Israeli decision makers feel helpless at the hands of such American government directives.
The time has come to realize that American citizens can play a vital role with the US government at this time – to counter the American government momentum to establish lethal Arab sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and, yes, in Jerusalem. After all, sovereignty means guns in the hands of Israel’s adversaries.
Why should American citizens act?
The time has come to dismiss the notion that Israel is an independent state which makes independent foreign policy and independent defensive policy decisions, which, for better or worse, are made in Washington, DC.
The time has come to dismiss the notion that the Israeli government would react more forcefully if Tel Aviv and the center of the country were being bombarded.
As a reporter who covered the home front in Israel during the Yom Kippur War for the Jewish Student Press Service and as a reporter who covered the home front in Israel for CNN RADIO, the time has come to share the hands-on perspective of this reporter.
The open secret revealed by Israeli intelligence sources in the early days of the Yom Kippur war was that the US government prevented Israel from carrying out a preemptive attack on October 5th, 1973.
Israeli intelligence knew of the forthcoming attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, Israel Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Israel Foreign Minister Abba Eban apprised the American government that Israel would be attacked on two fronts and that Israel would need massive help.
New documentation confirms that US Secretary of State Kissinger agreed to provide that help, on one condition: No preemptive attack.
This was deja vu to June 1967, when Israel asked for help from France, its then traditional ally. De Gaulle agreed to provide that help, on one condition: No preemptive attack.
In 1967, Israel ignored DeGaulle, lost French support, yet won the war.
In 1973, however, Israel agreed to Kissinger’s condition.
Israel gained vital American logistical support during the war, yet lost its independence to the US – “both militarily and diplomatically”. Indeed, the US used its leverage to stop Israel from defeating the surrounded Egyptian Third Army on October 22nd, 1973.
Israel never regained that lost strategic independence.
Fast Forward to January 16th, 1991.
As one of the reporters waiting outside of the Israeli cabinet meeting, the morning after the first scud missiles fell on Tel Aviv, we watched an ashen-faced spokesman of Israelâ’s most nationalist government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, when he announced that the US would not allow Israel to respond to scud missile attacks which threatened to devastate the center of the country. Over the next six weeks, 10,500 homes in the Tel Aviv area suffered direct hits, and Israel did not react.
Israel lost its strategic defense and foreign policy independence on October 5th, 1973 to the USA, and never regained it. Hence, the central role played by the American government in the Oslo process, the American sponsored road map, and the American directive to establish a Palestinian Arab state, come what may, whether or not Palestinian missiles are trained on Ashkelon from Gaza, or on Netanya from Samaria.
All this means one thing: American public opinion, the US Congress and the US government will determine the fate of Israel and the idea of a â”peaceful” PLO state.
American citizens have a crucial role to play in this context. Thanks to the American system of checks and balances, the US Congress maintains veto power and fiduciary responsibility over US foreign policy. In that light, the US Congress has established the Middle East and South Asia subcommittee, whose members have the responsibility to oversee US policy in the Middle East. See: foreignaffairs.house.gov/sub_mideast.asp.
What that subcommittee needs is feedback from American citizens who do not want to see US tax dollars pioneer a Palestinian Fatah terror state, as per the directive of the White House and the US State Department.
American citizens need to understand that the Middle East Subcommittee of the US Congress plays a greater role in Middle East policy decisions that affect the people of Israel than Israelâ’s sovereign Israeli Knesset.
On the other hand, spin masters now walk the halls of the US Congress and fabricate the idea that a Palestinian state would live side by side with a state of Israel in peace, while providing the US government with a diplomatic foothold in the Middle East.
These spin masters must be countered and coped with.
It would be nice to ask Israel to act independently.
Except that Israel lost its foreign and defense independence initiative almost 35 years ago to the US.
For that reason, Israeli government policy makers often act at the whim of the US government.
US congress people need to hear from American citizens who care about the role that America can play to preserve the integrity of Israel.