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A Vital Asset of the West JULY 2015 ISRAEL: A VITAL ASSET OF THE WEST PROLOGUE: JOSÉ MARÍA AZNAR EDITED BY: RAFAEL BARDAJI, THOMAS STEINER AND ELÍAS COHEN Content Prologue José María Aznar Introduction The Young Country Of An Old People A New Relationship With Israel 5 Israel Today A Western Country In The Middle East 7 The Dream Of Zion: A Long History Backed By The Law 8 Everything A Liberal-Democracy Should Be 11 The Politics 14 The Law And The Judges 16 The Social Advancement 18 Towards A Better Future 29 The Most Valuable Ally In An Inhospitable Environment 30 Israel As An Intelligence And Strategic Asset 31 Israel’s Help In The Struggle Against The Islamic State 36 Syria’s Endless Civil War: Israel As A Deterrent Of Iran And Hezbollah 38 A Haven For Christians In The Middle East 39 A Military Friend 41 Israel-Nato: An Ongoing Cooperation 43 A Cybersecurity Fortress 44 The Means To Terror: Tracking The Funding 47 1 Ask Not What You Can Do For Israel But What Can Israel Do For You 49 Not Kept To Itself: Israel’s Economic And Technology Miracle 50 Intel Inside: An Eastern Silicon Valley 60 Israel, A Resourceful Player 63 The Treasure Of The Middle East: Water 67 The Fertile Desert 70 Israel In The International Headlines 74 Israel’s Extended Hand To Peace 75 Iran’s Existential Threat 97 The Anti Israel Campaign A Loss For The West 100 The Anti-Israel Sentiment And What’s At Stake For The West 101 The Dark Intentions Of BDS 108 Israel, Its Future And Ours 111 A Conclusion 2 Prologue José María Aznar Former Prime Minister of Spain (1996-2004) Chairman of The Friends of Israel Initiative If Israel were to disappear by the brutal force of its many enemies, the Western world in which we live will cease to exist as we know it. We are now witnessing a time where radicalism and anti-Sem- itism are on the rise everywhere even in places where they did not exist before. Actually, trying to delegitimize Israel, calling for a boycott against everything that comes from there, criticizing every decision and action taken by the government in Jerusalem, have become the new trend in the minds of many leaders, scholars, universities, and international organizations. Judging Israel by standards that are not only impossible to fulfill, but also that are not applied to the rest of nations should not be accepted as normal; on the contrary, when we ask Israel not to respond to the attacks of terrorist groups, we are in fact disarming ourselves by renouncing to the notion of legitimate self-defense; when we ask corporations to abandon Israel, we are denying ourselves the many leading innovations that shape our products and processes today; when we see the peace process as the central element of all the problems in the region, we are blinding ourselves to the many conflicts that currently permeate the Arab world and to the threats to our own security emanating from the Middle East; when we depict Israel as a land of blood and violence, we are negating the actual fact that, despite all the troubles, Israel is a land of opportunities and prosperity. Israel is not only part of the Western world, in spite of being located in the Middle East. It is an indispensable and vital part of our civilization. Put aside our historical common roots; put aside the moral obligations to give and support a State for the Jewish people; put aside the thousands of years that link the Jewish people with the land where they live today. Just consider the many benefits we, the rest of the West and the world, enjoy thanks to Israel. Though surrounded and attacked by real enemies, Israeli ingenuity has produced technical and scientific solutions to many of our problems, from water treatment to instant messaging, from medical care to counterterrorism. Allowing the delegitimators of Israel to spread their narrative unchecked is not only immoral, but it is wrong and, above all, a first order strategic mistake. Israel is the only real democracy in the entire region; it is the only stable nation from Morocco to Pakistan; it is only our hope to positively shape events in this area. Israel has become not only the laboratory of many of our innovations; it is the world’s think-tank to understand realistically what is happening in the region; and it should be our best instrument to guarantee a peaceful and prosperous Middle-East for the future. This report, done in very turbulent times, is the product of our convictions. We, the members of the Friends of Israel Initiative, do believe in Israel. We see in Israel a country full of promise and a democracy with all the virtues and defects of any other democracy. However, we also see the growing