The Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

A basic principle of democracy is the subordination of military to civilian authority.

This principle prompts democracies to pursue a foreign policy based on peace, hence to resolve international conflicts by diplomatic rather than military means.

What tests the mettle of a nation, however, is not peace but war. War often steels a nation’s will, produces heroes, fosters self-sacrifice and dedication to the common good. In contrast, the quest for peace is often symptomatic of self-indulgence, cowardice, and decadence.

Welcome to Israel. What has happened to this once dauntless nation? What has happened to its superb military establishment, the Israel Defense Forces?

Alas, the IDF has been emasculated by Israel’s political elites. Thanks to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert—and this applies to his predecessor—the IDF, in confronting Israel’s Lilliputian but implacable enemy, is governed not by military or rational criteria, not by concern for Jewish lives or even Israel’s survival, but by Olmert’s feckless (and futile) concern over PR or international public opinion. Olmert has surrendered the country to spin doctors.

Hence he has no need of a Defense Minister more competent than Amir Peretz, a man without military expertise. And since Olmert has no intention of engaging and destroying the enemy in land warfare, what more does he need as the nation’s Chief of General Staff than former Air Force commander Dan Halutz? The terrorists in Gaza as well as in Judea and Samaria never had it so good.

But what about the General Staff itself? Unfortunately, Israeli officers have been politicized by the mere fact that they can retire at the age of 45 and then become Knesset members and even cabinet ministers.

Without any political experience on their part, the door to the Knesset and the cabinet is opened to high-ranking officers by the parliamentary system of fixed party lists. The prospect of a political career makes them yes-men, corrupting their military integrity. None will resign in public protest against a government whose policy of appeasing the enemy cannot but multiply IDF casualties and endanger the nation’s security.

Of course, high-ranking officers can always take cover behind the democratic principle of military subordination to civilian authority. Amazing how much Israel suffers from the necessity of preserving its reputation as a democracy—which requires Israeli prime ministers to pursue a policy of self-restraint against Arab terrorists, negotiate with despotic Arab thugs, and thus yield Jewish land and sacrifice Jewish lives in this ignoble and funereal quest for peace.

Under Israel’s erstwhile warrior, Ariel Sharon, more than 1,000 Jews were murdered by Arab terrorists, while some 5,000 more were wounded, many maimed for life. And now, under Ehud Olmert, while Kassam missiles are raining down on Sderot, the hands of the IDF are tied, making it wrenchingly obvious that Jews are disposable in the secular and reputedly democratic state of Israel.

Therefore I say to the people of this country:

(1) So long as this state remains a state tied by an umbilical chord to America, it will remain a paltry state and you will be sacrificed on the altar of PR.

(2) So long as this state remains a state whose laws are merely a product of transient human will, it will remain a paltry state and you and your children will be expendable.

(3) So long as this state remains a state that has no higher law than the immediate and narrow interests of men, it will remain a paltry state and your lives will count less than those of your enemies.

(4) So long as this state remains a state divorced from God, this state will have paltry prime ministers who, in the deceitful language of “peace” and “democracy” will betray you and your noble heritage.

(5) As for your General Staff, it will continue to genuflect to the cretins and cravens who rule your factitious democracy—yes, and will do so in the name of a System of Governance that has made you powerless.