Threat Analyst Ken Abramowitz is author of “The Multifront War”
Editor: Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, President, American Center for Democracy (ACD)
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
The deadly October 7 surprise attack by Hamas was the inevitable outcome of scores of military and political failures, which will be studied in depth after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has finally destroyed Hamas.
The origins of this war lie in a series of political mistakes in the aftermath of Israel’s awe-inspiring victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, 56 years ago. We at Save The West recommend the re-examination of ten critical mistakes made by Israel, usually under pressure from the antisemitic/Islamist-influenced US State Department and the antisemitic and unprincipled United Nations.
1) After capturing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 1967, Israel should have not granted the Jordanian Wakf the responsibility to govern this ancient site, holy to the Jews. The Muslims built there, claiming it’s their important religious site. Israel should have maintained its rule over Temple Mount.
2) In 1967, Israel liberated Judea and Samaria from 19 years of Jordan’s illegal occupation, but, under US pressure, failed to annex the area, even though it was the Biblical foundation of Israel 3,300-3,800 years ago.
3) After liberating eastern Jerusalem, Israel did not impose Israel’s specially designed Israeli Arab school curriculum on the newly freed Arab population. Under UN and US pressure, it allowed UNWRA (United Nations Work and Relief Agency) to control schools and mis-educate Arabs in eastern Jerusalem.
4) In 1979, the Iranian Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah and set up the Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocratic death cult dedicated to taking over the world. Soon, they set out to develop nuclear weapons. The US and Israel watched this development for 44 years, but failed to destroy Iran’s illegal nuclear facilities, even though they represented an existential threat to each country. The US also failed to stop Iran’s creation of a global terror organization of several hundred thousand operatives.
5) After signing the flawed Oslo Accord in 1995, Israel accepted America’s bad advice to officially recognize the floundering terrorist group, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and its depraved and corrupt leader, Yasser Arafat, allowing him to move from his exile in Tunisia to Ramallah.
6) In 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon after nearly 20 years of bungled occupation of the southern region and turned it over to Hezbollah, a proxy terrorist group of Iran, once again, accepting another bad American idea to allow the corrupt and ineffectual UN to police southern Lebanon through its UNIFIL police force.
7) In 2001, al Qaeda attacked the US homeland, killing 2,996 people. This terrorist act propelled the US into war in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the US never outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, whose ideology was the impetus for al Qaeda’s attacks. Also the US should have known that it had to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities simultaneously.
8) In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip, under American encouragement. It forcefully removed 9,000 Israelis who lived there, paving the way for the Hamas takeover.
9) In 2021 and 2022, the Biden administration relaxed the sanctions on Iran, allowing it to accumulate $70-$100 billion from oil sales to China. It also removed the Houthi terror organization, Iran’s proxy in Yemen, from the terror list, although it attacks and threatens Saudi Arabia, a key US ally. Under Iranian instructions, the Houthis are now directly attacking Israel.
10) And finally, Israel must understand how it was possible for the country’s famous intelligence agencies to completely miss the huge preparations that were made by Hamas prior to Israel’s own Pearl Harbor on October 7th.
Israel now faces its biggest challenge since the 1948 War of Independence. What should Israel do?
The US has not responded to repeated attacks by Iranian proxies in the Middle East. Why not? What should the US do?
How can both countries remedy the mistakes they made over the past 56 years? How can the US right the wrong that it has caused Israel through its poor and sometimes even malicious advice?
The response is complicated and simple at the same time. Sadly, the US ignored its appeasements and mistakes that led to World War II, and Israel failed to draw the lessons from its mistakes and appeasement of the Palestinians. So, now, both countries find themselves in circumstances that are threatening the development of World War III.
Alas, there is now no non-military solution to the problem. Iran’s proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, must be destroyed in the next 12 months. The US must immediately snap back sanctions on oil and weapons exports, and it should demolish Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development sites.
Both countries should embrace President Reagan’s maxim: Peace through Strength.
