Posted on 05/27/2002 10:12:46 PM PDT by A Lone Voice
Alan Keyes, the foremost statesman of our time, defends Israel in his "Letter to Mesora," reminding all of love, duty, honor, conscience and bravado... as only Alan Keyes can. Here's the letter you've all been raving about:
"I write to express my solidarity with the people of Israel in this difficult time, and to assure you of what I know you cannot doubt, that millions of Americans stand with Israel as well. We will remember the truth of Israel's honorable record, insist that others treat Israel in light of that truth, and not succumb the cowardly passions of the moment.
When the European Union asserts moral authority to coerce Israel into a shameful surrender of its just claims, we will remember that many Europeans sat on their hands and did nothing while millions of Jews were slaughtered in the era that gave birth to the state of Israel.
When "the international community" asserts its moral authority to dictate Israel's security policy, we will remember what the "international community" did in 1967, when Arab forces were amassing to launch a death blow against Israel, when Egyptian President Nasser kicked out the U.N. troops from the Sinai, and the international community did precisely nothing.
We will remember how the "international community" sat and waited for those hundreds of thousands of Arab troops to deliver a deathblow to Israel, and we will remember that such a blow wasn't thwarted by international outrage, but by the unanticipated brilliance of the Israeli military.
We will remember that Israel acquired the Sinai, West Bank and Gaza not in a war of conquest, but in a desperate and just defensive war for survival.
We will remind the "international community" that territory acquired in a defensive war of survival can, according to universal understanding, international law, and common sense, be retained until a negotiated peace is reached. And we will proclaim the truth that the Israeli people have again and again shown their willingness to put those territories on the table in the hope of achieving just such a negotiated settlement for just peace.
Israel's friends in America will insist that the world acknowledge that the Israelis have shown that they will negotiate in good faith, and keep agreements reached in good faith. We will remember the historic Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, which resulted in Israel's peaceful return of the Sinai to the Egyptians. An agreement made, an agreement kept.
We remember that with Egypt, with Jordan, even quietly with Syria, the Israelis have proved to be a people of their word, when faced with a negotiating partner willing to meet its solemn obligations. And because we will remember all these things, we will continue to insist that American and international policy recognize the poisonous significance of the unbroken record of murderous deceit which is the history of the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, and Yasser Arafat. While the Israelis have made concession after concession, and followed through with real and dangerous steps, such as turning over to Yasser Arafat authority in the West Bank and Gaza, Arafat has consistently refused to honor those agreements, to make significant concessions, and to do the one needful thing to stop killing Israelis. We remember, and see to this day, what the "international community" of appeasement refuses to see that the Palestinian strategy remains the manipulation of all discussion through the intentional use of terrorist violence, with the ultimate goal of destroying a demoralized, intimidated and isolated Israel.
We will remember these things, and speak the truth about them, not only out of respect and solidarity with the decent and heroic people of Israel. We will do so as well because we know that peace for all people of the region cannot be built on a foundation of manipulation, deception, violence. The first pre-requisite for peace, and for self-government, is the restraint of one's own passions and violence out of respect for justice and fairness. Israel's noble restraint is unique in the history of the world. Israel has continued, to this day, to impose on herself the rational restraints of justice and truth, under circumstances of danger and assault far exceeding those normally sufficient to entice a people to submit entirely to rage and retribution. It is difficult to find words to express the contemptibility of the moral lectures such a noble people routinely receives from the self-appointed guardians of moral smugness in Europe and elsewhere.
The people in the Middle East deserve a better fate than tragic self-immolation. They will attain such a better fate only when they understand that the plea of victimization even if true, which in this case it is not cannot excuse the surrender to evil in one's own soul. The friends of Israel serve the cause of the people of the entire region when we insist that the path to peace requires dismantling the Palestinian terror machine.
The truth, and the truth alone, will set the Palestinian people free, for they are imprisoned not by the Israel's just defense of its right to exist and defend its people, but by the self-imposed hatred that poisons the soul, and withers the future.
Israel is today, as Israel has always been, a sign of hope that God's children can seek to be pleasing in His sight. Israel is today, as Israel has always been, hateful in the eyes of those whose neck is stiff, and whose heart is filled with hate and falsehood. Until it shall please God to make the land of His special favor a pleasing sight to all the nations, may it please Him to continue to give all Americans the eyes to see in Israel, as is truly the case, a beacon of justice, courage, and truth.
My prayers, my heart, are with the brave people of Israel.
- Alan Keyes"
AND NOW THE ISRAELI INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH:
I am often asked why it is that I am such a strong supporter of Israel. And I have to confess that when folks ask me that, it takes me aback a little bit, because it is not how I think of myself. Or, at least, it's not how I think of what I do. What I have been trying to do over the course of a couple of decades - I have a little more opportunity to do it right now on my television show - is as best I can simply to speak the truth as I understand it.
And I think that I try to do so, as I try to do everything in my public life, in a way that will reflect the deep sense of allegiance that I feel to this country, America, and to the principles that we are supposed to stand for in the world. That has been especially important to me, as it has to many Americans, I think, since September 11th. And I think that if we understand the real meaning of what happened on September 11th, then we ought to understand that whatever was the case before, whatever were the reasons, strategically, politically, economically; whatever were the reasons, emotionally and morally and spiritually, that led the United States to stand together with the state of Israel before September 11th, after September 11th it becomes not just a question of policy and philosophy. After September 11th, it becomes an absolute principle of survival, to take a stand against those who represent a willingness - cold-bloodedly, ruthlessly, and with malice aforethought - to bring war against the innocent in pursuit of naked and brutal ambition.
