The US was viciously attacked on 9/11. The basis for the attack was hatred of the values of a pluralistic society. What did we Americans do? Let in a zillion people who share that hatred and whose goal is to create Americastan.
From America's beginnings, immigrants bought into American values, as did my parents. What we have here are immigrants who wish to remake America into the horrible countries they fled. And do so In the name of a god who requires complete submission.
The blame falls on the shoulders of Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden and on the senators and representatives of both parties.
The 9/11 Commission, back in the day, investigated the proximate failures in the US intelligence and security communities to prevent the attacks. The commission was silent on the war of civilizations that is underway in the Middle East, Europe and the US. It is a war that the bad guys are winning.
Until we recognize that the West's pluralistic societies are all under attack by an implacable foe, we will do nothing but continue to retreat.
An absolutely significant parallel that deserves attention. Unfortunately, consistency is not a priority in our politics-- especially in election years. The larger problem for the US is trusting what our leaders say and then believing them when they turn to meet the winds of public opinion. Leaders need to focus on "the good" and not on the "fashionable." For Isreal, of course, the bigger problem is survival and security. The methods of Jihadists are the same world wide. It's beyond disturbing when our leaders don't hold fast but engage in public deception to win votes.
When Israel's choices are to let Hamas rearm and recover or face American pressure, Israel is actually in a very strong negotiating position. It has no other alternative.
Israel faced similar calls in the run-up to the Six Day War, when President Johnson told Israel it would be alone if it acted alone.
With the Gaza war fading from American headlines (check the Reuters front page), Israel has less pressure to stop and more reason to act.
Kissinger's 1973 demand was entirely different: 3 days into the war Sadat sent a confidential message to Washington that he wanted closer relations with the US. Knowing that, Kissinger refused to allow Sadat to be humiliated when he prevented Israel from destroying the Egyptian Third Army, fully surrounded on the east of the Suez Canal.
The shocker was when Egypt agreed to direct negotiations with Israel at Km 101 to discuss how the Red Cross would cross Israeli lines to supply the trapped army; it was the very first direct negotiations between Israel and Egypt and neither Kissinger nor Golda expected it.
All breathtakingly told in Abraham Rabinowitz' "The Yom Kippur War"
Good piece indeed, but it would not have been superfluous to have mentioned American financial support for Iran via unenforced oil sanctions, not to mention the pallets of cash that have enabled......everything.
The hypocrisy and the the antisemtism/Jew-Hate is clear. NY Times and BBC among many others do not routinely express the daily murder of Uighurs or Kurds by China, Turkey, Syria, Iran. Yet a death in Gaza is front page news. A death in Judea Samaria unless it's a Jewish death is high lighted as a major event. There is nothing to compare unless it was the global Jew Hate prior to Israel's rebirth of the hate directed at Israel. Twisting of facts, omissions, outright lauding of terror if directed at Jews.
Great article, yet no solutions, mainly because the U.S. administration doesn’t have any appetite to operate strategically in cooperation with Israel and moderate Arab states. Their only solution, expressed numerous times even by such political “giants” as VP Harris, is ceasefire…
I also wonder if Israel can justify capital punishment to convicted terrorists. There is zero reasons they should serve life sentences in Israeli prisons and be used as negotiation points for radical islamists.
The one big difference between 9/11 and the current battles with Hamas, is that here in Israel the enemy is just next door. This means that although the distance needed to go and to fight is small, the dangers are considerably greater when taken over a longer period of time. For every day of this war roughly on average one of our soldiers looses his life. Compared with the potential loss of those lives of the hostages that remain alive, this is more significant. To base our progress in this fight on allowing an exchange for at least 10 times as many murders who are in Israeli jails is absurd, even though the hearts of their families and loved ones are bitterly crying out in anguish!.
