ALL THE KING'S HORSES

1. WHAT IS NATIONALISM?
There are people today in Israel who envision a "New Middle East," a Middle East without borders and nations. These same people are selling an intellectual product that has come to be known as "Post-Zionism." Although their words are catchy and seemingly sophisticated, they are actually quite naive and anachronistic.

The American diplomat and political thinker Jeanne Kirkpatrick has pointed out that as human beings, we exist in our particularities. We do not live our lives as part of some vague, abstract universalism. It is important to emphasize here that we are not talking about nationalism. Nationalism, unbridled, can get out of hand and wreak havoc. But national identities are among the most basic building blocks of human civilization.

A strong national identity does not deny that of one's neighbor. National identity is not a zero-sum game. If I have a strong Jewish identity, it does not deny anyone else's. Assimilationists look upon Jewish individual identity and Jewish national identity as something old fashioned and unenlightened. But this is a fallacy, even in the so-called enlightened modern era. National identity is a fact of history -- modern history included.

2. BORED WITH ZIONISM
Charles Krauthammer, an American Jewish commentator, notes that arguing with anti-Zionists and, for that matter, anti-Semites, is not just pointless. It is also demeaning. The battle today, especially here in Israel, is not with the anti-Zionists. It is with the Post-Zionists, the ones who think that the Jewish national idea has outlived its usefulness, that it is obsolete, that it is an impediment both to self-expression and to entry into the supposed post-sovereign and post-national world of the future.

Unfortunately, there are Post-Zionists in many positions of influence in Israel. There are many in the Israeli media and in Israeli politics and also in the Diaspora. People like Shimon Peres and Yosi Beilin and prominent members of the Labor and New Centrist parties. Post-Zionism has a very negative view of Israeli national sentiment, with its emphasis on survival and the building of a creative Jewish culture based on the Jewish past. In short, Post-Zionism is opposed to Jewish continuity in the framework of the State of Israel.

3. ABNORMAL NORMALITY
Instead, they see themselves as cosmopolitans, as citizens of the world. The Post-Zionists do not say that in so many words. Instead, they cite pluralistic interpretations of Judaism, endlessly bandying about vacuous slogans. Post-Zionism considers Judaism, and its child Zionism, as imposing restrictions on the life of the individual and the society. Post-Zionists long for the "normality" of the West; for personal liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Post-Zionism heralds the triumph of geo-economics and multiculturalism. They are weary and bored with the national idea.

And weariness with the national idea in Israel begins, ironically, with the conviction that the national idea has succeeded. How many times have we heard major Jewish political thinkers say that "Zionism has succeeded." They claim with pride that Zionism is the only "ism" of the twentieth century that has actually attained its goals. But the conclusion that they draw from the success of Zionism is that it is no longer needed. These people think that Israel has made it, that it has such roots and such power that it is here to stay forever.

There has been talk recently by certain "intellectuals" about radically changing the character of the state; to make it thoroughly secularistic by, among other things, doing away with Hativka as the national anthem, abolishing the Law of Return, and repealing all legislation that gives the state a Jewish character.

4. A POST-ZIONIST JIHAD
These people are caught up in the Post-Zionist illusion; they forget that Israel is surrounded by countries arming themselves to the teeth with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and with one goal -- to destroy Israel. And thanks to the Oslo Agreement, the PLO is sitting in our heartland, arming itself and its tens of thousands of terrorist "police," preparing the final jihad to destroy us.

A small nation has been defined by Milan Kundera as "one whose very existence may be put into question at any moment. A small nation can disappear and knows it."  The United States is not a small nation and neither is Japan or France. Large nations can suffer defeats and even occupations. They may even lose their independence for a period of time. But they almost never disappear. Small nations can vanish. Israel is a small nation. That is one of the reasons that Post-Zionism is dangerous. It is dedicated to dismantling the Jewish Zionist state and replacing it with the fantasy of a "new" Middle East.

5. OUT OF THE SICKBED, ONE LAST TIME
I would like to say something about Jordan's King Hussein, who died this week after a long illness. I realize that this is not politically correct, particularly under the circumstances, but I think that it must be said.

Every now and then, the media in Israel create something which, for want of a better term, I would call a Hussein Festival. The plucky little fellow was everyone's favorite, and he stole the show at the White House ceremony last October. President Bill Clinton and his coterie fawned all over him. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu made another deal with the terrorists at Wye Plantation. Hussein was under treatment for cancer but arose out of his sickbed to make sure that we signed away some more of our homeland to the worst Jew-killer since Hitler.

Hussein returned to Jordan from the Mayo clinic in the US just long enough to depose his brother Hassan. Hassan was the crown prince and the next in line to the throne. He was loyal to his brother for more than thirty years. Hussein very unceremoniously and publicly kicked him out and replaced him with his own son, Abdullah.

