Fight or Flight-illa (ISRAEL HAYOM OP-ED) MK Danny Danon 04/16/12)
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1732
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The tortured discussion on the legitimacy of the
protest "flightilla" – the anarchist fly-in by so-called peace
activists who are actually warmongers – is a dangerous discussion. We
must not tolerate the Left´s approach: welcoming the warmongers
and "explaining the situation to them from an Israeli perspective,
arguing for our legitimacy in making a home for ourselves in the land
of Israel."
It is time to wake up. Israel is in the midst of a new kind of war,
in which delegitimization has replaced bullets, and provocations have
replaced tanks and jets. Are IDF soldiers asked to explain why Israel
is right and the enemy is wrong during actual fighting? Would we try
to be polite, or shall I say naive, to a suicide bomber trying to
hurt our children? The answer is no.
Just as there is no room for suicide bombers or enemy soldiers in
Israel, there is no room for these activists either. The war of
legitimacy is a new kind of war. It is misleading and confusing, but
it is a battleground nonetheless, and we must treat it as such.
The failures of the Second Lebanon War could repeat themselves. To
try to explain Israel´s justifications to those who question Israel´s
right to exist is recklessly naive and will cost us dearly. One day a
government appointed investigative committee will conclude that
Israel´s isolation in the international arena is the work of Israeli
leftists.
And what now? What should Israel do with these lawbreakers? Here,
too, the answer is obvious: prevent, arrest, forbid, deport. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was wise to prepare for the flightilla to
the extent that he did. We must prevent these people from setting
foot in Israel, we must arrest them if they do arrive, detain every
criminal anarchist who tries to act against Israel and permanently
expel them. Enough naivete. Enough excuses. Israel must protect
itself from every threat, in every arena, by any means.
Those anti-Israel activists who protest in the Palestinian village of
Bil´in every week and hurl rocks at IDF soldiers are gathering
information, aiding terrorists, and trying to undermine Israel´s
status as the only democracy in the Middle East. Thousands are being
murdered in Syria, Lebanon is under the control of a terrorist
organization, extreme Islamism is overtaking Egypt, Iran is
threatening to build nuclear weapons – but it is the Israeli
transgressions that top the activists´ agenda.
Israel does not have to justify its existence. The "Israeli case," as
one of those naive souls tried to present it, is well documented in
the annals of history, starting with the Exodus from Egypt, through
the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and the liberation of the land
of Israel, all the way to the Holocaust and Israel´s rebirth. The
Jewish people do not need to justify themselves to anyone – certainly
not to outlaws. The author is a Likud member and an MK.
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