Sunday, March 31, 2002

posted 3/31/2002 05:48:00 PM by Daniel   0 comments

More support for Israel:

Asparagirl explains in her blog why she has now become an American Zionist, even though she previously was never too interested in her Jewish ancestry or religion. The Arab terrorists turned her into one.

I'm another non-observant fully-assimilated Jew who loves bacon and lobster tail, cohabits with a non-Jewish woman (for 25 years), and has never felt any particular kinship with Israel per se. Our daughter's closest brushes with Judaism have been through Hannukah parties, an occasional Passover Seder we dragged her to when she was little, and a brief stint of semi-Kosher dieting that she embarked on to circumvent the nearly-inedible college cafeteria menu.

Understand, I have nothing against Judaism. As religions go, it's one of the best. I just have better things to do with my time.

But I know how to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys in the Middle East are the democratic, progressive Israelis who want nothing more than to live in peace, and who have tried everything possible (short of suicidal surrender) to reach a reasonable accomodation with their neighbors. The bad guys are the Islamo-facists in the surrounding Arab countries who want nothing less than to kill all Jews, followed by Americans and western civilization and modern culture and every vestige of religious tolerance.

The suicide bombings and endlessly escalating terrorist attacks against Israel are ghastly foretastes of what America is in for if we fail to defend ourselves. I will not tolerate having our country succumb to the horror that today afflicts Israel. My daughter must not be placed in jeopardy of being snuffed out at any minute by hate-filled religious fanatics who glory in the number of innocents they can kill.

It's not enough to retaliate tit-for-tat against each individual act of terrorism. If ever there was a hopeless "cycle of violence" that is it. I will give President Bush full credit for recognizing and articulating that September 11th was a turning point in history, and that it is time to wipe the terrorists out once and for all, wherever in the world they may be. We need to crush the terrorists and their organizations and their infrastructure and any regimes that dare to harbor them.

And Israel needs to do the same. For years Israel has been on the front line against the same enemy. Neither Israel nor the United States can tolerate that enemy any longer.

I could care less how much our enemies may dislike us as a result, or how many martyrs we make in the process. I'm willing to make as many martyrs as it requires to achieve victory, whether that number be in the hundreds or thousands or millions.

It will probably only require thousands of martyrs, because I believe they are basically cowards. But whatever it takes...