Israel keeps celebrating Independence Day each year and yet
is still far from it.
We continue to allow external forces and events to determine
our national agenda; constantly reactive rather than proactive.
Countries like Britain and India would go to war rather than
surrender far-off outposts like the Falklands and Kashmir, and yet Israel has
given up vital border territories like South Lebanon and Gaza only to see them
occupied by Iranian terror proxies, Hezbulla and Hamas. It is now expected to
surrender far more critical territory in the West Bank, within stinger range of
Ben Gurion airport.
This is not how an independent state behaves.
Madrid, Oslo, Geneva, Wye, Rogers, Tenet …. for decades Israel
has allowed itself to be bounced from one peace plan to another like a pinball.
Each time a game ends, a new American president flips the ball back into play
for another round of Israel being bounced from pillar to post without any real
resolution. Sometimes, it gets rough and they push the table to get their
way.
Independence means growing up and making one’s own
decisions.
To use the pinball analogy, we need to get our own hands on
the flippers.
Israel has become of necessity the most expert nation in
security and national defense. No-one is more qualified to determine safe
borders than Israel itself. Not America, not the EU nor the UN.
So, imagine asking the Israeli cabinet: “What would be your
ideal borders from the demographic and security points of view?” Then ask
them: “What’s stopping you?”.
The answer will almost certainly be: the Americans will
never agree, or the EU or UN wouldn’t agree and we would become isolated
politically and economically.
That’s not independence.
That’s dependence.
If the West Bank were just an outpost like the Falkland
Islands or Kashmir there might be justification to make a goodwill gesture to
get brownie points in the world.
But we don’t get brownie points … ever.
No matter what we give away, we get rockets from our enemies
and blame from our friends.
So, with nothing to lose, maybe we could finally declare
TRUE independence this year and write our own map.
After all, it’s not as if we were Russians stealing Crimea
from Ukraine.
The land was ours to start with.
And if we ever have the guts to take it off the bargaining
table, the world might finally start believing it.
Labels: independence day, israel, yom ha'atzmaut