SUPPORT ISRAEL!

London, England

Article in The Times 17 June 2010 by José María Aznar
Support Israel: if it goes down, we all go down
Anger over Gaza is a distraction. We cannot forget that Israel is the Wests best
ally in a turbulent region
For far too long now it has been unfashionable in Europe to speak up for Israel.
In the wake of the recent incident on board a ship full of anti-Israeli activists in
the Mediterranean, it is hard to think of a more unpopular cause to champion.
In an ideal world, the assault by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara
would not have ended up with nine dead and a score wounded. In an ideal
world, the soldiers would have been peacefully welcomed on to the ship. In an
ideal world, no state, let alone a recent ally of Israel such as Turkey, would
have sponsored and organised a flotilla whose sole purpose was to create an
impossible situation for Israel: making it choose between giving up its security
policy and the naval blockade, or risking the wrath of the world.
In our dealings with Israel, we must blow away the red mists of anger that too
often cloud our judgment. A reasonable and balanced approach should
encapsulate the following realities: first, the state of Israel was created by a
decision of the UN. Its legitimacy, therefore, should not be in question. Israel is
a nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open
society that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technology.
Second, owing to its roots, history, and values, Israel is a fully fledged Western
nation. Indeed, it is a normal Western nation, but one confronted by abnormal
circumstances.
Uniquely in the West, it is the only democracy whose very existence has been
questioned since its inception. In the first instance, it was attacked by its
neighbours using the conventional weapons of war. Then it faced terrorism
culminating in wave after wave of suicide attacks. Now, at the behest of radical
Islamists and their sympathisers, it faces a campaign of delegitimisation
through international law and diplomacy.
Sixty-two years after its creation, Israel is still fighting for its very survival.
Punished with missiles raining from north and south, threatened with
destruction by an Iran aiming to acquire nuclear weapons and pressed upon by
friend and foe, Israel, it seems, is never to have a moments peace.
For years, the focus of Western attention has understandably been on the
peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. But if Israel is in danger today
and the whole region is slipping towards a worryingly problematic future, it is
not due to the lack of understanding between the parties on how to solve this
conflict. The parameters of any prospective peace agreement are clear,
however difficult it may seem for the two sides to make the final push for a
settlement.
The real threats to regional stability, however, are to be found in the rise of a
radical Islamism which sees Israels destruction as the fulfilment of its religious
destiny and, simultaneously in the case of Iran, as an expression of its
ambitions for regional hegemony. Both phenomena are threats that affect not
only Israel, but also the wider West and the world at large.
The core of the problem lies in the ambiguous and often erroneous manner in
which too many Western countries are now reacting to this situation. It is easy
to blame Israel for all the evils in the Middle East. Some even act and talk as if
a new understanding with the Muslim world could be achieved if only we were
prepared to sacrifice the Jewish state on the altar. This would be folly.
Israel is our first line of defence in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk
of descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our
overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the
fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down
To defend Israels right to exist in peace, within secure borders, requires a
degree of moral and strategic clarity that too often seems to have disappeared
in Europe. The United States shows worrying signs of heading in the same
direction.
The West is going through a period of confusion over the shape of the worlds
future. To a great extent, this confusion is caused by a kind of masochistic selfdoubt
over our own identity; by the rule of political correctness; by a
multiculturalism that forces us to our knees before others; and by a secularism
which, irony of ironies, blinds us even when we are confronted by jihadis
promoting the most fanatical incarnation of their faith. To abandon Israel to its
fate, at this moment of all moments, would merely serve to illustrate how far
we have sunk and how inexorable our decline now appears.
This cannot be allowed to happen. Motivated by the need to rebuild our own
Western values, expressing deep concern about the wave of aggression against
Israel, and mindful that Israels strength is our strength and Israels weakness is
our weakness, I have decided to promote a new Friends of Israel initiative with
the help of some prominent people, including David Trimble, Andrew Roberts,
John Bolton, Alejandro Toledo (the former President of Peru), Marcello Pera
(philosopher and former President of the Italian Senate), Fiamma Nirenstein
(the Italian author and politician), the financier Robert Agostinelli and the
Catholic intellectual George Weigel.
It is not our intention to defend any specific policy or any particular Israeli
government. The sponsors of this initiative are certain to disagree at times
with decisions taken by Jerusalem. We are democrats, and we believe in
diversity.
What binds us, however, is our unyielding support for Israels right to exist and
to defend itself. For Western countries to side with those who question Israels
legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israels vital
security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values rather
than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral
mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude.
Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its
Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and
Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is
inextricably intertwined.
José María Aznar was Prime Minister of Spain, 1996-2004