We are in a global war against terror. This terror comes to us from the Islamic world and is tied to a reading or misreading of the Koran accepted by a large minority of Moslems.
Only one nation has had to face this terror for decades. Only one nation faces immediate extinction and genocide if it prevails. The Middle East has only one democracy, and the United States only one true friend in the region outside of the embryonic state of Iraq and that is Israel.
Israel is not perfect by any means, but Arabs living in Israel can be citizens and vote. The life of a Moslem in Israel is greatly preferable to the lives of most Moslems in nations that are controlled by Moslems.
Israel always understood why Sadaam had to go. It was living next to an evil man who wanted WMD in order to conquer the Middle East. He was in a cage, but had millions of dollars and the cage was becoming more weak by the day. They had been bombed by his missiles and watched citizens die agonizing deaths. They stood by at our urging and were waiting for us to finish the job. It had to be done or break this implicit promise and we did it in our best interests, but also to protect a tiny ally from extinction from fanatical foes.
Now Israel faces terrorists on all sides who hate us as much as they loath Israel. She faces a Syrian regime so corrupt and weak that it mocks the great history of that nation. She must listen to the rhetoric of an Iranian government that brags of its intent to wipe her out. She tolerates all of this filth, just as at she tolerates the double standard of the American left which condemns everything Israel does (some of which deserves condemnation), but cannot muster a UN vote against the wicked regimes in the Arab world. Israel sees some of the worst nations in the world put on human rights groups and applauded for any small progress. She tolerates hatred and contempt with dignity and courage.
What patient Israel cannot tolerate and survive is the murder of its citizens by terrorists.
But isn’t Israel as bad? If one listens to the rhetoric of the UN or Europe, one might wonder, but there is no real moral comparison between free Israel and the sorry state of the rest of the region.
If Israel is guilty of every crime she is accused of committing, there would still not be one other state in the region that is not far, far worse. It was possible to report on the problems in the “occupied” regions of Palestine. Is all of Arabia so open? Is Egypt? Is Iran? Is Syria?
There is not one Arab nation as democratic, economically free, or which allows as much dissent or religious freedom as Israel. Syria is rotten with despotism, the Arabian states stink of graft and tyranny, and Egypt is rotten with oppression.
I love the great Arab people, their culture, and much of their history. The sick regimes that govern them now betray all that is best of that history. They are anti-intellectual, weak, and morally compromised.
As for the Palestinians, one can only grieve for them, for they could have a state in the long term if they did not wish that state to lead to the extinction of Israel and if they did not listen to the call of the anti-Semite and the extremists. The Palestinian parties have stolen billions in aid money, killed hundreds, and betrayed the people they claim to serve. They are then used by neighboring states with no real interest in them as a cause with which to fire up their own people with hatred toward “the Jews” that will keep anger from flaring against the putrid, rotten states that keep the proud and historically great Arab people in chains.
There is not one which would tolerate the amount of hate, persecution, and threats Israel faces daily. There is not one that deserves to survive long term. We pray for republican forms of government for most of the Arab world. We already have it in Israel. We must stand by the tiny, brave ally as she fights with us against terror. If some people will not befriend us because we are her friends, then we do not wish their company. The new Middle East must have no room for politicians who will not root out hatred of Jews, but who play to it. No other state would fail to act as Israel is acting, but only Israel will be shunned by some for it.
Now is the moment for left and right in America to recognize our best interests and side with our best ally.
In this war, the state of Israel is right and the other side is wrong. There is great moral clarity here: don’t trust politicians who don’t see it.
War is messy, never to be desired, but sometimes the best of a set of evil choices in this fallen world. Israel can act now or face the death of more of its citizens while people die.
As you evaluate the President of the United States and War on Terror ask yourself this: does Israel think that war serious? Do you wish to wait until we face the daily bombings and suicide attacks by fanatics that Israel faces? Would you rather live in Israel, with all of its shortcomings, or Jordan, Egypt, Syria or Lebanon?
Israel is acting in a War that many Americans wish would go away. It will not go away. Some on the left pretend they support strong action against terrorists, but oppose the Iraq war as the “wrong war” at the “wrong time.” Now is the time for gut check for such Leftists: will they support this war at this place at this time?
Or do they believe that a free people should simply allow their sworn foes to kill innocents year after year without doing anything to protect them?
George W. Bush supports our ally Israel. Where is the left?