A Jewish friend of mine, or according to what was discussed on Dennis Prager’s show yesterday it is acceptable to say my friend who proudly is a Jew, directed me to an online resource written by Daniel Gordis, Vice-President of the Mandel Foundation, Israel — Dispatches From An Anxious State. Or more specifically, to this following article — which tends to support the idea that moderate, and even those on the Left in Israel are coming to an understanding of the real stakes being fought over in this current war.

The First War, All Over Again

This is a different kind of war, and an old kind of war. In the last war, when they blew up buses and restaurants and sidewalks and cafes, Israelis were enraged, apoplectic with anger. This time, it’s different. Rage has given way to sadness. Disbelief has given way to recognition. Because we’ve been here before. Because we’d once believed we wouldn’t be back here again. And because we know why this war is happening.
(…)
Israelis understand what this is. This is a war over our homes. Over our homes in the north, for now, but eventually, as the rockets get better and larger, all of our homes. This is not about the territories. This is not about the “occupation.” This is not about creating a Palestinian State. This is about whether there will be a state called Israel. Sixty years after Arab nations greeted the UN resolution on November 29 1947 with a declaration of war, nothing much has changed. They attacked this time for the same reason that they did sixty years ago.
(…)
Then it was the Palestinians, who bamboozled the world (and many of us Israelis) into believing that they just wanted a State, and that their terror was simply a way of forcing us to make one possible. We fought the terror in 1982 (Lebanon), 1987 (Intifada) and even after Camp David and Oslo, once again in 2000-2005 (the Terror War). And then, we actually tried to make the State happen. We got out of Lebanon to put an end to that conflict. And even more momentous, we got out of Gaza, hoping that they’d start to build something.
(…)
Now, the bitter reality of which Israel’s right wing had warned about all along is beginning to settle in. It is not lost on virtually any Israelis that the two primary fronts on which this war is being conducted are precisely the two fronts from which we withdrew to internationally recognized borders. We withdrew from Gaza, despite all the internal objections, hoping to move Palestinian statehood – and peace – one step closer. But all we got in return was the election of Hamas, and a barrage of more than 800 Qassams that they refused to end. And then they stole Gilad Shalit. Not from Gaza. Not from some contested no man’s land. From inside the internationally recognized borders of Israel. As if to make sure that we got the point – “There is no place that you’re safe. There is no place to which we won’t take this war. You can’t stay here.”

Because as much as we have wanted to believe otherwise, they have no interest in building their homeland. They only care about destroying ours.

To those that read extensively in the center-right Blogosphere, this has been discussed many times before. Indeed, many, (Hugh, Dennis, Michael Medved), have remarked that Sharon’s giving up Gaza, and the pull-out from southern Lebanon, has allowed the whole world to see that the violence from the Islamic-terrorists run Hamas and Hezbollah has never been about territory or about self-government. It has always been, and will always be about, the total destruction of Israel and the elimination of all Jews on the planet. For the Islamic Jihadists, their goal is for a Holocaust on a planetary scale, followed by the complete destruction of Western culture and society.

And even though Jerusalem is, so far, beyond the reach of the rockets, even here, the air has started to take on a war-like feel. A colleague of mine, in her 40’s, cancelled a meeting yesterday because her real-estate agent husband was just called up and sent to the Egyptian border. A friend I met later in the afternoon cut a meeting short because his son was getting a few hours off. The kid hasn’t even finished basic training, but was sent out to Samaria to guard an outpost so that more experienced kids could get sent to the front. And we were going to try to get together with other friends this morning, but they can’t. Their twenty year old son got called up from his yeshiva, and sent to south of Hebron, and they’re going to try to get out there to bring him some food for Shabbat. And our daughter won’t be home for Shabbat – she’s got guard duty on base. With the other two kids away for the summer, we’re home by ourselves. The house feels empty, hollow. Like the towns in the north.

We, over here in our safe, secure little homes and communities, do not know this kind of war. We send our youth off to fight somewhere over there, like we have many times before — some don’t come back, and some come back shattered — but missiles don’t fall out of the sky onto West LA, someone doesn’t walk onto the crowded Santa Monica Promenade and blow themselves up, taking dozens with them and injuring hundreds more, a nuke hasn’t annihilated an American inner city — at least, not yet.

It’s the eighth war, or the ninth. But it isn’t the last war. It’s the first war, all over again. We’ve got this war for the same reason that we had all the others. (…)

We know why they attacked then. And we know why they’re still attacking. And we’re determined to hold on for the same reason that they’re so determined never to stop. There’s one reason, and one reason only:

The Jewish People has no where else to go.

It is our moral duty to stand with Israel on this battlefield against Islamic aggression. We must also support them instead of hindering them, and encourage them to take out Hezbollah as much as possible for good this time. The Saudis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians — all who have a well-deserved fear of Iran — are not throwing up roadblocks this time, and have made statements against the aggression of Hezbollah and Hamas. It is a limited, probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

About this conflict with Islamic radicalism, many over here are also wondering, as Gordis says about the Israelis, “if it will ever, ever end[.]” To the Israelis’ credit, they seem to be coming to the conclusion that their “right wing” politicians were right all along. Capitulation, negotiation, retreat — achieve absolutely nothing! When the other side demands a war, you can run from it, but it will follow you nonetheless. You fight back, or you die. You can’t reason with homicidal maniacs that want nothing, and will stop at nothing, except for you to be dead.

There are a lot of folks on the Left in the US that need to wake up and learn that lesson. 9/11 was the wake up call — unfortunately, far too many of us have hit the snooze button . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: Israel/Hezbollah War, Lebanon, Daniel Gordis

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