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.
Netanyahu has no such attitude about the 9/11 attacks, and you'd do well to refrain from trying to infer as such.
That is not now nor should it EVER have been the U.S.'s concern. That's what always sticks in my craw about you Israeli apologists. The U.S. needs to look after OUR interests. Israel's interests are important ONLY as they impact our own.
Funnily enough, that's EXACTLY how Israel sees the U.S. They are "allies" only when there is something in it for them. If there isn't they think nothing of killing U.S. sailors or spying on U.S. secrets and compromising them to our enemies.
This altruism about the wonderful, democratic state of Israel is just so much bovine-byproduct.
Get this through your thick, loyalty-conflicted skull: Most FReepers are loyal to the U.S. and to U.S. interests. If people mess with us, they get on our sh*t list, get it?
Israel is there for a couple of egregious offenses.
You can call it "anti-semitism" if you want, but it is no more that than it is "anti-teutonism" to applaud the fact we kicked Hitler's *ss in WWII.
You are a crawfish!! How did you get access to the Net?
Did I mention him?
You might recall that when the USS Cole was hit, some nonpatriot in the State Dept. issued a memo that stated that we must not make too much of the event, because compared to the Palestinians 'sufferings' the Cole event was minor. No doubt the decision to let Osama continue unabated after the Cole event can be linked to the State Dept., which had to do some serious butt-covering when that memo leaked.
There is a split in the Bush admin. Powell and State vs. Bush, Cheney, Rmumsfeld, Wolfowitz. We'll see how it all shakes down.
That is another thing he is avoiding commenting upon.
Guess he hid like a maggot.
You're sure right about that. And everybody knows it.
Now what a cell are you with, Three-man?
So typical. Can't answer an argument, so you slander the person who made it. The fact is Pollard is the best counter-example to the claim that Israel is a close friend. Do friends spy on each other?
The fact that many Jewish American citizens are calling for Pollard's release shows that there are some Jewish Americans with dual loyalty, just like there are some Arab Americans with dual loyalty, or Chinese Americans with dual loyalty, etc. The fact is all ethnic groups in the US have some members who have dual loyalty. Why should Jews be any different?
If you say that it is anti-semitic to entertain the possibility that some Jews might have dual loyalty, then you are asserting that Jews are somehow better than everyone else. You are in essense saying that it is impossible for Jews to have dual loyalty while it is possible for people other groups to have it. That seems like anti-gentilism to me.
Oh really, Bassam? And what channel might it be that you were watching? I don't think anyone around here will believe such an obvious lie.
As far as the poor Palestinians suffering such abuse, all I have to say is this: the Palestinians, under Arafat's dictatorship, aim directly for innocent women and children in their attacks. When Israel retaliates, in which they show unbelievable restraint, their aim isn't for the innocent. It's directed at those plotting and carrying out terrorist attacks. If you cannot make a moral distinction between the two, you might check your moral compass.
Israel made a mistake in the U.S.S. Liberty, and admitted so. But your hatred for them won't stop, will it? When has a terrorist said they made a "mistake" by planting a bomb to kill Americans or Israelis? When? Can you post it here please?
Ishmael, born out of wedlock, was illegitimate, never called to God's mind ever again. Isaac was the child of Promise.
Before Israel took back her land, there were no "Palestinians" there to hate her. They were dumped there by Israel's enemies to start trouble.
Now they swarm like the cockroaches they are, in order to annhilate Israel ("Death to Israel! Death to the U.S.!"), who only wishes peace with them.
Yeah, all of those Isreali terrorist threats against the U.S. over the years is staggering. Those suicide bombers entering New York and Palestine is overwhelming. Those jewish hijackers we have had to ward off is unreal. Those Jewish kids learning to hate and kill Palestinians in school from an early age is just too much for me. Poor innocent Palestinians.
</sarcasm>
Love America.......or leave it.....but don't curse yourself by cursing Israel, the "apple of God's eye."
For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
-Zechariah 2:8
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
-Genesis 12:3
The land belongs neither to Israel or Palestine.....it belongs to God.
And God gave it to His people, Israel. Not the Palestinians.
And right now the Palestinians are occupying Israel's land, while Israel tries to make peace with her trespassers.
Can you name a Muslim nation which received arms from us and which did not then turn on us? One which we did not end up fighting a war over, or rescuing innocent American hostages over, or removing body parts from buildings or planes over? Even one muslim nation that is trustworthy and will not in the future stab us in the back? This "coalition" will take our arms they receive today against our people in future years, Israel will not.
His,
Bob Z.
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