Why this agnostic WASP is a Zionist

Earlier this week, I spent a little time going after the Palestinians who organized the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, as sorta-kinda retold by Steven Spielberg in his latest movie. In the comments, I was chastised by several folks, including cat and Steve Crickmore. That reminded me that I haven’t spelled out just why I care so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and why I have no problems coming down firmly on one side.

I’ve lived through and noted numerous cycles of the “Mideast Peace Process.” They all seem to go the same way — the world pressures both sides to talk. Israel makes concessions as “signs of good faith.” They talk. A wonderfully intricate process is discussed. At the conclusion, people announce that “peace is at hand” and Israel makes more concessions. Then the Palestinians start backing away from their commitments. They cite numerous reasons why they can’t abide by what they just agreed to. Meanwhile, they and the rest of the world press Israel to keep its commitments, and to continue on schedule. Then the terrorist attacks resume. Everyone urges Israel to “show restraint” (a demonstration that is usually measured in dead Israelis). Finally, Israel has enough and hits back, at which point they are blamed for “destroying the peace process” — no one ever seems to note that every single step was taken by the Israelis, while the Palestinians did absolutely nothing. And those concessions the Israelis made? They’re presumed permanent, and merely move the starting point for the next useless cycle.

cat accused me of welcoming the death of every Palestinian. I have done so publicly once — when Yassir Arafat finally stopped poisoning the air and started poisoning the earth. If he were to rise from the dead, I would be delighted — it would give me a fresh chance to celebrate his death. He was a monster and an obscenity, and has more blood on his hands than I can possibly imagine.

I’ve also celebrated the deaths of various terrorist leaders, as well as failed suicide bombers. And I ain’t apologizing for those, either.

Israel has said that it has no objection to a Palestinian state, as long as its own security is guaranteed. The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, has yet to acknowledge that Israel even has a right to exist. Many of their documents and symbols show the entire area as Palestine. And while their more radical elements try to deny Israel’s present and future, others are trying to destroy their past — officials on the Temple Mount are busily destroying any and all archeological evidence that the Jews ever had their temple (the holiest site in the world to Jews) on there, while recently they’ve tried to claim the Western Wall (the only portion Jews are allowed to approach, and even then they’ve been bombarded with rocks from above countless times in the past) as their own.

And let’s not forget just how committed the Palestinians are to renouncing terrorism. Google up the name of Wafa Idris — the first female suicide bomber — and you’ll see that the Palestinians named a children’s summer camp in her honor. And who is the primary sponsor of this obscenity? Why, the United Nations, through UNICEF. That alone convinced me that UNICEF had too much money on its hands, and cost them any donations from me.

Do I see any signs of improvement on the Palestinian side, even in light of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza? Nope. Their current leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has recently confirmed that in his eyes, the Israelis have no right to do anything but die. (Hat tip: Laurence Simon)

And, recently, a Palestinian woman who was supposed to receive free medical treatment from an Israeli hospital for her extensive scars was caught trying to blow up said hospital.

She didn’t just happen to have a bomb on hand. There was a support structure that aided her in making that decision and supplied her with that bomb.

Finally, I recall the scenes of Palestinians cheering and celebrating the 9/11 attacks.

On the other hand, Israel has been a pretty good ally for us. Yes, there have been bumps on the road (the Liberty incident and the Pollard spy case, just to cite two that the anti-Semites usually bring up). But those have been largely settled, to the satisfaction of both governments. On the other hand, Israel has given us hugely valuable assistance in dealing with terrorism, and is an incredibly source of high-tech research and development. And that’s just the visible stuff.

So, when I see a country that has been a good and faithful ally, and a boon to the world as a whole, being savagely attacked by the most brutal forms of terrorism, yeah, I get a bit riled up. And when they can count among their enemies such notaries as Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad, and the United Nations, that’s a wonderful character witness.

So, that’s a part of why I’m a Zionist. I’d like to see peace in the Middle East, and I have no problem with a nation of Palestine. (Although it would be a new nation, as I don’t know of any shred of evidence of a historical Palestine that doesn’t refer to the Jews — no stories of Palestinian kings or rulers, no accounts of their historical dealings with other nations, no historical accounts at all, not even a mention of their currency). But I am not willing to passively go along with the extermination of Israel as a part of the price. And that seems to be the current cost.

A Question of Timing
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35 Comments

  1. Laurence Simon December 30, 2005
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