The World War Against Israel

I wonder how many people around the world silently thought Helen Thomas had it right when she said that Jews in Israel should just “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home…Poland, Germany, America, and everywhere else.”

The tumult over Israel continued with Helene Cooper’s article (“What to Do About Israel?” June 6, 2010, New York Times) which addressed how Netanyahu’s policies may be hurting America and continued in the same newspaper when Jewish fiction author Michael Chabon wrote, “Now, with the memory of the Mavi Marmara fresh in our minds, is the time to confront, at long last, the eternal truth of our stupidity as a people, which I will stack, blunder for blunder, against that of any other nation now or at any time living on this planet of folly, in this world of Chelm.” (“Chosen But Not Special,” Michael Chabon, June 6, 2010, New York Times)

Isn’t it special when a chosen Jew writes in the world’s leading newspaper that Jews and the nation of Israel are no better than Nazi Germany or North Korea now or Russia murdering thousands of civilians in Chechnya or Darfur and Rwanda government-sponsored-genocide or Hamas and its charter calling for the murder of Jews (article 7) and the destruction of Israel (Article 15)?

It’s the same peace-loving-liberal-can’t-we-all-get-along mantra spouted by The Nation’s editor/publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel who announced on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher that “Israel has lost her soul.” For most other countries’ brutality and murders kept far away from the press’s prying eyes, it’s innocent before proven guilty. For Israel, the world and its press use a different standard: Israel is guilty in the eyes of the world before anyone knows what happened. Why should Israel need to defend itself against its possible enemies? Isn’t hope enough that what is coming through to Hamas-led Gaza is just food and medicine? We shouldn’t think about thousands of rockets that were launched at Israel over the last five years.

How much was publicized that a Turkish Islamist group with a history of assisting Islamist terrorists played a major part in the “humanitarian sailing” of the Mavi Marmara flotilla? Why don’t we hear that Israel transfers 15,000 tons of supplies and humanitarian aide every week to the people of Gaza? It’s not part of the world’s sanctioned story that Jews are the powerful occupier of historic land which also belongs to millions of poor Palestinians who just want their land back and are content living side by side with Israel’s Jews.

If Helen Thomas, the White House Press Corps Bureau chief for United Press International who has covered every President since the last years of the Eisenhower administration and been a front-row participant for presidential press conferences, believes Jews should get the hell out of Palestine because it’s not their home, what do you think much of the world believes?

In her New York Times article, Helene Cooper addressed Israel’s public relations troubles putting pressure on the U.S. She wrote that General Petraeus said a lack of progress toward peace in the Mideast has created a hostile environment for America. In an interview, Petraeus said, “If you don’t achieve progress in a just and lasting Mideast peace, the extremists are given a stick to beat us with.”

The question becomes: do the extremists need more sticks to beat us with? Of course, the United States would rather have Israel quiet, peaceful, not drumming up any controversy, stirring up negative world opinion. But Israel’s enemies already have plenty of sticks ready to unleash against Israel, with worldwide acceptance or not. If you listened to an interview on PJTV with Retired Major General Paul E Vallely, now the Miltary Committee Chairman for the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. you already realize that sticks are the least of Israel’s problem. He says that Iran is already “Nuclear” and preparing a preemptive bombing attack upon Israel with Hezbollah. He says that the Iranian government through the Syrians have stockpiled up to 60,000 rockets in Lebanon and that Hezbollah has received long range Iranian SCUD missiles that can hit every city in Israel, capable of delivering massive amounts of chemical weapons. He also says there at least 4 tunnels built along the Northern Israeli-Lebanon territory to invade Israel.

Even if you aren’t paranoid or fearful for Israel, you have to admit that Israel is under attack, at least in the world’s court of opinion. And it is certainly not being helped by the silent response from the U.S. administration after the flotilla incidents or after Helen Thomas’ tirade.

Even if President Obama’s administration and the rest of the country are focused on the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf and the resulting environmental and economic calamities, we must be prepared for more devastation in the Mideast. Soon, the cries from Israel’s terrorist enemies may become “Kill, baby, kill” and Jews will once again be the targets.

If the United States doesn’t stand up soon for its one democratic ally in the Middle East, the imminent disaster there may make the oil spill in the Gulf seem like a minor leak.