Israeli Leaders from Chelm

Defense Secretary Amir Peretz has really crossed the line this time. Apparently he forgot the "really, really hard" bluster that has been a fixture of Israeli leaders' talking points:

Defense Minister Amir Peretz commented on State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss' report in which he criticized the IDF, saying it had failed in dealing with the Qassam threat.

"If Israel had the right means to deal with the rocket threat, there is no doubt that things would look completely different," said Peretz. Peretz further said that he had set up a team to examine a solution to the Qassam problem before the comptroller's report was published.

As Defense Minister, surely he must realize that the problem of enemy missiles falling on one's territory should have something to do with the Ministry of Defense.

While the world tries to muster the courage to defend against the Iranian nuclear threat, an Israeli official has just announced that there is no more cause for concern:

'Arrow Can Fully Protect against Iran'

Recent modifications made to the Arrow enable Israel's ballistic missile defense system to successfully intercept and destroy any ballistic missile in the Middle East, including nuclear-capable missiles under development by Iran, Arieh Herzog, the head of the Defense Ministry's Homa Missile Defense Agency, has told The Jerusalem Post.

In a rare interview that will appear in full in Monday's Post, Herzog provides an inside look at the decision-making process behind Israel's missile defense systems, led by the Israeli- and American-developed Arrow missile, one of the only operational ballistic missile defense systems in the world.

On Monday, the IAF successfully tested a newly modified Arrow interceptor.

Iran and Syria, Herzog said, were investing unprecedented amounts of money in long-range ballistic missile capabilities - with the help of North Korea - and had all but given up building modern air forces.

"The Iranians are continually increasing the range of their missiles," he said. "They are buying technology and in some cases even complete systems from North Korea and other countries."

Herzog also said that while there might be missile systems in Iranian hands that the Arrow could not intercept, all of the ballistic missiles "currently operational" in the Islamic Republic could be destroyed by the Israeli defense system.

"Our Arrow operational system can without a doubt deal with all of the operational threats in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Syria," he declared.

Unfortunately Dr. Herzog must assume that the daily missiles now falling in Israel's south have made us forget the thousands of missiles that fell in Israel's north during the Lebanon War. These are not ballistic missiles, so Israel has no defense against them whatsoever. In other words, all it will take for Iran to deliver a nuclear warhead into Israel is to drive one in a truck through its client state Syria for delivery to its client terror group Hezbollah, unless it prefers to ship it to its client terror group Hamas for an attack on Israel's south. Both groups are currently receiving enormous quantities of Iranian armaments without any molestation.

The US is now broadcasting this very concern:

There is a growing threat that terrorist groups such as Hezbollah will acquire nuclear or other WMD technology, a senior U.S. State Department official told the Jerusalem Post this week.

"You have this environment of material, expertise and supporting equipment [for weapons of mass destruction] being more widely available than before."

"You have that coupled with the demonstrated interest of some terror groups to acquire these capabilities, and that is a real concern to us."

Israel today called on the Hamas-Fatah Unity government yet again to renounce terror, recognize Israel, and release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

To what can this be compared? I can only think of three possibilities:

1. It's some kind of drinking game.

2. History's greatest symbol of impotence was the New York Subway token clerk whose pre-Giuliani policy manual decreed that the only response to turnstile hopping was to say the words "pay your fare." Never have words been spoken, therefore, with such levels of apathy.

3. One exercise of the Musar movement of Jewish character improvement was to increase one's level of humility through deliberate infliction of self-humiliation. The practitioner would do things like walk into Kentucky Fried Chicken and order a Big Mac (from which the Run-D.M.C. song You Be Illin' was apparently inspired).

Here is an update to Olmert's strategy of preventing Iran from funding the Hamas-ruled Palestinian Authority by overwhelming it with alternative funding:

Iran: $250 Million to PA

The original story is a must-read, but here are the highlights:

The centerpiece of Kadima's response to the landslide Hamas victory was financial. Israel would lobby governments to cut off funding to the PA. Yes, Israel turned over $50 million, but vowed that "with Hamas in power, not even one shekel will be transferred to them." One of the wise men of Chelm pointed out the logical flaw, however. "Then they will get money from an enemy like Iran." Today the decision was therefore made to accept the funding of Hamas. "The aim is to prevent funding of the PA by Iran, or moneys collected by radical Islamist movements around the world." I kid you not. Preventing the collection of money by sending them money.

Michael Freund quips that this strategy will only work if "Hamas' bank account has a limit on accepting donations."

Chelm was the fabled village of loveable fools in Jewish literature. The "wise men" created dunderheaded plans like the following with seemingly clever logic.

-A man who almost drowned vowed never to touch water again until he learned how to swim.

-A meeting was held to discuss the problem that the view of the pristine snowfall was ruined by the man whose job it was to walk through the shtetl waking everyone up. The decision was reached to have him carried around on a table by four men so he could avoid leaving footprints.

The centerpiece of Kadima's response to the landslide Hamas victory was financial. Israel would lobby governments to cut off funding to the PA. Yes, Israel turned over $50 million, but vowed that "with Hamas in power, not even one shekel will be transferred to them." One of the wise men of Chelm pointed out the logical flaw, however. "Then they will get money from an enemy like Iran." Today the decision was therefore made to accept the funding of Hamas. "The aim is to prevent funding of the PA by Iran, or moneys collected by radical Islamist movements around the world." I kid you not. Preventing the collection of money by sending them money.

Michael Freund quips that this strategy will only work if "Hamas' bank account has a limit on accepting donations."

Similarly, many of the slogans behind the disastrous "peace process" sounded logical. For example, "you don't make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies." It took me a while to find the flaw in that argument. Legitimate peace treaties have always been the effect of a decision for peace (usually through military defeat), never its historical cause.

Another recent Chelmite innovation includes retaliating against daily rocket attacks with loud noises and attacks on empty buildings and fields. Of course, Oslo was the original Chelmite solution, repeatedly sold as a way to prevent the rise of Hamas by enlisting a stronger force of terrorists who would certainly oppress them without restraint of democratic norms.

One could of course argue that my Chelm analogy is less preferable to the "old lady who swallowed a fly." Israel certainly swallowed the PLO spider to catch the Hamas fly. To them, I would encourage a consideration of the final line of song, which I read as a criticism of the Jewish love of logic. It is a reminder that often the uninteresting solution, such as simply resisting aggression, is often the most empirically valid.