America Needs You, Harry S. Truman

Religious Palestinian Muslims  Celebrating (Jewish Press)

Once again the entire Jewish world is united.

Three young Yeshiva Bachurim – teenagers (one of whom is an American citizen) were kidnapped last Friday while they were apparently hitch-hiking on the West Bank. The kidnappers are believed to be Islamic terrorists from Hamas.  It doesn’t matter whether one is Chasidic, Yeshivish, or Modern Orthodox, It doesn’t matter whether one is Orthodox, Conservative or Reform. It doesn’t even matter if you are Jewish.  The entire civilized world is united in the desire to see these young boys returned unharmed to their families immediately. I pray that this happens quickly without delay.

How sad it is to once again realize that the only thing that always seems to unite us is tragedy. Once these boys are returned, we will no doubt go back to hating each other.  I have said this before. Maybe this is God’s way of telling us that we are one people united as Jews and ought to act that way. Maybe if we had a little more Achdus in good times, God wouldn’t be creating these bad times to bring us together.

Israel is doing all it can to get these young victims back. They have been working round the clock since Friday in this effort. News reports say that they have arrested 80 Hamas terrorists so far. 

As I said a moment ago, all civilized people are united on this. Contrast that with the reaction on the West Bank. There is a virtual celebration of this kidnapping, Not by terrorists. But by the fervently religious Palestinian residents! Everyday religious Muslims that are not in any terrorist group. Black clad Burka wearing women who are devoutly religious were moved to bake cookies and other delicacies and pass them out to a happy populace, joyful over the news that Jews were successfully hurt.

I understand that many Palestinians feel they are oppressed by Israel. It is true that Israel’s extraordinary security needs require extraordinary security measures. And there is not a scintilla of doubt in my mind that this causes hardships on most Palestinians. Furthermore it doesn’t help matters when some of the more extremist settlers harass their Palestinian neighbors.  

But there is nothing that can ever justify kidnapping innocent teenagers. It would also help for them to recognize that their problems are caused by their own people. It is the terrorists among them that have caused Israel to take these extreme measures. Israel is no racist. Arabs serve in the Kenesset. Arab citizens of Israel have full rights with Jewish citizens. If there were no terrorism, Palestinian would have had their state long ago. In fact, if the Arab nations would not have attacked Israel in 1948 after the UN partitioned Palestine, the world would have had a 2 state solution. Israel accepted that immediately.

The Muslim mothers passing out treats are oblivious to these facts.  They see Israel as the devil… and Israeli Jews as infidels that are to be fought in a Jihad – a holy war with the purpose of ridding the Middle East of Jews and replacing Israel with an Islamic State called Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital!

Again, I am perplexed that the west – and particularly the good and decent leaders of the United States do not see this. When there was a similar joyful expression by these Muslims in the Middle East after 9/11, I thought surely the true face of Islam would finally be recognized by world leaders, especially those of this Medina Shel Chesed. But it is ignored. Instead it is just chalked up to a few fanatics. Well the terrorists are the few fanatics. But the mindset of the most fervent Arabs is to support those fanatics. And they show it publicly. How many times have I seen Palestinian mothers express pride in a son who blew himself up in a suicide attack?

This is what is missing from American leadership. They see some sort of moral equivalence between Israel’s harsh  security requirements and Islamic violence.  When they go too far as they did here, they might condemn it. But they stop short of pointing out that there is no moral equivalency. The liberal mindset is to look at the here and now and ignore the causes. Hence, they see 2 peoples suffering and call it a draw. How sick is that?!

I am loathe to do anything that would hurt innocent people. And there are many innocent people among the Palestinian populace. But there are really only 2 ways to ultimately resolve the issues between Israel and the Palestinians. One would be to surrender Israel to the Arabs and leave. The other is to fight for our rights. I choose the latter. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

A photograph of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

Palestinian Muslims are (or harbor and support) mass murderers. Maybe we need another Harry Truman here. The Obama administration wants peace in the Middle East. They have until recently been working hard to achieve that. The carrot approach has not been working. Maybe it’s time to use the stick.  If the United States would do to the West Bank and Gaza what it did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who knows…? Maybe that will finally bring peace to the Middle East! It worked last time we tried it. We have been at peace with Japan for 70 years.

OK… maybe this is a little extreme. I don’t really think we should do that. It would be immoral. But when I see things like 3 innocent young teenagers being kidnapped by rabid anti-Semites in the cause of Islam, and a world reacting with near impotence I can’t help seeing red!  I wish the President would be a little more like Harry Truman and a little less like Neville Chamberlain.