Doing What Has To Be Done

America had a wake up call on September 11, 2001. Unfortunately, most of us have since hit the snooze button.

On that terrible day, we finally got a taste of the kind of horror that Israelis live with daily. Surrounded by millions of angry Muslims who openly advocate their annihilation, the citizens of Israel do not have the luxury of ignoring reality that we Americans think we enjoy.

Over the past six months, Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip have launched thousands of rockets into nearby Israeli towns. Though the rockets are crude and haphazardly aimed, they have caused the deaths of scores of innocent civilians, and created an atmosphere of terror.

Strangely, the fact that scores of terrorist rockets are daily launched into Israel never seems to make the evening news. It’s as if the worldwide media have decided that shooting at Jews is just “the way it is” and not worth getting worked up about. A few more rockets, a few more suicide bombers, a few more dead Jews…ho-hum.

But now that Israel has had the temerity to fight back, and has invaded Gaza and made it clear that the fighting will not stop until the rocket attacks cease, the worldwide media is in hyper-drive-frantic-mode. Daily news videos of Palestinian corpses and the sea of wounded flooding the Gaza hospitals reminds us of the carnage of war and evokes sympathy for the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.

Of course, evil Israel, the “little Satan” is to blame for this horror. The media that has no concern when Israel is attacked is now wall-to-wall 24/7 with humanitarian stories about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza.

But here’s the question no one seems to ask: If terrorist fighters take up positions in your home, or mosque, and turn that facility into a military target, whose fault is it when the place gets hammered? Israel doesn’t bomb mosques to express contempt for Islam; the Hamas terrorists have already done that by turning a “holy place” into a legitimate military target. All Israel wants to do is destroy the enemy’s capacity to wage offensive strikes against her territory.

The reason there are so many civilian casualties in this round of fighting is because Hamas employs the cowardly tactic of storing weapons in, and launching rockets from, residential areas. While hiding behind women and children, and daring the Israelis to come and get them, Hamas creates the conditions that we see on the news each evening – scores of innocent women and children, dead and wounded, because their neighborhoods were turned into war zones by terrorists.

And as an added benefit, Hamas gets to use the dead children as propaganda and blame Israel for the carnage. It’s a win-win situation from a terrorist’s point of view. Of what account are the lives of a dozen or so families each day as long as you can get some sympathetic media coverage?

Now, back to the wake up call. Suppose a few dozen rockets were launched tomorrow from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico into the suburbs of El Paso, Texas. Do you imagine there might be a few Texans ticked off about that? Do you think the US would wring its hands and worry what world opinion might be if we were to respond and take out the lunatics who were shooting rockets our way?

Let us hope not. Let us hope that our government would have the strength and determination to respond immediately and forcefully to put a stop to such attacks. At that point, would we care much what Mexico thought about it?

Israel has endured relentless threats, attacks and provocations for the entire 60 years of her existence. She is a country forced into a perpetual war footing. She is a tiny nation surrounded by large, wealthy enemies that openly declare their desire to destroy her. Despite the ceaseless turmoil, and the need for stringent security measures, Israel remains an oasis of liberty and tolerance in a Mideast desert of brutal despotism and fanatical hatred.

Israel is one of our best allies. Together, we struggle against the common enemy of Islamic-fascism (remember, the USA is the “great Satan”) and we share a common philosophical commitment to the values of individual freedom and limited constitutional government.

It is in our national interest to stand with Israel in her struggle to survive. If we ever allow a friend like Israel to fall, our common enemies will be emboldened, and the USA will be that much more alone in a hostile world.

Our message to terrorists everywhere should be the same as Israel’s: If you don’t want to get bitten by the bear, don’t poke him in the eye with a stick.