Photo Credit: H. Karimi / Wikimedia Strait of Hormuz at sunset
Victor Rosenthal – How the West Was Lost and What “Everyone Knows”
How the West Was Lost
oday the world we live in is dominated by a Western alliance that includes the US and much of Europe, along with some smaller players. This alliance is threatened by two major forces: radical Islam, whose most dangerous expression is the revolutionary Iranian regime; and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), still smarting from its oppression by the West prior to its emergence as a great power. I’ll discuss Iran first.
Last week, Iranian drones attacked a ship near the coast of Oman, killing the captain and a crew member. Apparently the motivation was a tenuous Israeli connection. More recently, a ship in the same region was hijacked, and several others were disabled, apparently by a cyberattack. Although Iran denies being connected with any of these incidents, most observers believe that the Iranian regime was responsible for them.
The Iranian regime finances and arms terrorist groups throughout the region, including in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Lebanon, which survived a brutal civil war, an attempt by the PLO to set up a “Palestinian state” within her borders, an Israeli intervention to throw out the PLO, and the systematic murders of members of its government by Syrian agents, has finally been brought to her knees by her exploitation by the Iranian-controlled Hezbollah. The Covid epidemic, and a massive explosion of a cache of Hezbollah’s explosives at the port that leveled a third of her capital city didn’t help.
Israel, which fought a vicious little war with Hezbollah in 2006, now lives in the shadow of 130,000 rockets located in South Lebanon. These rockets, which include ones with precision guidance systems that can strike within a few meters of targets anywhere in Israel, are deeply embedded in the civilian population, including private homes. Israeli defense officials have said that if Hezbollah activates its rockets, the IDF will be forced to employ massive firepower that will essentially destroy the country. The possibility of war breaking out due to escalation between Hezbollah and Israel is a constant threat.
Westerners who visit relatives in Iran or go there for business, educational, or other reasons are often arrested on trumped-up charges and held hostage, either for ransom or political advantage. Sometimes they are tortured. Conditions in prisons for Iranian political dissidents are atrocious, with torture and rape common. Hundreds of Iranians are executed every year, some for serious crimes like murder or rape, but also for “being gay, committing adultery, sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol.” Political opponents of the regime are sometimes charged with spying and executed as well.
Iranian women protesting Islamic dress codes that are forced on them are beaten, arrested, jailed, and tortured. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian feminist now living in exile in the US, was the target of a plot to kidnap her and bring her back to Iran. The plan was foiled by the FBI. Kidnapping and murdering dissidents abroad has been standard procedure for the regime since it came to power in 1979.
The new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has been nicknamed “the butcher of Tehran,” because of his responsibility for the execution of thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people during a reign of terror in 1988. Raisi is considered one of the top candidates to succeed Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader.
Last, but not least, is the regime’s plan to develop nuclear weapons, which is advancing rapidly. Whether such weapons would be directly used – something which is difficult to judge, due to the religious aspects of Iranian ideology – or whether they would be employed as an “umbrella” to shield its more conventional military aggression, it’s likely that the imminent attainment of nuclear capability would greatly change the balance of power in our region, and make war likely. The regime has consistently and explicitly threatened to “wipe Israel off the map,” and Israel takes these threats seriously.
The Iranian regime, while it is economically and militarily weak, has developed means of leveraging asymmetric warfare, which along with its aggressive and even messianic ideology makes it a serious threat – not just to the region, but to the Western alliance and its leader, the US, which it calls “the great Satan.” The threat is immediate in the short term, due to its nuclear program. It is a highly repressive society, and although there is a strong domestic opposition, attempts to overthrow the regime will be (and have been) met with great brutality.
As an Israeli, naturally I am concerned about the local and immediate threat of Iran. But the PRC is a far greater threat to the Western alliance. China is already a nuclear power, and has recently been reported building up its stock of weapons. China’s military and economic power is thousands of times greater than that of Iran, and is every bit as brutal in its repression of internal dissent.
Although China does not publicly announce that the US is Satan, it is quietly moving its pieces – military and economic – on the world’s chessboard to increase its power and influence. It operates an unprecedented system of industrial espionage that has already neutralized the technological superiority of the US. It is building infrastructure throughout the world under its “Belt and Road Initiative” that will not only provide its industries access to markets, but the large debts incurred by the recipients will provide China political leverage over them.
Chinese technology that is used in the most critical communications infrastructure may contain “backdoors” that allow access to traffic on the networks. Everything from mobile phones to PCs to military communications systems have been suspected to be compromised.
The US and other developed countries are experiencing a long-term transition of their economies away from agriculture and manufacturing and toward service-based economies. Manufacturing has moved to China and to other countries, most of which are, or soon will be, in the Chinese sphere of influence. At the time of the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, the US suffered a severe shortage of personal protective equipment and medical devices such as masks and so forth. It was simply not produced in the USA.
China does not (as far as I know) export violent terrorism as does Iran. But it has been engaging in territorial expansionism in all directions. Chinese pressure on Hong Kong and Taiwan make headlines, while China quietly “nibbles away” at Japanese islands, territories under Indian control, bits of Nepal and Bhutan, and so on. In the South China Sea, China has built artificial islands which have greatly extended its territorial waters and provided locations for military installations, including missile silos.
I have not discussed the possible exploitation of the Covid-19 epidemic. Certainly the misinformation and disinformation that was provided by China at the time of its outbreak exacerbated the harm to Western societies. There is even a credible argument that once the disease had become established in Wuhan, authorities there – under the direction of the national government – deliberately allowed the residents of the city to travel worldwide during the Chinese New Year period, knowing that this would spread the disease.
