Why We Must Stand With Israel

Israel is a nation under constant siege. To the north, the forces of Hezbollah threaten with rockets and weaponry provided by Iran. To the east, the rogue nations of Syria and Iran plot and foment terror within Israel itself. To the south, strikes from Gaza are a daily threat. To the west: the vast expanse of the Mediterranean. Israel has nowhere to go.

With the forces arrayed against it and at constant threat of extinction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the U.S. Congress on March 3 to warn against appeasement of Iran. He plans to warn that Iran is rogue nation hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons, which it has promised to use to “wipe Israel off the map.” While he is accustomed to anger and threats from the enemies surrounding his nation, Netanyahu never expected the same treatment from his country’s oldest ally: America.

President Barack Obama and the democrats in Congress have had a full on meltdown over the pending speech by Netanyahu, something that has only served to embolden the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic forces seeking to weaken the position of Israel both in the Middle East peace process, and the Iran talks.

While many misguided proponents of sanctions against Israel have claimed support for their efforts benefits the Palestinians in the Middle East peace process, the reality is quite the opposite. The facts are these; since its creation in 1948, Israel has made one concession after another in an effort to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians. In the face of attacks from forces seeking nothing less than their complete destruction, Israel has self-imposed restrictions on military and police actions. As they’ve agreed to the increasingly unreasonable demands, Israel’s territorial integrity and security have been placed at greater risk and been strained to the breaking point.

The Palestinian question is the result rather than the cause of the conflict, and stems from Arab unwillingness to accept a Jewish state in the Middle East. The greatest enemy of the Palestinian people is the Palestinian authority and its ally, the terrorist organization Hamas, and the larger Arab world. Jack Berger, writer for such publications as Arutz Sheva makes an excellent point when he states; “It should be remembered that in 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France were handed more than 5 million square miles to divvy up and 99 percent was given to the Arabs to create countries that did not exist previously. Less than 1 percent was given as a mandate for the re-establishment of a state for the Jews on both banks of the Jordan River. In 1921, to appease the Arabs once again, another three quarters of that less than 1 percent was given to a fictitious state called “Trans-Jordan.”

Had Arab governments not gone to war in 1948 to block the UN partition plan, a Palestinian state would now be celebrating more than 60 years of independence. Had the Arab states not supported terrorism directed at Israeli civilians and provoked seven subsequent ArabIsraeli wars, the conflict could have been settled long ago, and the Palestinian problem resolved.

From 1948–67, Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) and Gaza were under Arab rule, and no Jewish settlements existed there, but the Arabs never set up a Palestinian state. Instead, Gaza was occupied by Egypt, and Judea and Samaria by Jordan. No demands for a West Bank/Gaza independent state materialized until Israel took control of these areas in the Six-Day War. Palestinians have been offered a state many times in exchange for peace, but have turned it down every time. If peace in the region was the true goal, and not just demonization of an entire group of people, then the entire effort of the anti-Israel movement is a waste of the valuable time and energy of every single person who believes that peace, justice and freedom should be the goal we all pursue.

Those who claim that Israel violates human rights must willingly overlook the exponentially worse and far graver violations committed by some Arab states. Any member of the LGBT movement targeting Israel for divestment has sadly forgotten how some homosexuals are killed in Iran to ensure that everyone can see the consequences of being on the wrong side of radicalism. We must stand with Israel against the forces of savagery and barbarism that are running rampant, terrorizing populations across the Middle East, shedding the blood of innocents.

Only by remaining firmly by the side of our greatest friend and ally in the region can we maintain the beacon of freedom and peace.