Israel is, of course, always at war, in the sense that there are countries, including its next-door neighbors, eager to decimate it and kill every Jew who lives there (along with every Jew who lives elsewhere as well: read the hamas charter – especially the last part of article 7, and see for yourself.
But, currently, there is no “hot war” – i.e. major military operations combating Israel’s enemies.
So I thought you might want to see what Israel is up to when it is not fighting for its survival.
From Ellen Nakashima and William Booth’s article in the Washington Post:
Here in the middle of the Negev Desert, a cyber-city is rising to cement Israel’s place as a major digital power. The new development, an outcropping of glass and steel, will concentrate some of the country’s top talent from the military, academia and business in an area of just a few square miles.
No other country is so purposefully integrating its private, scholarly, government and military cyber-expertise.
Israel is a nation of 8 million people with little in the way of natural resources. But in global private investment into cybersecurity firms, it is second only to the United States, with half a billion dollars flowing to the sector annually. Israel has not only vowed to repel the thousands of daily hack attacks against everything from the electric grid to ATMs, but has promised to build its commercial cyber-sector into an economic powerhouse.
More quietly, the Jewish state is also at the cutting edge of cyber-offense, developing stealthy computer weapons to penetrate its enemies’ networks. The United States and Israel, working together, launched the world’s most destructive cyberweapon known to date, Stuxnet, which was let loose on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facilityto devastating effect.
But where the two countries diverge is in Israel’s apparent ability, because of its size, history, geography and culture, to organize itself to defeat cyberthreats. Different sectors of society — that in the United States do not have a tradition of collaborating — appear willing in Israel to work closely together under a strong centralized authority.
This is just one of the countless ways that Israel creates, innovates, and progresses….when it has the opportunity to do so (and even when it doesn’t).
It is also what Israel could be partnering with Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and Judea/Samaria (the west bank) to do…..if Palestinian Arabs had any interest in creativity, innovation, technological progress, or, for that matter, peaceful coexistence of any kind.
Instead of teaching their children to hate, instead of teaching them of the glory they will achieve if they die killing Jews (a curriculum happily facilitated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency – UNRWA – which oversees its schools), Palestinian Arabs could be partnering with Israel in projects like the one described above, in peace.
Is this just a dream? Is Israel capable of making peace with Arabs on its border?
Well, after fighting several wars against each other, Israel made peace with Egypt in 1979. Ditto for Jordan in 1994.
Since then? Not one battle between Israel and either of these countries: not because they like each other, but because it is in their mutual interests to peacefully coexist.
This proves Israel is perfectly capable of making, and holding to, peace treaties with its Arab neighbors. And that its Arab neighbors are perfectly capable of making, and holding to, peace treaties with Israel.
So what is the problem?
The problem is Palestinian Arabs who do not want peace. Who do not want a two-state solution (go back to the hamas charter and read its second paragraph – then read Article 11). Who do not accept any negotiated settlement as valid in any way (read Article 13) .
Then remember that fatah, which controls Judea/Samaria (the west bank), signed a “unity agreement” with hamas, without any stated disavowal of its charter. In other words, the obliteration of Israel and death of all Jews everywhere is fine with them too.
Finally, I will ask you to reread the excerpt of the Washington Post’s article I put up at the beginning of this blog – along with the rest of the article….
…and decide for yourself which way of living makes more sense.
