A Civilized World Living With Evil

“I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and respect and, one based on the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles——principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” [President Barak Obama’s Speech, at Cairo University, June 4, 2009.]
Further, he said “We will have to confront violent extremism in all its forms. In Ankara, I made clear that America is not —-and never will be —at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a great threat to our security.

The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.”Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be a critical part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.”

Most importantly, Obama is of the opinion, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel’s right to exist. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s.”

Obama’s memory seems to have lapsed when delivering the subject speech. Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza and North Samaria occurred on 15 August, 2005! And today’s Israel National News headline reads, “Taliban: ‘We will conquer Jerusalem’ as they requested other Arab countries to give its troops passage to join the war against Israel.” Apparently, the appeal was sent to Iran, Iraq, and Jordan, saying that ‘If other countries give us passage, we will conquer Jerusalem.’

This at a time after Hamas launched a ‘surprise’ attack against Israel, leaving 350 Israelis dead to date and more than 100 Israel’s captive in the Gaza strip. As of writing, at least 600 were killed, dozens kidnapped and over 2000 injured. Netanyahu has declared war on Hamas, named ‘Operation Swords of Iron’ and at least 3000 rockets had been fired toward Israeli civilians.

Dr Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His opinions are widely sought after. On this day’s awful history, he was quick to assess what he terms, “Today’s savage war on Israel.” He commences with several questions. ‘Why did Hamas stage a long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians—one designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead? And how were the killers able to enter Israeli proper in enough numbers to kill what could be hundreds and perhaps eventually wound what could be thousands?’

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[1] Iran likely was the driving force to prompt the war—given its greatest fear is a Sunni Arab-Iran rapprochement.
[2] Arab forces have had only success against Israel through surprise attacks during Israeli holidays, as in the Yom Kippur War. Simchat Torah served that purpose on this occasion.
[3] Hamas may have reckoned that recent Israeli turmoil and mass Leftist street protests over proposed reforms of the Israeli Supreme Court had led to permanent internal divisions and thus a climate of domestic distraction, if not an erosion of deterrence.
[4] More importantly, in a larger sense, the Biden administration has contributed both to the notion that Hamas was a legitimate Middle East player , and to the perception that the US was backing away from its traditional support for Israel—–to the delight of Hamas based on the following policies:

[a] In February, Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion—-even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of ‘martyrs’.
[b] The current shameful State-Department website news release that was posted after today’s attack. It ended with this quite embarrassing, morally equivalent admonition:
‘We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.’ All sides? So Israel is the moral equivalent of terrorists executing civilians and brutalizing their corpses?
[c] Almost immediately after his inauguration, Biden mobilized to resume the bankrupt Iran deal. Add to this Biden’s loathing of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
[d] And if it shows any hesitation or weakness, other terrorist groups will opportunistically jump in.
[The above list is considerably abbreviated.]

Benjamin Netanyahu has been a leader in the opposition to Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. His speech to the joint meeting of US Congress on March 3, 2015 was both logical and convincing. His opening statement; “This is a bad deal—a very bad deal. We’re better off without it. Such a deal will ‘guarantee’ that Iran gets nuclear weapons because it allows the Islamic Republic to keep much of its nuclear infrastructure in place. And, he added, the alternative to a bad deal is not war, as some supporters of the deal with Iran have said, but “the alternative to this bad is a much better deal.”

The prime minister spent the early part of his speech outlining the strength of the US-Israel relationship saying it must “always remain above politics”, and he thanked President Obama for his support of Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader —-spews the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest technology. He tweets that Israel must be destroyed.

Netanyahu gives a shout-out to Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, who was in the audience. “I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned,” he says. Netanyahu continues, opining the current deal that the US and its allies are discussing with Iran will guarantee that the Islamic republic gets nuclear weapons.

He said the deal would allow Iran to keep its major infrastructure—–with a short breakout time for a bomb. Not a single facility will be demolished—and thousands of centrifuges will be allowed to continue to spin. He compares Iran’s actions to North Korea’s —-saying both countries have deceived international nuclear inspectors.

Iran has proven once and again that it cannot be trusted. A 2nd major concession under the deal would allow Iran to get to the bomb after 10 years. “That’s why this deal is so bad—–it paves Iran’s path to a bomb.”

Netanyahu says the deal “won’t change Iran for the better, it will change the Middle East for the worst, saying Iran’s neighbors, presumably Saudi Arabia and others, will pursue their own nuclear programs. We can insist that restriction on Iran’s nuclear program not be lifted as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and the world.”

Netanyahu says Iran must do 3 things: Stop aggression against its neighbors; stop supporting terrorism around the world; stop threatening to “annihilate my country – Israel, the one and only Jewish state.”—-If Iran changes its behavior, the restrictions will be lifted. “If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country.”
At this stage, one wonders if Obama and his supporters had acted in accordance with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s advice, we would be suffering the present day war.

In the same way that Netanyahu had become a leader in pursuing Iran, he equaled this with his fight against terrorism. Perhaps he should have a recall of his Jonathon Institute. His “Fighting Terrorism – How Democracies can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists “is as relevant today as it was in 1995.

His Preface commences with, “Terrorism is back—with a vengeance. After being subdued internationally, and within most Western countries in the late 1980s, it has returned in ferocious and fearful new forms. In the United States, the bombings of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and the federal building in Oklahoma City demonstrated to Americans that terrorism could now strike on Main Street.”

Savagery knows no end.