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WHY ISRAEL MATTERS

by Barbara Ann Zweifler

  

Israel is the only nation on earth where the legitimate land spoils of defensive wars are referred to as occupied territory. No one calls Texas occupied territory. We immigrant Americans have less authentic claim to our great land than Israel does. Manifest Destiny pales in comparison to forty centuries and the word of God. Still, I stand ready to defend America against terrorist invaders with a rock and my last breath, if need be. In America, I can sit contented at my computer, confident that this land is mine, and that the world in it's entirety dares not dispute that without risking grave consequences.

Not so for Israel. Since moments after it's birth in 1948, the State of Israel has been repeatedly attacked without provocation. Her enemies were and are today intent on destroying her completely, to the last man, woman and child. The Arab's open declaration of war, which was first uttered against the State of Israel in 1948 and robustly proclaimed to this day is - "We will drive the Jews into the sea." This is the ultimate grudge match. The Arab rancor against the Jewish people spans the millennia from this day to the Exodus.

Israel defended, countered, and conquered, on every occasion. The God of Abraham delivered them again and again from the hands of the proverbial Egyptians, when in reality, any military expert could have told you that it was virtually impossible for Israel to survive.

And yet their tiny land, the size of New Jersey, is referred to in the year 2004 as occupied territory. The Israelis are portrayed as either militaristic or religious maniacs, and the Palestinian aggressors are marketed as victims of Israeli oppression. College students across America mobilize, proselytize and opine mightily for the Palestinian "cause", which is sold to them by expert propagandists bent on America's destruction. Anti-Semitism is rampant in our halls of higher learning, and Muslim groups on campus regularly disrupt, harass, and attempt to intimidate Pro-Israeli and Pro-American speakers, educators and students.

Israel's plight has more to do with the war you and I are facing in America than you may realize. From the Jihadis point of view, there is absolutely no distinction. We are the Great Satan, Israel is the Little Satan, and Bush is a Zionist Stooge. If the Islamists can only succeed to drive the Jews into the sea, the rest of you will surrender like Frenchmen - because you are nothing without the direction, money, intellect and influence of the Zionist Infidels. Kill the Jews is the doctrine. From our enemies perspective, Israel is the head of the snake, and America is a Jewish country.

There is an explanation for all of this, but you aren't going to like it. It is dangerous to awaken a sleepwalker they say - and the West is fast asleep, clutching their assumptions and premises, dreaming it will all go away. Complacency is our most insidious enemy. The best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing you that he doesn't exist, and the hardest thing for a person to face is their own shattered premises. And it is here that the explanation must begin.

ALL WARS ARE FOUGHT FIRST WITH IDEAS

Traditional American and Western society is based on the Judeo-Christian ethic. Even the most secular Israeli or American has been shaped by a culture that was founded on these principals, and so this is the inherent lens through which we filter world events. European culture has slowly deteriorated over the last century into various forms of liberal secular socialism, inspiring sympathy toward Islamic thinking and hostility toward the traditional Judeo-Christian Westernism displayed almost exclusively today by America and Israel.

Islam is infinitely more compatible with totalitarian ideas than it is with Judeo-Christian ideals, and so the two naturally form an ideological alliance. This is nothing new. Both the Nazis and the Soviets had ideological and material alliances with Islam over half a century before 9/11. What Americans have failed to recognize andfeeling vulnerable and need time to regroup. There is no such thing as making peace with infidels in the religion of pieces. Only temporary tactical withdrawals with a ten year expiration date.

Don't kid yourself that this is an exclusively Jewish or Israeli problem. As an American, you must begin to understand that the Jihadis view every American as either a Zionist (Jew) or a Crusader (Christian), both groups infidels, both groups marked for death. There are more Jews living in America than there are in Israel. There are very few Jews left living at all in Europe. France with approximately 60,000 has the largest European Jewish population, and the French Jews have been under severe harassment and attack these past three years to the point where they have been advised not to walk the street with any sign of their Judaism visible to the public.

This insane Jihadist doctrine is not restricted to foreign interlopers. The signs that the so called anti-war movements in America hoist at their rallies virulently tie Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americanism together in the most vile ways imaginable. These are Americans - mostly highly educated Americans. The propaganda begins in the Universities. Some things are so insane that only educated intellectuals can believe them.

Photographs of these Americans displaying their twisted, propaganda fueled ideologies rarely if ever appear in mainstream news broadcasts. I have rarely seen this phenomenon profiled outside of the internet. One anonymous blogger documents it himself - he attended some rallies and shot some pictures - the following links lead to his photographs, which must be seen to be believed.


1.  Anti-Americanism.  Click Here
2.  Communism, Marxism and Socialism.  Click Here
3.  Anti-Israel and Pro-Palestinian Activism.   Click Here
4.  Everyone for Palestine: a Photo Essay.  Click Here
5.  Conspiracy Theories About 9/11.  Click Here
6.  Opposition to Bush.   Click Here
7.  Palestinian Chic.   Click Here
8.  Movies of the Rally.   Click Here
9.  Idiots: Useful, Useless, and Beyond.   Click Here

Now that you've seen just what sort of bile your fellow Americans are buying into, get ready for the kicker. Most of them really believe it. The rest of them are just there to be fashionable, smoke some good pot, or score with a fuzzy legged chick in birkenstocks and a Keffiyah. Is it not common sense at this point to assume that any, all and sundry Jihadists want us destroyed as much as they want Israel annihilated? All they need is access, means and opportunity. It doesn't even have to be interlopers. Any disgruntled 19 year old named Jamal in Queens or the alienated Queers for Palestine child of a wealthy American progressive family could get it into their heads one day to blow themselves to bits at their corner coffee shops, and leave notes referring to Hamas, Osama or the plight of the poor oppressed Palestinian people.

Realize that the 60's radicals of yesterday are today's university professors. Hell no, they wouldn't go - so they became professional students which eventually morphed them into becoming today's academic elite. These are the people that are "educating" your children. These are the liberals, the progressives, the post-Vietnam era communists who never met a dictator they didn't like. John Kerry was one of their comrades, and he now has the opportunity to become president of this country. I shudder when I think of it.

America and Israel are inextricably linked by both our foreign and domestic enemies. Because both nations stand for everything they despise. Because both nations still have strong Judeo-Christian ethics and the accompanying value system. Because both nations inspire individualism and achievement through free markets and capitalism. Because both nations still have a core population that believes in the God of Abraham. Because both nations allow women to walk the streets without body bags over them. Because both nations are free.

Israel matters. George W. Bush knows it. So should we. If Israel falls we will not be far behind her. Monday is Israel's Independence Day. Fifty six years of bloodshed, courage and unshakeable resolve. I hope the rest of the war doesn't take that long. Thank you, Israel, from an American - for always taking the brunt on the front line, and for always doing it with fierce grace, despite the greatest opposition any nation has ever faced. Happy Independence Day, and many, many more.

Barbara Zweifler is a self-educated writer, poet, and brooding artist - lifetime resident of the New York exile - who believes passionately in the preservation of the civilized world and the responsibility of the Jewish people to their covenant.

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