Israel today

For a more complete picture of today’s Israel after the Yom Kippur War and the peace treaty with Egypt, here are contemporary maps or Israel and of the Gaza strip and the Golan heights.

This brings us to the current stage of affairs – the fifth Arab-Israeli war, i.e., the war of terror.

You may ask at this point: What is terrorism? This is an important point because Islamic PR tries to use this attribute describing any action Israelis, Americans, Indians, Russians and others take to combat terrorism, and this utterly distorted description is often use by leftists in America, Europe and even in Israel. Terrorism is intentional use of deadly force indiscriminately against non-combatants in order to demoralize the general population of an adversary nation, ethnic or religious group. Like military aggression, the purpose of terrorism is to achieve political objectives. When targeting ethnic or religious minorities the objective is generally ethnic cleansing – “encourage” the terrorized victim population to leave a certain site or territory.

Sometimes it is aimed to “convince” the victims not to challenge its compromised political rights, or to “persuade” the ruling government to change the political status of a terrorizing minority. International terrorism is generally aimed at forcing the adversary government to make political concessions or to topple that government and replace it with a government that will be more likely to yield to the terrorists’ demands. The later political strategy is generally effective with the victim country is a democracy. Weapons of mass destruction used to indiscriminately terrorize whole populations are tools of terror, by definition.

Islamic terrorism against Israel combines both types of objectives. It is definitely international – instigated by a coalition of Islamic countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, and previously also Iraq and Libya – but, like ethnic cleansing, it is aimed at the eventual utter eradication of the Jewish state and replacing it by a new Islamic country. As stated elsewhere, the eradication of the Jewish nation and eliminating its Judeo-Christian core in Jerusalem would be a prime prize for Islam in its global effort to achieve worldwide supremacy.

The Islamic adversaries of Israel will undoubtedly not hesitate to use WMD against the Jewish state, if the got hold of them. Syria has chemical and biological warfare agents and the means to the deliver them. Iran is frantically developing nuclear bombs with a declared intension to use them against Israel. It is therefore our duty to fullheartedly support the US efforts to defang those Islamic foes of Israel that are actually sworn enemies of Western civilization that considers religious beliefs and worship as private matters of the individual.

It must be realized that militant Islam is not a trait of a distinct Islamic sect, such as the Copts, Greek Orthodox, Anglicans or Mormons in Christianity, or Karaites, Samaritans or Reconstructionists in Judaism. Militant Islam is an integral part of mainstream Islam, practiced by both Sunnis and Shiites. A call to a Jihad by any Muslim clergyman, a holy war against, say, Jews and Americans, obligates all observant Muslims. Muslims who do not fulfill this religious obligation are not “good” Muslims, just like Muslims who drink alcohol or eat pork.

This far, no Islamic religious movement, including Muslim clergy, has openly and formally rejected the tenets of Jihad, Dar-el-Islam, shihada (martyrdom of Muslims who murder non-Muslims), and religio-political supremacy. Up to date, no Muslim religious leader has publically advocated unqualified tolerance of all people irrespective of their beliefs -- treating people who practice Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hiduism, Shituism , etc. or even atheists as equals. What is worse, using petro-dollars fanatical Islamic religious leaders are reviving the 1400 year-old primordial animosity toward non-Muslims, Jews and Christians in particular. The are instructing the Muslim clergy world-wide to incite their congregants and persuade them to join the Jihad against the infidels. It took a century for practically all Americans to become skin-color blind; and this racial bias was never entrenched in the fundamentals of Christian religion. It took more than fifteen hundred years to rid Christianity from its hatred of Jews, which originated in obsolete religious polemics. Remembering these precedents it is clear that it will not be easy to rid Islam of their supremacist ideology that is hardly separable from Koranic Islam.

The 9/11 experience, the Islamic persistent terror all over Israel, terrorist attacks in Munich and Buenos Aires, as well as the recent terrorist attacks in Bali, Nairobi, Dar Es-Salaam, Istanbul, Moscow, Kashmir, India, Mombasa, Tunisia, and Madrid, i.e., on five continents – Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America, teach us that Islamic terrorism is global. In our modern world, murderous militant cultures cannot be tolerated or contained in isolated habitats. Using modern means of communication and transportation they spread and proliferate like a virus wherever Muslim clerics address Muslims. Any concession to terrorists feeds this virus and by enhancing recruitment of additional Muslim terrorists by radical Islamic clergy wherever Muslims live. Radical Islam that breeds terrorism must be, therefore, uprooted and eradicated and Islam must dramatically change for the benefit of the human race.

On the other hand, guerilla tactics used against an invading or occupying force, such as the current attack on American and allied troops in Iraq, are not terrorism but a form of combat. Also assassination of specific political enemies is not terrorism. Calling these tactics “terrorism” confuses the issue and makes it harder to denounce, fight and eradicate terrorism.

The PLO, the ruling political body of the “Palestinian” Arabs seeing there constituency as the spearhead of the Arab nation to rid the Middle East of Jews, whom they call “Zionists”. Article 15 of the PLO charter states explicitly:

The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard.

