Last week, while the UN Security Council was discussing, and ultimately adopting, its ceasefire resolution regarding the war in Lebanon, I was depressed. After four weeks of war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel had not delivered a knockout blow and Hezbollah had acquitted itself, well, something that no other Arab military force—whether Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, or Palestinian—has been able to do.
Israel had dazzled the world by its victories in the five previous wars waged against it by the Arabs. Now, forced by the murder and kidnapping of its soldiers into war with Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that has held Lebanon hostage, the Israeli Defense Forces appeared bogged down, seemingly unable to advance to the Litani River, the defense line that Israel had announced as its objective. They finally reached it immediately before the cease-fire went into effect on August 13th.
It now appears that the Israeli military was hindered by Prime Minister Olmert’s decision to rely overwhelmingly on the Israeli air force and to commit a relatively small number of troops, about 10,000, to the ground battle, so as to limit casualties. This is the same error made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when he ignored his military advisors and invaded Iraq with insufficient troops. That error has proven costly.
The United States, in statements and actions by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been unstinting in its support of Israel. Our government correctly viewed the attack on Israel by Hezbollah as an aspect of worldwide terrorism directed at the Western countries, including the United States Every American who believes that the war against international terrorism, which the President refers to as the battle against Islamic fascism, is the greatest danger the Western world faces, should thank President Bush for his steadfastness and courage. I thank him from the bottom of my heart.
I was depressed last week because I thought whatever partial victory the Israelis had achieved on the ground would be stolen from them by members of the UN Security Council who believe, as the French, Russians and Chinese do, that they should continue to do business with international terrorists and their state sponsors, including Iran, Iraq and Syria. When the final resolution was adopted by the Security Council, I understood how extraordinarily effective John Bolton, our UN delegate, had been with the support of our only major ally there, Great Britain, as a result of the courage of Prime Minister Tony Blair who undoubtedly overruled many of his own cabinet members who seem to have forgotten the lessons of appeasement that were painfully learned in the days of Chamberlain and World War II.
The final resolution, while undoubtedly watered down from the initial American proposal, nevertheless could yield positive results if the international military forces in conjunction with the Lebanese army disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon from the Israeli border to the Litani River. According to The New York Times of August 12th, “The United Nations resolution extends Unifil’s mandate by a year and empowers it to take action ‘to insure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind’ and ‘to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties’…The zone for the new joint force extends from the border of Israel and Lebanon—the so-called blue line—to the Litani River, roughly 15 miles to the north. That zone would be declared free of all ‘armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and Unifil.’”
The lessons of history are clear. When Hitler sent his troops into the Rhineland in 1936 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Britain and France did nothing. If they had marched against Germany, it was later learned, Hitler was prepared to back down immediately. Because the Allies did not respond, Hitler correctly saw there was a failure of will on their part. As a result, the tyrant was emboldened. He invaded Poland in 1939, beginning World War II, which cost 50 million lives.
If we are to survive and win this battle of civilizations, which will go on for years, we must, as we did in World War II, unite at the water’s edge and find a way to convince our former Western allies, led by France, to join us in a common front—willing to stand and fight international terrorism—Islamic fascism—as we stood and successfully defeated Hitler and his Nazi legions.
Slowly, too slowly, the Western world is beginning to wake up and recognize how unbelievably cruel these Muslim fanatics are, and the danger they pose to the future of humankind. Christians, Jews, Hindus and a majority of Muslims must find a way to jointly rise up and resist these evil people who are bent on our destruction.
The son of a close friend of mine, an American who married an Israeli, moved to Israel as a permanent immigrant about a year ago with his family. He recently wrote to me, “Morale here is grim; not defeatist, but resigned. There are no Six Day victories in Lebanon (or Gaza). On the radio this morning, the commentators said that for Israel, a state-of-war is the norm -- and cease-fires are a nice vacation. I hear this theme more and more these days. But I also hear everyone saying that this is their country, and they’re not going anywhere: Hezbollah, Hamas be damned.”
I replied: “We will prevail.”
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch can be heard every Friday at 6 p.m. on Bloomberg Radio.
