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Enough! Israelis, come live with us!

By Alan Caruba
web posted April 29, 2002

"But suicide bombings will continue and when we strike them in depth, they'll certainly think of the consequences of their actions. There will be no retreat from suicide bombings." Jamal Abdel Salem, a Hamas political leader, quoted in an Associated Press article, April 20, 2002.

Writing in the May 6th issue of Insight, Arnaud de Borchgrave, spelled out the irrefutable historic fact that terror is a common thread in the last half-century's struggles for national independence.

The editor-at-large for the United Press International and The Washington Times cited the way Algeria gained independence from France in 1962. It took eight years of unspeakable massacres, but the man who directed it, Ahmed Ben Bella would become Algeria's first president. An estimated half a million died before France abandoned its colony.

Jomo Kenyatta
Kenyatta

In Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta led the Mau Mau terrorists who attacked the white settlers and their black supporters. In 1953, he was convicted of managing a terrorist campaign against British rule, but independence came in 1964. It took eight years of terrorism to turn Rhodesia into Zimbabwe.

You can add the Vietnamese war of independence, fought first against France and then against the United States. Only one nation achieved independence following WWII without waging terrorism. It was India and it was led by the greatest pacifist of modern times, Mahatma Gandhi.

Israel's independence was achieved in part through acts of terrorism against the British. Menachem Begin's Irgun Zvai Leumi achieved its goal and its fame when it blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem at great loss of life to Arabs, Jews and British. Decades later in 1977, Begin would become Prime Minister and it would be Begin, the former terrorist, who would make peace with Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1979. The Egyptian peacemaker would be assassinated.

Refugee Jews before and after World War II streamed toward Israel and, as early as the 1920's had been greeted with Arab hostility and violence. In April 1947, the Soviet Union told a very surprised United Nations it supported the idea of a Jewish State. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted for the establishment of Israel, partitioning it into an Arab and Jewish State.

On May 14, 1948, Israeli statehood was proclaimed in Tel Aviv. The Arab states that immediately attacked the nascent nation were defeated. They would try again in 1967 and again in 1973. Meanwhile Jews from all over the Middle East, the wreckage of Europe and later from Russia would stream into the tiny nation.

Led by Yassir Arafat, the Palestinians have been waging a long war of terror. He may be a vile, evil little man, but he knows history. So, the question on my mind is how long it will take before the 3.5 million Jews of Israel decide it is time to leave? At what point is staying pointless? And how many will escape the Jihad that is intended to slaughter them all?

If ever a people had a right to a land, it is the Jews to whom Israel, according to the Torah, was promised by none less than God. Exiled in 70AD by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Who does not thrill to the story of the famed resistance and final defeat at Massada? Yet, it would be their long stay in Babylonia that would produce the encyclopedicTalmud, the brilliant commentary on the Torah to guide them as they wandered the world. They would settle in the Steppes of Russia, live in the ghettos of Europe, find tolerance in the Netherlands, but mostly endure the unpleasant politics of places like Spain and England. And, finally, they would find their true paradise, America!

No other people on the face of the Earth have suffered so much for having been ordained "a nation of priests" by a demanding God. In the lifetimes of some who read this, six million Jews were sacrificed, slaughtered like sheep, by a totalitarian madness that swept Europe, no less than the one that has the Middle East in its grip and the United States in its crosshairs.

The notion that Israelis would abandon their Holy Land is admittedly unrealistic. The Israelis have just celebrated their 53rd year of independence. They are militarily powerful. The Palestinians have been interdicted in so many ways and a few behave in such barbaric ways. Why can't they live side-by-side with the Jews? The answer is they can't. What they want is Israel, the whole of it, and they want to call it Palestine.

All the Jews of Israel would constitute the population of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. All the Jews of Israel are less than the population of Dallas-Fort Worth. All the Jews of Israel would disappear into the more than 20 million people who live in the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. They wouldn't even be noticed!

To my way of thinking, Israel isn't worth the life of a single Jew to die for this scrap of arid land. It is a fact of history that Jews are with us today precisely because there was and is a Diaspora, a world of Judaism outside of Israel.

There are some six millions Jews in America. They represent the cream of the crop of our scientists, engineers, physicians, judges, business leaders, writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Jews dominate the ranks of Nobel Prize winners. Imagine what 3.5 million more of these people could do for America if we just opened the doors and said, "Enough! Come live with us."

Alan Caruba is the author of "A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam", available from www.anxietycenter.com, the Internet site of the National Anxiety Center. © Alan Caruba, 2002

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