Then there is the United Nations. The organization?s domination by states hostile to Israel has made it a hotbed of agitation against the Jewish State from the get-go. While Zionism is no longer officially equated with racism by the UN, that sentiment remains much in evidence as Israel has been subjected to far more criticism and condemnatory resolutions than any other member state. Israel alone is ineligible for membership on the Security Council. And an organ of the ?world body,? the International Court of Justice, has even ruled that the Jewish State may not legally take measures to defend itself with a security barrier separating Israel and parts of the disputed West Bank in which Jews live from terrorists bent on murder and destruction of property.
To their credit, President Bush and his administration have, to date, generally refrained from adding U.S. pressure on Israel to that emanating from other quarters. That may change, however. Mr. Blair is determined to be repaid for his loyalty on Iraq in the currency of ?progress? towards peace in the Mideast. Best-selling author and former CIA official Michael Scheuer is among those pushing the line that America?s support for Israel is the reason al Qaeda and other Islamofascist terrorists want to attack us. And last Sunday, former National Security Advisors Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brezinzski jointly declared that the opportunity created by the Arafat?s death must be seized by the United States ?imposing? a peace deal on Israel and the Palestinians ? ignoring Churchill?s sound advice against weakening a strategic ally.
Washington may not have to take such a misbegotten step, however, if ? as has been the case to date ? the present government of Israel decides to make concessions on its own. For some time, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has seemed more concerned with his place in history than in fulfilling the robust campaign promises about security that also won him the premiership.
Today, Sharon is rooting his claim to power in an embrace of Shimon Peres? Labor Party, the principal apologist for the myriad failures of Oslo and other peace processes. He is unilaterally withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, a superficially appealing and politically popular cut-your-losses move that will, unfortunately, give rise to a new safehaven for terrorists there (witness Sunday?s attack). It will also serve to compound the signal sent by Ehud Barak?s earlier, precipitous withdrawal from Lebanon, namely that Israel?s piecemeal destruction is inevitable. And Sharon is releasing terrorists and promising to remove Israeli security forces from Palestinian communities as gestures to its electorate.
All this adds up to a grim forecast for the people of Israel. Their foes are implacable and being emboldened. Their ?friends? are at best encouraging of strategically dubious peace initiatives like the ill-conceived ?Road Map?; at worst, they are part of the problem. And their leaders, both those of the recent past and the present, seem intent on repeating, and compounding, past mistakes. Those who love freedom can only hope that all this does not add up to Tevye?s prayer being answered in the worst possible way.