<Israel is not the 51st state >
Why not?
100 years ago, the Jews were in walled ghettoes across the Christian and Moslem worlds. But the walls didn't keep them safe, they were forever at the whim of non-Jews. If they had a powerful non-Jewish Patron, and if the Patron was benevolent or at least benign, then life was (relatively) good. If they lost their Patron, or the Patron got less benign, then bad things happened to Jews. So they decided the only way to be Safe, was to get their own nation, protected by their own army, so they could be free of dependance on the benevolence of non-Jews. And, after a great deal of effort, the Zionist Dream was realized.
But not really. Because they are still not Safe. And the 5 million Jews in Israel will never be self-sufficient, in a long list of things necessary to operate a country, or just field an army. They don't have enough oil or water, or the raw materials to build a tank or a helicopter. And even if they did, 5 million is not nearly enough to even attempt self-sufficiency. Even the Chinese and Indians, with a billion people each, have admitted that autarchy isn't feasible. So, Jews are still dependant on the benevolence of non-Jews. Fortunately for them, they have a Patron, a non-Jewish Protector, the United States. Without the U.S., Israel would be untenable. They could not survive economically, they could not get the weapons necessary to balance the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Arab nations. They would be at the mercy of economic embargoes.
Israel has become one large ghetto, with a Wall being built around it. In spite of the last 100 years of Zionist effort, the essential nature of the relationship of Jews to non-Jews, has not changed: distrust, with intermittent violence, dependance on a Patron, the knowledge that the Ghetto's walls are a prison, not a protection.
One way to get out of this bind, would be for Israel to become the 51st State. They could retain their Jewish nature, in the same way that Utah is a State with its own unique religion and culture. They would be forever Safe, or as Safe as anyone on the planet, backed up by the military and economic might of the global Hegemon. They would fit right in, being secular educated wealthy Enlightenment folk (practicing Orthodox are a small minority).
In the modern world, Security has nothing to do with where a nation's frontiers are. The concept of "natural frontiers", or "strategic depth", or holding commanding mountains or rivers, doesn't create security. Rather, security is achieved by having a clear superiority in the balance of forces across those frontiers, wherever they are. And if Israel were the 51st State, the balance of forces would be permanently and overwhelmingly in her favor. So Israel could trade Land For Peace, without sacrificing Security.
So, why not? |
