November 22, '06
Surrender as a National Strategy

On the morning news, I heard that Deputy Prime Minister (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Shimon Peres has called for a defense policy that will keep kassam rocket fire "to a minimum."

Whoah! Them's fightin' words. Not.

This morning, a man his 40s died of head wounds sustained when a kassam hit his factory - a poultry processing plant - yesterday. This man leaves a wife and two children. His son was due to celebrate his bar mitzvah next month.

Slightly later this morning, at 7:45, another kassam fell in Sderot, on the grounds of an elementary school. School starts at 8:00 in Israel. Victims are (thankfully, only) being treated for shock.

Over a thousand rockets have been fired into Sderot, Ashkelon and the western Negev since Israel unilaterally pulled out of the Gaza strip last year. Evicting families from their homes in twenty-one communities was justified as a necessary step for improving Israel's ability to defend itself against attack.

Apparently this was a long step off a short pier.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat, and one of modern orthodoxy's most charismatic teachers, says the Israeli government owes the country's citizenry an apology. It's worth the read.

And another essential spokesperson, Caroline Glick, puts Israel's do-nothing policy in the context of what she calls a surrender as a national strategy.

In his recent statements and actions, [British Prime Minister] Blair has been unambiguous in communicating his belief that peace in Iraq begins with Israeli surrender to the Palestinians, Hizbullah and Syria.

I guess if this most pro-Israel of Europe's leaders is putting Israel on the chopping block as part of what Glick grimly terms an "appeasement spree," it's only natural that Israel leaders like Shimon Peres will follow suit, shrugging his shoulders and saying that our goal should be to minimize the murder of our citizens, not stop it altogether.

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