KILL FOR PEACE INTRODUCTION AND PART II By Prof. Paul Eidelberg Part I. Analysis The best analysis I have read of America’s foreign policy failings since the unfinished Persian Gulf War of 1991 will be found in the writings of Ralph Peters, a retired American army Intelligence officer who worked and studied in dozens of countries as well as in the U.S. Executive office. If there is a single power the U.S. underestimates it is the power of collective hatred, meaning the hatred that animates the Arab-Islamic world. This failing applies to Israel. Like their American counterparts, Israel’s ruling elites do not “understand the delicious appeal of hatred.” They will not face the fact that man is a killer. They have learned nothing from the genocidal wars and wholesale massacres of the twentieth century, not merely in Nazi Germany, but also in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Iraq, Sudan—to name only a few. There is at least a minority of human beings who enjoy killing. That minority may be small, says Peters, but it does not take many enthusiastic killers to trigger a genocidal war. The Arab Palestinian Authority consists of such killers. Indeed, they have educated a generation of Arab children to become killers. Like the United States, Israel plays by rules, some encoded in its own laws or in international laws, others in long-established customs, which are part of the West’s collective consciousness. But Israel’s enemies don’t give a damn about our laws and customs. Again and again we find that hard-won treaties or agreements mean nothing to our enemies. While we are word- or talk-oriented, out enemies are action-oriented. We mirror-image and think that our enemies are like us, that they want peace, even though they have repeatedly said, “peace means the destruction of Israel.” Israelis live in a state of denial. Even the terms we use to describe the enemy—whether we name them “terrorists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”—are misleading.Such terms hinder the political and military echelons from developing an appropriate strategy against the enemy. Ralph Peters calls these terrorists “warriors,” because he wants Americans to take terrorists more seriously. He speaks of five different types of warriors—because if we do not understand the enemy, we won’t win the war against them. ● One pool of warriors comes from the underclass, a male who has no stake in peace, a loser with little education and little legal earning power. It’s easy to recruit such warriors against the Great or against the Little Satan. These warriors are bloody savages. ● A second pool of warriors consists of youth and young men who join and fight for the Arab cause. Their savagery increases with the duration and intensity of the conflict. ● A third pool of warriors consists of opportunists, entrepreneurs who profit from the conflict. They traffic in arms and drugs. Their great strength is their cynicism. The Palestinian kleptocracy—Mahmoud Abbas belongs to this pool. They are chameleons and very dangerous. This type of warrior is the most likely to be underestimated, especially by wishful-thinking Jews. ● A fourth pool of warriors consists of true believers like Osama bin Laden, or like Abdullah Badran, the 21 year-old university student who blew himself up in Tel Aviv nightclub. These warriors fight out of religious conviction and become infected with bloodlust. They are the products of a failed civilization that blames the Americans or Zionists for its inability to adapt to modernity and compete with the West. They burn with resentment and the desire for revenge. ● Dispossessed or otherwise failed military men form the fifth and most immediately dangerous wool of warriors. But the greatest danger to Israel and the United States is when the cynic is working together with the true believer. All of these warriors are habituated to violence; they have no stake in civil order. Unlike soldiers, they do not play by the rules of the Geneva convention; they do not respect human life; treaties mean nothing to them; and they regard compromise as equivalent to prostitution. Negotiation with warriors is sheer folly. We should not negotiate with them until they surrender. Until then, they must be killed. Unfortunately, Israelis, like Americans, believe that all men want peace, that all conflict can be resolved through compromise and understanding. But many men have no stake in peace. Many would be bored by peace, and would lose honor or be out a job with peace. You find such men in the Palestinian Authority—in Fatah, Tanzim, Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and so on. ● American and Israeli opinion-makers refuse to believe that many human beings thrive and profit on disorder and on killing other human beings. ● Americans, profit from peace; warriors profit from war, and Israelis suffer the consequences. ● Both American and Israelis talk about a war against “terrorism,” a war that is actually against Islam, a jihadic culture that breeds terrorists. As Ralph Peters points out, we refuse to understand that certain human beings cannot accept that their culture is failing. These human beings do not realize that they are failing individually because of the mode of thought and behavior to which their culture has conditioned them. They want someone to blame, and they want revenge on that someone. But our academics and intellectual elites—the educators of our politicians and judges—are so conditioned by the moral relativism that permeates all levels of education in the democratic world, that they cannot think of a failed culture such as Islam. They would accuse me of racism. One does not have to be a racist to recognize that Israel’s enemies have some nasty characteristics: ● They regard Israeli peace overtures as a sign of weakness. ● They have nothing but contempt for Jews who advocate “land for peace.” ● They will not honor any form of agreement a moment longer than it suits their needs. ● Their contempt for human life inevitably leads them to commit atrocities. We face an enemy whose sole motivation to refrain from killing is the fear of being killed; but since many of them love of death, the only deterrent is to kill them in sufficient numbers before they kill us. ---------------------- Part II. What Must Be Done The Netanyahu Government is following the failed Oslo policy of “land for peace.” I propose a policy of “Kill for Peace”—a harsh policy, but one that would actually reduce Arab as well as Jewish casualties. The rationality and effectiveness of such a policy is substantiated not only by Ralph Peters but also by the greatest military theorists in history, Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu.Moreover, the thinking of these military geniuses is supported by principles of statecraft enunciated by the great 19th century Austrian statesman, Prince Metternich. Accordingly, I shall now enumerate ten principles of statecraft and