Why I Stand with Bibi… and why you should too

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to congress is not a political issue. It is not a partisan issue. It is an existential issue. It is an issue that pertains to Israel’s survival as a state and to the Jewish people’s perpetuity as a nation. It is an issue that directly relates to the security of the global community and to the stability of international society as a whole.

Regardless of how this speech has been portrayed in mainstream media and irrespective of the manner in which Mr. Obama and his administration have endeavoured to transmogrify the essence of this speech into being a direct affront to their authority and have tried to depict it as being a cynical electoral ploy undertaken by Prime Minister Netanyahu- all in order to undermine the gravity of what it is that he is saying- it must remain clear to all of us that his speech transcends the domain of politics and it far surpasses the realm of petty partisan dynamics. His speech is about lifting the thin venire of fallacy and revealing the truth. His speech is about delivering, loud and clear, a message that we, the free peoples of the world, are facing a threat that is of an unfathomable magnitude and that we must not and will not remain silent.

If we are to embrace the tenets of freedom of expression and free speech and if we are to promote them and try to foster a society that is entrenched upon them, we must not, even for a moment, consider deserting a man who for years has been fighting on the front lines in the battle against Militant Islam. Who warned us of the dangers that were to plague the Middle East long before they erupted and became flagrantly manifest for all to see. We can no longer deny that we are engaged in a war that pervades all frontiers and permeates all borders against those who are attacking the values of social democracy that we hold dear and cherish. Just as these very principles have shielded and enshrined our way of life and have allowed us to forge a society built upon the doctrines of tolerance, respect and progress, so we must defend them, always and without trepidation, and we must make it known to all that we will not live in the shadow of fear. It is our time to speak up, to stand with those who proclaim for all to hear that we do have a voice and that we will use it.

And so, while it may seem arbitrary and unnecessary for to me to be asserting all of this, I am doing it because I am a concerned 18 year old citizen of the global community, who has watched as the contained tides of extremism have, in a matter of months, become volatile and intractable and have inundated our shores. An era of placid amity has been replaced by one of radicalism and terror. The insidious and pernicious hatred that has long been churning and festering in the underbelly of society against Jews, against cartoonists, against people who appreciate liberty, innovation and democracy, has finally emerged and must not be ignored. And as formidable as today’s world is, I fear more the world that will come to be if we do not collectively take definitive steps to combat fanaticism. I fear a world that will see the largest state-sponsorer of terrorism obtain nuclear weapon capacity. And that is why I stand with Benjamin Netanyahu in his noble quest to spread the truth and to avert an impending calamity. As Marc Thiessen says in the Washington Post, “Obama wants a nuclear deal with Iran because it would be a major feather in his political cap at a time when his foreign policy is imploding across the world, from Yemen to Syria to Iraq. For Israel, Iran’s nuclear program is not a political challenge; it is an  existential one. Obama can afford a bad deal because… he has a year and a half left to his presidency. The people of Israel, on the other hand, will have to live with the consequences long after Obama is gone.”