As an American who lived blocks away from the WTC on 9/11 and will never forget how violently my apartment shook or the cacophony of groans, roaring of concrete and iron, and sure sirens filled the air — I’m sickened by how my own government has behaved towards Israel and what a unreliable ally it has been to the country with which we should have an unbreakable bond.
America is in free fall — a hostage to America First isolationists on one side and uber practitioners of identity politics, silencing voices and reducing the entire world to a binary narrative of oppressor/oppressed. Kamala seems to stand for nothing and is no friend of Israel. Aside from being a cancer on society, I believe Donald Trump would abandon Israel to the highest bidder (Russia, Qatar, etc).
I can’t bring myself to vote for either one.
From your perspective Michael, what would you say to those of us going to the polls in November to whom Israel is their most important issue.
And no word about the Palestinian aspect? Hamas are Jihadists but they are also Palestinians. If you don't address this, you don't really address the problem.
"The United States responded to 9/11 with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both countries are located thousands of miles away from the U.S..."
The heart of the matter is Israel must share their nation with its Arab population and cannot simply walk away as the U.S. did in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The 9-11 attackers had to hijack airliners, not simply hang glide over fences. Simply put, the U.S. doesn't have to live with the consequences of their mistakes. Israel does.
Israel is being attacked by radical Islamists because it is a Western nation mired in the heart of the Middle East. Both the West Bank and Gaza were controlled in the past by Sunni Muslim nations of Jordan and Egypt with Jerusalem considered a self-governing entity. But, Israel "won" the 1967 Six Day War taking responsibility for the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. One can win a battle but lose a war. Palestine became an open air prison waiting for the next intifada to erupt. We can likely assume the Oct. 7 as the latest.
U.S. missteps in Iraq emboldened Iran to adopt the tenets of the Sunni radical Islamism and combine forces to cleanse the Middle East (the holy city of Jerusalem in particular) of Western influences. Hamas is nothing without the support of the revolutionary fervor of Iran. Attacking Hamas in Gaza on Hamas terms serves Iranian purposes and further paints the U.S. and Israel as the Great and Little "Satans". Although this is in Israel's backyard, it is not really an Israeli fight and like the Six Day War will be a battle won is a "lost cause" war against radical Islamism.
This is not really about Israel but about the spread of Islamic extremism against the West. This is a Muslim problem requiring a Muslim solution. Moderate Muslim nations must band together to embrace a more inclusive, less radical Islam and stand up to Iran's hijacking of the religion. Anyone caught in the middle will become collateral damage as we are witnessing with Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and soon Jordan. This is really a Muslim against Muslim war with Israel caught in the crossfire. Israel cannot fight its way out of this on its own and needs allies - both Western and Muslim to create a secure future.
"Kill them all and let Allah claim his own..." is not a winning strategy. This only creates more radical Islamists and horrifies Israel's Western allies. Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are the keys to a lasting peace. Until then, Israel can only hunker down and become an armed fortress. Give the West Bank/E. Jerusalem back to Jordan and Gaza back to Egypt with a UN mandate of them being non-militarized zones. If Jordan and Egypt can fashion some sort of a Palestinian state then good for them, but Israel cannot do this for them. Israel made the mistake of thinking it could "manage" its Islamist problem but it is bigger than Israel as the 9-11 attacks on the U.S. and numerous attacks in the UK and EU illustrate. Perhaps it is time for a resurgence of the Ottoman Empire to bring order again to the region.
Good piece, Michael.
The US was viciously attacked on 9/11. The basis for the attack was hatred of the values of a pluralistic society. What did we Americans do? Let in a zillion people who share that hatred and whose goal is to create Americastan.
From America's beginnings, immigrants bought into American values, as did my parents. What we have here are immigrants who wish to remake America into the horrible countries they fled. And do so In the name of a god who requires complete submission.
The blame falls on the shoulders of Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden and on the senators and representatives of both parties.
The 9/11 Commission, back in the day, investigated the proximate failures in the US intelligence and security communities to prevent the attacks. The commission was silent on the war of civilizations that is underway in the Middle East, Europe and the US. It is a war that the bad guys are winning.
