Israel and NGAs — and what this means for America

[NGA, as opposed to the familiar NGO, is not a typo. I’ll explain in a minute.]

I had lunch with DQ today and, at his request, gave him a run-down of Israel’s history, starting with Herzl and modern Zionism. I took him through the Eastern European pogroms; the declining Ottoman Empire; the ascendent British Empire (which saw England gain control over the Holy Land); the Balfour Declaration; Arab Nationalism; oil’s increasing importance; Britain’s fear that the Arab’s would give military support to the Germans; the England’s craven decision to refuse to allow Jewish refugees into the Holy Land, both before and after the war; and Britain’s final decision to hand its land (and, whether or not one likes the idea of Empire, that land was Britain’s at the time) over to the UN, which then came up with the partition plan that created Israel. I concluded that, if anyone is at fault for today’s situation, it’s England.

I then deluged DQ with a post-1947 history. That history didn’t focus on Israel’s Democratic principles, its economic development, its scientific contributions, or its ability to absorb the hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from Arab lands. Instead, I ticked off the wars.

In 1948, almost immediately after the UN partioned off a tiny section of the Holy Land (much smaller than present day Israel) to give to the Jews, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria attacked. Israel, with an infinitely smaller population — many still recovering from concentration camps — and makeshift weapons, won most of the world’s admiration by fighting off these nations.

Things went chugging along until 1956, when Israel joined with France and Britain against Egypt, which had tried to hijack the all-important Suez Canal. Again, this was a battle of nations.

By 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria had achieved a massive arms build-up pressing against Israel’s borders. Egyptian President Nasser than ordered the UN peacekeepers in the Sinai to go away and they did, slinking off into the night. This left Israel entirely exposed to nations that had declared their intent to destroy her utterly. Abba Eban, in a masterful speech, explained to the UN why Israel considered these aggressive acts a sufficient casus belli for her to go on the offensive. Israel, for having fought off these three nations, was again admired for her bravery and prowess.

1973 saw the Yom Kippur War, which started on the holiest of holy days, when Syria and Egypt attacked Israel, again with the stated purpose of destroying her. With American help (thank you, President Nixon), Israel was able to rebuff this surprise attack. Again, many in the world viewed Israel as valiant.

I realized after narrating these events to DQ that the Arab nations have no longer been in the frontline of Arab aggression towards Israel. Egypt, of course, officially bowed out in 1977, but none of the other nations officially declared themselves at peace with Israel. Instead, guided by Arafat, they have ceded the war to Non-Governmental Armies (the “NGAs” of my post title).

The NGAs, of course, are not the homegrown entities they seem. Hezbollah, as all but those living in dark caves know, is nothing but Iran, with a good dollop of Syria thrown in. The PLO and, now, Hamas, received funds from most Arab states. But the fact is, these organizations are not nations. They do not sit in the UN, they cannot be on the receiving end of trade boycotts, and it is often questionable whether the civilian populations that house them actually support them. They are the most effective tool that could be devised against Israel. Israel, instead of being a David against gigantic Arab nations, has become a Goliath against these NGAs.

But before you think to yourself, well, that’s Israel’s tough luck, think a little more about America’s own situation. We too used to wage wars against nations. Civilian populations were deemed fair game because it was “their nation” that was at war, and they were part of that nation. We also used to know where to find our enemy. Germans were mostly in Germany, except for those troops that out branched out — in uniform, with battle insignia and flags — to other nations suffering under their bootheel. Same for the Japanese. Even in Vietnam or Korea, which were both rich in guerilla warfare, there was still a clearly defined enemy and a self-defined nation, in the form of North Vietnam or North Korea.

Things are different now. Just as Israel has done for so many years, we face a chimerical enemy. It doesn’t fly the flag of any nation, it doesn’t call any place its home, it is not bound by any civilized rules of warfare, it cannot be subject to economic sanctions, it has no citizens who support it or cry for relief from its burdens. And because it is not a national army, it makes it infinitely easier for those who oppose American values to cry foul whenever America, in pursuit of these deadly NGAs, steps on the “innocents” behind whom the NGAs shield themselves.

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