Writing at The Times of Israel, Marc Goldberg makes some salient points concerning the unilateral Egyptian cut off of gas supplies to Israel and its impact on the Egyptian-Israeli peace:
Now is the time to draw the line. This is already a diplomatic crisis, regardless of how Israel’s diplomats spin it, and attempting to downplay the issue will have disastrous consequences for us all. If the government shrugs it off this time there will be another crisis, and then another, until, just like Germany’s neighbors in the 1930s, Israel will find herself in a situation over which she no longer has any control.
The government needs to stand up to the Egyptians and tell them that enough is enough. Nip this in the bud and come down hard over an issue that is still manageable to avoid even greater trouble in the future.
It strikes me that the same could be said about the media, which fails to report on the “small” issues so that when a crisis erupts, the public are taken by surprise or Israel is seen to be an aggressor when it responds to provocations that the media didn’t think it worth reporting. Let’s hope the same pattern doesn’t emerge this time round.
