PrintApril 18, 2010
Hope amidst Threat
The Israeli national anthem, which is called "Hatikvah," means "hope" and describes the two-thousand-year-old hope of the Jewish people to be a free and sovereign people in the Land of Israel. Although it was first published as a poem in 1886, the Jewish people expected that by 1948, when the State of Israel was established, their dream had been fulfilled. And despite surviving numerous wars, constant attacks on its borders, and various threats to its survival, Israel is flourishing and remains a symbol of hope and freedom for Jews the world over.
But now, 62 years after its founding, Israel is once again facing an existential threat which is growing at an alarming rate. The "hope" of the totalitarian regime controlling Iran and its proxy warriors, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria, is the eradication of the Jewish state. And Obama's policies are assisting in fulfilling the mullahs' dream.
Obama's treatment of Israel, a strategic U.S. ally, has been incomprehensible. And his recent statements signifying a drastic change in the U.S.-Israel relationship indicate that the his Muslim outreach program is expanding notwithstanding the failure of his grand gestures to date. Obama does not understand that we will always be the Great Satan regardless of our relationship with the Little Satan.
But Obama's statements suggesting that Israel is to blame for the death of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are even more troubling. There is absolutely no support for this insinuation. These inflammatory statements are simply propaganda promulgated by anti-Zionist individuals in the administration who wish to perpetuate this anti-Semitic myth. And they distract from the real culprit to whom the administration continues its outreach -- Iran and its terrorist proxies, who have no interest in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but rather, the eradication of infidels and the spread of Muslim fundamentalism across the globe.
While anti-Semitism is pervasive the world over, here at home, support for Israel is at a twenty-year high. The administration is clearly threatened by these numbers, as they may interfere with Obama's broader plans. Therefore, the president has decided to poison the minds of Americans with wild and preposterous accusations. And the reality of watching the blame game play out on the world stage is of great concern.
Blaming Israel affords Obama an opportunity to distract from the real reason why our troops in the region are in jeopardy: his own policies. Based on the president's delay in sending additional troops to Afghanistan, his ultimate decision for a short-term troop surge, announced concurrently with its predetermined pullout date; his nuclear policy of limited use (and no modernization) of nuclear weapons; his retraction on missile defense and space exploration; and his administration's weak treatment of Iran, it is no wonder that al-Qaeda and the Taliban are content to attack our troops at will.
There is also no factual basis for Obama's accusation that Israel is the cause of a lack of peace in the Mideast. From its birth, surrounding countries have attacked Israel with impunity. And since 2000, when Arafat walked away from Camp David, to 2007, when Abbas turned down the two-state offer of the Olmert government, it has been clear that the Palestinian people have no desire to make peace with Israel.
The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was the ideal test. The Palestinians immediately elected Hamas to govern the territory, and massive economic decline and continuous missile fire into Israel ensued. By refusing to acknowledge the Jewish State's right to exist, the Palestinians have made it perfectly clear that their goal is not a two-state solution, but rather the obliteration of Israel.
The Obama government continues down the path of blaming Israel, forcing Israel to make concession after concession, treating Netanyahu with disdain typically reserved for the country's enemies, and joining the "Quartet" with the U.N., EU, and Russia to now force a plan on the Israeli people, their security be damned.
Let us make no mistake about the seriousness of Obama's approach. When Obama decided to force health care reform on the American people, he proceeded on a possessed warpath full of lies, bribes, cheating, and breaking every rule in the book (aka the Constitution) in order to get his way. Thus, there is no reason to believe that the Bully-in-Chief will not do the same with regard to forcing a two-state solution upon Israel notwithstanding such a plan's inevitable failure and devastating impact on Israel's ability to defend itself.
As Obama dithers on Iran, the clock is ticking on the rogue regime's nuclear capability. The president's refusal to move forward on unilateral sanctions domestically is even more distressing in light of his failure to obtain "biting" sanctions in the international arena. His endless overtures to the illegitimate dictatorship controlling Iran, whose megalomaniacal leader promises to annihilate Israel, is coupled with the administration's lack of support for the freedom-fighting green movement desperately trying to break free from the mullahs. One can conclude only that the U.S. is actually facilitating Iran on its road to becoming a nuclear-armed superpower in the region.
And if Israel finds it necessary to strike Iran, U.S. support is far from certain. From diverting shipments of arms destined for Israel to unconfirmed reports that he is banning Israeli nuclear scientists from entering the U.S., it appears that Obama may in fact be doing everything in his power to prevent Israel's ability to succeed in a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear sites. Furthermore, Brzezinski, who is now actively formulating the administration's Mideast policy, actually called on the president to shoot down any Israeli warplanes that attempt to fly over Iraqi air space. Coupled with the U.S.'s military training of Fatah forces in the West Bank and Samantha Power's statement that the U.S. may need to intervene militarily in the region in order to protect Palestinians from Israeli genocide, our "special friendship" with this strategic ally may in fact be heading toward a future military confrontation.
This month, we recognized Holocaust Remembrance Day. Sixty-five years out, as the survivors of that horror become extinct, more and more and more deniers will speak out, and the reality of those events will fade in our memories. American Jews must understand that passivity will no longer work. American Jews have a responsibility to speak out against American policies that threaten Israel's survival.
This is not just an Israeli issue. This is a war against a totalitarian Islamic enemy and a fight for freedom worldwide, in which Israel is our strategic ally. Israel's survival has implications for American Jews, but also for our entire country. The complacency of American Jews, mirroring that of their European ancestors, is ill-founded, for they fail to realize that after Israel and the Europeans, Americans will be next on the list of infidels requiring extermination.
It is time for American Jews to forget about their misplaced dreams of social equality which motivated their support for candidate Obama. They must remember that they are God's chosen people, and with that comes responsibility. They must remember who they are, their destiny, and their covenant with God so eloquently described in the poem we now know as Hatikvah:
As long as deep within the heart
A Jewish soul stirs,
And forward, to the ends of the East
An eye looks out, towards Zion.
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Barack Obama does not understand the sleeping giant he has awakened. The Jewish people have God behind them. As Moses led the Jews from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt, the allied forces led the Jews from extermination under the auspices of Hitler and the Nazis. American Jews will not let history repeat itself. They recognize that the war against Iran and Islamic fundamentalism requires them to speak out against their president and to support Israel in its fight for survival. Let the Hatikvah Parties begin.
