Shortly after noon on May 2, 2004, Tali Hatuel was driving from her home in Gush Katif, Gaza to Ashkelon, Israel to protest against the Sharon government's disengagement from Gaza plan. Her four daughters were in the car with her when suddenly a barrage of bullets struck the vehicle, flattening the tires and causing it to veer off the road. Two terrorists approached the disabled vehicle and systematically murdered each of the car's occupants with a bullet to the head. The victims were Mrs. Hatuel 34, Hila 11, Hadar 9, Roni 7, and Meirav 2, the four girls still strapped in their seats. Islamic Jihad proudly claimed responsibility and the killers, later shot and killed by Israeli Defense Forces, were hailed as heroes and praised as martyrs on Palestinian radio.
Since its founding in 1948, the modern state of Israel has been involved in three major wars with her Arab neighbors who wish the New Jersey sized nation eliminated, has been continuously attacked by various terror groups, most notably Hamas and Hizballah, and the world pretty much yawned. One so-called 'peace plan' after another has failed, largely, some say only, because of bad-faith on the part of Arabs. Now, suddenly, the world is deeply troubled by the conflict in the Middle East. Why?
When Israelis are murdered on buses and in their cars, in pizza parlors and discoteques, at weddings, or their beds by Hamas or al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or Hizballah everyone utters a collective 'ho hum'. Now that Israel strikes back by attacking Hizballah with the intention of eliminating the threat on its northern border the world decides there is an urgent need to 'stop the violence'. Let's call a cease fire and negotiate a settlement. What's to settle?
The hand-wringing Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, while calling the actions of Hizballah 'deplorable', calls Israel's actions 'disproportionate'. At least the U.S. ambassador to that largely wasteful and ineffective body understands that it is about survival. Reacting to the Secretary General's remarks he said, "I don't know what 'disproportionate' means". Nor do I. When someone is dedicated to your extinction, what kind of response is disproportionate?
Frankly, I am sick of hearing 'disproportionate use of force' bandied about by people who have no clue about what it is like to live on the edge of eternity every minute of every day. There is no such thing as disproportionate force. If someone is trying to kill you, rape your mother, kidnap your kid, how much force should you employ to prevent it? That is Israel. They are the potential murder victim, the raped mother, the kidnapped child and they are being incredibly restrained in their efforts, even to their own disadvantage and detriment.
'But what about the poor Lebanese?' you ask. They, like the Hashemite Jordanians who call themselves Palestinians, are at the mercy of their governments. However, are not the people who elect a government accountable for its behavior? The people who elect a terrorist led government must accept the responsibility and consequences that come with it. When that government, or lack of government, permits a terrorist state within a state, the people will pay the bill. Apparently, that bill is now due and payable.
Hamas and Hizballah and their Muslim supporters share one common goal, the elimination of the state of Israel. The only negotiation possible with such groups is their annihilation and even that does not appear to be Israel's intention. Israel simply wants to create a security zone in southern Lebanon, something U.N. Resolution 1559 called for two years ago, but which has never materialized primarily because 1) the U.N. did not, could not, or would not enforce it, 2) the Lebanese government is too weak to enforce it, and 3) Syria and Iran obstructed it by keeping Hizballah supplied and helped create a puppet government in Lebanon which includes Hizballah members.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizballah leader and the man who called martyrs the two Arab boys aged three and six who were killed by a Hizballah rocket as they played in the street, has said that the war will continue despite Israel's incursions into southern Lebanon, even despite those incursions escalating to massive land invasions. This is because Hizballah has adopted the same tactics as did the Japanese on Iwo Jima in 1945. That battle took 10 weeks of preliminary bombing, a large number of land forces, and nearly six weeks.
Look around the world. Bali, Kenya, Algeria, Somalia, Sudan, Jordan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Yugoslavia, Russia, Spain, Holland, Denmark, England, United States. All have suffered terrorism at the hands of Islamic jihadists. The world is a messy place, it is sinful and unfair and as Lamont Cranston said many years ago, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" Because of that evil the world engages in periodic blood-lettings, perhaps as atonement.
President Bush was right when he told the world 'you are either with us or you are with the terrorists', now he needs to follow through. This is not a war between Israel and a couple of ragtag terror groups. This is not even a war over disputed territory. This is intercontinental, it is our war, Europe's war, western civilization's war and the sooner we realize it, the better.
Unfortunately, many of us cling to historical ways of seeing the world, ways which no longer have any resemblance to reality and probably never did. This is not 1938. This is not military force against military force. This is world view against world view and there is no middle ground, no earthly mediator. In time, none of us will be able to sit this one out. Choose your side because they'll be coming for you, or your children, or your children's children.
Pro 6:16 There are six things which Jehovah hateth; Yea, seven which are an abomination unto him:
Pro 6:17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood;
Pro 6:18 A heart that deviseth wicked purposes, Feet that are swift in running to mischief,
Pro 6:19 A false witness that uttereth lies, And he that soweth discord among brethren.
Sounds like a description of Israel's and our enemies.
Nuda Veritas
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