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Israel is a canary in America’s coal mine. Miners kept a caged canary in the mineshaft as they worked and watched it carefully. Should odorless poison gas creep into the air, the canary would be affected first. It it collapsed, miners had to do something or they wouldn’t survive either. Both America and Israel are threatened by the poison of Radical Islam. We face the same enemy.
Israel’s creation in 1948, or rather its re-creation after going out of existence for nearly two millennia, was improbable - indeed it was unprecedented in all of history. America’s creation was improbable too - a tiny strip of land between the Appalachians and the Atlantic in 1776 - fighting the British in the north and across the sea, Indians in the west and south. Both are outposts of democracy in a world hostile to it. Israel is on the front line. It’s our canary and we must watch it closely. Both will elect a new government soon and our victory or defeat against Radical Islam will be strongly influenced. Choices are similar too. Will we pick aggressive leaders or conciliatory ones? Will we show Radical Islam our fists or the tails between our legs?
Will Israel pick someone to carry on outgoing Prime Minister Olmert’s policy of appeasement? He wanted to give the Golan Heights to Syria and the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. Considering how giving over the Gaza Strip worked out, Israel might as well commit suicide now and get it over with. Land for peace is a failed policy, as Neville Chamberlain discovered when dealing with Hitler. Europe’s Jews were almost wiped out for Chamberlain’s folly. Those who survived the Holocaust formed modern Israel. Israelis fought four wars in twenty-five years against larger, Arab-Muslim neighbors dedicated to its destruction.
After four humiliating defeats, those enemies changed tactics. They don’t invade with conventional planes, tanks and troops. Now they use teenaged suicide bombers and rockets launched from civilian population centers by Iranian proxies Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by Hamas in Gaza. Meanwhile, Iran builds nuclear weapons and promises to wipe Israel off the map. In spite of fifty years in an almost constant state of war, many Israelis still believe Radical Islam can be appeased and Chamberlain-like policies will bring peace.
Winston Churchill defined appeasement as: “Feeding the crocodile, hoping he’ll eat you last.” Hitler gobbled up mainland Europe and took near-fatal bites out of England before America stepped in. If Israeli appeasers elect another Olmert, Israel is doomed.
Modern Israel was founded by Jews who were determined to have their own military to defend themselves against the Hitlers who would make them extinct. Today’s Hitler takes the form of Radical Islam which denies the Holocaust while preparing nuclear genocide. In the face of this grave threat, many Israelis seem to have forgotten their birthright - they’re losing their identity, and if they don’t regain it, they’re doomed.
To wake up fellow Israelis, Natan Sharansky’s latest book is titled: “Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy.” Newsmax’s Christopher Ruddy interviewed Sharansky and reports:
The thesis of [Sharansky’s] book is that democratic society, if it has any hope for long-term survival, must offer an identity for its citizens. Looking out at the world, he says “our enemies look so dangerous because they have a strong will.” This means they have beliefs they are ready to die for. “The free world, if it does not have values for which people are ready to die, will be powerless, its people decadent. It will be doomed to failure.” Identity, he says, gives people these values. It is not the enemy, as many [multiculturalists] in the West believe. “Europe is suffering the most from a loss of identity. Faith and patriotism have weakened as it embraces a super-identity — all in an effort to avoid war.”
What’s the best way to avoid war? The “Bush Doctrine” - adopted after September 11th - authorized preemptive strikes against countries planning to attack us, but America, and Bush himself, have backed away. Voters will choose soon between Democrat Barack Obama - an appeasing worshiper of Multiculturalism, and Republican John McCain - someone who understands our enemy and is willing to do whatever it takes to defeat it. Israelis must decide soon if they will attack Iran before Iran “wipes it off the map” and vote accordingly. Do Israelis have the will? Do we? Iran is betting against it.
Martin Luther King said: “If a man has nothing he would die for, he isn’t fit to live.” If such people comprise the majority in Israel or the United States, neither country is fit to live and won’t for much longer. The Israeli canary is teetering on its perch.
17 comments:
Well at least you called me sir. That's appropriate for someone who hides behind anonymity.
Thomas: I guess when things are slow we resort to the old favorite: blame the English for everything. Tut tut!
Your visit to Ireland must have resurrected those old feelings, huh?
England is responsible for the holocoaust? That is the cruelest blow of all. And the root cause was Chamberlin's appeasment policies? Now I know why so many folk despise your columns. At least England went to war, however reluctantly after losing millions in the first world war, in an honorable manner as required by the contract with Poland. She was not maneurved into war by having it declared on her.
Chamberlain, had a situation where pikes,swords and spears were being handed out from museums to the Home Guard to defend the realm. The Munich pact got him a few precious months in which to get industry on a war footing.
I realize that as an History teacher, you know most, if not all of the above and are merely seeking response to show your editors some people do read your column but try to do it with some integrity, please.
Gordo
Tom: Let me quote: "Land for peace is a failed policy, as Neville Chamberlain discovered when dealing with Hitler. Europes' Jews were almost wiped out for Chamberlain's folly"
Very easy to interpret as an indictment of the English, specifically the head of their Government, for the Holocaust from that wouldn't you say?
