Monday, 21 February 2011

Shapiro Comments on Ettinger:

Israel – America's Unique Ally

by Bernard J. Shapiro

As always Yoram Ettinger writes a clear and well researched article. No one can improve on what he does. My complaint is more political and strategic. Most of us know about how important Israel is to America. That will never change the 100 years of hostility to Jews and Israel by the US State Department, CIA, NSA, Justice Department and especially the current White House.

1. Given all the facts enumerated below, why doesn't Ettinger NOT DEMAND that America treat Israel as a strategic ally and NOT "banana repuplic."

2. And more important, why have Israeli and Jewish leaders groveled before the US like the weak ghetto Jews of the past.

Back in pre WWll days Ze'ev Jabotinsky understood the strategic needs of the Jewish People both in Europe but also in Israel. His ideas harkened back to the great Israelite warriors who conquered Eretz Yisrael (Israel) during biblical times. Leaders like Joshua, David, The Maccabees, Shinshon, and Bar Kochba.He was silenced by the organized Jewish leadership. After his death in 1940 was maliciously barred from burial in Israel until Menachem Begin was elected in the late 1970's.

During, days still fresh enough for me to remember, new warriors emerged to fight for Israel. Though they had many flaws (we all do) people like David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Avraham Stern, Ariel Sharon and Moshe Dayan and Yoni Netanayhu led the country to many victories on the battlefield. Others like Moshe Arens, Rabbi Meir Kahane z”l and Herb Zweibon z”l (AFSI) and Moton Klien (ZOA), Emanuel A. Winston fought their battles for Israel on the political front. Caroline Glick, Helen Freedman, Nadia and Ruth Matar have fought both on the ground and politically.

A large proportion of Israel's Zionist/nationalist/religious population are ideological descendants of Jabotinsky, Kahane and Zwiebon. My prayer is that Ettinger begin to take the risks of being more agressive in his defense of Israel. That is - not just well researched positive facts- but a serious counterattack against:

1. Those who don't report Israel's importance to America

2. Those who defame Israel with lies and media bias

3. Those who claim to be Israel's friends (like AIPAC, ADL,AJC,ISRAEL PROJECT) but support policies that hurt Israel. Example: AIPAC raises a lot of money claiming to get aid for Israel yet every dollar it gets for Israel to buy arms it agrees to $5+ for the Arabs. This puts Israel on a treadmill just to keep up. Every promise it lobbies congress to pass (like move the embassy to Jerusalem) comes with and "out based on national security." It never happens.

My role in the Battle For Eretz Yisrael is coming to a close and a lot of my time is now devoted to getting my book ready for digital publication. It will be available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and as an E-Book.

Ettinger is younger, stronger, wiser, better organized than I ever was. May he not fear being marginalized like Rabbi Meir Kahane z”l, Herb Zweibon z”l (AFSI) and Moton Klien. Let him go forth and do battle with no punches held back.

Israel – America's Unique Ally
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought"
YnetNews, February 18, 2011

The seismic developments in Egypt and throughout the Arab Middle East highlight Israel's unique contribution to vital US interests.

The significance of Israel's strategic added-value is underlined by uncertain and shifty Arab ideologies, policies, alliances and allegiances, by the increasing vulnerability of pro-US Arab regimes, the intensifying unruly nature of Arab societies, the exacerbation of Islamic terrorism, the Iranian nuclear threat, the deepening penetration of the Arab Middle East by Russia and China, the recent erosion of the US posture of deterrence and the expected US evacuation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israel's reliability, capability, credibility, stability, democracy and non-conditional alliance with the USA are anomalous in the Middle East.

Egypt - a beneficiary of billions of dollars and state of the art US military systems – enhances strategic ties with North Korea, Russia and China, agitates the Horn of Africa and Sudan, consistently votes against the US at the UN and institutionalizes hate-education. A post-Mubarak regime could overtly join an anti-US axis.

Iran's Shah had access to the most advanced US military systems. However, the Shah was toppled; from a staunch US ally, Iran was transformed into the most effective anti-US regime in the world.

Libya's King Idris granted the US, in 1954, the use of Wheelus Air Base, which became the largest US Air Force base outside the USA. In 1969, Colonel Qaddafi overthrew King Idris and Wheelus serviced the Soviet Air Force.

