Bending over backwards for terror

In physics, when an immovable object is bent enough times it eventually breaks from the strain. Likewise, the concept of peace in the Middle East may suffer the same fate. It is with Herculean effort that both sides of the Israel-Palestinian divide exhibit restraint in the face of terror attacks, even when the object of those attacks is a religious symbol of the community. Restraint is what the international community calls for time and again after outrages committed on  people ˗ primarily ours; however, at some point, the witnessing of so much horror reaches saturation levels.

It bears mentioning that the international community does not live in the State of Israel and frankly, if the international community truly cared about peace in the region, they would refrain from passing judgment upon us and let us deal with our own terrorists and criminals ourselves in our own way and in our own time. Clearly, we do not exist today because the international community guarantees our safety. We exist because we protect ourselves and each other, because who knows our security needs better than we do? Would we permit the United Nations to park its troops on our border with Hamas in any peace accord? We have already seen time and again that the UN has no stomach for the kind of terror and fighting that goes on here. In 1973, they withdrew their troops at Egypt’s insistence before Egypt launched their surprise attack at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. Only a few months ago, the minute the UN units saw al-Nusra Front’s militants and Daesh’s black flags bobbing over the hills in Syria, they bolted. Even the valiant Philippino troops were no match for the brutality of the Islamic group and they knew it from the onset and tried to negotiate to ensure their freedom. The reason we should ignore entreaties from the UN and likewise from the EU for restraint is the simple reason that they do not live here and do not have to live (or die) with the consequences of their actions, but we surely do.

As I have referenced in previous blogs, the architect of the attacks today on the synagogue in Jerusalem is Mahmoud Abbas together with his Fatah cabinet. The “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” may have carried out the attack, but it has Abbas’s and his Fatah leadership’s name all over it. Merely because he is the 80-year-old unelected leader of his people does not remove the responsibility for the actions by his own people from his own narrow shoulders. Naturally, he knows this, which is why he already almost “condemned” the attack today for Western media consumption. I say “almost” because he immediately tempered his remarks by stating they took place due to Israeli “provocation,” but I fail to see what provocation existed prior to the attacks of this magnitude. Men quietly praying in a synagogue are a provocation? We will have to wait for MEMRI to let us see the translations of whatever emanates from his mouth to his own people later on when he doesn’t think anyone from the West is listening. I do not say it lightly, but no real leader would encourage his own people to commit wanton acts of violence.

Furthermore, two news sources, the BBC and CNN, already incorrectly stated that the synagogue was in “occupied east Jerusalem” and CNN originally reported the attack as having taken place in a mosque.

It is high time that the international community recognize we are not children in need of their constant approval to exist. As a sovereign nation we are entitled to make whatever decisions we need to make to protect ourselves. This includes housing our citizens and offering police protection whenever and wherever applicable. If others want to threaten us with sanctions and stop our produce from reaching their customers, fine. We can find other buyers. The world is in decline, environmentally speaking, from global warming and too many people and worldwide drought cares nothing for borders. Thanks to our water management techniques and resource protection in place since 1950, we will be the only country with vegetables, fruits and nuts in a few short years. California has been deliberately sucking its unrenewable water out of its own acquifers. They basically ran out of water in May at the beginning of fire season. My point is that we have to stop looking over our shoulders at what others think about us or how we treat our own citizens. We cannot wage and win a war against terror any other way.

Surely, there will be a swift response to the terror that took place this morning in whatever form our leaders see fit as there should rightly be. Benjamin Netanyahu understands what Abbas fails to grasp: namely, that discouraging Arab leaders and their officials from trying to turn a brutal attack into a larger and more deadly religious war will serve no useful purpose whatsoever, except that for us, we will once again have to deal harshly with our detractors when we are supposed to be making peace with them.