Until we recognize that the West's pluralistic societies are all under attack by an implacable foe, we will do nothing but continue to retreat.
Jeez, somebody certainly has swilled the MAGA kool-aid.
And someone else is doing their (highly successful) impersonation of a moron.
An absolutely significant parallel that deserves attention. Unfortunately, consistency is not a priority in our politics-- especially in election years. The larger problem for the US is trusting what our leaders say and then believing them when they turn to meet the winds of public opinion. Leaders need to focus on "the good" and not on the "fashionable." For Isreal, of course, the bigger problem is survival and security. The methods of Jihadists are the same world wide. It's beyond disturbing when our leaders don't hold fast but engage in public deception to win votes.
The troubling thing is that for Kamala I don’t think it is deception 🙃
Israel can never, ever, be allowed to win, so there's a double standard on everything they do. But you knew that.
When Israel's choices are to let Hamas rearm and recover or face American pressure, Israel is actually in a very strong negotiating position. It has no other alternative.
Israel faced similar calls in the run-up to the Six Day War, when President Johnson told Israel it would be alone if it acted alone.
With the Gaza war fading from American headlines (check the Reuters front page), Israel has less pressure to stop and more reason to act.
Yep, and the difference in how we responded to Kissinger's demand that we refrain in '73 is illustrative.
Kissinger's 1973 demand was entirely different: 3 days into the war Sadat sent a confidential message to Washington that he wanted closer relations with the US. Knowing that, Kissinger refused to allow Sadat to be humiliated when he prevented Israel from destroying the Egyptian Third Army, fully surrounded on the east of the Suez Canal.
The shocker was when Egypt agreed to direct negotiations with Israel at Km 101 to discuss how the Red Cross would cross Israeli lines to supply the trapped army; it was the very first direct negotiations between Israel and Egypt and neither Kissinger nor Golda expected it.
All breathtakingly told in Abraham Rabinowitz' "The Yom Kippur War"
Good piece indeed, but it would not have been superfluous to have mentioned American financial support for Iran via unenforced oil sanctions, not to mention the pallets of cash that have enabled......everything.
The Biden admin actually transferred 10 Billion dollars to Iran (via allowing Iraq to transfer the money) not long after Oct. 7th
This was already after the Houthis started attacking global trade
The hypocrisy and the the antisemtism/Jew-Hate is clear. NY Times and BBC among many others do not routinely express the daily murder of Uighurs or Kurds by China, Turkey, Syria, Iran. Yet a death in Gaza is front page news. A death in Judea Samaria unless it's a Jewish death is high lighted as a major event. There is nothing to compare unless it was the global Jew Hate prior to Israel's rebirth of the hate directed at Israel. Twisting of facts, omissions, outright lauding of terror if directed at Jews.
Great article, yet no solutions, mainly because the U.S. administration doesn’t have any appetite to operate strategically in cooperation with Israel and moderate Arab states. Their only solution, expressed numerous times even by such political “giants” as VP Harris, is ceasefire…
I also wonder if Israel can justify capital punishment to convicted terrorists. There is zero reasons they should serve life sentences in Israeli prisons and be used as negotiation points for radical islamists.
You are correct Julia, however it is pretty obvious that any hostages left with Hamas will be assassinated if this follows through :(
Precise and concise always, thank you for Clarity, Michael Oren.
The one big difference between 9/11 and the current battles with Hamas, is that here in Israel the enemy is just next door. This means that although the distance needed to go and to fight is small, the dangers are considerably greater when taken over a longer period of time. For every day of this war roughly on average one of our soldiers looses his life. Compared with the potential loss of those lives of the hostages that remain alive, this is more significant. To base our progress in this fight on allowing an exchange for at least 10 times as many murders who are in Israeli jails is absurd, even though the hearts of their families and loved ones are bitterly crying out in anguish!.
