It is now forty years since the 1967 Six-Day War in which Israel, facing genocidal enemies a mere 22 years after Hitler's partially successful attempt, and only 19 years after the establishment of the state of Israel, won a resounding victory over the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian armies and overturned the existing Middle East paradigm in favor of a new paradigm which has lasted until now. What we have learned in the intervening 40 years is summarized by Ralph Peter's today, in his column, Six-Day War, 40 Years on:
We Americans face a fundamental problem in interpreting Israel's history: We imagine that every problem has a solution, if only we can figure it out. But there are no solutions - none - to the Middle East's problems, short of atrocities too horrific for us to contemplate. Israel may dream of peace, but must be content to survive and muddle through. An erratic ebb and flow of violence may be as good as the region gets.
The Six-Day War didn't create the Middle East's problems, it only changed the math. For Israel, it marked a coming of age. Taken together with the Yom Kippur War six years later - two rounds in a single fight, really - the war of June 1967 meant the end of Israel's basic struggle for existence and the beginning of its "quality of life" wars.
We also forget that those two intertwined wars in 1967 and 1973 resulted in four decades of de facto peace between Israel and the Arab states it had fought in four wars. Intifadahs make great TV, but they can't destroy Israel.
In the real world, outcomes aren't perfect. There are no wars to end all wars. The proper question is, "Are you better off than before the shooting started?" Judged by that common-sense standard, Israel is vastly better off than it was on the eve of the Six-Day War. Thanks to the heroes of June 1967, Israel survived.
Miracle enough.
Since the chess board was overturned, Israel has set about creating a modern high tech society; they have managed to unshackle themselves from the socialist economic policies that restrained their economy and are now one of the leading sources of innovation in the world.
The Arab states, and the benighted Palestinians, have meanwhile spent the time demonizing the Jews, breeding hatred, and teaching their children to glorify suicide murder as the greatest ideal for which to aspire.
Survey after survey in the Palestinian territories show that the vast majority of Palestinians prefer attempting to murder Jews than to building a functional society. This was on most overt display when Hamas won the recent elections and subsequently showed no inclination to moderate or to establish the rule of law.
At this point almost no Israelis support the illusory peace process, recognizing that you cannot make peace with people who define peace as your death or submission.
The Jerusalem Post reports on the remnants of the Peace Now movement in Israel, which held a rally yesterday in Hebron:
Hundreds attend left-wing Hebron demo
Some 300 activists from the left-wing group Peace Now gathered in Hebron on Tuesday for a demonstration marking 40 years since Israel annexed the West Bank in the Six Day War.
Substantial IDF and security forces were on hand to maintain order in case of disturbances, but the protest passed peacefully.
At one time, Peace Now rallies drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis, tired of war and ever hopeful of peace with their neighbors, willing to make almost any compromises short of suicide in order to induce their neighbors to accept them. The Palestinian response is priceless, the perfect metaphor:
However, local Palestinians threw stones at the Peace Now bus and a police vehicle after the demonstration. No one was hurt in the incident.
And as if stuck in amber, the Palestinians vow to remember their shame and persist in attempting to destroy the imagined source of their shame:
An aide to PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, called on Palestinians Tuesday to remember the Arab defeat of June 1967 and keep fighting Israeli rule.
In a statement sent to journalists in Gaza, he said that each year at this time Palestinians "relive the hope of erasing the shame."
As Ralph Peters points out, there can be no solution to the Middle East. The Israelis, short of suicide, cannot erase the shame the Arabs feel. Shame is an internal state evoked by the knowledge that one's shortcomings have been revealed. One can choose to look inward and find the sources of one's shame and attempt to resolve the internal contradictions and damaged self representations that cause shame or one can focus outward and attempt to destroy the environmental trigger (the prevalence of honor killings reflects this tendency.) The Arabs continue to focus outward, accepting no responsibility for their plight, aided and abetted by their Muslim and Western enablers. Their rage must be expressed since its source is internal:
Abbas: Palestinian people are on verge of civil war
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday that his people were on the verge of civil war and said the infighting was worse than living under Israeli military rule.
There can be no solution to the Middle East's problems until the Arabs learn that only they can find a solution to their shame and the solution lies within them.
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