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Never Again???Neville Chamberlain’s folly lives Ten years ago, the world howled at Israel, demanding the return of land captured over decades of fighting off insurgencies ranging from terrorist attacks to all-out conventional wars. After all, the Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese just wanted their land back. Birds would sing, flowers would bloom, and peace would reign throughout the land. After much arm-twisting from the Clinton Administration, Israeli gave in to the now famous “land for peace” proposal. Now, as in almost every Clinton diplomatic initiative, we can toss this into the “debacle” pile. Since “peace” was created, Hezbollah spent 10 years retraining and rearming. Parent Iran stepped up its support with thousands of Katyusha rockets. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became Iran’s president based on an anti-United States platform. Oh, yeah…and a “kill all Jews and destroy Israel” theme as well. And they are building nuclear weapons. Syria and Iran have fueled the sectarian violence in Iraq. And now, Iran instigated satellite Hezbollah into starting this new war with Israel. All this, of course, is in direct violation of a couple dozen “resolutions” indignantly passed by the United Nations over the past 20 years, all brutally unenforced. A rearmed and better trained Hezbollah has emerged, started a war, caused hundreds of deaths, and then negotiated another “cease fire” with Israel. And they still have a few Israeli soldiers as trophies. So, shall we castigate the ineffective United Nations, and its nonchalance towards this conflict? Should we roundly criticize the laughable Clinton policy that created the opportunity for Hezbollah to resurge? Or pound the podium over Hezbollah's pugnacity? No. Instead, we should accurately point fingers at the Israeli fools who allowed the Clinton Administration and United Nations to bully them into signing the "Land for Peace" suicide pact 10 years ago. It’s one thing to swap land in exchange for peace with a sovereign state like Egypt. But the Clinton Land for Peace deal insulated Hezboillah, a terrorist organization injected into Lebanon by Iran, from supervision or reprisal. Once signed, that deal allowed Iran and/or Syria to conduct war against Israel by remote proxy via Hezbollah. And after endless UN resolutions, wussy nations have no guts to do anything about it. Did Israel expect anything else? Did they miss this obvious pathway to hell? When Ehud Barak, Israel’s John Murtha, signed the Land For Peace deal, the current war was spawned, as happens every time a nation negotiates itself into weakness against a vicious opponent. Of course, Barak’s folly led to war hawk Ariel Sharon’s election victory, and Israel seemed to have a tough leader. But his sudden illness allowed indecisive Ehud Olmert to ascend. And now, the next ten years are in Olmert’s hands. How is he doing? Awful. The first indication Olmert had no grasp of leadership was when Hezbollah captured the Israeli soldiers. Instead of an immediate, full-power lightning assault to clear Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon and find the Israeli soldiers, Olmert hesitated, fretting over the sway of worldwide public opinion. Why? The world already condemns Israel for every move, no matter how benign. And with national survival on the line, what is there to lose by incessantly pounding until the soldiers are found and Hezbollah destroyed? Olmert unfortunately chose a Vietnam-style slow and careful political approach. And every time a Hezbollah hangout was hit and human shields died, Israel offered profound apologies. Why? These people knew terrorists were in the basement. What did they expect? But the second sign that all is not well in Israel is that Olmert accepted a ridiculous cease fire. Fifteen thousand Lebanese troops will now patrol southern Lebanon. So? What will they do against a better-armed and nasty Hezbollah? Harangue them? There is no international force. And there is no elimination of Hezbollah. In fact, Hezbollah isn’t even disarmed. And now, who patrols the Jordanian border against Syrian spies? Arms smugglers? Insurgents? And of all things, the kidnapped Israeli soldiers are still held prisoner! So, Hezbollah can proudly strut around the Middle East claiming they defeated Israel. Want proof? At least 50 babies in Gaza and the West Bank have been named after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Arab world will rightly perceive Nasrallah as shrewd and strong, and Israel as weak. It’s astonishing that a nation at perpetual war cannot grasp the decisive moments of war. Apparently in Israel, “never again” doesn’t apply to the lessons of Neville Chamberlain.
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