The real Israel, thankfully, is not afraid because it shouldn’t be - by Yishai Fleisher

Contrary to a conservative's warnings, sending a signal that Israel intends to stay in its historic heartland forever will do much to deflate jihadist intentions.

Yishai Fleisher..
JNS.org..
08 May '20..

In a recent New York Times article, noted Middle East scholar and pro-Israel pundit Dr. Daniel Pipes warns that Israeli application of sovereignty in parts of the “West Bank,” known as Judea and Samaria, would be a grave mistake for the Jewish state and backs up his thesis with six reasons.

However, while Pipes sees himself as pragmatic, the article is riddled with one consistent flaw: It’s entirely founded on needlessly fearful conjecture.

Fear #1: President Trump’s fury

Right off the bat, Pipes reveals his phobic perspective: “First, President Trump could well erupt in fury at Israel for unilaterally taking that step.”

What? What is the basis for this concern? The annexation Pipes thinks will set off the president is in Trump’s very own “deal of the century” plan. Moreover, President Trump’s constituency supports Israel, and his administration is filled with officials who have openly backed Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, as they did in the Golan Heights and in Jerusalem.

And with regard to the commander-in-chief’s fury, it is clear that Trump respects strong leaders, not fearful weaklings.

So what is the basis for this terrified speculation that President Trump will “erupt in fury”? All indications are that the only “erupting” America’s president will do is the laughter he emits when he reads Pipes’s assessment.

Fear #2: Alienating Europe and the Democrats

For his second point, Pipes warns that “annexation would alienate and weaken Israel’s diminishing number of friends in the Democratic Party and in Europe.”

But “annexation” is just the latest excuse for the distance between Israel, on the one hand, and some Western European countries and much of the Democratic Party on the other. For these self-styled progressives, the very idea of nationalism has become abhorrent (except Palestinian nationalism), and the Zionist project, no matter what it does, is therefore distasteful. This mindset minimizes Israel’s accomplishments—military victories, impressive national economy, scientific and technological innovations. For progressives, the real heroes are perceived victims, not people who actually bring progress, liberty and freedom.

At the United Nations, Israel, the most liberal country in the Middle East, is regularly maligned as the world’s leading “human-rights abuser.” There is no way for Israel to please the radical progressives in Western Europe and the Democratic Party.

So while Pipes is right that Israel is losing the progressives, it has little to do with annexation.

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