5 day forecast
America must protect its own vital interests
Share with others:
Ever since the creation of today's Jewish state, Israel, every American president has either said outright or given the distinct impression that the United States is 100 percent committed to that state's survival. Of course, such an unbending commitment is nonsensical.
What country would remain committed to another's survival regardless of the consequences to its own survival? If such a commitment were ironclad it would, among other things, leave the protector's foreign policy at the mercy of the protected's behavior, no matter how irresponsible that behavior might be. Clearly, America's presidents and those aspiring to the office want those Americans to whom Israel's survival is critical to believe that they are irrevocably committing America to Israel's survival. The former want the latter's votes.
But it is neither in the long-term interests of either Americans or Israelis to pretend that America's commitment to Israel's survival is guaranteed. At the end of the day, each nation will place its own vital interests before the other's survival. Time is running out in the Middle East ... for Israel, for America and for the rest of the world. Either the ultimate Jewish/Muslim time bomb will be defused or it will, eventually, detonate.
MARVIN M. WITOFSKY
Mt. Lebanon
First Published October 11, 2012 12:00 am
