On Supporting Israel

So, as you, my reader, may recall, I had a rather long rant on what is wrong with people who oppose Israel.  It can sometimes be truly maddening, if not frightening, to see how an argument that starts with ignorance on who the instigator is can quickly degenerate into anti-Semitic rants against Israel and Jews in general.  However, I got my fill of complaining about them last week.

Instead, I want to talk about why it is important and morally right to support Israel.

First of all, Israel has a right to the land for two reasons.  The first is that Israel has been internationally recognized as a sovereign nation.  That alone means that the land is rightfully theirs, no matter who says what.  In addition to that, historically, the land of Israel was the Jewish homeland for centuries.  The only thing they have done in establishing themselves in Israel is return to that homeland by the millions since 1948.

The land of Israel, on the other hand, is the homeland of no other group that continues to exist to this day.  Prior to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the area known as Palestine was a blighted, barren wasteland.  Its population was sparse and it produced nothing of value.  Consequently, with no native population, there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.

Palestine, in fact, got its modern name from the Roman Empire.  The land of Judea (the name of modern day Israel under Roman rule) was renamed "Syria Palestina" in an attempt to erase the Jewish history of the land after Jewish rebellions were crushed in 70 and 135 AD.  As such, the land is not actually named after an ethnic group.  Today's "Palestinians" are merely of Arabian, Egyptian and other descent, many of whom have been displaced by the repeated wars waged against Israel in the past sixty years.

Of course, history is not the only reason to support Israel.  After all, this is the only free, stable, democratic nation in the Middle East.  In a region where military dictatorships and violent, Islamist theocracies are the norm, the fact that any nation that reflects western values exists there is positively miraculous.  In a region where women are stoned for being the victims of rape and gays are executed for existing, Israel should have the world's full support.

Then there is the fact that Israel is routinely demonized by the international community for defending itself.  Granted, the appeal of this point is purely emotional, but is one worth considering regardless.  After spending years having lukewarm feelings on Israel, I eventually learned the truth about Israel's situation.  I learned it was the victim, not the perpetrator, of terror.  I learned it was, time and again, invaded by its neighbors and won each time, despite seemingly insurmountable odds.  Yet, it is still treated as evil by nations and organizations that should be supporting it.

Indeed, Israel has made it clear, time and again, that it is the party that seeks peace.  In demonstrating its willingness to trade land for peace, Israel has been shown to be the only side seeking peace in this conflict.  In withdrawing from the Gaza strip, the nation was rewarded with thousands of rockets wantonly fired into its territory.  Yet somehow, it is the great villain of the world, demonized and censured more than any other nation on the planet, save for a select few.

The final reason, and the biggest for me, is that the Jews are God's chosen people and Israel is the apple of His eye.  The Jews are proof, above all else, of God's existence.  Despite being dispersed as a people and scattered around the world for nearly 2000 years, they were still able to come back together in 1948 and form a nation of their own.  His promise to them still stands, no matter how much other people may hate it.  Thus, anyone who stands against Israel stands in direct opposition to the will of God almighty.

In the end, there is little excuse not to support Israel.  Now, one can most certainly disagree with the tactics the Israeli people use or the course they take.  However, there is no equivalence between them and their brutal, murderous enemies.  To even attempt to draw a comparison is evidence of either astonishing ignorance or moral bankruptcy.

On the State of Israel

As I start writing this, I am seeing for the first time (at least personally) a story on the situation in Israel on Fox News Channel.  Thank goodness we have that conservative media outlet dutifully reporting on events in Israel like it should be, right?  You know, showing us on television the full story of events over there, just like any conservative media outlet would, right?  Showing us what was happening when it started shortly after the election...right?

Okay, that's out of my system.