Turkey shifted, in 2002, from a corner stone of the US and NATO posture of deterrence to a major pro-Russia supporter of the anti-US Iran-Syria axis.

Jordan –a recipient of US foreign aid – was one of only two Arab regimes which supported Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Jordan's port of Aqaba became Saddam's most critical route of supplies during the preparations for the 1991 US-Iraq War.

Iraq was pro-Western until the1958 anti-Western coup. However, Saddam Hussein – who ruled Iraq since 1979 - gained the confidence of the US. Therefore, he benefitted from a shared-intelligence agreement, the transfer of sensitive dual-use American technologies and $5BN loan guarantees, until his invasion of Kuwait.

Yemen was assisted by the US in its war against Aden and has benefited from US foreign aid. Still, Sana'a supported Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and hosts anti-US Islamic terrorists, while occasionally fighting them.

Saudi Arabia depends on the US for its survival in the face of lethal regional threats. The 1991 and 2003 US Gulf Wars were largely induced by the concern of a Saddam takeover of Saudi Arabia. However, Riyad bankrolls the operations of anti-US Islamic organizations in the US and anti-US Islamic terrorists.

Israel, on the other hand, was described by the late General Alexander Haig, who was a Supreme Commander of NATO and a US Secretary of State, as "the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require even one US soldier, cannot be sunk, is the most cost-effective and battle-tested, located in a region which is critical to vital US interests. If there would not be an Israel, the US would have to deploy real aircraft carriers, along with tens of thousands of US soldiers, which would cost tens of billions of dollars annually, dragging the US unnecessarily into local, regional and global conflicts. All of which is spared by the Jewish State."

For example, in 1970, pro-Soviet Syria invaded Jordan, threatening a domino scenario into the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The US military was preoccupied with Vietnam and could not deploy troops to Jordan. Israel was asked to mobilize its military, and the Syrian invasion was rolled back. Thus, Israel denied the USSR a major coup and spared the US a potential economic disaster, without deploying a single US soldier.

General John Keegan, a former chief of US Air Force Intelligence determined that Israel's contribution to the US intelligence was "equal to five CIAs."

Senator Daniel Inouye, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and former Chairman of the Intelligence Committee: "The intelligence received from Israel exceeds the intelligence received from all NATO countries combined." He assessed that Soviet military hardware which was transferred, by Israel, to the USA (P-12 Soviet radar in 1969, Mig-21 and Mig-23 Soviet fighter aircraft in 1966 and 1989 respectively, etc.) tilted the global balance of power in favor of the USA and amounted to a mega-billion dollar bonus to the USA.

In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor, thus sparing the US a nuclear confrontation with Iraq in1991 and 2003. In 1982 and 2007, Israel demolished Soviet surface-to-air missile batteries operated by Syria and a Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear reactor in Syria. The battle tactics – which were the first ever to penetrate such advanced Soviet/Russian defense systems - were shared with the US Air Force, enhancing the US military edge over Moscow.

In 2011, US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan benefit from Israel's experience in combating Improvised Explosive Devices, car bombs and suicide bombers.

The Jewish State constitutes the most advanced battle-tested laboratory for US military systems. The F-16 jet fighter includes over 600 Israeli-induced modifications, which saved the manufacturer billions of dollars and many years of research & development. Hundreds of additional US military systems, operated by Israel, generate similar benefits, according the US defense industries a global competitive edge and expanding US export and employment.

Upgrading the current mutually-beneficial US-Israel strategic cooperation is required in light of the aforementioned benefits, and in response to the turmoil in Egypt and its potential regional ripple effects, while the US lowers its military profile in the region. For example:

*Upgrading the port facilities of Ashdod for use by the Sixth Fleet; *Pre-positioning, in Israel, US homeland security systems, combat aircraft, missiles, tanks and armed personnel carriers, which would expedite US missions to preserve pro-US Arab regimes;

*Constructing, in Israel, US military facilities;
*Establishing a bi-national defense industrial cooperation fund, leveraging each country's competitive edge.

Enhancement of US-Israel strategic ties is natural and imperative in light of Israel's capabilities and the unique US-Israel common denominator: shared-values, joint-interests and mutual-threats.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 10:20