I AM A THIRD-GENERATION Jewish American, raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. When I was 14, I visited Israel for the first time as part of a six-week tour organized by my Jewish youth group. I immediately felt a visceral connection to the land and the people. Throughout high school, I continued visiting during summer vacations. And after graduating from American University, in 1989, I moved to Israel and became a citizen. (Israel’s close relationship with the United States enables Americans who choose to become Israeli citizens to maintain dual citizenship.)
Like every other Israeli, I was required to join the military. I tried out for one of the paratrooper units, tested well, and was invited to join. After completing my obligatory service with some distinction, I was asked to join one of the top reconnaissance units. This unit, comprising the best soldiers from the most elite commando units, is part of the reserves. Unlike the US reserves, the Israeli reserves make up the bulk of the Israeli armed forces. Most reserve infantry units are active one month out of each year — spending half that time training, the other half actively engaged in the defense of Israel. My unit is regularly called up for short stints throughout the year — one week here, a few days there — and when all the days are tallied up, we usually end up serving well over two months each year.
Over the next seven years, I continued my studies at Hebrew University, in Jerusalem, where I worked on an MBA before realizing that I really wanted a master’s in English literature. While at school, I worked as a bodyguard, a screenwriter for documentary films, and a marketing executive for a high-tech start-up. Every few weeks, I’d have to tell my employer I’d be gone for a few days or request an extension on a paper or exam. Everyone, including myself, thought this perfectly normal. One day you’re sitting in front of your desk at work, the next you’re off trying to stop terrorist infiltration. Five days later you’re back at your desk playing catch-up. Although members of my team are called up more often than most, this is the way of life for many Israeli men, and it lasts through middle age.
About two years ago, I moved back to the United States to be closer to my family. I retained my post in the reserves. Several weeks ago, I received notice that my unit was being called up for reserve duty. At that time, Operation Defensive Shield, a campaign to end the almost daily terror attacks on Israeli citizens by suicide bombers, was in full swing.
IF YOU HAD TOLD me two years ago that Ariel Sharon would become Israel’s prime minister, I would have laughed. If you had told me that an overwhelming majority of Israelis — from the left and the right — would support him enthusiastically, I’d have laughed and pointed a mocking finger at you. If you had told me that I’d be one of his supporters, I’d have stopped laughing and said, "That isn’t funny." My newfound support for Sharon isn’t funny, and it illustrates the extent to which Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat has lost credibility with the Israeli people.
When I left Israel, negotiations were under way between Arafat and former prime minister Ehud Barak, guided by former president Clinton at Camp David, and peace seemed like a done deal. Millions of Israelis, myself included, were euphoric. We believed that the Arab world finally was going to embrace Israel and that a new Middle East, where peaceful relations prevailed among neighbors, would give birth to a socio-economic marvel to rival the European Union.
As it turns out, it’s true that Camp David marked a watershed moment in Israeli-Palestinian relations, but not because a highly anticipated historic agreement resulted. Rather, it was a turning point because Arafat rejected Israel’s offer, and in so doing, demonstrated that he did not want true reconciliation with the Israeli people.
At Camp David, Barak put all his cards on the table. Even liberal Israelis like me balked at his offer: Barak accepted the Palestinians’ maximalist territorial positions, offering 97 percent of the West Bank and Gaza, plus three percent of undisputed Israeli territory in exchange for outstanding land demanded by the Palestinians. He also offered the Palestinians control of East Jerusalem. But we all thought, "If that is the price for peace, we’ll gladly pay it." When Arafat insisted that Israel also allow the repatriation of millions of Palestinians within Israel’s recognized borders, however, it became clear that Arafat did not accept the Jewish people’s legitimate claim to the land of Israel. It’s important to understand that Arafat didn’t demand that every Palestinian refugee be allowed to live within the borders of the proposed Palestinian state. He didn’t want those millions to join him in building a nation within the borders of his new country. Rather, he wanted to force Israel to accept a number of Palestinian immigrants that equaled about half the Israeli population. Expecting Israel, a democratic nation, to absorb the influx of millions of Palestinian immigrants, all of whom are hostile to the country’s Jewish character, indicates Arafat’s clear desire to remake Israel in his people’s image.
After Camp David, people like me — educated liberals who believe the Palestinians deserve a state of their own — understood that we needed to take Arafat and the Palestinian leadership at their word when they called for the destruction of Israel in Arabic after smiling nicely for the cameras and mouthing platitudes in English. Viewing Barak’s offer as Israeli capitulation to the violence that preceded Camp David, Arafat must have figured that increased violence would lead to even more concessions. He was wrong, because people like me changed our minds. An overwhelming majority backed former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s decision to arm 50,000 Palestinians with automatic weapons as part of the Oslo accords that required the Palestinians to police the areas under their control. And most of us were even willing to give the Palestinian Authority the benefit of the doubt every time Hamas or Islamic Jihad blew up a bus. But after Camp David, we all realized that right-wing politics aren’t always wrong. People like me concluded that if the Palestinian leadership preferred a strategy of terror to extract further political concessions, then Israel was going to have to find ways to endure the attacks while summoning the power to neutralize terrorists wherever they hide.
I still want to see the establishment of a Palestinian state, and I am still willing to exchange territory for peace. But I no longer believe that the Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, is interested in peaceful relations with Israel. As a result, I’ve come to the hard conclusion that Israel must focus on protecting its citizenry. And I am hardly alone. When the military reserves were called up to enter the West Bank in Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli public backed the mission overwhelmingly. I certainly question some decisions Sharon made regarding Lebanon 20 years ago. However, it is important to note that despite Palestinian portrayals of him as a warmonger, this is the same man who made sure the Jordanians continue to receive millions of cubic liters of precious water from Israel every year as part of a peace deal he helped broker. Sharon is also the man who negotiated wide-ranging Israeli concessions at the Wye Plantation in 1998. Even now, in the heat of battle, the Likud Party’s recent decision to reject the idea of a Palestinian state was passed in spite of Sharon’s best efforts. Far from a being warmonger, Sharon has shown willingness to negotiate and has committed his government to a policy that includes establishing a Palestinian state.
Because my people have had to endure an increasing number of craven attacks that have been organized, directed, financially supported, and openly praised by the Palestinian leadership, I am only too happy to go when my team is called up for military service. I trust the decision made by the Israeli government, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, to attack the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure. I don’t believe there is a military solution to the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I know that every terrorist stopped in the West Bank will save lives in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
