-Then there are Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The missiles are
already dropping on Sderot almost daily - the Israeli town just across the
border from Gaza. And last year's war in Lebanon demonstrated how vulnerable
the Israelis are to Katyushas from that quarter. How long before they
descend again?
-But even if none of those potential disasters materialize, there is always
the demographic bomb. As Hillel Halkin points out, Israel's Arab population
is growing far faster than its Jewish one. ("Israel's Jewish majority, whose
ratio to its Arab minority was 10-to-1 in the 1950s and now stands at
4-to-1, will continue to shrink, almost certainly to 3-to-1 and possibly
well-beyond . . ." Till slowly Israel's Jews, like Lebanon's Christians,
find themselves outnumbered, beleaguered, and engulfed in sporadic civil
war.
In short, by any rational analysis of all the factors in play, Israel is
doomed.
Which is why the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War in 1967 has come at a
propitious time. If Israel's position is precarious now, it seemed hopeless
in the days leading up to that war.
Back then, the enemies that encircled Israel had the full support of a world
power: the Soviet Union, which had spent the previous two decades pouring
weapons into the Arab world-an estimated $2 billion worth.
On May 22, 1967, under the charismatic Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt blockaded
the Straits of Tiran, having already kicked the UN's peacekeepers out of
their posts and moved its armored columns into Sinai, where they were poised
to overwhelm Israeli defenses. All was set for Colonel Nasser's "war of
annihilation." The Egyptians would be joined in that war by the Syrians, the
Jordanians, the Iraqis, and contingents from all across the Arab world -
from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.
Their objective? Iraq's president at the time, Abdur Rahman Aref, minced no
words: "The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is
our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948.
Our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the map." The final solution to the
Israeli problem was at hand.
Israel mobilized its forces and waited for the United States, or the United
Nations, to break the blockade and end the threat to her existence. And
waited and waited. Israeli forces, which had been mobilized for agonizing
weeks, were compressed like a coil within the country's vulnerable borders
and, on June 4, 1967, they sprang into action.
The rest was history. Map-changing history. Israel not only survived but
triumphed. Six days later, it had created a new Middle East.
Six years later, Israel's existence would hang in the balance again, this
time in the Yom Kippur War. Once again it was doomed. Once again it somehow
survived. For no rational reason.
If today's threats to Israel's survival sound familiar, maybe that's because
they are. Once again, Israel is doomed. Once again, it doesn't seem aware
that it is. It's all enough to bring back an old saying I first heard many a
crisis ago: "You don't have to be crazy to be a Zionist, but it helps."