Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Middle East, Again

Once again we are faced with a crisis with the Israelis and the Palestinians. Once again, some terrorist group – this time Hamas – is goading the Israelis into a military response. Once again, the Europeans are demonstrating their long-standing anti-Semitism by defacing Jewish synagogues and demanding Israel stop attacking the Palestinians, but notice they don’t criticize the launching of rockets by Hamas into Israel.

The main criticism of Israel is that they are over-responding to the Hamas rocket attacks. Let me put this in perspective. Let’s say a Mexican anti-American terrorist organization took over Tijuana, Mexico, and launched 30-70 rockets a day into San Diego, just across the border. The people of San Diego lived in constant fear, air raid sirens were being sounded throughout the day, innocent civilians were being randomly killed by these crude rockets, and the Mexican government did nothing to stop these launches. What would you expect our government to do?

(a) Say “those poor Mexicans have some grievances against the US, so we should try to placate them” even though their aim is to bring us to our knees?

(b) Continue to pressure the Mexican government and other Latin American leaders, even though they have showed themselves to be sympathetic to the terrorists and share their views?

(c) While doing the above, use military force to stop the attacks on our territory?

I think number “c” is what every American would expect its government to do in such a case. Israel gave the Palestinians sovereignty over the Gaza Strip with the understanding that the Palestinians would behave themselves. Look what has happened. Israel has the right and the duty to protect itself and its people against any terrorist attacks, no matter what form they take, especially given the radical agenda of Hamas.

It is sad that innocent women and children in the Gaza get injured or killed, but that’s exactly what Hamas wants. They hide in schools and hospitals, they put innocent civilians in harm’s way, and then the sympathetic press duly notes the civilian casualties. Let me be clear: Hamas does not care about the Palestinian people – they are expendable for the “greater cause” of wiping Israel off the face of the earth.

Pray for peace in the Middle East, and part of that prayer could be for Hamas to be wiped off the face of the earth.

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