The Moose muses on how the world turns.
We have now arrived at the point in Israel's war of self defense against Hezbollah when world opinion is turning against the Jewish state. As the Moose expected, it was inevitable. It happens every time.
The bottom line is that world opinion will not be satisfied until Israel stops defending herself. This war is as just as Israel's fight for existence in '48 or '67 or '73. It is not about occupation. It is a fight against evil. It is as clear cut as WWII.
It truly boggles the mind that the world carps and complains that Israel is "disproportionate" in its war to defend itself. Israel was a nation at peace that was attacked by a terrorist organization that was given refuge in Lebanon and is part of the government. Israel has every right to eliminate that threat. Israel has the power to level Lebanon - and that would have been the fate of that suffering country during any other time in human history. Instead, Israel is risking the lives of her troops to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible.
Israel should be celebrated and applauded by the world for her actions. Instead, the world denounces the Jewish state.
The problem is that liberal civilization lacks the moral clarity that existed in the '40s. Now, all is relative. And the world is weary of this fight. But, once again, Jews have no choice.
Yossi Halevi writes brilliantly in the New Republic,
"Three times in the last century, the Jewish people has found itself on the front line against totalitarian ideologies with aspirations to rule the world, and which defined the Jewish people as its primary obstacle in fulfilling that goal. For Nazism, the Jew was not only the source of racial impurity but inventor of conscience, crippling humanity's survival instincts in an amoral world. For Soviet communism, the Jew was the source of capitalism, and Zionism the front line of imperialism. And now, for fundamentalist Islam, the Jew is the satanic enemy, and the Jewish state an abomination against God that must be destroyed...
"The Jewish people is once again being forced to act as a brake against evil. This is not a repetition of the first Lebanon war, but a return to our consensus wars of survival--not a Vietnam moment but a World War II moment. That is why Israel fights, and why it will win."
The CW of world opinion is that this is an interminable conflict of two squabbling parties and Israel has inevitably over-reacted. According to this line of thinking what is needed is the even-handed intervention of sophisticated disinterested diplomats.
If only that were so. Unfortunately, Israel is confronted with a religio-fascist alliance that is fundamentally opposed to liberal civilization's notion of reason. It is an anti-Enlightenment force.
Mr. Annan issued the accusation that Israel deliberately targeted UN troops. Other UN officials are ever-so "even handed" to blame both sides for the conflict despite one is the aggressor and the other is defending her sovereignty. Their behavior is why we need John Bolton to provide some bracing Moynihan - Kirkpatrick style straight talk to the moral Liliputians at Turtle Bay. A few months ago, the Moose wrote,
"Thirty years ago, Moynihan described the UN situation as "the United States in Opposition." Then the foe was acquiescence and appeasement of communist totalitarianism and its allies. Today, the adversary is acquiescence and appeasement of Islamist totalitarianism and its allies. Moynihan was a progressive who stood up to the challenge. Will progressives do the same today or will they kvetch and attack a conservative like Bolton who defends liberal values?"
Ben Gurion once remarked that Jews are paranoids who are persecuted. How else does one explain that the world's opprobrium that descends disproportionately on Israel for doing what any other country would do under the circumstances?
The truth is that this war against Jihadist fascism is ultimately not about the Jews. Jews are merely the canary in the coal mine. The enemy of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Iranian mullahs and the assorted Jihadists is liberal civilization. In their minds. Jews exemplify the values they loathe.
But, don't wait for world opinion to figure that out. -- | 
Email
this post
