Posted 8/11/2003 08:50:00 AM by Ocean Guy
When the Hudna Expires

I hadn't made the connection about the hudna ending on Rosh HaShanah. Should we be any more concerned because of it? Maybe it doesn't matter. After all, how meaningful has the lull been? Has there even been a lull? You can see the Security Incidents Map and Timeline found here. And you can read the column by Gary Rosenblatt

But it's not nearly enough. A senior adviser to Ariel Sharon who was in the United States with the prime minister last week, in an effort to speak positively about progress with the Palestinians, pointed out that attempted attacks on Israelis have gone down to about 15 to 20 a day, compared to three and four times that many a few months ago. He added that Palestinian television now shows fewer hours a day of anti-Israel footage consisting of the bloodied bodies of young Arab "martyrs."

Is that supposed to give us comfort? It's like your hostile neighbor telling you not to be paranoid, he's not trying to kill you every moment of the day, only every hour.

Given the Arabs' unwillingness to dismantle the terrorist organizations, and their continued denial of the existence of Israel, it's practically a given that more violence is just around the corner. We are left to wonder how the Israelis will respond and how much support they'll get from the US.

If the US were under similar threat, do you have any doubt how we'd respond? Of course not. We'd see the rapid application of overwhelming force to quickly crush the enemy. If our survival as a nation was threatened, we'd act quickly and decisively.... Will we support Israel if they decide to do the same? Would we join them or condemn them? Or, would we, as we have before, urge Israeli restraint, and then step in at the last minute to stop the war and save the Arabs from utter defeat?