Example A) of why it is so hard to maintain any respect for political voices coming from over Israel:

If I hear one more so-called peace activist allude their country to being forced into the 6 Day War I am going to scream.

Say it was done as a necessary preemptive strike but please, for the love of Yahweh, stop claiming Israel was forced to do anything. It’s, it’s just…

Well, at the very least it is distasteful to see a government  whine and not take responsibility for its own foreign policy decisions. It doesn’t lend any gravitas and leaves the stain of weakness.

You don’t need to be having any of that out there. Let’s face it, you’re not really on firm ground. For many reasons, even with all the money and firepower of broad range of international support, it is simply hard to imagine an Israeli win in an out-and-out war against the rest of the region. Let’s start with the less murky ones. You’re surrounded. The other side is awfully motivated. And finally, you’re totally freaking outnumbered. The other side has something your allies need buried beneath the sand so it’s hard to trust them to have your back. I am not at all meaning to suggest that you don’t sit in a tight spot.

Believe me, I get it. I get why it is important to come from an important to come from a position of strength in your policy. Speaking here in strictly secular/shared terms, the above paragraph merely scratches the surface of what the country faces.

It just doesn’t help your case in the long run to never admit that you are wrong. If I might personify the players here, Israel sometimes reminds me of a younger family member of the United States. Be it as an adult child repeating its parents mistakes or somehow latching on to the wrong things its parents imparted, or a distant cousin but strikingly similar cousin, or a much, much younger sibling the elder of the two helped to raise I think the metaphor works here.

The point is that Israel is like a little copy of the United States going through a similar history. I’m not meaning to say that Israel is fully an American creation but you do have to admit we do have a significant influence. Although an important thing that sets the United States apart from Israel’s situation is their identity as a country and as a people is totally removed from the people residing on the land when the country was formed.

There are not many countries in the modern world that are by-and-large peopled by immigrants and descendants of immigrants who arrived after the country started to form. I would throw Canada and Australia and perhaps (even though it has different population numbers than the former English colonies) South Africa into that group. I might be leaving out others. The point is that this sort of country’s peoples have a very different kind of national identity.

Do I really need to draw any more parallels between the similarities to the situation South Africa was in here? We all know how that turned out for the Western-like minorities supremacy. Put apartheid aside as much as possible because it understandably a touchy comparison, you might save yourselves some trouble if you at least agree to consider the possibilities of other similarities between the make up of the two states.

It is like this personified Israel looks at the United States’ racial history and the way they acquired territory and thinks something like, “I can do that. I don’t even have feel like I’m in any danger of becoming the bad guy bully that the United States is sometimes seen as either. Heck, my plans are much smaller and I don’t have the slavery thing to be ashamed of. The whole manifest destiny of a single race in regards to a particular piece of land thing sounds just like me!”

It’s like Israel thinking is a that combination of, “Well, it worked for the United States,” and “I’m tons more justified” so the personified country just goes and blusters through the same sorts of shenanigans expecting the same sorts of results.

Well, Israel my friend who I support but drives me up a wall, I hate to bring bad news up but that isn’t the deal here. You’re in a completely different situation. We went over this. Does the word surrounded ring a bell? That’s not even the half of it either!

This is a completely different day and age with completely different expectations of how government and countries and peoples should interact. It might not help your purposes but it sure as heck helps a lot of other people out that now it is generally frowned upon to think that one group of people has the divine right to rule over another. It’s not a universal trend by any means but this kind of thinking is awfully popular. So, it’s going to be a whole lot harder in this day-and-age to pull off what some might say you are trying to do than it was for say, the United States to push the native peoples off their land to make room for more of their chosen citizens. Even though, as an American, I benefit from that  immoral land grab, I fervently wish we could have somehow done better. I wish I could look back at my country’s history and see that we acted in a way which was aligned with the ideals we espouse. Don’t you want better than that for your people?

That what I’m talking about with the mimicking the wrong things in our history Israel. You learned the wrong lessons. Don’t think for a moment that I am laying the blame at the United State’s doorstep for your behavior. I support having a full fledged country of Israel and if you are a real country, a participating member of the international community  that is worthy of respect, you have got to stop blaming your actions on others. Take some responsibility. Grow up for Yahweh’s sake.

Israel acted in Israel’s interests during the Six Day War and it decided its own foreign policy. That’s the reality. That’s the truth. How can you honestly claim to be committed to the peace process if the your entire stance is premised on a lie???

Admitting responsibility isn’t going to be enough to save you though. I’m talking beyond a slowdown in snarky, f-bomb laden remarks posted by bloggers talking out their rear end of course. Like I said, it would help your gravitas and there’s a strong chance it could help your credibility with your neighbors.

Before you whine about them again let’s just cut that short with this admonishment: you claim to be in the right, so act like the better party instead of just continuing to throw mud and missiles.

I said before, in so many , words that you are not going to win an outright battlefield contest between Israel and the rest of the region. Ain’t gonna happen. If you continue to think of it in those terms, your best-case scenario is managing to fend off your neighbors. Do you really, really want to spend the rest of creation in that state of tension and hostility? Is that what your nation was created for? For you all to live in fear and conflict forever? I would hope not.

The good news is you don’t have to. Nobody wants that. Not your neighbors, not your friends, and certainly not your enemies. You have got to think outside the box of United States history. Certainly you can aim higher than that.

Besides, these are modern times. As a younger country you are unique in that you have access to so many more mechanisms to employ in the service of resolving your differences than any other country in your position at any other time. Use them! No, you can’t win outright but that doesn’t mean you can’t win security and peace for your people. Show you mean well and work with the parties who spend so much time trying to bring you to the table.

I don’t want to insult your sense of divine providence but if you don’t compromise sooner than later you will either lose your chances at establishing any kind of peace and security or your tenuous hold on the peace and security you do currently enjoy will be ultimately and completely lost. Ahem, surrounded???

The United States is slowly waking up to the reality that in order to bring about a cessation of hostilities in the conflicts we find ourselves entangled in, we must win over the hearts and minds of the people on the other side. Why can’t that be what you pick up from us instead of this counterproductive bully act?

Oh Israel, why can’t you learn from our mistakes?