“Our message is clear,” Sa’ar wrote. “Those who act against Israel will have no foothold in the region. Israel will not allow measures to be taken against it without a response.”
Diplomatic consequences. It’s a phrase used often by critical American Jews unhappy with the direction Israel has taken and yearning for the sandal-wearing, orange-growing, labor-union-dominated country of old: “This is not your grandmother’s Israel.” No, it is not – and not only because the country has moved decidedly to the Right over the last 40 years.
Israel has changed in other ways as well. It is no longer a poor country with a small population and little to offer the world beyond the Uzi and Jaffa oranges. It is a regional military and technological power with a population that would rank 13th in the European Union and a GDP per capita that would rank ninth.
Why does this matter? Because Israel today has options that the Israel of your grandmother’s era did not. When another country takes steps inimical to its interests, it need not simply protest, absorb the blow, and move on. It can impose a cost. Take the Netherlands. Beginning on September 22, the Dutch government will ban imports coming from beyond the Green Line. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded by expelling Dutch representatives from the US-led Gaza coordination center in Kiryat Gat, which oversees ceasefire monitoring, humanitarian activity, and planning for Gaza’s postwar administration.
“Our message is clear,” Sa’ar wrote. “Those who act against Israel will have no foothold in the region. Israel will not allow measures to be taken against it without a response.”
...Access is an asset. Influence is an asset. Participation in shaping Gaza’s future is an asset. Israel is entitled to use those assets as leverage against governments that believe they can penalize it with impunity. This is not diplomatic petulance. It is statecraft. Countries routinely link behavior in one sphere to consequences in another. In the past, Israel has generally been reluctant to do so. That attitude is changing. (Ed note: One can clearly see as the Jew begins to stand on his own two feet that he will no longer take direction for what happens in his own country from the US, UN, EU and BOP. That is very important for the coming End Time Prophecies.) (Read More)