I'm not trying to tell you that I, or anybody else, could wave a magic wand tomorrow, and banish conflict and war from the Middle East. But I think what we must all realize, as human beings who hope for the progress of this planet, is that if someday we are to banish war, then certainly today we must absolutely banish those who would make war without principle, without rules, without decency, without conscience, without respect for the intrinsic worth of every innocent human life.
And this means I must, here and now, part company with those who believe that when suicide bombers bring down the Twin Towers, and kill thousands of Americans, we are right to stand before the world and declare that there is no neutrality with terrorism, there is no negotiating with terrorism - and then demand neutrality and negotiation with those terrorists targeting Israel. I will stand against those who see terrorism when Americans die, but who see suicide bombers who kill Israelis, and believe that that is just part of the negotiating process.
If bin Laden is a terrorist; if his mind is that of a terrorist; if he has facilitated terrorists when he directs and provisions those who kill the innocent in the World Trade Center, then Yasser Arafat and his cohorts are terrorists when they direct and provision young Palestinians to kill the innocent in Israel.
Throughout my career, I have stood for peace in the region, as solidly and firmly anybody could. Long before the Bush Administration thought to do it, I declared that there was in fact a need to satisfy the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. There is no doubt about this.
But mark my words: It does no good for the Palestinian people to keep themselves in the clutches of a blood-thirsty leadership that is willing to inculcate such hatred that they sacrifice their own children for the sake of destruction. It is not just for Israel that we stand together today. And it is not just for America. It is for every decent minded human being who hopes someday that all of us will be able live together in peace. It is for every decent minded human being who hopes someday that we will banish mindless hatred from the hearts of our children.
Step number one is to reject, absolutely, all those leaders everywhere in the world who would turn their children into suicide bombers, who would cynically exploit their own young peoples' trust and innocence for the sake of death, in evil advancement of the raw and ruthless political power they seek.
And I believe that as we come together here today in order to commemorate the Independence of Israel, we must stand together, each and every one of us, solidly on the grounds of our common opposition to that terrorist menace which threatens the independence, the morality, and the decent conscience not just of Israel, but of every human being anywhere on this globe.
The President was right: in the war against terror, there can be no neutrality. Every state that facilitates and encourages that menace must stand accountable before the civilized world. And as an accounting of those terror states must include Iran, and Iraq, and North Korea, SO IT MUST INCLUDE SAUDI ARABIA, AND ALL OF THOSE WHO ARE WILLING, AS THEY HIDE BEHIND THE LABEL OF PHONY "MODERATION" TO SPONSOR TERRORISM AND DEATH!
I have had to come a long way today, for the sake of sharing these few thoughts with you. But I'll tell you something. The reason I thought it was worth it, is very simple. Some people think that what is at stake in the Middle East is the survival of Israel. I deeply believe that in present circumstances, the survival of Israel is at stake. But if we learned anything on September 11th, then we should have learned that what is finally at stake in this confrontation is the survival of us all.
Already we are seeing that confusion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, confusion and a false moral equivalency in understanding that conflict, is undermining the clarity of America's policy on terrorism. Don't think that that is not a serious problem. It indicates the connection that we must all understand. We must be CLEAR in dealing with the challenge of this region, for it is the challenge to every human heart to stand against those who would deny the right and better destiny not just of Israelis, but of all decent human beings.
There is a solution, but it is not going to come in a negotiating process that embraces a terrorist mentality, that rewards terrorist violence. It will come when all of us are willing, without exception, to make it clear that every leader, and every regime, and every movement, and every organization that steps across the line to terrorism, must be banished from the discourse of civilized human life. They have made it clear, as inhuman terrorists enacting inhuman violence against the innocent, that they are not a part of our common human destiny. In their embrace of terror, they are denizens and practitioners of a barbarous culture of death. And we must be steadfast in our determination of their pariah status among the nations of the civilized world.
When we are willing to stand firm and unequivocal in that judgment, we will not only make the world safer for a discussion of peace in the Middle East. We will make it safer for the survival of the Jewish State of Israel. We will make it safer for a true fulfillment of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for responsible self-government. We will make it safer for the continued progress of our own people here in the United States. We will make the world safer by standing united and unyielding - standing on principle, no exceptions, no excuses - against terrorism.
So let us today reaffirm our commitment to respect the sacredness of innocent life. Upholding that moral principle, we will, in fact, win the war against terror, and prevail in our determination to secure for all people the better destiny of freedom and self-government that is the birthright of our humanity.
GWB's failure to give this man a bully pulpit from which to speak his inspiring oratory is an indictment of GWB.
Two powerful and wise pieces by Keyes.
Cheers,
Richard F.
He is that too but my take on it for years was that Dr Keyes has a much greater title than a President - he is Moral Leader of the country.
Full info on the event Saturday evening at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines is at www.lifeandliberty.net.
For Iowa FReepers, you can hear Bill Salier on 1040 WHO (Jan Mickelson's show) in Des Moines this Wednesday morning, and you can also hear Alan Keyes in the same place this Friday morning (9:00 am).
Regards,
EV
These articles are a must read for anyone...Alan states the truth of the situation better than anyone I know.
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