Although it is wonderfully quiet in Israel these days, violence and chaos are not far from our borders. The peace like status quo we have been experiencing lately will not necessarily last far into the future.
Sooner or later one or another of our enemies is sure to find it in their interest to resume violent actions against us. Be it from Gaza, Syria, Lebanon or Iran armed hostilities are liable to break out at any unspecified time in the future. At that moment, no matter the cause or the level of violence directed against Israel, Israel’s response will be condemned as being “disproportionate”. Yes, no matter the volume, frequency or target of the violence against us, our reaction will be judged as being excessive. Israel will be denounced for unnecessary destruction of property and lives.
So I would like to explore and discuss the issue of Proportionate & Disproportionate. In the context of defense of the nation and its inhabitants. I think that truly disproportionate is when one small country of (6,000,000) six million people (a fifth of them Arabs) with severely limited economic resources is required to defend itself from a community of (22) twenty two hostile sovereign nations numbering more than 350 million inhabitants. With the inclusion of the major oil producers; Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Libya we have a situation of unimaginable and nearly unlimited wealth.
I am referring of course to the conflict between Israel and the Arab/Muslim world!
NOTE: It is not just the Palestinians who are belligerent and committed to the destruction of Israel. It is the conglomerate of Arab and Islamic nations with legions of European volunteers as well.
Therefore as Israel must stand in its own defense against the entire Arab world, numbering 22 sovereign independent states populated by more than three hundred and fifty million (350,000,000) people. And lets not forget that those largely Muslim states are in turn supported by the one billion (1,000,000,000) plus population of the non-Arab Muslim world. In order to truly understand the proportionate relationship in this struggle, we must take into account, the additional thirty five non-Arab member states of the the Organization of the Islamic Conference which stretch from Albania in Europe, all the way to the Maldives in Asia (http://www.oic-oci.org/
In addition Israel is required to defend itself from surrounding national armies as well as distant ones such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iran. Each with the usual arsenal of tanks, artillery, jet assault aircraft and navel vessels while at the same time as it is attacked by individual terrorists carrying a few dollars worth of dynamite under their clothing, or firing home made rockets at Israeli civilian targets
Do you think that Israel maintains expensive F-15 jet aircraft, Main Battle Tanks and submarines under threat of the Palestinians? NO, these expensive and destructive single use implements of war, which require enormous financial resources to procure and maintain. They are necessary for Israel to defend itself from the ongoing threat of the large regular national armies maintained by the various Arab countries, near and far, armed by all the major world arms suppliers with the same advanced sophisticated arms as is Israel itself.
Now this I contend is the true description and definition of DISPROPORTIONATE use of POWER
