H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°Make no mistake about it. Israel's enemies are the enemies of the United States. That's why it is no secret the U.S. government gives Israel billions of dollars each year and supplies her with American-made military equipment.
For one, without American aid, Israel would likely be wiped off the map.
"A war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
Those are the words of Abdul Razek, the former General Secretary of the Arab League,
speaking May 15, 1948, about what the combined armies of Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon were going to do to the newly created state of Israel.
Israel was so new, in fact, that the state was established just the day before. But the Arab nations would not tolerate a Jewish state and refused to recognize Israel's right to exist until Egypt, in 1979, and later Jordan, in 1992, made peace with Israel. Still, despite almost 60 years of living as neighbors, Syria and Lebanon have not recognized Israel's right to exist; Iran continues to call for Israel's destruction; and judging by recent comments at the White House, any newly formed government in Iraq will be decidedly anti-Israeli.
So, war rages on, as it has since 1948, with no end in sight.
The first ceasefire, in 1949, resulted in Israel pushing back her enemies and temporarily moving the border back across the Jordan River. Border skirmishes then become the norm until all-out war resumed in 1967, when Israel faced the combined forces of Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Like the previous war, Israel pushed her enemies back.
Border skirmishes resumed, as they probably always will, interrupted briefly by Palestinian terrorists, who took the world hostage in 1972 with the kidnapping and murder of members of the Israeli Olympic team during the Munich Olympics.
The next year, on Yom Kippur, a day devoted to prayer and fasting, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack. After some initial setbacks, the Israel Defense Forces held off the invaders.
Bordering Israel to the north, Lebanon has been a staging ground for attacks against Israel since the fighting began. The Palestine Liberation Organization controlled southern Lebanon in the 1980's and was responsible for many of the border attacks. Sick of having to deal with border warfare on a daily basis, Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to create a buffer zone between the two countries and rid Lebanon of the PLO.
After the IDF marched all the way to Beirut and sent the PLO packing, the IDF retreated when an international coalition of peacekeepers landed in Lebanon. President Ronald Reagan made a big mistake that year. He sent U.S. Marines into Beirut, and 241 Americans lost their lives when a Hezbollah militant drove a truck filled with explosives into the barracks where the U.S. Marines were stationed. Reagan wisely cut and ran and quickly redeployed the remaining peacekeepers to offshore bases.
Recently, perhaps attempting to divert world attention from Iran's nuclear ambitions, Hezbollah terrorists kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed three others after crossing Israel's northern border. The IDF have responded to the kidnappings by vowing to get the soldiers back and disarm Hezbollah for good.
Unfortunately, war is not pretty or fair. Civilians on both sides of the border are dying while Hezbollah continues to send rockets into Israel and Israel continues to destroy Hezbollah's infrastructure. Innocent lives are lost, as they will be so long as warfare exists.
Nevertheless, like the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli forces are fighting to protect the right to live in peace by eradicating terrorism. That is why, despite the horrible thought of countless civilians losing their lives, Hezbollah must be destroyed, and American forces must continue to fight terrorism wherever terrorism exists.
J.S. Ebin ([email protected]) is a third year law student.
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Correction. It is now known that the two Israeli soldiers were captured on Lebanese soil and the dead soldiers were killed, also on Lebanese soil, when their tank hit a landmine. Let’s get the record straight before spreading more propaganda and lies.
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Yeah, and the Nazis didn’t bake any Jews either.
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Abandon Israel and wait for it to collapse. Since the presence of Jews on holy Arab soil is the primary cause for dreaded “instability,” then a Palestine as Judenfrei as Gaza would calm everyone down. Everyone who remained, in any case. It would mean favorable oil terms from new allies. The money spent on foreign aid to Israel could be rebated to taxpayers in the form of “Fiddler on the Roof” DVDs, which they could study for the myriad ways in which the Jews antagonized the czar (with a new commentary track from Mel Gibson!). Best of all, the United States would be respected again. We would have allies. Respect and allies matter more than what you did to get them, after all.
Give them the Jews and they’ll leave us alone. Lord knows that always works. If you don’t want any surprises down the road, toss in Spain. Call it a signing bonus.
James Lileks
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[T]he conversation again turned to Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map. 'While denying the Holocaust, he's openly preparing the next one,' Netanyahu said. 'Ahmadinejad is behaving exactly like an Islamist Hitler. He is using the same tactics of signalling in advance the act of destruction. That the same thing is happening is one thing, but that the West is reacting in the same way is unacceptable. What is history for?'
By now, Netanyahu was shouting angrily, shaking his fist as he explained the similarities he sees between the 1930s and today. 'Yes, there are differences, it is not a perfect analogy. Yes, Germany didn't have a billion Germans to infect. Yes, Germany had race and not creed as its prime goal. Nazism started its attacks on the Jews and spread to the rest of the world in their mad militancy, and that is exactly what is happening now.'
For Netanyahu, Israel is a latter-day Czechoslovakia, which deluded and desperately anti-war European powers, led by Neville Chamberlain, sacrificed to the Nazis in 1938 because of the German-speaking minority in Sudetenland, whom he compares with today's Palestinians. 'And, yes, there was apologetics and, yes, there was appeasement and, yes, there was pressure on a small resistant democracy in the face of this German onslaught. It was called Czechoslovakia at the time. And, yes, there were articles in the British press condemning Czechoslovakia for inciting a German response because of the denial of the rights of the Sudeten Germans. Do you want to go on with this?'
The August 12 issue of Britain’s Spectator carries an interesting interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by Allister Heath
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“Correction. It is now known that the two Israeli soldiers were captured on Lebanese soil and the dead soldiers were killed, also on Lebanese soil, when their tank hit a landmine.”
Really? Where’s the proof? Can you provide a link?
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“Really? Where’s the proof? Can you provide a link?”
Patience, they have a slow PC and it’s taking time to photoshop up some evidence.
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1) What would happen if all the Arab nations and their terrorist proxies like Hezbollah set down their arms and gave up their ambitions to drive Israel into the sea?
There would be peace in the Middle East.
2) What would happen if Israel disbanded the IDF, junked its nuclear weapons and declared to its neighbors that she would do anything to live in peace?
Israel would be annihilated, millions of its citizens killed. The term genocide could be used to describe the ensuing holocaust, but since that term has been so hopelessly debased by American academics, a new term would have to be created like super-duper-mega genocide to really capture the nature of things.
Hugh Hewitt
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I don’t see why middle eastern people should be expected to recognize the right for Israel to exist when it was created by European Jews who completely disregarded the existance of the Palestinians.