Once again Caroline Glick provides us with important insights and observations by drawing our attention to the uncomfortable reality that “…Israel faces daunting challenges today and that those challenges will multiply and grow in the near future should not be construed as a partisan or ideological statement.
Rather, it is a statement of fact.” (http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/
However, her personal targeting of opposition leader Tzipi Livni is a partisan distraction and detracts from the essential focus on the most pressing dangers and to the essence and depth of the true problem that concerns her and should concern all of us. She also points out that the withdrawal of the American military presence in our area will contribute to the growing dangers we face. It is in that context that her suggested focus on one of our political personalities is I believe, misplaced. After all, politicians come and go, they concentrate their efforts and words on different policies depending on a variety of situations and electoral constructs.
But where I do believe the current focus could be of positive use are Ms. Glick insight; “for our leading politicians from all parties to place their patriotism above partisanship and at least on the issues that are beyond dispute and work to defend the country.” So now we get the heart of the problem, which is exactly the basic issue of dispute.
Let us be honest, if only theoretically and for no more than a moment; in the years up to 1967 there was no real rupturing destructive dispute within the Israeli Jewish community or even the international Jewish world about the existence of the state of Israel within the area demarcated by the armistice lines of 1949. Essentially these were the accepted “borders” of the state, no matter that the states, governments and people of the Arab world would not agree.
If we are to honestly seek an Israel “beyond (basic geographical) dispute”, that was it! For us, the Jewish people, in Israel and the diaspora The Dispute only really began with the expansion our control over additional land, and people as a result of the defensive war and victory of 1967.
The most fundamental issue on the subject of “defend(ing) the country” is; where does that country begin and where does it end. Where are the exact geographic lines on the ground and the map which we all agree are beyond dispute in order to sacrifice our lives to defend?
Whatever the variety of individuals beliefs concerning those lines, they are beyond the national dispute. I believe the absolute true and accurate fact is that the vast majority, including those who vote Likud and support the current government and live beyond the Green Line, would agree on those physical limits set in 1949 as the essential heart of our third commonwealth.
Understanding the critical importance of attaining a consensus which includes not only the Jewish people living in the land but the world Jewish community whose loyalty we claim as well, requires the ability to analyze and realize a reality some of us may not agree with. What we really need to achieve if we are to deal successfully with the developing threats to us that Ms. Glick points out is clear for all to see.
The vast majority of the Jewish people agree that our state of Israel begins within the 1949 lines. With that acknowledgment we can transcend the debilitating dispute within our nation and people. We must at least put that most fundamental issue “beyond depute” in the face of the true dangers Ms. Glick points too.
