Lenin believed that capitalists would sell their enemies the rope by which they would hang themselves. Even he probably could not imagine a state that would provide its enemies with the treasure and infrastructure for waging a deadly war against it.

But this is precisely what the Israeli government is doing, by regularly transferring to Arafat and his gang, to this very day, about NIS 50 million a month, while also providing them with safe passage, water and electricity, that enable them to carry on their jihad without too much trouble.

Useful idiots, Lenin called leftist fellow travelers who undermined democracies’ opposition to communist tyranny. Our leaders are no idiots, of course, but they illustrate how a wrong conception can make even brilliant people act stupidly.

Not only have they invited a terrorist organization into our midst and armed it, but they also provide it with the means to arm, reorganize and incite the Palestinian Arabs against us.

Last year Prof. Irving Kristol spoke in Jerusalem about the political stupidity of the Jews. He was mostly referring to the habit of American Jews to promote “liberal” candidates and causes, even though they are often inimical to Jewish interests, even survival.

The bizarre messianic behavior of the Israeli peace camp is an even better example of such stupidity. It maneuvered Israel, a seemingly strong power, into a political trap in which it is held hostage by terrorist gangs. This happened because our best and brightest convinced themselves that a few tens of thousands of armed Palestinians and several hundred Lebanese irregulars were really no match for Israel’s military might, and therefore “we can take risks for peace.”

We subsequently learned that even “small forces” can seriously disrupt civilian life in Israel, and potentially cut Israel’s jugular vein, the communication lines enabling it to mobilize reserves when suddenly attacked.

Yasser Arafat also demonstrated how, with low-level fighting, you can skillfully manipulate world opinion, and how an on-camera “popular uprising” or guerrilla war can tie the hands of our cumbersome military machine; how a small, determined, and murderous dictatorship can intimidate a democracy full of nervous nannies and bleeding hearts.

But the full extent of our peacemakers’ folly revealed itself in their absolute certainty that the putative peace process – by which Israel traded crucial strategic assets for a gangster’s promises – would earn Israel praise and love from “the international community” thus “strengthening its security as no army could.” Apparently intoxicated by Nobel peace prizes and praise from their comrades in the European Socialist International, our leaders seem to have forgotten De Gaulle’s observation that states have no friends, only interests; that Machiavelli’s observations on power politics were a far more valid guide to international conduct than media pundits’ or politicians’ sermons.

States thrive on respect, not on love, and in world affairs, it is the smart, the strong and the agile, not necessarily the just, that usually gets ahead, certainly not the stupid or the weak.

Altogether, it is really puzzling what made our leaders believe that the ethos governing European chancelleries would ever permit them to be even minimally decent towards Israel, when they are convinced that their bread is buttered with Arab oil and money.

Since the European media have a close symbiotic relationship with their foreign policy establishment, one had only to observe how totally biased, dishonest, hypocritical, and ignorant (and often antisemitic) its reporting is, to understand how dastardly are the views of the European foreign policy bureaucracy, even when they attempt to cover them up with diplomatic niceties.

Just a few years after the Holocaust, we ought to remember, the fine souls conducting the foreign policy of many European nations helped equip several Arab armies, which – they could have guessed – hoped to finish off Hitler’s job by destroying a nascent Israel. The Europeans (along with the US) also slapped an arms embargo against Israel, to make their job easier, “to promote peace,” the peace of the graveyard.

And when in 1967, the Arabs were ready for another go at it, European mandarins were happy to eulogize Israel, but extremely upset when it emerged victorious. Later they consistently blinked when their firms were eagerly assisting Iraq, Iran and Libya, and other rogue states, to build unconventional weapons of mass destruction, including a German-built complex for poison gas manufacture.

So to risk Israel’s security to gain the ephemeral “goodwill” of European politicians or base it on Arafat’s promises is surely a kind of madness that the gods usually inflict upon those they wish to destroy.

Luckily Arafat got carried away and played his hand a bit too soon. We therefore still have a chance to learn our lesson and reverse the situation. But will our peace camp let us?

Permalink: