Will there always be an Israel?

By Alan Caruba
web posted October 15, 2001

The remarks of Israel's Ariel Sharon, a warning that Israel would not stand idly aside to let other nations decide its fate, created a firestorm. Lost amidst the uproar was the fact that Sharon had expressed similar views in 1986. Indeed, they were published in the Wall Street Journal. He made the analogy between Czechoslovakia in the 1930's, sold out to prevent war with the Nazis, and questioned the US resolve to stand with its ally.

He later called Secretary of State Powell to express his appreciation for the "special relationship" between the US and Israel. On the Today Show, Wednesday morning, Secretary of State Powell said that the US "treasured" its relationship with Israel, a fairly extraordinary description and a welcome one.

A friend of mine said recently she believed, without question, that "there will always be an Israel."

The reality of US policy is not that it hasn't long demonstrated support for Israel, but that it has also always supported its enemies. A longtime, close observer of this is Dr. Eugene Narrett. He points out, for example, that nearly three-quarters of the $18 billion directed to Israel this past decade actually was spent in Texas, New Mexico and California, in the form of transfer payments to Grumman, Lockheed-Martin and McDonnell Douglas. It would be more accurate to say this was more a form of support for our armaments industry, than Israel. Nothing wrong in that, per se, but consider the amount of arms also sold to its enemies.

When one examines the record of US support for our new coalition of Arab "friends", we discover is that, since 1991, the fundamentalist Islamic regime of Arabia has received twice as much military armaments and equipment as Israel. It adds up to more than $35.5 billion. Then add in the cost of maintaining the US troops stationed there to protect Saudi Arabia from its Islamic neighbor, Iraq.

Another virulent mouthpiece of hatred directed against Israel is Egypt. It received about $13 billion over the past decade. Other Gulf states such as the United Arab Republics, Qutar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and even Yemen, have received an aggregate of another $11 billion. Mind you, these are, with the exception of Egypt and the last two, oil-rich states.

So, all this talk about how America's "support" of Israel is the "cause" of the attack on this nation is largely without merit because it ignores the fact that much of our support in that region of the world has been directed to its enemies.

How do some American Muslims feel about this? "We support the president's strategic campaign to combat terrorism and to protect American citizens from attack. American Muslims have stated clearly that the horrific attacks of September 11th warrant an appropriate response aimed at the perpetrators." So said the Council on American-Islamic Relations, on September 8th. That is good news.

The theological meaning of the rebirth of Israel in 1948 is up for various interpretations, but it is no light matter. Indeed, the Muslims take it so seriously that they have launched themselves upon a holy war to lay claim to Jerusalem and all of the State of Israel, despite the fact that Mohammed never stepped foot there and the city is never mentioned in the Koran. Their holy cities are Mecca and Medina. Islam understands that the very existence of Israel threatens the validity of their faith.

Here are some facts regarding the history of Israel that rather compellingly spell out the truths and the lies being spoken these days.

Nationhood and Jerusalem; Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a "Palestinian" people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years, with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 AD lasted no more than 22 years.

For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

Jerusalem is mentioned more than 700 times in Torah, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. As noted, Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. Jihad, however, is mentioned 60 times.

King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never set foot outside Arabia.

Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

Arab and Jewish Refugees. In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.

The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the so-called Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.

Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

Here's the United Nations' record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

Over the years since its independence, the UN was silent when the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem synagogues. The UN was silent whilst the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

I said to my friend that, yes, there will always be an Israel because the Jews who are there today have passed through the fires of the Holocaust in a fierce rite of purification. However, Judaism exists today because of its Diaspora, those who lived outside Israel, not because there is a nation of Israel. Israel lives because Judaism has been preserved in the lives of Jews who often paid for it with their lives.

So let nations will take up arms against nations. It is not the end of days, though historians centuries hence may mark it as the beginning of the end of Islam. It must be a new beginning for Western civilization and the modern era. It will be reborn in blood and sacrifice, courage and commitment, and in faith.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs", posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center . Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2001 All rights reserved.

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