Israel's Resolve in the Face of Unending Hatred
It is sad but true that most of you will have no understanding of what Israeli Prime Mininster Olmert is saying in his speech to the Israeli Parliment at the start of hostilities with Hezbollah. It is for you that I have included a full copy of his speech below. Perhaps if you grew up being able to recite the names of mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, brothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, friends and co-workers who were brutally murdered, gassed, incinerated or had their skin pealed from thier bodies and turned into lampshades, you might then understand.
To aspire and work for a world of peace and good will is a goal we should all hold dear, but when terrorists and enemies sworn to your total destruction come at you with weaposn of death, there are few choices...
How many of you are familiar with the full text of PM Olmert's speech to the Knesset on 7/31/2006, which follows below. What's played worldwide were a few sound bites essentially showing Olmert's defiance but not one word of his reasoning. This is a further example of the asymmetrical reporting to which we are being subjected, daily. Read this and weep for the demise of balanced reporting and if you can try to ensure that your efforts make up for the ways in which the media representatives fail all of us day in and day out:
July 31, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, I am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy.
Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.
We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you understood:
The Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.
A voice for six million citizens.
Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims.
And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again.
Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives.
Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility. Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack.
This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.
Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.
The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves.
The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.
What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children.
I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya?
What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly. We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies.
Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more. In a loud and clear voice.
And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza: What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm.
And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London. An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees.
And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us. So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population – then you also kept silent.
What is it about us, the Jews, "the minority", "the persecuted", that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?
In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize.
I will not capitulate.
I will not whine.
This is a battle for our freedom.
For our humanity.
For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders.
It is also your battle.
I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's much too late.
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Comments (16)
Shrubya? Is that you?
Comment #1 Posted by: Michael Didj | August 9, 2006 05:52 PM
George Galloway asserts on Sky Broadcasting that the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers that sparked the conflict a few weeks ago was a response to Israel's decades long occupation of Southern Lebanon and the internment of 1,000's of Lebanese that continues to this day. A very interesting mid-east perspective from a western politico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-brkmfrxrQY
Comment #2 Posted by: Tyler | August 10, 2006 12:52 PM
Galloway is a nut case, a known anti-Semite whose frequent rants make Mel Gibson's drunken blather seem like welcome praise.
If you know history you will know this is self defense. Read Tom Friedman's latest column for some real persepective on recent events.
Comment #3 Posted by: HJS | August 10, 2006 05:27 PM
Buffett and Hezbollah
by Thomas L. Friedman
http://fivezerofive.com/main/index.php?itemid=439
Comment #4 Posted by: hjs | August 10, 2006 05:32 PM
href="http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20060725_israels_wall/Proof is in the pudding It seems to me that labeling can be a lazy and often dangerous way of pseudo thinking. It can give the illusion of thought where there is actually none. Engine's running, no one's driving.
Comment #5 Posted by: Michael Didj | August 11, 2006 01:08 AM
It is clear to me that the Jews have long suffered. It is also clear to me that they are doing to the Palestinians and to the Lebanese what has been done to them. Building the wall around Palestinian settlements looks hauntingly like the walls around the ghettos of Warsaw. Neither faction is innocent and both are killing innocent people every day. To blindly follow one leader in this conflict is to deny the human rights and humanity of the other.
Comment #6 Posted by: Heather | August 11, 2006 08:25 AM
Howard - what about the assertion that Galloway makes? Namely, that "the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers that sparked the conflict a few weeks ago was a response to Israel's decades long occupation of Southern Lebanon and the internment of 1,000's of Lebanese that continues to this day." Is this not true? Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Comment #7 Posted by: Tyler | August 14, 2006 11:17 AM
Broken clocks only give they illusion of being accurate twice a day. They should be tossed in the trash along with Galloway's comments. 60 years ago when the UN partition the old British mandate of Trans-Jordan, two nations were created by that vote. 95% of hte land was given over to the Arabs in a state called Jordan, the other 5% went to Israel. The Arabs invade Israel imediately and the British did everything they could to hinder the Jewish resistance in the hopes that they'd lose and the whole issue of a Jewish State would disappear. But Israel won despite those odds of 100 million Arabs to 3 million Jews. For the past sixty years every Arab bigot and terrorist has made the destruction of Israel the centerpiece of their policy and they blame Israle for all the woes in the Arab world. For the past 60 years they ARab sates in one form or antoher have continued to attack Israel, be in in wars in 1956, 1967, 1973 in the 80's and on through the terrorist attacks of the past 20 years. It is one war for the destruction of Israel. The Arab states will never agree to peace with out some clause that calls for the elimination of Israel, the most common one is the co called "Right of Return," whihc postulates that any Arab family living that once lived in Israle proper has the right to return. This would effectively eliminate any Jewish State and void the original partion. When Israel was formed, the Jews let the Arabs stay. It wa s the Grand Mufit of the region, Arafat's uncle, who order all Arabs out so their armies could attack and wipe out the Jews. It is the Arab states themselves that have never allowed 3,4 and 5 generations of people to be assimilated into the rest of the Arab lands. It is the Arabs thy have set up these so called refugee camps and have made their people suffer so as to create an 60 year open wound. They will be no peace in the region until the Arabs simply allow Israel to exist.
