You've ignored Israeli RESTRAINT.
You've also ignored:
Now don't hide. Comments?
Posted on 09/25/2001 6:19:44 AM PDT by SJackson
THE U.S. is showing a telling weakness in this war on terrorism. Once again, our coalition will exclude Israel, the country that is not only our truest ally but also the best at fighting terrorism.
It was an act of war. We will fight this war to win. We will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them. Countries will not be able to play it both ways: You're either with us or against us. So President Bush has iterated.
Why, then, can't Israel be "with us"? Because "moderate" Arab states won't be "with us" if we allow Israel to be.
Nor, of course, will the immoderate Arab states. Must the U.S. seek to put terrorist-harboring Syria in our anti-terrorism "coalition?" We doubtless want the help of strategically placed nations. But is excluding Israel to court softer support truly part of a plan for victory?
When Bush says you're either with us or against us, that implies an alignment based on basic principles. The Bush administration has repeatedly warned that countries can no longer have it both ways.
Wouldn't that apply to the U.S. too? Isn't America allied to Israel? And doesn't the September 11th attack make Israel even more "with us" than it was before?
But the attack on America has succeeded with the crowning achievement of its mission: causing the U.S. to renounce the very principles for which we are supposedly fighting. Our friends may not be with us. On the contrary, those who have long harbored the terrorists may be suddenly -- and evanescently -- "with us."
Ten years ago, during Desert Storm, the U.S. asked Israel to lie down and take the scud missiles launched from Iraq. Now, again, as America wages war, it urges a dangerous pacifism on Israel. Only days after planes struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, President Bush urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to push forward with a meeting between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat.
Calming tensions between Israel and Palestinians, observed Peres, is part of the American plan for victory. America wants "to create a coalition that includes Arabs and Muslims," he said. Peres thinks Arafat should be considered a terrorist leader.
Arafat has been harboring terrorists, including suicide bombers, for years On September 11th, Palestinians cheered the destruction of thousands of American lives. And they continue to cheer, holding up posters of Osama bin Laden. Americans will not see this on the news, though. Palestinian police have confiscated the equipment of Western news agencies that captured the facts of Palestinian allegiance on tape and film.
Where is America's resolve to make honest distinctions about Arafat and the Palestinians? Is global political correctness more terrifying than terrorism?
...snip...
The spirit of the American people is awesome; it puts a lump in one's throat. But I've a thought to share with my leaders: The terrorists who killed thousands of Americans acted on a very deep hatred, the same kind of hatred that makes them want to destroy Israel, but a separate, distinctly anti-American hatred that makes them want to destroy America. Why America? Because America, the land of liberty, even more than tiny Israel, is the great enemy of the violent holy war that is the Jihad.
The Jihad wants American influence out of the Middle East, and it wants Israel gone. It seeks to divide the U.S. and Israel, and thus to conquer both.
We are Israel now. By shunning Israel, we betray ourselves. We'll never fight a real war against terrorism until we can have a coalition that includes Israel.
"We will not pay the price for the establishment of this coalition," said Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But perhaps America will.
It does America no good to have a will for war if we do not have the will to identify honestly our real friends and enemies.
The Middle East question is extremely difficult because as well as ordinary politics and the question of alliances we have religion.
America is a major player in the Middle east and wants to stay that way, if that means ignoring Israel she will.
Israel will have to in the end find her own way out of the tar baby she is attached to.
Tony
That said, Israel is no doubt playing a backstage role. When asked about that, Netanyahu just smiled.
America is made primarily of both...Saturday people = Jews; Sunday people = Christians. The sooner everyone realizes this, the sooner we can "know our enemy."
Remember Desert Storm? Israel laid low. Did USA-Israel relations change after that? Nope.
I saw Sharon on television remarking "It's good" when asked about the WTC attack. So, the Palestinians are not the only ones cheering. The abusive treatment of Palestinians at the hands of Israel has fanned the flames of Arab hatred and contributed to the atmosphere that spawned these terrorist atacks. Seeing as they are part of the problem, why should they be asked to help solve it? Israel only wants us to bomb their enemies, after which they will expand their borders...again.
I think I do why did America tell Israel to lay low, why has she not included Israel in this coalition after all Israel has been hit on more than one occasion by Islamic terrorists, and why has previous and the present American government put so much pressure on the Israeli Government to not take such a harsh line in its counter attacks against the Palestinians.
Nothing in this world especially in Geo Politics is certain, what is true for today may not be true tomorrow.
Tony
You've ignored Israeli RESTRAINT.
You've also ignored:
Now don't hide. Comments?
Exactly. The old line about 'we wouldn't be in this mess if we didn't support Israel' is all about isolating Israel within a sea of belligerent Arab states. First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.
JIHAD is an Arabic word the root of which is Jahada, which means to strive for
Jahada sure looks a lot like Yehuda.
I agree that it is dumb not to have Israel in on this, but the statement that Israel is "our truest ally" is so stupid as to border on the comic.
Ask the sailors on the USS Liberty about our true-blue ally Israel. Ask those who were compromised--and some apparently killed or imprisoned--because of the antics of Jonathan Pollard who is STILL a "hero" to Israelis and American Jews with questionable loyalties.
We ought to use Israel as Israel uses us. But let's dispense with this silliness about their "trueness" as an ally. It insults our intelligence.
No offense, but I suspect this to be a complete, utter, filthy, weasel-minded, stinking lie.
That's a lie and you know it.
Freepers are not stupid. Well, some are, skunk.
Your dreams don't count.
There you go again. Tsk tsk. That "dual loyalty" charge is the oldest anti-Semitic canard in the book. You reveal yourself.
As Condie Rice said on Fox, some nations are helping in overt ways some in covert ways.
TRANSLATION: "I saw an Arab reporter on Arab television who said that Sharon said 'It's good' and since I swallow all their propaganda I swallowed this as well."
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