The Importance of Israel

The Forward ^ | 10-5-2001 | editorial

[Masada]

Disaster doesn't always bring out the best in us.

Sometimes, tragically, it brings out the worst. A case in point: the finger-pointing in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, seeking to blame the atrocities on America's supposedly misguided support for Israel — and on Jewish Americans who supposedly manipulate the system to tilt our policy the wrong way.

No, it's not a national groundswell. You hear it mainly on the margins, and if past experience is a guide, it will stay there. Still, the variety and persistence of the finger-pointers is startling: left-wing professors in California, right-wing fanatics in Idaho, Arab-American activists in Michigan, smart-alec journalists in New York. There's enough of it to be worrying.

In reply, important voices are being raised from within the Jewish community, declaring that the attacks and the hatred behind them have nothing to do with America's support for Israel. Osama bin Laden and his ilk are motivated, we are reminded, by larger, more global issues: suspicion of modernity, secularism, democracy and the Western civilization that champions them. On the policy plane, his passion is driving American troops off the holy soil of Arabia. Israel isn't on his screen, except perhaps tangentially, as one more example of the West's corrupting influence.

The fact is, things are a bit more complicated than that. Bin Laden and his allies are driven, above all, by an extremist version of fundamentalist Islam. And Islam, as many of those same defenders of Israel have noted countless times, regards the mere existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East as a cardinal theological challenge. Indeed, pessimists in the pro-Israel community have been pointing for decades to the power of Islam's territorial imperative as a reason to dismiss Israel-Arab peacemaking as impossibly naïve. It's hard to see how that reading squares with the notion that the world's most dangerously fanatical Islamist just isn't interested in Israel.

But we needn't search the theology texts to divine bin Laden's motives. He's spelled them out repeatedly in various public statements. He's on a self-declared holy war against "Crusaders and Jews," with a three-fold goal: "liberating" Mecca and the rest of Arabia from American "occupation," "liberating" Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem from Jewish "occupation" and lifting the Western embargo on Iraq. They're always stated in that three-fold form, and usually in that order.

The fact is, Israel is one of the issues, though not the only one, driving bin Laden and his cohorts. It is foolish to deny it; that merely undermines the credibility of Israel's defenders at a time when Israel sorely needs defending. The best defense is always the truth.

And the truth is that America and Israel are allies, not because of some cabal of Jewish lobbyists, but because their two peoples demand it. America's support for Israel is not misguided, but profoundly moral. America and Israel share a deep community of values. They are partners in the democratic enterprise, cities on a hill devoted to something larger than themselves. Both are imperfect, at times painfully so. Both become impatient when their imperfections are pointed out. Still, both are societies striving to represent the better nature of humankind, and for that reason they deserve defending.

If America's defense of her values sometimes puts her on the firing line, then that's the right place to be. That's not a hard case to make. Most Americans, like most Israelis, understand it instinctively.

[Magician]

Israel agreed to stop building any NEW settlements. It reserved the right to allow existing settlements to grow. We didn't think that was enough of a "provocation" to cut off their foreign aid.

I personally don't think anyone has the right to tell Israel to not settle people in the West bank or Gaza. I find it repulsive that people would still maintain that there are places where Jews should not be allowed to live.

I find it particularly repulsive that anyone in the Middle East would keep Jews out, as most Arab countries do, since the Jews have been living in almost every part of the Middle East since recorded history began.

[Qatar-6]

Actually guy Israel started the war in 1967

Look it up in the history books

All the best

Qatar-6

[Magician]

You must think that the Jews caused WWI and WWII. After all, Hitler said the same kinds of things about the Jews, and blamed both wars on them.

[Magician]

"...chosen people..."

Chosen only to receive the Jewish religion. That's all it means.

What does the Rat God say about all this?

[marbren]

Israel was chosen by God not because of who they are but because God chose them. If we, the USA, want to survive as a nation we should heed God's word and Bless Israel. All individuals in the world including Jews Christians and Muslums are saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ. The USA might disappear but I and my family will live forever because of Jesus. The gift of life is free to you also.

[Big Bunyip]

Dear Lent, I am no more inclined to seek the friendship of Arabs than I am of Jews. But when those groups' insistence on swinish stupidity cost me money and the lives of my friends, depress my property values, and lead to a hole in the downtown skyline, I get a bit weary of the usual shout-you-down, self-righteous crap.

We all choose our own routes to hell or heaven.

[Lent]

Dear Lent, I am no more inclined to seek the friendship of Arabs than I am of Jews. But when those groups' insistence on swinish stupidity cost me money and the lives of my friends, depress my property values, and lead to a hole in the downtown skyline, I get a bit weary of the usual shout-you-down, self-righteous crap.

The pan Arab Islamic fascists caused the terrorism. Not the Jews! A little strip of land the Jews have in the midst of the vast Arab land full of oil and hatred. Any oil wells Israel had she GAVE up as a result of Camp David (the oil fields ISRAEL developed in the Sinai) which land for peace appeasement resulted in the assassination of Sadat and continued Arab Islamic hatred for the Jews, Intifadas, Jihads, etc. It wasn't good enough for the Arabs to cleanse the Jewish populations from their countries (800,000) they also had to sponsor wars and hatred against the Jews.

