"The Safest Place on Earth"

This morning, we attended a mandatory meeting of what was supposed to be a security briefing but ended up being somewhat of a case for Israel's military strategy. I took plenty of notes and I will try to piece together a summary of what was said by both the provost of the Rothberg International School and the guest speaker, a former Israeli Defense Force military general named Elihu Ben-Onn. This will be just a summary and will not express my personal opinion on the matter.

THE PROVOST

First of all, the provost mentioned that he spent the whole weekend emailing our parents and addressing their questions and concerns. The administration at Hebrew University is watching the situation very carefully and they are hopeful that things will "change" very soon. There are bombshelters all over the university and in our dorm buildings, and heavy security as usual. He said Jerusalem is very safe, therefore, there is no need to evacuate or cancel any of our plans. If the situation happens to get worse (or if anything unexpected happens), which he highly doubts, there will be further instructions.

GENERAL ELIHU BEN-ONN

The General stated that Israel is in "kind-of" a war (he had a heavy Israeli accent). He said the enemy (Hizbullah) is trying to destroy Israel and Israel has the right to defend itself. Hizbullah, which in arabic means "the party of God", is lead by a sheik named Hasan Nasarallah. The General stated that Hizbullah is taking direct orders from Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the president of Iran, orders that are coming from Tehran, through Damascus and to Beirut. He said Tehran has an interest in starting chaos in the region. He stated that Hizbullah has a total of 12,000 rockets (supplied by Iran), of which 200-400 have been fired into Israel (to stop the flow of katayusha missiles coming into Lebanon from Syria, Israel has destroyed all bridges along the border). Israel's military strategy is to hit back "harshly" and "destroy the enemy" unless the enemy stops, because Israel cannot live under such a threat and be "hijacked" by terrorists. After 5 wars and as the Israeli army stood 100 miles outside of Cairo, Egypt finally negotiated peace with Israel, which makes Israel optimistic that this type of military strategy will work. The General stated that, in the end, he believes the Lebanese government, as well as the international community, will "thank Israel". He said that Israel has no ill-will toward or conflict with the Lebanese people. Until 1975, Lebanon was the "Switzerland" of the middle east; 1975 marked the beginning of a civil war that left these "terrorist groups" in power. The General emphasized the safety of Jerusalem and the Hebrew University campus, stating that Jerusalem is the "safest place on Earth" and that no Arab leader would even dream of launching a missile here, since there are over 240,000 Arab Muslims living in Jerusalem. He mentioned that in 1991, when Saddam Hussein launched scud missiles into Tel Aviv, Israelis fled to Jerusalem. The General believes the entire military campaign in Lebanon will be over in 3-4 days.

General Ben-Onn took a few questions from the audience and had more points to make, a few of which I will mention. He stated that Israel will not attack Syria unless they attack first, however, he mentioned that Syria (as well as Iran) has very limited military capabilities and no air force. Israel, on the other hand, he said, has the "best air force in the world" and will no doubt succeed in this war, even if other actors come into play. Israel, he said, has easily defeated forces stronger and bigger than Hizbullah (he cited the 1967 and 1973 wars). I asked him if he believes Cairo will break their peace pact with Israel and get involved (out of concern, since I am going there next), and he said he is confident Egypt will remain as Israel's friend. He also stated that Saudi Arabia, who has recently invested heavily into Beirut and therefore have many financial interests at risk, have publicly criticized Hizbullah for their actions, which in his mind was "historical". He further stated that Jordan is Israel's "best-friend" and will act accordingly. Therefore, it was his conclusion that given this conflict will not spread out throughout the region like some kind of Texas wildfire (that's mine, of course) and he criticized the media, particularly CNN, for suggesting that it will.

END OF SUMMARY

I just have one comment before I rush to my last class (and I apologize in advance for any sloppiness or mistakes). It will be interesting to see how many of General Ben Onn's predictions will come true, particularly that Israel's military campaign against Lebanon/Hizbullah will only last another 3-4 days.