Lessons from the Blitz 2

[KXX4493553 at aol.com]

Like England then, Israel - despite its conventional military superiority 
over the Palestinians - probably cannot achieve victory unaided because 
Palestinian terror has long since ceased to be a localized phenomenon. It is part of a 
global Islamic terrorist network and most of the money and arms it uses to 
perpetrate its atrocities come frome overseas. Thus without international 
cooperation, Israel will be unable to halt that flow of money and arms.
Sadly, just as it was during World War Two, the necessary worldwide awakening 
has been painfully slow in coming. Yet when one compares the global situation 
today to what it was three years ago - the tougher post 9/11 US attitude 
toward terrorism (...) it is clear that the movement has been in the right 
direction. Slowly the world is starting to realize that Islamic terrorism in its own 
way, is as much a global menace as Hitler was.
But while waiting for this awakening, Israel must also not neglect the first 
part of Churchill's recipe: just as Britain did then, it must fight 
unrelentingly in every sphere where it is capable of acting alone. And on this front 
Israelis have the right to demand far more of their government.
>From the string of successful liquidations of senior Hamas operatives in 
August - which, though welcome, made it clear that Israel could have eliminated 
these terrorists long ago, but instead chose to let them keep killing through 
the recent disgraceful botch of an opportunity to take out the organization's 
entire leadership due to reluctance to use the requisite one-ton bomb; to this 
month's humiliating declaration of impotence in the form of a cabinet decision 
to "remove" Yasser Arafat, but not in the foreseeable future, it has become 
clear that our government is doing far less than the maximum it could to fight 
the terrorism scourge.
Yet there is also a third element to Churchill's recipe for success, no less 
important than cultivating international support and demanding more resolute 
action from our government: Israelis must never forget that even when the 
picture looks blackest, courage, endurance and resolution have the power to bring 
about victory.
It took the Londoners five long years before their courage bore fruit. 
Victory in the current war may also be heartbreakingly long in coming - but we do 
have the power, through our own determination, to make it happen.
 
The writer is a veteran journalist and commentator
kwp
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