Article 10 of the same charter spells out the method to be used to achieve the political goals of the Arab nation:

Commando action [terrorism in Western lingo] constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution.

There is, therefore, no question that the Arabs are using terrorism against the Israelis, to which the IDF is responding defensively and refrains from any action that might be interpreted as terrorizing the Palestinian Arabs. Noncombatant Arabs have never been killed indiscriminately by the IDF in its attempts to stop Arab terrorism, even if some Arabs have been killed in the crossfire. In this respect the IDF is in a similar position to the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thus the “moral equivalence” and “tit for tat” clichés used by the media to describe the situation is absurd and probably malicious.

The charter of Hamas the competitor-partner of the PLO makes the following statements that speak for themselves:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

Israel has been accused for targeting the leadership of this terrorist organization that has murdered some 400 Israelis in the last two years.

The goal of the Palestinian terror is to eventually eliminate the State of Israel, although the Arabs may occasionally offer a ceasefire in return for political and territorial concessions. Such ceasefires do not hold, like after the Oslo Accords, or they may last for a few years before the next round of terrorist attack. One must hope that the Israelis will be wise enough not to be mislead by false promises to fall into a fatal trap. Any concession in response to terrorism will breed more terrorism in Israel and elsewhere. Israel must have learned it by now the hard way, and so might have Spain, which promised to meet the terrorist demands – only God prevented the derailment of the express train from Madrid to Seville that would have resulted in additional hundreds of innocent Spanish civilian casualties.

Arab terrorism by its very nature is sporadic, keeping the Israelis and “adversaries” of Islam, in suspense as to where and when the next terrorist attack will take place. The “hardening” of certain potential targets may give some structure to the distribution of the sites of terrorist attacks. The following set of 21 maps shows the locations of terrorist incidents (yellow dots) and of clashes with terrorists (red dots) each week over a 21 the week period, November 2003 through March 2004. One can see the overall geographic pattern of Arab terrorism in Israel. Clearly, the Gaza strip has the highest overall density of terrorism and counter terrorism. This pattern has led PM Sharon to suggest Israeli unilateral withdrawal from that territory. However, the wisdom of that decision is still questionable because Arabs will be interpreted it as a reward for terrorism. Undoubtedly, it will not stop Arab terrorist attacks on Israelis, these may in fact intensify.

Israel faces now a serious dilemma – shall it allow the establishment of a 23 Islamic Arab state in the Middle East on main parts of the historical Land of Israel – Judea and Samaria, as part of the US sponsored “Roadmap to Peace”? The proposed Arab state is likely to become a home base for continued Islamic anti-Israeli terrorism, as well as a launching pad for a potentially devastating military attack on Israel by its Arab neighbors, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, probably Iran and Jordan (remembering the 1967 war) and possibly also Iraq. This would be Israel’s sixth existential war.

The only possible guarantee against such an assault is the recognition of the Jewish rights to its homeland by the world of Islam. No political guarantees by America or the European Union will be worth very much since none of these guarantors, including the US, will go to war at the spur of the moment to defend the Jewish state from Arab aggression. On the contrary, the US is still equipping Egypt with modern military hardware that can only be used against Israel (Egypt has today no other potential enemies).

Before considering alternatives, let us analyze the potential military risks Israel might take by creating such an Islamic state.

The following two maps show the vulnerability of Israel vis-a-vis such a potentially hostile Muslim Arab state. The worse case scenario is the retreat of Israel to the 1948 armistice line.

Clearly, most Jewish urban centers are within the range of medium artillery or short-range missiles. Even if Israel extended it boundaries by five to ten miles, reducing the size of the Arab state to impractical limits for a viable independent state and retained control over its air space, Israel would still be vulnerable. Adding now extramural threats such as air attacks by American fighter-bombers that were supplied to Saudi Arabia and/or by Iranian aircrafts, as well as by Syrian scud missiles, one can see how vulnerable Israel is.

When can there be peace in the Middle East?

One must realize and remember that terrorism is just one of the tools of Islamic aggression against Israel and the West. Other potential tools are military aggression with the use WMD (which are another form of terrorism since they are indiscriminate murder weapons used most effectively against non-combatants), conventional military aggression as those used by the Arabs against Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, psychological warfare using propaganda to achieve political goals, and last and not least the use of Muslims in Israel and other Western countries to undermine the democratic social structure or the very existence of the host countries. Consequently, the stop of Arab terrorism is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for coexistence of Jews and Arabs in the Middle East or of Muslims and non-Muslim worldwide. The “war against terrorism” of the Bush Administration is a misleading term, as the real war is against Islamic supremacy, which is the driving force of Islamic terrorist aggression.

The fact that the State of Israel is located in the Jewish homeland to which nobody else can have any claims should never be questioned. Consequently, any meaningful peace agreement between the Jewish and Arab nations, as well as peace between the Jews and the whole Islamic world, must include the recognition the State of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people. Any cessation of hostilities without fulfilling this condition is not going to be a lasting peace and ought to be rejected. Any other recognition of Israel, including its "right to exist," does not imply that critical recognition and is probably a political trap, since such “recognition” can be revoked overnight. Peace between Muslims and Jews in Israel will be probably the last element of global peace between Muslims and non-Muslims, just as it has been the first point of contest between the two civilization. This is simply because of the critical symbolic value of the Holy Land to Jews and Christians, who constitute the driving force of Western culture.

