In his letter in the Dec. 12 Chronicle, Ben Wollman characterized as “intolerant nonsense” Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes’ opinion (expressed in the Nov. 28 issue) that “Israel should return to seeking victory.”
It has been fashionable since the 1960s to worship at the altar of “tolerance.” Is tolerance always desirable? How virtuous is it for Israel to tolerate the persistent attempts of its enemies to eliminate it?
Wollman goes on to ask (rhetorically) how Pipes’ view that Israel must pursue victory over such foes is any different from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s desire to wipe Israel off the map. How can one possibly posit as morally equivalent the desire to destroy Israel with Israel’s desire to prevent that from happening?
Wollman criticizes Pipes’ view that Israel needs to “impose its will on its enemies” because it “is antithetic to any peace process.”
Pipes obviously recognizes that “peace process,” in the context of Israeli-Arab relations, has come to take on an Orwellian meaning opposite of its literal meaning — i.e., a disingenuous tactic of the Arab war strategy in which Israel makes unilateral concessions, gets terror in return and loses both land and the will to resist.
Israel is in a war, and war does not end until one side or the other wins. The Arabs and Iran are not going to give up trying to wipe out Israel until they lose all hope that they can do so. Only then will peace be possible.
Jim Beer
Fox Point
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