If you choose the Arab Islamic side or remain indifferent to this pan Arab Islamic fascism then your lot has been cast with them.

[Zviadist]

Israel is the apple of God's Eye. If the USA turns its back on Israel it is the end of the USA.

You protestant cultists are WEIRD!

[Lent]

You protestant cultists are WEIRD!

Well this is one "protestant cultist" who is also a defender of the eastern church and have posted numerous times on this board the murderous processes of Islam for 14 centuries including the near destruction of eastern Christianity. By the way. Almost the only voice putting the truth out about the lies perpetrated by Islamic historians concerning the treatment of the dhimmiized Christian and Jewish populations is a JEW: Bat Ye'or, particularly in her two books, The Dhimmi, and The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam.

Maybe it's time to rethink your opinions about Jews, Israel, and "protestant cultists".

[Zviadist]

Maybe it's time to rethink your opinions about Jews, Israel, and "protestant cultists".

What on earth are you talking about? Someone posted a weird theory that if we "abandon" Israel (whatever that means) God will destroy the United States. I said: this is weird. And it is. So there.

[Lent]

It's not "weird". But I guess you think anyone should have tin-foil hats who belong to the "protestant cult".

[11bravo]

Amen!!!! I am sick to death of this "chosen" crap. I agree with the UN commission that Zionism is a form of racism. Israel is an insignificant sliver of desert with no material or military attributes. As far as the US is concerned our dealings with them represent a net loss to the US tax payer.

[marbren]

you don't have a clue

[dennisw]

I'm a moderate. But if Israel and indeed the world is ever to get any peace, Israel's origins can't be simply denied. There are people living in squalor and another groupo of people living in a constant state of defiant fear.

So a Pallie State will solve these problems? Ever take a look at the neighboring rathole named Syria? Very impoverished and run by thugs. You think the Pallies will do any better? Are you on LSD?

Also what assurance does Israel have that any Palestinian State will not turn into an Afghanistan? A chaotic Islamic cesspool spreading violence over it's borders. Providing cover for Bin Ladin wannabees. A perfect staging area to bring in all kinds of weaponry to fire upon Israel with. Howitzers. Katushya rockets etc. Jihadist warlords will roam free and do as they like in a Palestinian State.

[Lent]

No Rat God would permit this injustice to animals

Lookie here! An animal rights nazi! Do you eat chicken? Fish? Maybe you eat hamburger, or bacon? No? Vegetarian? Can't stand all that cruel treatment of animals so we can fill our belly? An atheist/agnostic animal-hugging quack. I'm sure yours is an ideology we should all get to know.

[dennisw]

When you make the Israelis the Chosen People and give them a superior right to happiness, it only makes some of us feel like Israelis don't have to play by the rules like everyone else, and that creates hate -- and no one should hate anyone unless they've proven themselves worthy of it.

Chosen people? Don't make me laugh. The Islamics are the ones who convert and kill by the sword/ the gun/ and the suicide bomber. They are the ones with the delusions of grandeur. Israel is just trying to hold onto a small part of MidEast turf for 6 million Jews. With 43% of these Jews being Jews who were routed from Arab nations post 1948

The Arabs have 22 nations and there are 120 million of them. Why don't you tell me why they don't want Israel to exist and why they want Israeli territory too. Read the record dufus. It's the Arabs who were close to the Nazis during WW2 and applauded their every win over the Allies.

The Arabs are full of hate and full of greed. This is why they never advance and are left in the dust by Israel and other democratic nations. They are INSANELY jealous of what Jews have made of their home in the Mid East

As this map shows, Arabs have more than enough real estate to work out their inner turmoils without bothering the Jews.

 

http://www.us-israel.org/images/arabworld.gif

 

[dennisw]

Now, remember, I'm a moderate. But if Israel and indeed the world is ever to get any peace, Israel's origins can't be simply denied. There are people living in squalor and another group of people living in a constant state of defiant fear.

They chose squalor. They prefer it. So do the oil rich Muslim nations that never help them out. How come Kuwait booted out 400,000 Pallies after the Gulf War? Saudi Arabia also bans them as guest workers. The West Bank/Gaza has become more impoverished since the Palestinian guest workers were banned from these two nations.

I'm gonna give you a clue.
800,000 Jews were kicked out of Arab nation after living in them for centuries as second class citizens
This equals or exceed any number of Palestinians refugees from Israel during the 1948 war.
So I really don't care about the Palestinians refugees. 

One day you and Arafat/PLO will get it through your thick thick skulls that Israel  will not withdraw unilaterally from West Bank and Gaza. There will have to be a peace treaty. The dumb Pallies should have taken Barak's fantastic offer. Barak caved into them.

Israel will run the West Bank and Gaza in a way consistent with it's national security needs. These lands are buffer zones against Arab attack and were won in the 1967 war. I know it really makesanti-Semites go bonkers that Israel defends itself.
TOUGH LUCK!

[dennisw]

I said: this is weird. And it is. So there. 

Your kind are kinda weird to me. You have an "eliminate Israel and our Muslim problems will end" bug up yer ass. If only it were so simple.