A Lost Opportunity

Israel lost an opportunity to strike a significant blow in the war against radical Islamic terrorism when they accepted a UN-backed, mealy-mouthed ceasefire in their ongoing battle against Hezbollah. And by backing the UN resolution, the United States also lost an opportunity to change the balance of power in the Middle East.

Israel has always been cloaked in an air of invincibility. Decisive victories in pretty much every war they've fought will do that. It was that air of invincibility that kept their enemies at bay. But this war was different. Israel is widely seen as being the loser in the conflict. They achieved none of their objectives, whether it be the return of their kidnapped soldiers or the outright destruction of Hezbollah. Yes, some terrorists were killed and some weapons destroyed. But Hezbollah remains, Israel's internal politics are on the verge of crack-up and the Arab street is celebrating what appears to be a large chink in the Israeli armor. Make no mistake, the entire moderate Arab world was quietly waiting for Israel to wipe the map clean of Hezbollah and serve notice to Iran that their aggression and support of advancing terror operations would not stand but Hezbollah's survival and diplomatic PR victory has left everyone not only scratching their heads but praying for their own survival. Simply put, Israel failed. And now everyone in Israel is trying to figure out why and who is responsible. It appears that Prime Minister Olmert would be the primary culprit.

The United States would be a different story. In supporting Israel's "right to defend herself", the US was also secretly hoping (and secretly supporting logistically) for a decisive Israeli victory that would crush Hezbollah and advance the forces of freedom. In standing back for over 5 weeks while Israel pummelled Lebanese territory and infrastructure with air strikes, the US gave Israel the longest leash they've had in quite some time to conduct a military operation without being second-guessed by the world's lone superpower. But it would seem to me that President Bush was desperate for Israel to unleash a massive ground operation to actually destroy the Hezbollah terrorists instead of just some of their weapons and some of their bases of operation. After the world had seen enough, Secretary of State Rice concocted a ceasefire resolution that only one week later stands on the brink of collapse. This is not only a diplomatic disaster but a showing of fundamental weakness of the US. From every conceiveable angle, the US and Israel have lost major ground in the war against radical Islamic terrorism. In war there is always a winner and a loser. We lost. The bad guys won. Now what?

The War to Destroy Israel and the Curious Jewish Support of the Democratic Party

I'm not normally a flag-waving fan of Newt Gingrich. The guy makes some sense when he waxes about policy and the "conservative" philosophy of government he claims to believe in. But the reality of Newt is something different. He had Bill Clinton by the short-and-curlies when Clinton shut the government down, but Newt blinked when the stars were aligned for a mammoth victory by fiscal conservatives. And when he blinked, Slick Willy saw his opportunity and bludgeoned Newt politically. It was ugly. I digress. Newt said something recently on Meet the Press that rang true and it was something I hadn't really wrapped my brain around. When Tim Russert commented on the fourth day of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Newt stopped him cold in his tracks and corrected him by saying that this is the 58th year of the ongoing war to destroy the state of Israel. Think about that. For 58 years, the Arab world has been trying to destroy the Jewish state unsuccessfully and Newt was spot-on to articulate it as such.

The war has expanded beyond the Arab world. Now, the entire United Nations led by Jew-hater Kofi Annan is up in arms because Israel has decided it's had enough of daily rocket attacks by a terrorist organization that enjoys the geographical support of Lebanon and the logistical support of both Iran and Syria. The American media is united against Israel. And the Democratic Party, once the bedrock of support for the Jewish people in America during the days of FDR, have begun to show their anti-Semitic underbelly. Kofi Annan can barely hide his Jew-hatred when he screams for Israel to use "proportionate force" and "restraint" when unleashing a counterattack against Hezbollah and Hamas. The media constantly puts the left-wing bomb throwers on the front pages with headlines like "Israel kills 40 civilians in attack on Beirut" or some such. You have to probe deep into the thick, pea soup fog of liberal hatred of Israel (usually around paragraph 10) to find out that the military action was in response to yet another rocket attack against Israeli civilians, and even deeper to discover that there might not have actually been civilians killed at all!

What concerns me most, though, is the fact that slowly but surely the left-wingers are revealing themselves to be both ignorant of history and virulent anti-Semites. Anti-Semitism in Europe is running rampant but it's to be expected. After all, the statute of limitations on European "guilt" over the Holocaust has run its course so they're comfortable letting the synagogues burn. But in America, the Jews have always enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence. Yes, I got into a fight with a kid in junior-high because he made a snide comment about Jews and pennies (an oldie but a goodie), and we had a major vandalism against our Jewish Community Center, but the anti-Semitic outbursts were few and far between. It's just the way it is in most of America. People who do hate Jews are generally shamed into silence unless they're horribly drunk like Mel Gibson. But the thing that confuses me the most is that the Left is hissed off at Mel Gibson (deservedly so) but there hasn't been a single peep by the Democratic Party or the establishment media about the Jews that were killed in Seattle. I wonder if it has anything to do with Mel's success with Passion of the Christ because I just have a hard time believing that if patron saint George Clooney had said those things we wouldn't be hearing something to excuse his behavior, much like Ted Kennedy's "episode" at Chappaquiddick has been excused. Maybe I'm just cynical, but here we have a guy who mutters some awful slurs against Jews while he's drunk and the Left gets into an uproar, but when a guy walks into a JCC and shoots the place up, we have to read the fine print to even hear that it happened. Unreal.

Here's case in point: http://www.counterpunch.com/tilley08052006.html. For those who might think that all I do is drink the punch from President Bush, read that article as I did. I like to do research under the guise of "know thy enemy". It's not even thinly-veiled anti-Semitism. It's full blown Jew-hatred at its finest! And this is the stuff that comes from the Left. Now, I'm not suggesting that the establishment Democratic Party is anti-Semitic and that they're rushing out to change their party platform. But, the grassroots of the Democratic Party are starting to get a little creepy, and make this particular Jew a little bit uncomfortable. When someone on a well-known website like Counterpunch starts calling for a boycott against Israel because of their "racist" policies and their "continual attacks on Palestinian civilians" we have to start to wonder. And we have to wonder why those on the Left are so quick to accuse people who cherish life and freedom (like Americans and Israelis) of indiscriminate murder and racism. Are they actually serious? Do they actually take themselves seriously as people who should be trusted with the levers of power in these United States? Do they understand that their questioning of Israel has strayed far from legitimate dissent into vicious anti-Semitism? Does anyone reading this feel that the previous three questions aren't rhetorical?

Jews in America that aren't the self-hating brand should come to understand as I have that President Bush is the best friend we've ever had, and certainly the best friend Israel has ever had. He understands the important relationship that America and Israel share, and that our fates are inextricably bound together. The Left doesn't seem to get that and because they don't get it they're starting to allow their anti-Semitic nature to enjoy a full and lustrous bloom. The Republican Party is in trouble because they've rejected their core principles of conservative governance but as the November elections loom, can we really entrust our future to a political party whose base is made up of hardcore anti-Semites? That was a rhetorical question too.