War in Israel

It's some scary stuff going on in Israel. I don't think the Israelis expect to get their man back. I don't think Hamas ought to be thinking about getting their ministers back any time soon. I rather suspect that the emergent Palestinian state has taken several giant steps backwards. Particularly scary was the Israeli Air Force's buzzing of the Syrian Presidential Palace -- they didn't even drop a leaflet, but of course the point was to show off what they could do with impunity.

I don't think I've sounded off on Israel yet in this blog. But I'm rather strongly of the opinion that Israel deserves our unflinching and generous support. They're a real, functioning democracy, a staunch ally, an important trading partner, and a key strategic partner in a critical area of the world. Our alliance with Israel is blamed for a lot of problems and tensions with the Muslim world, but it seems to me that if Israel didn't exist, we'd have those same problems anyway. So it's better to have at least one real friend in the area than none at all.

All the same, wishing for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians seems pointless. The conflict is intractible. Both peoples have formed national identities in the same geographic area. But the thing about land is, it can have only one owner. So that land can be in Israel, or Palestine, but not both.

If it's up to me, I pick Israel. Israel has proven the ability to handle power and nationhood responsibly. The Palestinians have not. They have chosen as their leaders a bunch of terrorists and thugs, and always have. The continuing violence just isn't the Israelis' fault. Israel has tried everything that's been suggested -- ceding land, permitting self-government and autonomy, withdrawal of forces, postponing enacting security measures. They've been rewarded with having their soldiers and civilians kidnapped and killed.

So moving in and making very clear that violent activity will not be tolerated is about all that seems able to work. "They [Hamas] need to decide if they are going to be a government or a terrorist organization," Shimon Peres said today. Quite right. Hamas has yet to demonstrate that it is worthy of being trusted with anything more dangerous than a pointy stick.