Evidently, based on pure security considerations, Israel is not position to accept the threat of an additional Arab state west of the River Jordan. An alternative solution is annexation of Judea and Samaria with the possible divestment of the Gaza strip. Potential demographic problems are not insurmountable. (See M. Anbar Rationale of an Alternative in M. Anbar Israel and Its Future iUniverse 2004, pp. 141-158, and Scenarios of Israel’s Future ibid pp. 190-216).

Let me end this section quoting a recent statement of Professor Robert Friedmann of Atlanta: “If the Arabs and Muslims would lay down their arms, there will be no more violence. If Israel does so, there will be no more Israel. Therein lies the real balance of the forces and the intentions in the region.”

The establishment of the State of Israel was followed by a mass immigration of Jews to their homeland, reminding us of “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:12). The following table shows the number of Jewish immigrants during the period 1948 to 1995:

U.S.S.R. and C.I.S.	813,708
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia	345,753
Romania	273,957
Poland	171,753
Iraq	130,302
Iran	76,000
United States	71,480
Turkey	61,374
Yemen	51,158
Ethiopia	48,624
Argentina	43,990
Bulgaria	42,703
Egypt and Sudan	37,548
Libya	35,865
France	31,172
Hungary	30,316
India	26,759
United Kingdom	26,236
Czechoslovakia	23,984
Germany	17,912
South Africa	16,277
Yugoslavia	10,141
Syria	10,078

Most of those immigrants were penniless refugees from Eastern Europe and the Arab countries. However, within 50 years Israel has changed from a impoverished country devastated by the 1948 existential war to an economically, technologically and culturally highly advanced state which exceeds in many aspects most of the European countries, not to speak of Third World countries. Many nations look now up to Israel as an example of fast and effective development.” “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles…Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Isaiah 49:6, 60:3) The following is a summary of Israel’s achievements in different areas of endeavor in just 55 years.

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can make claim to the following:

· Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

· Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per-capita rates of patents filed.

· Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees - ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

· Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2002 was over $18,500, comparable to most European countries, including the UK. Israel's $110 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

· Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.

· Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel is first in this parameter as well.

· Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

· In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

· Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.

· Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

· With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world and as a region it is second only to California’s Silicon Valley.

· Israeli research shows that we can find out more about what is buried beneath the earth's surface by launching a satellite into the sky.

· The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

· Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

· Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.

· Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

· Mercury Interactive, an Israeli company that leads the world of software quality assurance tools, was named "one of the hottest software firms in the world" by Forbes Magazine in October 2003. Mercury's 7,500 customers include Cisco Systems, GE Medical, Dow Chemical and Charles Schwab.

· American industry giants such as Ford, GM, Boeing, GE Aircraft Engines, Lockheed Martin, all manage their manufacturing processes using software from the Israeli company Tecnomatix.

· New, super-light-weight batteries for laptops and cellular phones are pioneered at the Israeli company Electric Fuel.

· The technology for AOL Instant Messenger was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

· Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

· An Israeli company has unveiled a blood test that via the telephone diagnoses heart attacks.

· The Israeli-developed Ex-Press shunt is providing relief for American glaucoma sufferers.

· Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

· An Israeli research team has found that the combination of electrical stimulation and chemotherapy makes cancerous metastases disappear.

· An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U.S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

· Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used the view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.

· Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with congestive heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

· A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the ClearLight device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct - all without damaging surroundings skin or tissue.

· Israeli biopharmaceutical start-up, Vascular Biogenics Ltd., has developed a new genetic treatment, which can cut off the oxygen supply to cancerous tumors causing them to shrink dramatically, or even disappear completely, without any negative side effects to the patient.

· Palsamed, an Israeli incubator company, has developed a botanical based drug that can reduce cholesterol in the bloodstream.

· A system that monitors moles that might indicate melanoma skin cancer has been developed by Israel’s Medvision.

· Israelis have developed a test that can detect early signs of dementia, often in time to initiate treatment that delays mental decline.

· Teva Inc, the largest manufacturer, worldwide, of generic drugs, has recently developed an effective drug against advanced Parkinson's disease.

· When an earthquake struck Western India in January 2001, Israel sent an entire field hospital, including medical staff and equipment, to help treat injured civilians.

· Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees.

· In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops

· An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

· Israel has designed the first flight system to protect passenger and freighter aircraft against missile attack.

· Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S., Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the US.

· When the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day - and saved three victims from the rubble.

· According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U.S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threat.

· Israel is one of only eight countries in the world capable of launching their own satellites. Israeli satellite surveillance is first of its kind in the Middle-East

· Israeli avionics are competitive with those of the US and some of the less advanced system are exported to India and China.

And all this has been achieved by the Jewish nation under continuous 56 year-long siege, with its major monetary resources and manpower earmarked for defense against a mortal enemy – Arabs incited and supported by Islamo-fascism.