Israel's sovereignty at risk: Reclaiming our nation's independence - opinion

Like most people here, I look at our current situation and scratch my head. It is not the omnidirectional hatred and attacks that have me befuddled. Our enemies are doing what they always do, or at least wish they could do.

But it is us that I can’t figure out. It is the amazing dissonance of our swagger from our actions. It is the nagging sense that everything we do has to be coordinated with, or worse, approved by the Biden administration.

It is the gnawing feeling that we are not calling our own shots, that we are not in control of our own destiny. Bottom line, we have seemingly opted for vassal status instead of being the unambivalent sovereign state that I thought we were.

It is cringeworthy to see how we feel the need to get US approval for vitally needed military operations – consider the epic effort required to enter Rafah – and our continuing willingness to hamstring or worse, endanger ourselves with policies such as supplying “humanitarian aid” to our enemies.

Yes, I know that, just as the Torah teaches us, we are at the center of the world and of the world’s focus; and yes, we are subject to a double standard that applies only to us. Still, our pliability is often humiliating.

Why does it seem that it wasn’t always this way, that our political and military leadership charted courses more autonomous and self-directed? What has changed?

Two considerations seem perhaps most relevant. One was thanks to Ehud Barak, who, during his blessedly short premiership, decided to outsource an unprecedented amount of our weapons procurement to the US.

The impact of this decision was not severely felt during the 2000-2005 Second Intifada, the numerous lawn-mowing conflicts with Hamas in Gaza, or even the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

After all, these were either relatively short or non-consuming struggles. This time, however, we are 10 months and seven battle fronts into a war that has no end in sight.

Weaponry is being depleted, and the Biden administration, so often naive in dealing with Iran, is happy to play Mideast shuk hardball with us designed to get us to “hop to” if we want to be resupplied.

And even when we do, they still are reluctant or non-forthcoming to supply the powerful offensive weapons that would, Heaven forbid, facilitate our winning.

Perhaps the most jarring national lesson of October 7 is the critical need to be as self-sufficient as possible in supplying our own weaponry. The realization was quick in coming, but the required reality will take years to realize.

The other smoking gun is a variant of Israel’s continuing bout of what I call “Diaspora Syndrome”: the ever-present, but just below the surface, need for approval and acceptance. Call it the geopolitical rendition of “what will the goyim think?”

In this case, the issue is the Potemkin judicial forum known as the ICJ, the International Court of Justice, as well as the hollow threats to arrest political leaders or generals as they land in saber-rattling Western capitals.

What an embarrassment. Can anyone imagine Menachem Begin refraining from going anywhere because of the possibility that he might be arrested?

He would be daring them to do it. He would personally show up at The Hague to condemn them for hypocrisy and for seeking to finish Hitler’s heinous mission.

Sadly, the diatribes of our current leadership are not matched by their quiet resolve to damn the torpedoes and proceed full steam ahead. We have effectively sidelined, if not outright ceded, our sovereignty in the name of not being prosecuted or persecuted.

The irony is that there are a multitude of regular citizens who would welcome the opportunity to defend and to extol their nation in the kangaroo courts of so-called enlightened Western democracies. Would that they could inspire our leaders.

I understand that there are multi-faceted considerations attached to strategic decisions, and the need to look three or four moves down the road is paramount.

Israel first

But in assessing those moves, I would also want us to prioritize the needs of our nation and its citizens first. I believe that a strong military response is the surest way to secure the redemption of the hostages.

But what about securing the ability of tens of thousands of our citizens to return to their homes in the North? Are we helping them or the nation at large by merely playing tit-for-tat with Hezbollah?

And the fearful admonitions of the Biden administration notwithstanding, don’t we know that this is ultimately all about Iran, and how the game-changing prospect of it producing nuclear weapons is getting frighteningly close?

For us to fearlessly and to clearly address these existential issues we must re-embrace our sovereign mission to protect our citizens in the one and only Jewish nation-state.

Our ancestors prayed and cried for close to 2,000 years to have the nation we are privileged to live in. Let us be worthy of their aspirations; let us be worthy of the courage of our incredible soldiers, and to pursue our interests and our destiny clearly and self-protectively.

The writer is the chairman of the board of Im Tirtzu and a director of the Israel Independence Fund.