turn out to be empty threats.

The West will not agree with Israel's red line, and will have a hard time admitting it was ever crossed. It will seek compromises and dither -- past the stage when it is possible to act militarily. (complete article)

 

The United States is an enormous country.  Even taking into account, attacks like the Boston marathon bombing, the continued existence of the USA is never in danger.  The same holds for  most of the west, so they haven't a clue as to the security needs of the State of Israel.  And in all honesty, I don't think they care.

The State of Israel must make its security decisions and policy according to what is best for us and not follow any other country's advice.

And will there be a war with Syria?  I don't know. But one thing for sure is that we must weaken them and show no fear.

Six Days in June, 1967

Here's my article which appears in the latest Voices Magazine, April, 2007.

Six Days in June, 1967

I guess this will reveal to you how old I am. That's the price of "fame," no privacy, no secrets.

I was a senior in high school, and Great Neck North was my alma mata. For those of us who remember the time, we remember well that from May, 1967, there was a terrible fear that Israel would be destroyed.

Israel and World Jewry had put its faith in the United Nations to protect Israel, and when Egypt's Nasser told the UN forces patrolling the Suez Canal area to leave, they just hightailed and left. All that was left for us was to pray. I'm sure that Great Neck Jewish community wasn't alone in having massive meetings to which "everyone," Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and unaffiliated attended. In Great Neck all of the rabbis sat together on the podium; I was one of the ushers.

I was relatively new to Zionism, having been introduced to it by another of the Great Neck Jewish "activist" kids maybe a year before. Zionism and Aliyah were not on the NCSY curriculum in those days. Due to his influence, I had joined Betar where I learned pure Zionism without the "socialist-kibbutz" adjectives. Previously, I had thought of Israel as a place one leaves, since I knew Israelis who lived in New York but had never heard of a New Yorker moving to Israel. At the same time I was a SSSJ activist, with the emphasis on Russian Jews leaving the USSR, but nobody seemed to ever reveal for where.

Great Neck is the kind of place, at least in the mid 1960's, which thinks and acts through its pocket, bank account and the like. Yes, that means that two of my strongest memories were of fund-raising during those stressful weeks.

The Great Neck Synagogue, which at the time was the only Orthodox Synagogue, sponsored a "clean-up" campaign. I don't remember the snappy slogan, but we, the members of the "Teen Club," the Great Neck Chapter of NCSY, offered to send kids to clean anything and everything for a donation which would be sent to Israel. I spent most of that day coordinating things, and if I'm not mistaken most people told the kids to wash their cars. One home I did go to was one of those enormous, stately mansions in Kensington, where we were asked to clean out the not-recently-used child-sized "dollhouse." People were very generous.

My other fund-raising venture was on Senior Class Beach Day. In those days one never missed school, on threat of dire punishments, and even something as ridiculous and frivolous as Senior Class Beach Day had to be attended. As a "newly religious," I did know that Jones Beach and a bathing suit weren't very proper, so I armed myself with a "pushka" and asked the hundreds fellow Jews in my class for donations.

Some kids politely put their ice cream money, or change after getting ice cream, into the "pushka," but others told me how their fathers had "just donated three ambulances to Israel, so I don't have any money for you!" Another one, a Jewish guy going out with a shiksa from the class, quickly emptied his pockets of change into the "pushka" and then "got it" from his girlfriend: "Why are you giving money to them?!"

During the war, we wanted to know what was going on, so my good friend (to this day) brought a transistor radio to school. Today, in the days of almost "microscopic" ipods and the like, it's probably hard for many to imagine, but a transistor radio was big, very big, like a large dictionary and just as comfortable if you're sitting on it. Yes, that's what we did to hide it from the teacher.

During most classes we wouldn't dare, but there was a substitute in "Accounting for Seniors." As we both recall, we were the only females in the class, both of us being daughters of CPA's… but that's another story. The "sub" couldn't control the class at all, and none of us had the patience to even attempt to be nice to her. She knew that my friend had brought in the radio and heard it, but she couldn't find it. I was sitting on it while it broadcast the news to the class. That was probably the only "funny thing" that happened to me during the war.

Did I have an inkling that I'd be living in some of the Biblical Land liberated in the Six Days War? Honestly, no. The concept of Aliyah was still "jelling" in my mind, and I still wasn't very familiar with Eretz Yisrael beyond the abstract. If I had been asked about Shiloh, I'd have been stumped. But Shiloh has been my home for almost twenty-six years already, and I have no plans on moving.