Taking Sides In The Middle East

by Burt Prelutsky

Just for the record, I am a non-observant Jew.  That means that my mother’s father, Max Lashevsky, who kept kosher and attended an orthodox synagogue twice-a-day every day of his life, would probably have considered me a heathen, while Adolf Hitler would have had me exterminated. 

I want that to be perfectly clear so that when I declare my concern for Israel, nobody will simply assume it’s because I’m Jewish.  I am on the side of Israel because it’s a western democracy, an ally of America, and because I regard her enemies to be our enemies, people dedicated to our mutual annihilation. 

Israel’s foes believe in targeting women and children just so long as they’re Jewish or Christian.  They are not only intolerant of the freedoms we take for granted — speech and religion — but they are polygamous, treat their women as chattel and encourage their children to achieve martyrdom as suicide bombers.  Moreover, so-called honor killings are part of what passes for their culture. 

In order to realize what a paternalistic society they have, you need only look at a photo of an Arab mob carting a corpse through the streets of Gaza; even when it’s the corpse of a child, I challenge you to find a woman anywhere in sight.  So far as the Arabs are concerned, the mother, grandmother, aunts and sisters, are of absolutely no consequence, unless, of course, they can be persuaded to strap several sticks of dynamite to themselves and pay a visit to an Israeli pizza parlor. 

Yet here in America and even more so in Europe, you will find millions of presumably civilized people, particularly in Hollywood and on our left-wing college campuses, who theoretically find a moral equivalence between Israel and her sworn enemies — while actually favoring the Islamics. 

In a recent Rasmussen Poll, 62% of Republicans in America sided with Israel, while a mere 31% of Democrats favored the Israelis in their life-and-death conflict. 

As you may have noticed, the world’s media rarely if ever remarked about the thousands of missiles Hamas fired into Israel over the past few years.  However, once Israel finally got around to announcing that enough was enough, and went on the offensive, Condoleezza Rice and the European Union didn’t waste a second before crying “Foul!” and throwing a penalty flag.  Going them one better, the present administration has earmarked nearly a billion dollars for Hamas, while they distract us over the $165 million in AIG bonuses. 

This same pattern is followed each and every time that Israel responds to unprovoked attacks.  You can invariably count on the nations of the world agreeing that Israel is out of line.  While it’s nice they can agree on something, it’s a shame that “something” never seems to be Islamic terrorism, Arab barbarism or slavery and black genocide in modern-day Africa.

Can you imagine anyone in his right mind 68 years ago claiming that America was over-reacting to Pearl Harbor?  Would anybody but an idiot have suggested that once America had sunk an equal number of Japanese battleships or killed an equal number of Japanese soldiers and sailors that we should have ceased hostilities and turned things over to European diplomats, especially after seeing how well those fellows had kept Hitler and Mussolini in check? 

The fact is, only Arabs would continue referring to the folks in Gaza as refugees.  The only reason that there were any Arab refugees back in 1948 was because Egypt, Jordan and Syria, promised to exterminate the Jews and divide the spoils, not because Israel had exiled its Arab population.  Once Israel fought off the invaders, no Arab nation would open its doors to the refugees, and to this day no Arab nation ever has. 

But that was 61 years ago!  Who ever heard of people being refugees for six decades?  How can people who have never lived in Israel, whose fathers and mothers never lived in Israel, continue to lay claim to a place where they’ve never set foot — and which, according to Arab textbooks, doesn’t even exist?  They might as well insist they have a claim to Oz, Atlantis or Brigadoon.  

For those who would claim that the Jews weren’t entitled to their own state, the truth is that most of the land that is now Israel was purchased from Arabs, at exorbitant prices, over several decades by Zionists who began settling there in the 19th century. 

Frankly, I marvel at Israel’s spiritual fortitude, at her reluctance to seek Biblical retribution.  Even one missile would be enough to get me riled up.  To absorb 10,000 missile attacks strikes me as verging on the masochistic.  I honestly think Israel continues to be far too concerned with world opinion.  After 61 years of hearing one’s enemies parroting Hitler’s plans for the final solution, collateral damage would be the least of my concerns.  

I understand that civilized societies are expected to worry about the deaths of women and children.  But in civilized societies, parents don’t raise their youngsters to be suicide bombers, they don’t elect their leaders from the ranks of a terrorist group and they certainly wouldn’t dance in the street when 3,000 innocent Americans were incinerated on 9/11.


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Posted Mar 29th 2009 at 1:25 pm in Featured Story, Politics, Religion | 70 Comments