One Jerusalem organized a bloggers’ conference call today with Natan Sharansky. The participants were Atlas Shrugs, Boker tov, Boulder!, Gateway Pundit, Israpundit, Jewish Current Issues, Right Wing News, and Tigerhawk, and each blog will undoubtedly post a report today.
Sharansky said the opposition Likud party continues to support the government as long as it is fighting, but he cannot say he is satisfied with the way the war has been conducted.
He emphasized repeatedly that against a foe such as Hezbollah — the first brigade of the Iranian Islamofascism, armed with the best anti-tank and other modern weapons from
Sharansky does not remember seeing
Sharansky said the government is hampered by the fact that various people who opposed the
In response to a question from Anne Lieberman of Boker Tov, Boulder!about what could be done about weakness and hesitancy, Sharansky noted that even the left in Israel has seen the necessity of a military victory, and he cited an article published last week in Haaretz by Ari Shavit. It is an important article, worth reading in its entirety. Here is a brief excerpt:
If
Israel is incapable of defending its sovereignty and its citizens against Hezbollah in the course of three long weeks, the impression is created that it has become a country that is not defendable. That impression is completely wrong. At the bottom, Israel is a strong country. In the Middle East, however, the very creation of an image of weakness means defeat. The meaning of such a defeat is a war soon. A war that will be harder and more terrible than the present war. Therefore, the last-minute attempt to reverse the situation and achieve a late victory at a heavy price in blood is correct and necessary. Precisely those who seek life, stability and perhaps even peace must be ready to pay the terrible price that is required so that the second
Lebanon war will not end in an Israeli defeat. . . . The second
Lebanon war sometimes looks like a repeat of the past, but in truth it is the flash of the future. An Iranian Cuba was established on our northern border. If the Iranian Cuba is not disarmed, it will threaten us continuously and intolerably. . . . [T]he second
Lebanon war should be seen as resembling the war in Spain in the 1930s which preceded the global conflict and served as its testing ground. It must be understood that the question with which the second Lebanon war leaves us is whether we are Czechoslovakia, which collapsed in the face of evil, or whether we are Britain, which after a very difficult period was able to cope with the evil and created a turning point against it. . . . This summer Hassan Nasrallah challenged us in the most profound way. Employing a small, disciplined and determined army of believers, he set out to hurl at us defiantly the claim that our democracy is rotten. That our hedonism causes degeneration. That our decadence is terminal. There is no hope, Nasrallah is saying, no hope for a free society that loves life in a fanatic
Middle East. Now the challenge is before us. . . .
Sharansky remains committed to his belief that the ultimate solution for the Middle East is democracy, but he emphasized it is a mistake to confuse democracy with elections. Elections are the end of the process, not the beginning, and terrorists with armed militias cannot be permitted to participate in a democracy: that was the mistake made with the Palestinian elections in January. For more, go here.
In the meantime, the forces of democracy need to win the war that is being waged against them. A tie does not go to the runner.
The remarkable Atlas Shrugs already has an audio of the Sharansky call up here.