As an American who lived blocks away from the WTC on 9/11 and will never forget how violently my apartment shook or the cacophony of groans, roaring of concrete and iron, and sure sirens filled the air — I’m sickened by how my own government has behaved towards Israel and what a unreliable ally it has been to the country with which we should have an unbreakable bond.
America is in free fall — a hostage to America First isolationists on one side and uber practitioners of identity politics, silencing voices and reducing the entire world to a binary narrative of oppressor/oppressed. Kamala seems to stand for nothing and is no friend of Israel. Aside from being a cancer on society, I believe Donald Trump would abandon Israel to the highest bidder (Russia, Qatar, etc).
I can’t bring myself to vote for either one.
From your perspective Michael, what would you say to those of us going to the polls in November to whom Israel is their most important issue.
And no word about the Palestinian aspect? Hamas are Jihadists but they are also Palestinians. If you don't address this, you don't really address the problem.
"The United States responded to 9/11 with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both countries are located thousands of miles away from the U.S..."
The heart of the matter is Israel must share their nation with its Arab population and cannot simply walk away as the U.S. did in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The 9-11 attackers had to hijack airliners, not simply hang glide over fences. Simply put, the U.S. doesn't have to live with the consequences of their mistakes. Israel does.
Israel is being attacked by radical Islamists because it is a Western nation mired in the heart of the Middle East. Both the West Bank and Gaza were controlled in the past by Sunni Muslim nations of Jordan and Egypt with Jerusalem considered a self-governing entity. But, Israel "won" the 1967 Six Day War taking responsibility for the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. One can win a battle but lose a war. Palestine became an open air prison waiting for the next intifada to erupt. We can likely assume the Oct. 7 as the latest.
U.S. missteps in Iraq emboldened Iran to adopt the tenets of the Sunni radical Islamism and combine forces to cleanse the Middle East (the holy city of Jerusalem in particular) of Western influences. Hamas is nothing without the support of the revolutionary fervor of Iran. Attacking Hamas in Gaza on Hamas terms serves Iranian purposes and further paints the U.S. and Israel as the Great and Little "Satans". Although this is in Israel's backyard, it is not really an Israeli fight and like the Six Day War will be a battle won is a "lost cause" war against radical Islamism.
This is not really about Israel but about the spread of Islamic extremism against the West. This is a Muslim problem requiring a Muslim solution. Moderate Muslim nations must band together to embrace a more inclusive, less radical Islam and stand up to Iran's hijacking of the religion. Anyone caught in the middle will become collateral damage as we are witnessing with Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and soon Jordan. This is really a Muslim against Muslim war with Israel caught in the crossfire. Israel cannot fight its way out of this on its own and needs allies - both Western and Muslim to create a secure future.
"Kill them all and let Allah claim his own..." is not a winning strategy. This only creates more radical Islamists and horrifies Israel's Western allies. Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are the keys to a lasting peace. Until then, Israel can only hunker down and become an armed fortress. Give the West Bank/E. Jerusalem back to Jordan and Gaza back to Egypt with a UN mandate of them being non-militarized zones. If Jordan and Egypt can fashion some sort of a Palestinian state then good for them, but Israel cannot do this for them. Israel made the mistake of thinking it could "manage" its Islamist problem but it is bigger than Israel as the 9-11 attacks on the U.S. and numerous attacks in the UK and EU illustrate. Perhaps it is time for a resurgence of the Ottoman Empire to bring order again to the region.
https://johnhardman.substack.com/p/israel-iran-war-second-nekba
Profound, great piece.
I'll post a letter I wrote to the East Hampton Star that includes parallels between Sept 11 & Oct 7
I'll post it to my substack (to which I need to post more often
Hope it furthers use of these 2 events to promote understanding.
Hopefully we cam all celebrate october 7 with the deaths of sinwar amd Khamenei
OK Michael, enough kvetching.
What has Israel accomplished in Gaza?