By Naomi Ragen
Instead of bombarding you with daily hand-wringing over the situation in the
Middle East, I decided to wait it out so as not to imitate certain
journalists and world leaders (who shall remain nameless) who were taking
sides before even knowing what that meant. I think now, with Mubarak
apparently gone, that there are certain things that are possible to say:
1. The people of Egypt, like all the peoples of the Middle East save for
Israel, were mired in a political system that was corrupt and which did not
allow them to pursue life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. There is no
way for an Egyptian to start a business or get the financial means to marry
without bribes and years of horrifying bureaucratic nightmares. That was and
has always been the reason for instability in the Middle East. This, not
Israel, is probably the leading cause for the rise of Muslim fanatics and
terror organizations that are destroying the peace of the whole world.
Unfortunately, this fact is something the democracies have long ignored.
This is a wake-up call for them. Let's see if they sleep through it.
2. Mubarak has always kept Egypt's treaties Israel. For that, the people of
Israel are grateful. We are also grateful that he did what needed to be
done to control the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in Egypt in
1928 to promote sharia law, it created a military wing which had close links
to the Nazis during the 1930s, when the Brotherhood was involved in spying,
sabotage and support for the terrorist activities of Haj Amin el-Hussaini
in British
Mandate Palestine. The Brotherhood disseminated Hitler's Mein Kampf and The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion widely in Arab translations,
Douglas E. Schoen, adviser to four former Israeli Prime Ministers over the
last 30 years, wrote in a Fox News editorial that if elections are held in
Egypt now, there is a fifty percent chance of the Muslim Brotherhood taking
over the country. For Israel, that would be a nightmare. We can only hope
against hope that the true will of the people who started this revolt to
make better lives for themselves and their families will not allow one
dictatorship to replace another, leading to a war that will no doubt prove
disastrous for everyone.
3. The White House, in this terrible time of uncertainty and change in the
Middle East, has been confused to say the least, and dangerously
wrong-headed. Encouraging the protesters, then siding with Mubarak, then
welcoming Mubarak's ouster just before Mubarak declared he wasn't leaving
has left us in Israel shaking our heads. With this kind of instability in
Washington, where is the strong ally we pretend we have?
4. Caroline Glick's article
out that while the White House was sleeping, Pakistan, which receives more
U.S. dollars than any other country on earth, has DOUBLED its atomic arsenal
and has begun testing long range missiles, is a must read. While the White
House has banned all terminology relating to a war on terror, and President
Obama is calling for 2 billion dollars of ADDITIONAL AID to Pakistan, a
country
half in the power of the Taliban at this point, how will this play out if
the Muslim Brotherhood takes over Egypt?
5. I see hopeful signs in the speech of British Prime Minister David
Cameron in which he backed up PM Merkel's admission that multiculturalism in
Europe has failed, warning Muslim groups that if they fail to endorse
women's rights or promote integration, they will lose all government
funding. This realism is reassuring.
It is my hope that the democracies will get stronger. The only way that can
happen is if people vote out dangerously delusional leaders with their head
in the sand and ideological rhetoric in their mouths. The only way that can
happen is if people abandon their bandwagon mentality, and stop waiting for
the
New York Times to tell them who to vote for. Reality is going to get a lot
more real, even for the most dim-witted ideologues. Let us hope that our
future leadership
is not from their blinded ranks.
--Naomi
“Israel’s Disproportionate Restraint.”
ReplyDeleteIsrael is guilty of anything it’s of disproportionate restraint.
Israel has the right and obligation to defend its citizens
The brutal slaughter of a family of 5 in Itamar just shows that we are dealing with a barbaric mentality.
It is a known fact that any country if attacked, its citizens kidnapped, rocket bombardment on a daily basis.
Has the right and obligation to defend its citizens.
It is sad that innocent civilians are hurt, but that is the cost of war and conflict.
Any government and its citizen who do not resist terrorism and let terrorist organization entrench themselves in their country and utilize those countries as bases of armed terrorism against a neighboring country. Eventually pays the price for permitting such actions.
If you gave the Arab population a vote in Israel and the west bank and Jerusalem the option to vote freely and without intimidation, you would find out, that they would rather be living under Israel’s government. They derive more stability more benefits, pensions, welfare, etc.
If the United States or any other government were to be attacked from across the border on a daily basis, have its citizens kidnapped, rockets launched at them on a daily basis, the citizens would demand that immediate military action be initiated with no holds barred, collateral damage or not. That is the fact of life.
Terrorist and those who support them do not know what peace is, they thrive on violence. That is the only way they control the masses. Any negotiations or compromise only strengthen those terrorist organizations. When a poison strikes the human body, the only way to address it, is to remove it and destroy it completely.
There is no such thing as a “disproportioned response to terror.”
Our problem today is “Israel’s Disproportionate Restraint.”
This puts Israel and its citizens in grave danger.
That is the way the terrorist organizations should be treated.
“Like all sovereign nations, Israel has not only a right, but moreover, an obligation, to ensure the safety and security of her citizens”.
As quoted in a statement “the only time of a chance for peace is, when the Arab mother would love her children more than she hates the Israelis.
The big mistake is that people are missing the economic benefits for Israel and its neighbors. That is if there was a true peace, you take the Israeli Technology and know how, add to it the Arab labor and natural resources – and you have an economic prosperity beyond your widest dreams.
YJ Draiman