Monday, 24 July 2006
Unity
Tel Aviv may be the economic and cultural capital of Israel, Jerusalem its political and symbolic capital. But the Galilee is where Israelis come to play, the forested and breezy getaway from the sweltering coast and the incessant dramas of everyday life in this region. Israelis were prepared to give up sandy Gaza and might also have been prepared to do the same with the rocky West Bank, if only the Palestinians would behave themselves. Yet places make a nation as much as principles do, and the Galilee was one place no Israeli could part with if his country was still going to be worth living in.
So even as terror-stricken residents of the north flee, the rest of the country is prepared to fight, whatever the cost: A recent poll found that 80% of Israelis support the present military operations, and three-quarters of those would be prepared to launch a full-scale invasion of Lebanon if that is what it takes to defeat Hezbollah. No similar consensus has existed among Israelis since the 1967 Six Day War.
Up in his winery, Mr. Haviv fears that if the war continues, he will have no one to tend the vines and take in the harvest, and an entire season’s worth of business will be ruined. Yet as we stand beside one of his fields, watching an Apache helicopter fire missiles at a Lebanese village visible in the far distance, he muses on what his decision to remain here means. “Being here is part of defending the country. If Hezbollah wins this, the terrorists win this war, and not just against us but against the free world. You think I’m coming down from here? Never.”
Once again, the Israelis seem to grasp the concept of unity in the Long War on Terror, while it eludes many in our nation.
posted on July 24, 2006 9:54 AM
http://www.retrophisch.com/mt/phischtb.cgi/1079
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Israelis have had to suffer far more than we have. One major attack doesn't immediately galvanize an entire nation for eternity, Chris.
Posted by: Tom Bridge at July 24, 2006 5:36 PM
True, Tom, they have, but when you look at the history of violence Israelis have had to suffer under, it includes a lot of "minor" attacks, like say, these:
1979 - the American embassy in Tehran is taken over by Islamic extremists
1983 - Islamic extremists--Hezbollah, anyone?--bomb the US Marine barracks in Beirut
1985 - Islamic extremists kill a US Navy diver on TWA Flight 847
1988 - Islamic extremists blow Pan Am Flight 103 out of the sky
1993 - the World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic extremists
1998 - the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed by Islamic extremists
2000 - the USS Cole is attacked by Islamic extremists
These minor attacks culminated in September 11, 2001 - the "one major attack" you refer to.
We've been at this for quite a long time, and it's only the events of 9/11 that have woken up a large number in our nation, with too many who still don't get it. The leadership of this nation, Presidential and Congressional, Republican and Democrat, have not done enough over the past three decades to show the American people the extent of a constant state of war we are in with Islamic extremism. We're not butted right up against it, as is Israel, and our distance from the homes of this extremism has dulled our senses to the urgency of facing it head on.
Posted by: chris 
at July 25, 2006 12:15 AM
Why are we killing each other in the Holy Land so long after the Crucifixion and as we fight and kill we call this the Holy Land, well how can something that brings such destruction and death be connected to Jesus a man who wanted only peace for the World.
But keeping in mind that Jesus died to prove everylasting life and that means that Jesus who is very much alive in the Heavens is now looking down on planet Earth and watching all the mayhem that goes on in the Middleastern countries and they fight over the land on which he walked and I say its time for the people who fight and kill each other in these countries to stop saying they are doing it to protect the land on which Jesus Walked, because Jesus being alive in the Afterlife is looking down on Planet Earth from the Heavens and he wants the fighting to stop, and if it doesn't he would like for everyone to stop calling it the Holy Wars, because there is nothing Holy about it.
Posted by: RC at August 5, 2006 3:17 AM