Negotiation doesn’t really work

I watched Benjamin Netanyahu speak to Congress yesterday.  Why does Israel have him yet we are stuck with Obama?  I hate to say it Bibi, but I think that there is only one alternative – you are going to have to fight.  Every time Israelis fight with Arabs (1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973) they have kicked ass.  Admittedly, the 1973 affair was a close call, but the Arabs ultimately had to sue for peace before the Israelis moved on Cairo and Damascus.  The legacy of that war for Israel was an Egyptian ally for over three decades, a neutered Syria, an ally in Jordan and a chaotic though ineffectual Lebanon.  Border secure, Nation safe. 

Israelis armies have conquered vast swaths of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon on the battlefield.  At the negotiation table the United States and other well meaning though idiotic meddlers have made them give most of it back.  Now history illiterates like our President seem to think that Israelis can swap land for security.  This is how weak, ineffective, and cowardly governments work.  Israel isn’t going to be able to negotiate their way to peace – better to fight. 

As Clausewitz pointed out “War is a continuation of politics by other means.”  War or the threat of war makes for good borders and resolves differences.