Yoram Ettinger

Convergence of US-Israel national security interests

In 2017, the national security interests of the US and Israel have converged, in an unprecedented manner, in response to the anti-US Arab Tsunami; anti-US Islamic terrorism; the declining European posture of deterrence; drastic cuts in the US defense budget; an increasingly unpredictable, dangerous globe; Israel's surge of military and commercial capabilities and US-Israel shared values.

Israel - US Relations: a mutually beneficial bilateral bond

Israel is a unique national-security producer for the US, in face of the imminent threats of Iran's Ayatollahs and Islamic terrorism

Is the Palestinian issue a core cause of Mideast turbulence?

Irrespective of - and unrelated to - the Palestinian issue, the Middle East is boiling, firing the 14-century-old Sunni-Shia intra-Muslim confrontation, exacerbating intra-Arab violence in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and threatening to explode in every Arab country.

The State Department – a systematic blunderer

In 2011, the Department of State welcomed the Arab Tsunami, which has displaced millions of people and murdered hundreds of thousands – and keeps raging - as an Arab Spring, youth revolution, Facebook revolution and a transition towards democracy.

Israel’s economic surge in defiance of adversity

Notwithstanding Israel’s unique challenges of the chaotically unpredictable state of the Middle East, the Islamic and Arab onslaught, the scarcity of natural resources (other than brain power), the UN enmity, the European appeasement of rogue regimes, systematic criticism by the “elite” media and the attempt to boycott, divest and sanction, the independent, non-partisan quarterly, The American Interest, stated on January 24: “This is there is a new name on our list of The Eight Greats, Israel….

A Palestinian state: is it good/bad for the USA?

In 1948, the US State Department’s conventional “wisdom” contended that the reestablishment of a Jewish state would damage US interests, since the Jewish state would be aligned with the USSR, undermine US-Arab relations, intensify regional instability, and would be militarily devastated by its Arab neighbors, thus causing a second Jewish Holocaust in less than ten years.

Can Israel rely on foreign peacekeepers and security guarantees?

Israel is urged to concede the historically and militarily most critical mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, in return for a US, or a multinational, peacekeeping force, as well as US security guarantees or defense pact.

Israel's security prerequisites in the real Middle East

Israel's security requirements derive from the explosive Middle East, which requires an unusually high national security threshold, due to the 14-century-old intra-Muslim and intra-Arab unpredictability, intolerance, violence, volatility, fragmentation, treachery and the absence of intra-Arab peaceful-coexistence.

Israel's globalized economy sets new records

Israel's economic performance has defied conventional "wisdom," political-correctness and steep geo-strategic, diplomatic and economic odds, transforming seemingly-insurmountable hurdles into boundless opportunities.

Secretary Kerry's suspension of disbelief

The term "suspension of disbelief" refers to well-intentioned subordination of documented-facts and common sense to one's zeal and wishful-thinking: sacrificing long-term realism on the altar of oversimplification and short-term gratification and convenience.

Obama's self-defeating settlements policy

President Obama's collaboration with the December 23, 2016 UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2334, which condemns Israel's settlements policy, has defied history and reality, injuring the peace process and US national security.

Israel’s economy – an island of stability

According to a study conducted by the University of Lausanne, Israel is one of the top five world high-tech powers, as indicated by a 2015 $1bn investment, in Israel, by Apple, creating a hardware development center. The USA, China, Russia and India are, actively, soliciting high-tech cooperation with Israel. India and Israel negotiate a free trade zone, which would increase their current $5bn trade balance. Israel is second only to Russia in the exportation of military systems to India (Jerusalem Post, July 24, 2016).

Cisco highlights global confidence in Israel

During January-June, 2016, Israeli companies were acquired by global companies for $2.4BN, compared with $3.4BN during the whole of 2015. For example, the California-based $60BN Cisco, the largest networking company in the world, acquired Israel’s cyber technology Cloudlock for $293MN, Cisco’s 2nd Israeli acquisition in 2016 (Leaba Semiconductor - $375MN) and its 13th acquisition in Israel, since 1998, totaling $2.2BN. The Pennsylvania-based $14.5BN Dentply Sirona acquired Israel’s MIS for $375MN (Globes Business Daily, June 29, 2016).

Protected-Christians in Arab lands

Bethlehem’s Christian Arab leaders lobbied Israel against transferring the city to the Palestinian Authority. In 1993, on the eve of signing the Oslo Accord, the Christian mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, admonished Israel’s Prime Minister Rabin: “Transferring Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority would relegate it to a town of many churches, but devoid of Christians.” Since the 1993 establishment of the Palestinian Authority, the Christian majorities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Beit Jala have been transformed into insignificant minorities.

The 820,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands

Unlike the 1948 320,000 Arab refugees, the Jewish refugees did not terrorize their host countries; did not join invading military forces; and did not collaborate with Nazi Germany.

Israel's Odysseus vs the seductive Sirens

In 850 BC, the legendary Greek author, Homer, introduced the mythical king of Ithaca, Odysseus, as a role model of leadership. Sailing home from the battlefield, Odysseus overcame sweeping temptations to dwell on wishful-thinking rather than reality. Odysseus overcame supreme seduction to stray away from the proper course of navigation, and join the beautiful Sirens, who lured sailors with their seductively hypnotizing voices, music and looks to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

Who were the 1948 Arab refugees?

Contrary to conventional "wisdom,” most Arabs in British Mandate Palestine – and most of the 320,000 1948 Arab refugees - were migrant workers and descendants of the 1831-1947 Muslim immigrants from Egypt, the Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, as well as from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, North Africa, Bosnia, India, Afghanistan, etc.. Britain enticed Arab immigration and blocked Jewish immigration.

Palestinian refugees - whose responsibility?

Since the end of WW2, about 100 million refugees from Europe, Asia and Africa have been integrated into their host countries, unlike the Palestinian Arab refugees, who have been sacrificed by their leadership on the altar of delegitimizing Israel. According to General Alexander Galloway, the UNRWA Director in Jordan, as recounted at a May 25, 1953 hearing of the Near East Senate Subcommittee: “The Arabs states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.”

1948 Arab refugees: concocted circumstances and numbers

The truth about the circumstances and numbers of the 1948 Arab refugees has been sacrificed - by the UN, Arab regimes, the "elite" Western media and most Western Foreign Offices -- on the altar of Arab-appeasement and Israel-bashing.

Palestinian Arab refugees – whose responsibility?

According to the first US Ambassador to Israel, James McDonald's My Mission in Israel (published in 1951, pages 174-6): “The refugees were on [Arab leaders’] hands as a result of a war, which they had begun and lost…. Most Arab governments show no real concern for the refugees….”