6. ROYALTY HAS ITS PRIVILEGES
As an interesting aside, the Israeli media blasted Netanyahu when he publicly fired Minister of Defense Yitzhak Mordechai in front of the television cameras several weeks ago. Mordechai was sitting at a meeting with the heads of the new Centrist Party when he received the letter from Netanyahu telling him that he was fired. In other words, Mordechai was planning with the opposition how to unseat Netanyahu -- but Bibi beat him to the punch and fired him first. The media's spin doctors made it sound like Bibi had done something terrible, when all he did was to fire a cabinet member who was publicly making plans to bring down the government.

Meanwhile, Hussein booted his brother after more than three decades of loyalty through thick and thin. I do not know exactly what it was that made Hussein do such a thing. But it is noteworthy that not one newspaper or commentator on TV or radio scolded the King for his action. Apparently, in the eyes of the Israeli media, Hussein can do things that Bibi simply is not allowed to do.

7. THE SHREWDEST OF THE SHREWD
Let us return to Hussein himself. Hussein is a wily and shrewd man who has maintained his crown and his life for almost fifty years, which is no mean feat in the Arab world. He is the public relations expert who visited the homes of the Bet Shemesh girls murdered by a Jordanian soldier. He was photographed lighting Rabin's cigarette. Very cute.

He is also the Hussein who claims that he is interested in the "legitimate rights of the Palestinians." And he is the same Hussein who ruled over the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria for 19 years before the Six-Day War of June 1967. He brutally repressed any expression of Palestinian nationalism and his army of loyal Bedouins mercilessly slaughtered thousands of Palestinians in "Black September" in September 1970. The lucky ones swam across the Jordan River to seek asylum in Israel.

He is the same Hussein who joined Egyptian leader Nasser in a war against Israel in 1967 after Israel sent him urgent messages asking him to stay out of the war. But he was convinced by Nasser's propaganda that Israel was being beaten, and he wanted a piece of the action. He is also the same Hussein who supported Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war, when Saddam Hussein said that he would incinerate half of Israel.

It is now more than four years since the peace treaty was signed with Jordan. During that entire time, King Hussein has allowed one of the most senior member of Hamas, Chaled Mishal, to operate from Jordan and to plan terrorist attacks on Israel from his safe haven in Amman. When Israel failed in its attempt to assassinate Mishal, the ever-popular Hussein demanded that we release one of the most savage Palestinian terrorists, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

8. A PEACEFUL SLAUGHTER
But the clincher is a document dated June 7, 1966, exactly one year before the Six-Day War. This Jordanian military document, stamped "top secret," is a special operating order for a unit of the Jordanian Army. This was when Jordan occupied half of Jerusalem and many of the surrounding hilltops.

The order is addressed to the "Commander of the Reserve Battalion of the 27th Jordanian Brigade." It starts with a description of the Jewish community of Motza, which is located along the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. This description is referred to as the "enemy situation":

1. Enemy forces number about 800 persons, who engage in agriculture and have guard details in the colony. 2. The colony has five night guard positions around it. 3. The colony is surrounded by trenches which are manned when necessary. 4. The colony has barbed-wire fences. 5. The houses of the colony are built of concrete and some have red tile roofs. 6. The forces of the colony need five to seven minutes to man their positions from the moment of surprise. 7. Enemy camps close to the colony, which can take part in the campaign and provide reinforcements, are the Castel Camp, one infantry company with support detachments; Schneller Camp, a reconnaissance company; and Abu Gosh Camp, a Border Police company. 8. The enemy has air superiority.

After this description of Motza, the orders go on to say the following:

1. The intention of Headquarters Western Front is to carry out a raid on the Motza colony, to destroy it, and to kill all its inhabitants. 2. This task has been assigned to the brigadier of the Imam Ali Ben Abi Taleb brigade, who will pass it on to the brigade's Reserve Battalion.

So there you have it. An order to kill all the men, women, and children in Motza and to destroy the entire village. The same kind of order was issued to the Jordanian army unit that was encamped across the border from Kibbutz Sha'alvim. And this is King Hussein, the "moral giant" who spoke so nicely in Washington about the Wye Agreement being a chance for our children to live in peace. This is the same Hussein who visited the families in Bet Shemesh of the children murdered by the border guard. This is the Hussein who is the darling of all the media in the West and in Israel.

9. A ROYAL SCAM
Hussein of Jordan was probably one of the cleverest rulers in the world. His ability to conduct his own public relations and project an image is almost uncanny. He did it without all the hired advisers employed by Bibi and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak. He is a master of staying alive in the turbulent politics of the Middle East. For this, I take my hat off to him.

But this is a far cry from giving him the status of exalted visionary. No, the reality is much different. As with Post-Zionism, this is once more a case of people preferring to wallow in their own delusions rather than face facts as they really are.

Jay Shapiro is the Director General of a consulting firm dealing with United States Government contracting. He has worked extensively to promote aliya to Eretz Yisrael (he was one of the founders of Tehilla, a voluntary organization for religious aliya). He hosts a popular current events show on Arutz Sheva and has also authored several books dealing with topics like aliya, democracy in Israel and the Oslo Accords.