Yet to be Understood

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.” The presidents of every university should learn this lesson”. [Ellie Wiesel]

“We will shake every tree and turn over every rock to bring all our hostages home” [Prime Minister Netanyahu on December 26, 2023.]

One would think that this statement is clear is sufficiently lucid and would reach most media sources. A review of several universal headlines, finds this not to be so.

“Biden Preparing to Oust Netanyahu Over ‘war crimes’” [David Israel on The Jewish Press, Dec.19, 2023]
“Biden Calls on Netanyahu to Change the Make-up of Government Coalition”; [“This is the most conservative government in the history of Israel” he said, “calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strengthen and change” the “structure of the current Israel government.”[I24 News, Dec. 12 2023]

“[Ehud] Barak calls for Netanyahu’s ouster, despite war raging.”[JNS, Dec.12, 2023]
“This was a total system failure on Israel’s part.”[Martin Indyke on Foreign Affairs, October 7, 2023]
“’An obstacle to peace’: US lambast Israeli moves to expand West Bank settlements.” [Jacob Magid on Times of Israel, June 19, 2023”]

“Biden Convenes Anti-Semitism Summit while Finding Murder of Jews’ [Daniel Greenfield on Front Page Mag, Dec. 12, 2022].
“Israel’s Right Wing Coalition Gets the Cold Shoulder from Biden. [Eugene Kantorovich on WSJ, Nov.10, 2022].
“Benjamin Netanyahu, the Undertaker of the Two-state Solution. The only leader of the Israeli right to accept the two-state solution, only to do everything to prevent it from happening.” [Anshel Pfeffer on Haaretz, April 1, 2019]

On the bright side, one finds comfort through two Jewish columnists, both registered Democrats at one time.
On July 25, 2023, JNS published, “Dov Hikind: “I’ve become very disillusioned with the Democratic Party”. The author, Sergio Carmona’s introduction reads, “The Former New York state representative and Jewish leader shared his reasons for registering as a Republican.”

Hikind explains that his decision was a “long time coming.”A few reasons. Reps. Alexandria Occasion-Cortez, Ileana Omar “and on and on “ made the Democrat Party “very radicalized “.He also cited US President and his administration ‘s recent criticism of Israel, including calling for the Israel government to slow judicial reform and praising left-wing mass demonstrations that have roiled Israeli society in recent months.

Arutz7 “Let Israel Finish the Job “by Joseph Frager was posted on Dec. 30, 2023. In the face of universal opposition, this appears as an understatement. However, it is not, when considering that the President of the US is leading the pack.
History has to be allowed to do what it has to do in order to survive. Consider the following:
[A] Israel’s Independence War of 1948 consuming close to 10 months.

[b] Israel’s present war against Hamas, referred to as Israel’s 2nd War of Independence is now in its 3rd month. Military analysts believe at least 3 further moths will be necessary for completion. Israel did not initiate this war, or, that of 1948. The need for another war against Hamas can be rationalized by recognition that Israel was prevented from completing the task in 2008 and 2014.

President Biden arrogantly proclaimed, “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives – not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful.” Does he not realize that this translates to being damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Oh, and what about Israeli citizens who almost daily face rockets?

No army in the world is as careful as Israelis in protecting civilians. It is the most considerate and humane army on the face of the earth. Soldiers have literally sacrificed themselves to protect civilians. Ask Coronal Richard Kemp, British head of former British in Afghanistan about Israel’s army. He says it is the most decent army in the world.

“It wasn’t so much [Netanyahu’s] right to make that speech having been invited. It was his duty, his obligation. He recognizes the existential to his country of a nuclear armed Iran –it’s been described, I think very aptly, as a nuclear Auschwitz –a threat that could result in the murder of thousands, if not millions of Israelis.

Hikind was in Congress when Netanyahu made the speech and felt it was very similar to the reaction to Winston Churchill in 1941, when he spoke to the joint congressional session.”

Those who today find fault with the actions of Israel’s present government are in need of education. A viewing of the video, “Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam Written and directed by Joel Gilbert “in 2007, serves this purpose in its outstanding portrayal of radical Islam.

The documententary’s enormous achievement is in bringing together in the space of 145 minutes, a scholarly investigation of the belief system and history of Islam, the development of the Arab-Israel and [more accurately , the Muslim –Jewish conflict] and the aftermath of 9/11.

Following a striking opening in which Ahmadinejad calls for “Death to Israel,” the first half of the documentary offers a crash course on Islam, which Gilbert makes visually interesting through the skilful use of Islamic art, maps and graphics. [Himself a musician, Gilbert also makes good use of an original score.] This 1st section is centered visually by a mosque, with doors which Gilbert opens to reveal facets of Islamic doctrine and history.

Gilbert shows how Mohammad’s conflicts with the Jewish tribes of the Arabian Peninsula formed the basis for the development of Islam’s relationship with both Jews and Christians, both tolerated in an inferior dhimmi status to a superior Islam.

He describes the amazingly rapid conquests of Islam [within a centaury its empire grew to be larger than the Roman Empire at its height] which fortified Believers in their sense of Islam’s superiority, the Golden Age of Islamic cultural achievements and the crushing blow to Believers when the West, thanks to its growing technological edge, 1st turned back Islam from its European conquests and eventually assumed imperial control of much of the Islamic heartland.

Gilbert depicts the rise of Zionism and shows how the establishment of Israel and the military victory over the combined Arab states by the despised Jews posed an unbearable challenge to Islam that had to be reversed at all costs.

The key theme of this film is the lethal misunderstanding of the Islamic world view and its goals, which bedevils Israeli policies as well as those of the United States. An important underlying theme of the documentary –the way in which the same words, including “peace, “freedom, “tyranny” are understood differently, by Islam and the West.

Gilbert has assembled some wonderful historical footage. As Nazism gathered force, we see Vladimir Jabotinsky testifying on behalf of Jewish statehood before the British Royal Commission in 1936, delivering those famous lines in which he compared the claims of the Arabs and Jews to Palestine to the claims of appetite as against the claims of starvation

The document conclusively that there is, and can be, no peace process, that leaves Israel standing as a Jewish sovereign state. “Islam must reacquire Palestine to redeem itself from Westernization on the path to successful Islamic revival.” President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Anthony Blinken, Yair, Lapid, George Soros, and the Squad would no doubt concur.