The killing on May 2 of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden — mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack on the United States — may have been a triumph for the U.S.
But “most people” in the U.S. “do not really see that we’re talking about a global war” against radical Islam, of which bin Laden is “really just a symbol” and “one manifestation.”
So contended Moshe Ben David, former emissary from Israel to Milwaukee and former Mossad officer, in an address May 9 at Congregation Sinai to an audience estimated by the synagogue office at 300 people.
Because U.S. people live in a “safe, Western society,” Ben David said, “you don’t see [the war] happening around you.” But this war is more clearly perceived in Europe, where some 50 million Muslims now live.
And this war is not just about Israel or even about the United States and democracy; it is about “radical Islam and the rest of the world,” he said.
To perceive this, people need to examine “narrowing circles” of world politics, said Ben David. First, the wide circle of the Arab world is dominated by undemocratic or antidemocratic regimes, but they are either moderately Muslim or secular.
At present, many of these regimes are facing popular revolts that appear to be seeking to establish democracy; but Ben David cautioned that actually creating democratic governments “is a long process. It will not happen overnight. It took Europe many years to become democratic.”
There exist no organized opposition parties to these regimes, save radical Muslim groups, Ben David said. Egypt is one example; the army currently runs the country after the recent overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak; but the Muslim Brotherhood is the only other organized political group.
And in Egypt, “the lowest common denominator” in public sentiment is “hate of Israel.” A Pew Research Center poll in Egypt in April showed that 54 percent of Egyptians want to end the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1979.
The situation is similar in other Arab countries like Syria and Libya, Ben David said.
A narrower circle is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where there are “two major issues,” he said: the Israel administered territories and Jewish settlements there; and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
For more than 40 years, “most leaders of the Western world” view Israel as “the conqueror of Palestinian lands,” Ben David said. Today’s leaders were “born into this situation” and “tend to forget” how it happened.
Invoking the haggadah’s statement about the necessity of continuing to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, Ben David recapped highlights of the Arab world’s refusal to accept Israel’s existence. They included:
• The Arab countries rejected the United Nation’s partition plan of 1947 and invaded of the new state of Israel. Israel won the war, leading to creation of the 1949 armistice lines.
• The Arabs countries refused to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank-Judea and Samaria and in Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan and Egypt, respectively, controlled these territories.
• Arab states created the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, three years before the 1967 war in which Israel captured the now contested territories.
Eventually, Israel achieved peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan; but every attempt to achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians has foundered because “the Palestinians will not give up the dream of a state all over the land” and of having Israel “disappear,” Ben David said.
With the recent “reconciliation” between the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah group and the Muslim fundamentalist and terrorist organization Hamas, “there is no way we can go forward” to a peace agreement, said Ben David.
So the next circle is that of Israeli politics, where “there is no left left” because most Israelis no longer believe there is a Palestinian Arab peace partner, Ben David said.
But Ben David refused to end on a pessimistic note. “Israel today is stronger than it ever was” militarily and economically. He cited its growing economy that was not affected by the recent recession, and the recent discovery of an offshore reservoir of natural gas, estimated to be enough to meet its needs for about 30 years.
Mossad is the Israeli agency that does overseas intelligence work, the equivalent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Mossad plus Ahman, the military intelligence service, and Shin Bet, the internal security agency, are responsible for “behind the scenes” work that helps defend Israel.
As featured speaker at the Milwaukee Jewish community’s Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) commemoration on May 8, Ben David paid tribute to the people of these agencies.
“When agents complete their missions,” often “no one knows they have returned from the lion’s den” except for colleagues and spouses, he said to some 400 people attending the event at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
These people have “enormous commitment and responsibility,” said Ben David. Some, like Eli Cohen who spied on Syria in the early 1960s, were captured and killed; and Cohen is “one of the few known” casualties; “others are still secret,” Ben David said.
Ben David’s appearance at Congregation Sinai was sponsored by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. The Yom HaZikaron event was hosted by the Israel Center and the JCC; and was chaired by Razia Azen and Suzanne Weinstein, and co-chaired by Monica Arnstein.
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