So, for those of you who are not up to speed, for the past week, Hamas, terrorists and elected rulers of the Gaza Strip, have been bombarding Israel with mortars and rockets.  As radical Islamist terrorists like to do, they have targeted towns and cities in the regions surrounding Gaza.  In response, Israel killed Ahmed Jabari, one of Hamas' top military chiefs.   Declaring that "the gates of Hell" have been opened, the terrorists have initiated a sustained rocket barrage on Israeli civilians, forcing Israel to respond with airstrikes and now it appears that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is massing troops for a ground invasion of Gaza.

Despite the "Iron Dome" Missile Shield, hundreds of rockets have rained on Israel's cities.

These events have brought out two types of (often overlapping) people: the ignorant and the anti-Semitic.

I will start with the ignorant.  These are the people who think that Israel is the aggressor.  They believe that Israel attacks first and targets civilians intentionally.  They believe that Israel is some sort of genocidal, apartheid state that wishes to annihilate all Palestinians and/or Arabs.  Worst of all, these are often the people who absolutely refuse to believe anything else regarding Israel, no matter what they are told contrary to those viewpoints.

And those people tend to overlap with people who just hate Israel and Jews in general.  There is nothing more disgusting than logging into Twitter in the morning and seeing people I follow retweet that hatred, to show the world those heinous and morally bankrupt feelings.  After all, nothing is more unsettling than people wishing the Jewish state be wiped out and all the Jews be killed.  It is equally disturbing seeing those who call out such bigotry getting called epithets like "Jew slut."

You may have noticed that I am writing this without any hint of irony or amusement.  It's largely because these are issues that just are not funny.  And I certainly am not amused by them right now.  I'm just thoroughly disgusted with the dishonesty, hatred and lies directed at the Israeli people.

Let me go back and take those arguments from ignorance one at a time.  First, this inane notion that Israel is the aggressor state.  As I pointed out in this situation (and throughout history), military action taken by Israel is reactionary.  The Israelis know half the world hates them and know better than to be reckless in their reactions.  When Israel does act, it is fully justified, whether its a defense against foreign invasion or to protect its people from hundreds of rocket strikes in the course of a year.  Indeed, it is indicative of incredible self-restraint that the Israelis did not strike Gaza sooner, despite over 700 rockets landing in Israel this year prior to this week.

Now imagine this was the US or any other western nation. 

Then there are these accusations that Israel attack civilians intentionally.  What Israel's critics never seem to understand, or even care to know for that matter, is that Israel's enemies are the ones committing war crimes.  It is horrifying enough that the terrorists attack civilians every chance they get; they compound those crimes by hiding among civilians, forcing Israel into difficult choices.  Do they risk killing civilians to eliminate a mortar/rocket position or allow the terrorists to continue firing randomly into Israel's cities?

The IDF often takes a sort of "middle road" when faced by such choices.  They will drop leaflets warning of impending bombardment, ruining both the element of surprise and the chances of eliminating a target. However, it is completely unreasonable to expect the people of Israel to accept daily bombardment by Hamas merely because the terrorists (that the people of Gaza voted into power) hide among the civilian population.  No other country would accept such limitations on its ability to protect itself and neither should Israel.

And then there is the accusations of genocide and apartheid.  Can we all just agree that the former is idiotic?  Israel has had ample opportunity to try and wipe out the Arab people around it.  It has not.  This takes on disturbing subtext when one realizes that only seventy years ago, the Jews were subjected to the Holocaust.  Accusations of apartheid are equally stupid.  One million Arabs/Muslims  live in Israel and are not oppressed.  Assuming they do not try to blow up shopping centers or drop mortars on children, they are accepted in Israeli society and allowed to vote and live free lives in the only stable, democratic nation in the region. 

So ultimately, the point of this post is this: who are the real victims: the Arabs harboring murderous extremists or the Israelis who are attacked for merely existing?  Who are the real ignoramuses: the people who recognize Israel's challenges in a hostile world or the one's who defend Hamas and want to "free Gaza" (from a country that withdrew six years ago)?  Who are the real racists: Israelis under siege from rockets or the people all around the world who see Zionism as a great evil and applaud the idea of the six million Jews in Israel getting wiped out?

You decide.