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When Israel Was Scared of Angering the White House
(Wall Street Journal) Yossi Klein Halevi - As Israeli leaders weigh their response to the tentative dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which they regard as an Iranian ruse, the invisible presence at the cabinet table in Jerusalem will be the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. In declassified testimony just released, Meir explained why she hadn't ordered a pre-emptive airstrike against Arab forces in October 1973, though she knew by Oct. 6 that an invasion would happen within hours. She feared losing American support. "I am scared," she recalled telling her cabinet. "We will not receive necessary assistance when we have the need for it." Meir's restraint was vindicated by an American airlift of military aid during the war. Yet her decision not to order a strike, along with the army's failure to respond to earlier intelligence warnings by drafting reservists, almost resulted in Israel's first military defeat. The inevitable conclusion is that Israel must be willing to defend itself even at the risk of international isolation. As Tehran moves ever closer to a nuclear-weapons capability, the most compelling lesson of the 1973 war for Israelis may be Meir's hesitation to launch a pre-emptive strike against an imminent threat. The writer is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.