rules of warfare required for the policy “Kill for Peace” vis-à-vis Israel’s Janus-faced enemies: ● First Principle: A wise and courageous statesman must set forth a clear military goal. For Israel, this goal is the destruction of the entire Arab terrorist network in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The statesman must tackle this goal vigorously. For this to happen it is necessary that the goal should not only be clear in the eyes of the cabinet, but it should also be made clear in the eyes of the public. (Bear in mind, however, that Israel’s system of multi-party cabinet government is inherently incapable of pursuing a coherent and vigorous national strategy. This is why I have proposed a presidential system of government.) ● Second Principle: In this age of publicity the first concern of government must be not only to be right, but, even more important, to see that everything is called by its right name. Israeli statesmen must stop talking about a “peace process” or about “peaceful coexistence.” Israel is in a war for its survival. In this war there is no substitute for victory. ● Third Principle: There is no compromising with an uncompromising enemy—an enemy that regards compromise as a sign of weakness. Israel is confronted by the most evil of enemies—warriors who lust for Jewish blood. ● Fourth Principle: Eliminate the evil at its source, that is, eliminate the enemy’s leadership, its supporting gangs and infrastructure. Disarming the enemy must be the immediate object of hostilities, for as long as the enemy remains armed, he will wait for a more favorable moment for action. ● Fifth Principle: Know that any strategy conceived in moderate terms will fail because the circumstances confronting Israel are extreme—its very existence is at stake. Therefore, where each of the possible lines of action involves difficulty, the strongest line is the best. ● Sixth Principle: Tell the people of Israel that there will be casualties to Arab non-combatants or civilians. Most of these civilians are not innocent: they allow terrorists to use them as human shields. Emphasize that the overwhelming majority of the Arab inhabitants of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza support suicide bombers and reject Israel’s existence. ● Seventh Principle: Impose rules of engagement that favor the IDF, not the enemy. Bomb terrorist havens from the air, rather than endanger Jewish soldiers by house-to-house combat. ● Eighth Principle: Operate offensively, never passively or defensively, and operate continuously. Give the enemy no rest.Hence, no cease fires, for they allow the enemy to regroup, obtain more weapons, and prepare for deadlier attacks. ● Ninth Principle: Sun Tzu, who actually hated war, warns that “to kill the enemy, men must be roused to anger.” This leads me to a tenth principle, for which I turn to King David. ●Tenth Principle: The statesman must exhibit hatred of Israel’s enemies. King David said, “I hate them, O God, that hate you” (Psalm 139:21). Here the haters of God means those who hate God’s people, or God’s Torah, because actual hatred has no meaning in terms of God’s essence. Hatred, however, is futile if it does not issue in action. Therefore King David writes: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and returned not until they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they are not able to rise; …. I pulverized them like dust in the face of the storm …” (Psalm 18:38-43), This is what must be done to Israel’s enemies. I therefore propose that the untried but rational policy of “Kill for Peace” replace the discredited, irrational policy of “land for peace.” Obviously this will not be done by the present government. Hence Israel needs a very different kind of government.□ Kill for Peace (cont'd) Prof. Paul Eidelberg Part I concluded with a simple message: "We should not negotiate with warriors until they surrender. Until then, we must kill them. Unfortunately, Israelis, like Americans, believe that all men want peace, that all conflict can be resolved through compromise and understanding. But many men have no stake in peace. Many would be bored by peace, and would lose honor or be out a job with peace. You find such men in the Palestinian Authority, in Fatah, Tanzim, Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and so on. We just refuse to believe that many human beings thrive and profit on disorder and on killing human beings. Intensifying the problem today is Islam and global jihad. Americans and Israelis refuse to understand that certain human beings cannot accept that their culture is failing and that they are failing individually because of the behaviors to which their culture has conditioned them. They want someone to blame, and they want revenge on that someone. But our academic and intellectual elites—the educators of our politicians and judges—are so conditioned by the cultural relativism that permeates all levels of education in the democratic world, that they cannot think of a failed culture such as Islam. They would accuse me of racism. One does not have to be a racist to recognize the following characteristics of Israel’s enemies: ● They regard Israeli peace overtures as a sign of weakness. ● They have nothing but contempt for Jews who advocate “land for peace.” ● They will not honor any form of agreement a moment longer than it suits their needs. ● Their contempt for human life inevitably leads them to commit atrocities. ● They will employ all available means to win the conflict. Given their love of death, there is no civilized deterrent; only logical and rational deterrent is to kill them in sufficient numbers before they kill us. Given the eighteen-year failure of the policy of "land for peace," propose a policy of “kill for peace”—a harsh-sounding policy that would nonetheless reduce Arab as well as Jewish casualties. The rationale for such a policy can be substantiated by the greatest military theorists in history, Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, as well as by principles of statecraft enunciated by Metternich, the great 19th century Austrian statesman. Here I will outline ten principles Hatred, however, is a futile if it does not issue in action. Therefore King David writes: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and returned not until they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they are not able to rise; …. I pulverized them like dust in the face of the storm …” (Psalm 18:38-43), This is what must be done to Israel’s enemies. And so I propose the rational policy of “Kill for Peace” to replace the proven-to-be irrational policy of “land for peace.” Obviously this will not be done by the Netanyahu government. Hence Israel needs a very different kind of government—and this obviously does NOT mean a Labor or Kadima government.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
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