The Chinese strategy is safer and surer, if somewhat slower than the Iranian one. But the West has done little to protect itself, either against the immediate danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of a proven rogue aggressor state, or the long-term combined economic, military, and possibly biological domination of a rising totalitarian superstate. Western nations should be confiscating the Iranian regime’s nuclear toys, reestablishing self-sufficient economies, protecting their technological intellectual property, and strengthening their military forces. They are not doing any of these things.
Instead, the most advanced states of the West are self-destructing over issues of race and gender identity.
What “Everyone Knows”
Why do supposedly “pro-Israel” voices so often add a disclaimer to their remarks, as if they are embarrassed to say anything wholeheartedly good about us?
In an article that is devastating to Ben and Jerry’s and other boycotters, Alan Dershowitz nevertheless finds it necessary to mention that he sometimes “disagrees with Israeli policies,” and that he “fervently hope[s] that the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership will return to the negotiating table,” implying that it is even partially Israel’s fault that the conflict continues.
What policy exactly does he disagree with? Israel has been at war since May 15, 1948, and the Jews in Eretz Yisrael were besieged long before that date. The war blows hot and cold, but it has never ended. Today Israel is under attack from Iranian proxies in the north and south, and is fighting an increasingly bloody guerrilla war against terrorists associated with Hamas and the PLO in Judea and Samaria. On Friday, nineteen Katyusha rockets were fired into Israel by Hezbollah. The fact that they were all either intercepted by Iron Dome or fell in uninhabited areas doesn’t change the fact that they were intended to kill. Hamas, unchastened by the blows it absorbed in the recent mini-war, continues to send explosive and incendiary balloons into southern Israel to ignite fields and forests.
So-called “demonstrations” in Judea and Samaria involve hundreds of Palestinian Arab guerrillas with improvised but often deadly weapons like Molotov cocktails and slings that can (conservatively) propel rocks at more than 60 m/s, or 216 km/h (134 mph). Guerrillas in urban areas often drop concrete blocks from the roofs of buildings, which can and have killed helmeted soldiers.
So yes, sometimes some of these guerrillas get themselves killed. The next time you read that the IDF has “murdered an innocent Palestinian child,” consider the possibility that the child is 16 or 17 years old and has just thrown a firebomb intended to burn someone to death. And yes, sometimes, in the middle of the war zone, accidents happen and someone truly innocent is killed. The Palestinian leadership is fully aware of this possibility, and every such incident is exploited to the hilt. It is part of the process, perhaps the most important part.
One of the most famous examples of “Israeli brutality” was the “Great March of Return” protest at the Gaza border fence, in which some 180-220 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured during 42 weeks of “protests” during 2018-2019. On May 14, 2018, some 62 were said to be killed. Horrible? The shootings were in response to attempted human wave attacks to breach the fence and swarm the nearby Jewish communities. Does anyone doubt the carnage that would have taken place had they succeeded in getting through? Various non-fatal methods of deterrence were used, but at the point that a potential murderer crosses the fence, there is no other practical way to stop him short of live fire.
Meanwhile there is the continuous and unreported terrorism on the roads, especially in Judea and Samaria, but also within the pre-1967 borders, in which terrorists throw and drop rocks and firebombs on Jewish cars, and even ambush and shoot at them. There are car-ramming attacks in which Arab drivers plow into groups of Jews waiting at bus stops, with the driver sometimes getting out and stabbing anyone that survived the crash. As I said, it blows hot and cold, but never, ever stops.
We are at war, we have always been at war, and our enemies have no interest in peace (at least, not if that peace leaves any remnant of Jewish sovereignty between the river and the sea). When Palestinians say they favor a “two-state solution,” they mean one that includes the “return” of millions of “refugees” to Israel, creating not one but two Arab states between the river and the sea. This is why all the offers of land that Israel has made have been rejected by the Palestinians and why nobody is “sitting down at the negotiating table” as Dershowitz “fervently hopes” will happen.
So there is actually very little to be “critical” of, except perhaps that our leadership is too timid to take the harsh measures that are necessary in order to ensure our survival. Israel faces military threats from outside, and terrorist threats from her own Arab population – on both sides of the Green Line, as the recent “disturbances” in our mixed population cities, which at another time and place might have been called pogroms, have shown. These threats are as serious as ever. Although our military strength has grown over the years, our enemies have become both stronger and more sophisticated. And our strategic depth is a lot less now than after the 1967 war.
In addition to the direct physical threats, there is also the unprecedented, massive assault on our legitimacy that is taking place via all kinds of media, especially including social media. The idea that we don’t belong here (or anywhere, actually) is embraced by a surprising diversity of people and institutions throughout the world. Whereas in 1948 we were opposed primarily by the Arab states, today there are misozionist movements throughout the world, including the most developed countries, such as the US, the UK, and the members of the EU. Our friends are fewer than ever, and some of the friends are less steadfast than previously.
And this is the problem. Even our friends believe, in their hearts, that we shouldn’t be here, not in Ariel, not in Jerusalem, and not in Tel Aviv (well, maybe they’ll give us Tel Aviv). They believe in their hearts, even though they love us, that we brutalize Palestinians for no good reason. They believe in their hearts, that we kill too many civilians when we retaliate against rocket attacks from Gaza. None of this is true, but the various media have done such a good job that the Palestinian narrative, both about current events and about the history of the region, has insinuated itself everywhere. It has become part of what “everyone knows.”
Don’t add to it. If you want to say something nice about Israel, please say it without the disclaimer. It’s not so complicated: Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, continues to fight for her life against difficult odds, as she has for 73 years, and needs all the support she can get.