list of attacks against Israel. The enemy’s armies have been replaced by no-worse-armed terrorist organizations and warfare has come along with lawfare and the indiscriminate abuse of international norms and organizations against Israel. We want to change the perception that many have about Israel. Sometimes it is because people don’t know better; sometimes it is the result of extremely biased opinions in the media. We want to introduce some rationality when talking about Israel and because of that, this report highlights the many positive aspects of a dynamic, vibrant, and promising Israel, yet without keeping silent about some controversial issues. In any case, what we want is for the reader to feel and see the positive effect of having Israel, a strong Israel, at our side. Having a se- cure Israel means more security for us; having a prosperous Israel enriches us all. Thinking the opposite is simply wrong as this report demonstrates with clarity and simplicity. 4 INTRODUCTION THE YOUNG COUNTRY OF AN OLD PEOPLE A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL his manuscript tells the story of the present day for France in the prayer book that called on the expan- TState of Israel. It explains why this small liberal de- sion to all the world of the revolution that had given mocracy is an outpost of the Western World in the Mid- them rights. dle East. It tells the tale of how Israel has become the most valuable ally in an inhospitable environment and In 1895 a newspaper correspondent of a Viennese pub- how it can contribute to the economies and the advance- lication going by the name of Theodor Herzl attended ment of other nations. It also explores the major issues the ceremony of degradation of a French official, Alfred that the media more commonly associate with Israel in Dreyfus, on counts of treason and espionage. That French the life of nations. It finally brings light to a disgraceful official, falsely accused and who was about to spend more strategy that tries to delegitimize Israel constituting than four years of his life in the Île du Diable as a prisoner, also a peril for the West itself. was also Jewish. His demise is a turning point in the his- tory of France and of Judaism. At that moment, Herzl, We will say Israel is part of the West. and ardent proponent of assimilation until then, became convinced that no matter how well integrated the Jews Among the English Victorian novelists there was one thought they were in the more advanced of the advanced woman who went by the pseudonym of George Eliot. societies, they would still not be home. Three years after She wrote a novel, “Daniel Deronda”, on the plight of that moment he had written “Das Judenstaat” and con- the Jews for their homeland. It was widely read at the vened the First Zionist Congress. time and it educated public figures and common read- ers on the aspiration. The surrounding atmosphere that We will say Israel unabashedly pursues excellence and made the book possible was the period of Jewish history expects to elicit cooperation and emulation in return, known as emancipation. During emancipation Jews in not resentment. the Diaspora could consider themselves lucky to live in some In 1898 the French writer Émile European countries where in- Zola published in the front-page dividual rights were respected. of the newspaper “L’Aurore” an There was, particularly in the Israel unabashedly pursues open letter to the then presi- case of the Victorian English, excellence and expects dent Edgar Faure. It was the also a community of civiliza- to elicit cooperation and beginning of the rehabilitation tion. Eliot – Mary Ann Evans emulation in return, not of Dreyfus. In that famous ar- - explained it in a letter to Har- resentment. ticle under the title “J’accuse” riet Beecher Stowe1 her col- hangs a tale that was to confirm league in the realm of English the need of the Jews to have a novelists on the other side of home of their own. The rejec- the Atlantic. She asserted: “to- tion that Herzl had witnessed wards the Hebrews we western people who have been was apparently reversed on paper but the victory of the reared in Christianity have a peculiar debt and, whether “dreyfusards” – the defenders of Dreyfus - brought an we acknowledge it or not, a peculiar thoroughness of fel- inconvenient truth to light: that it was in success rather lowship in religious and moral sentiment”. than in defeat that the Jews were actually most feared and rejected by the host nations. The way they fought We will say the Jews have the right to have a nation like and the capacities they showed on the public and intel- the other nations.
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