This Ongoing War: A Blog: 5-Dec-12: Some indicators about the road ahead

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

5-Dec-12: Some indicators about the road ahead

With so much turbulence about (especially now but also in the past several years), it's easy to overlook the fact that Israel has fought no wars against any Arab state since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

As Robert Satloff notes in the first of the articles we extract below, Israel's experiences over these last four decades include "successful diplomacy with intermittent bouts of terrorism and asymmetric war against non-state actors". Looking ahead, there's more than a little reason to take a sober view of the future.

The End of the Forty-Year Peace between Israel and Arab States
Robert Satloff in the New Republic n With Hamas' strong political backing from regional states, future historians might very well view the recent Gaza conflict as the first episode of a new era of renewed inter-state competition and, potentially, inter-state conflict in the Arab-Israeli arena... The "old new Middle East" was a region of peace, trade, and regional cooperation. It reached its heyday in the mid-'90s, when Israelis were welcome everywhere from Rabat to Muscat... The "new new Middle East" is the region defined by the twin threats of Iranian hegemonic ambitions and the spread of radical Sunni extremism, where Israelis are not only unwelcome but where they are building fences along their borders to separate themselves from the fight around them... There is much the U.S. can do to postpone the return to inter-state Arab-Israeli conflict. Such a strategy begins with strengthening American-Israeli cooperation and includes such initiatives as preventing Hamas from winning a political victory over the moribund Palestinian Authority, incentivizing moderate behavior from the calculating Islamist leaders of Egypt, speeding the demise of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, and preventing the collapse of a wobbly Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Hamas Tells Fatah: Let's Fight Israel Together
Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post n Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar on Monday called on Fatah to join his movement in the fight against Israel and to stop wasting time and effort with the peace process. "Our hands are extended to Fatah to join the program of [armed] resistance and the liberation of Palestine... Let's join hands and carry the rifle together."

Hizbullah TV Claims Its Rockets Can Reach Eilat
Zach Pontz in the Algemeiner n Israel's Channel 2 television broadcast a video from Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV claiming that the terror group's rockets could reach as far as Eilat. The segment, accompanied by many graphic descriptions, claimed: "Hizbullah has the following capabilities: the destruction of buildings in Tel Aviv; damage to ports and ships in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and capability to hit specific targets with missiles on the residents and resources of Israel." Last week Hizbullah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah told a crowd: "Israel, which was jolted by Fajr-5 missiles [from Gaza] - how will it be able to endure thousands of missiles falling on Tel Aviv and other cities if it attacks Lebanon? Our campaign against Israel is from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat."

No comments:

About us

THIS ONGOING WAR is not part of the activity of the Malki Foundation which was founded by us, Frimet and Arnold Roth of Jerusalem, on September 11, 2001. But it is inspired by the same tragic circumstances. The Malki Foundation (also known by its Hebrew name: Keren Malki) is a memorial to the life of our daughter, Malki who was murdered at the age of 15 in a massacre in the centre of Jerusalem carried out by Hamas.

Beyond its function as a remembrance of a beautiful life, the foundation provides tangible, concrete, invaluable support daily to several thousand Israeli families from every part of the religious and socio-economic spectrum: Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze and others who care at home for a seriously disabled child.

Reach us at thisongoingwar@gmail.com

Good for the soul | The Malki Foundation

If you care to make a positive and constructive contribution to the care of Israeli children with special needs - whether they're Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze or unconnected to any particular faith community - you can't do better than direct your donation to the work of the Malki Foundation.

It's the charitable organization we, the bloggers who produce This Ongoing War, established in 2001 in memory of our murdered daughter. Her name is Malki.

Keren Malki (in Hebrew, Keren means 'foundation' or 'fund') is efficient, effective, non-sectarian, non-political and unique in the good work it does. Thousands of families from every part of our richly diverse society here in Israel have benefited in concrete and meaningful ways. Donations to Keren Malki are tax-effective in Israel, Canada, UK and the United States.

There's also plenty of background at www.malkifoundation.org as well as on the Malki Foundation Blog.

Fair use notice

This blog may contain copyrighted material that may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material, published without profit, is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues. It is published in accordance with the provisions of Israel's 2007 Copyright Law, the US Copyright Act of 1976, the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling and similar laws in other jurisdictions.