Comment #8 Posted by: hjs | August 14, 2006 09:04 PM
Thanks for the reply, Howard. I feel under-informed on the whole conflict and history of the region, and I feel that traditional media does a terrible job of providing any sort of balance to the coverage. Of course, we are friends and allies with Israel, but I can't help but imagine that there is an opposing viewpoint with some legitimacy.
Comment #9 Posted by: Tyler | August 15, 2006 10:06 AM
As Howard points out, in the UN decision 60 years ago, the state of Israel was created, or recognized by a legitimate international body. The problem is that there were already people living on that land and they were given no say in the matter. Yes, the Holocaust was just ending and there were thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced and had lost family and home. But they turned around and displaced others. The Israeli Law of Return says that any Jew (legally defined as anyone born of a Jewish mother) has the right to "return" to a land they never lived in. The state of Israel has, over the years, actively recruited Jews (including nomadic Jews from northern Africa) to come settle at the expense of the Palestinians still trying to live on the land they were born onto. The state of Israel systematically destroys crops belonging to Palestinians and builds walls around Palestinian neigborhoods. This smacks of pre-Holocaust Germany. To simply dismiss the Arab case here as "Anti-Semetic " is a nice quick way to shut down the conversation but it ignores the two-sided tragedy that is occuring in the Middle East. There can be no true resolution until both sides, and the international community, come together for honest discussion and healing. Arabs need to hear Israelis and Israelis need hear Arabs, just as Howard and I need to be willing and open to listening to each other.
Comment #10 Posted by: Heather | August 15, 2006 05:51 PM
If there is only one book you could read to fully understand what is going on in the Middle East, go to Bart's and pick up a copy of Leon Uris' "The Haj."
Comment #11 Posted by: hjs | August 15, 2006 08:03 PM
Hi Howard - to return to the question I was asking, which didn't really get answered, I found this exchange between German magazine Spiegel and former President Carter - thought you might find it interesting.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,druck-431793,00.html
SPIEGEL: You also mentioned the hatred for the United States throughout the Arab world which has ensued as a result of the invasion of Iraq. Given this circumstance, does it come as any surprise that Washington's call for democracy in the Middle East has been discredited?
Carter: No, as a matter of fact, the concerns I exposed have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon.
SPIEGEL: But wasn't Israel the first to get attacked?
Carter: I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that's justified, no.
SPIEGEL: Do you think the United States is still an important factor in securing a peaceful solution to the Middle East crisis?
Carter: Yes, as a matter of fact as you know ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton. This administration has not attempted at all in the last six years to negotiate or attempt to negotiate a settlement between Israel and any of its neighbors or the Palestinians.
Comment #12 Posted by: Tyler | August 16, 2006 04:13 PM
Tyler... Read your e-mails...
Comment #13 Posted by: hjs | August 16, 2006 07:45 PM
Hey Howard - emails received. Holy cow, lots of reading, thank you. And I have read a couple and skimmed the rest.
But if you look at my initial comment regarding Galloway, I was simply asking about one of the root causes of the current conflict. I was in no way taking sides, condoning kidnapping or terrorism, or justifying anyone's actions. I was not passing judgement on detaining Lebanese as a security measure, nor Israel's need for self-defense.
Leaving morality aside, and who may be "right", I was raising a point that was made by Galloway and President Carter as to the empirical causes of the current conflict, which I found to be interesting, and not presented in the American media from what I have seen.
Of course, what caused the current conflict in turn has its own causes, and going back decades and longer, you've make a strong argument regarding Israel's moral position. But that wasn't what I brought up, and in no way negates the fact that certain historical events have brought us to this point.
Comment #14 Posted by: Tyler | August 16, 2006 08:03 PM
Tyler, trying to answer a question or respond to remarks such as Carter's or Galloway's in isolation from its context is akin to me asking you, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
Please, read "The Haj." It will be life changing.
Comment #15 Posted by: hjs | August 17, 2006 09:52 PM
Hi Howard - fair enough - I agree that my question was part of a larger context. Will try to get to The Haj...
Comment #16 Posted by: Tyler | August 18, 2006 03:05 PM