Aleynu

But it may be worth your consideration that ol’ George is not taking Israel’s side because of the usual “America’s staunchest ally in the Middle East” rant (even though, by the way, that is true, despite the constant swacks by The NY Times, my paper of choice and, need I mention, the paper that my son Dan makes a living through).

So here’s Mr. Will’s point: When Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, “Twenty-one Israeli settlements were dismantled; even the bodies of Israelis buried in Gaza were removed. After a deeply flawed 2006 election encouraged by the United States, there was in 2007 essentially a coup in Gaza by the terrorist organization Hamas. So now Israel has on its western border, 44 miles from Tel Aviv, an entity dedicated to Israel’s destruction, collaborative with Iran and possessing a huge arsenal of rockets. Rocket attacks from Gaza increased dramatically after Israel withdrew. The number of U.N. resolutions deploring this? Zero.”
Israel, the “lone democracy in a sea of tyranny, assumes that the justice of its cause is so self-evident as to require no explanation.” (these are someone else’s quote, not George’s, but it’s too good not to use.) The Arabs, numbering in the hundreds of millions, have somehow successfully positioned themselves as being oppressed by six million Israeli Jews. All of this could account for why Israel, a thriving democracy where one million Israeli Arabs vote and have robust representation in the Israeli Knesset, is hated while its tyrannical, terrorist neighbors escape censure.

It seems evident to me that some prejudice must be in play: The Turks bomb Kurdish independence fighters on a regular basis and continue to deny their genocide of more than a million helpless Armenians. Yet the international community overwhelmingly condemned Israel over the Gaza flotilla debacle. Hugo Chavez brutally dismantles Venezuelan democracy, imprisons his political opponents, locks up judges, and persecutes a free press that criticizes him. But his condemnation of a genocidal Israel is lauded by countries throughout the world. And the UN censures Israel on a monthly basis while countries like Libya sit on its Human Rights Council. I know, it’s OK to criticize Israel without being an anti-semite but hey, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck – well, you know.

Israel’s obviously not perfect. Like any moral democracy fighting for its very life it’s going to make mistakes. But compared to Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and so many other of its neighbors, it is positively angelic. Disagree? Let me turn to John F. Kennedy’s famous argument delivered in the summer of 1963 in his memorable ‘Ich Bin Ein Berliner’ speech: “Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us.”