Also, let me add in answer to another erroneous statement in the column; the reference to the "near-fatal bites out of England before America stepped in". England stopped the Nazi advance for the first time in the summer of 1940 through the good services of
the RAF, long before America had to go to war. Tobruk in 1942, together with Stalingrad were the final turning points in the war:
the first British, the last Russian. The facts man, nothing but the facts!
I must say that your "admiration of the British" shines through as brightly as a London street gaslight on a "pea souper" night.
Gordo
America "stepped in" with Lend Lease before actual military forces in 1942. You think England would have survived without it? Also, while Montgomery did do good work against Rommel in North Africa, I think Dunkirk and the Blitz would qualify as Hitler taking a bite out of England, wouldn't you?
Tom: I realize that you know your stuff from the history books, but please accept the words of someone who lived through it all. NEVER, NEVER would the blitz have given rise to any thought whatsoever to the English people of defeat. To understand you would have to have been there. The ribald humor, the utter defiance, the total unwillingness of the vast majority of ordinary folk to accept the thought of defeat crystalized into Churchill's famous "Never, never, never..............." speech which brought the House of Commons to it's collective feet in support of the war for the first time. Appeasment to the people was just a word; the thought of enemy boots marching down the English streets for the first time in a thousand years was what counted.
Dunkirk was a perfect example of defeat turned to victory. The people in their small 4, 6, 8 man boats did it. The people, not the government.
Chamberlain garnered a little time in which to create a few modern weapons, such as Spitfire fighter planes. Nothing more, nothing less; everyone knew a war was coming, it was just a case of how long it would be before starting, appeasment was just a word. Lendlease was a act of support by the US government but a dozen 1920's destroyers does not a war arsenal make.
Please stop hammering Britain, and please stop hitting on old Neville.
I believe, regardless of what our government does there will be no thought of appeasment from the vast majority of the people. Have faith. Gordo
Fair enough, Gordo.
...time has an interesting way to show what really happened. Not only did Britain loose her place in the world, but so did Canada in not helping displaced Jewish folk.
Britain blocked vessels of Jews seeking a home from landing in Palestine. So did Canada to an extent by limiting the amount who could live here.
Indeed, Israel is the canary. Right now I think it is sick from obnoxious gasses of political correctness and leftist airhead thinking that appeasement is the way to peace.
The next step will be America failing to help Israel. Economic pressure, maybe from selling her soul to the almighty buck in selling to off shore owners, like the Bible says, the borrower is servant to the lender.
China owns a lot of the USA. Saudi's own a lot of the USA. European Union owns a lot of the USA.
Simple economics. People need jobs to pay today's current lifestyle of debt load and 'want now' instead of waiting and sacrifice. This mentality erode America's backbone of building a nation. The parallels to Rome are scary.
USA will become the richest third world country shortly and get its marching orders from ivory towers in foreign countries.
Israel I believe will see this and hunker down and realize she is own her own, literally.
cheers
tomax7
Gordo, just a comment, but never mind Chamberlain, what did Britain do with Churchill after the war?
Dumped him like a dirty cloth.
Will England once again fight with pikes, swords and spears in little boats? Not likely.
Britain is no longer Britain but slowly becoming a politically correct Muslim enclave.
As well, remember those recent Paris Muslim youth riots are just a chunnel away.
The old guard like yourself are slowly disappearing. What is taking up their space?
Tom: Just found your last two blogs of 8/30/08.
Let me answer the items one by one.
" Time has shown that Britain lost her place in the world and that was because they refused to help displaced Jews." WOWEE! That's a good one. Lets talk of jews first. Is it not true that the whole world refused to accept Jews in the 1930's; which in turn lead to the concentration camps because the Nazis didn't know what to do with them? Including the USA. Noone had any idea what Hitler would do before 1943 as I recollect and no country was more appalled about it than Britain which in turn lead to the British army to shut it's eyes against what was happening in Palestine. This, dispite the shenanigans of the Irgun and the other ruthless gangs. Also remember the Balfour doctrine that made Israel possible in the first place. After the war and Britain was trying to hold down the troubles in Palestine she did stop some, a few, Jews from entering Palestine. Was she wrong? Here we are 60 years after those occurrences and the world is still in danger of an even worse holocaust because she had to reverse the decision due to pressure from the UN and the US. Israel seems to be still ruled by the old Zionists who dreamed their dreams of Eretz Israel during those long, dark nights on the eastern European steppes. Daily, hourly for years they have humiliated the Palestinians, cutoff or eliminated the services they were accustomed to and slowly built up a climate of hate in the arab comunity which will only be appeased(there's that word again) when Israel gives back the west bank to it's inhabitants of the past 2,000 years. The Hamas, Hezbolla and Hizbolla are arming, plotting and increasing their terrorist expertize all the time: Israel will commit suicide if she doesn't take notice and accept the inevitable.
"Britain losing it's place in the world." The UK has the 4th. largest economy in the world despite the fact that, in area, it will fit into Texas many times(I don't recollect how many but it's quite a few) and has no natural resources whatsoever left. Britain fought in two world wars from start to finish in one generation. Of the 30 years from 1914 to 1945 she was at war with an extremely doughty foe for 10 years. Millions were killed, including the brightest and best of their generation; industry was left to languish in a 19th century mode, the infrastructure fell into disrepair and the people were tired and fedup with constant turmoil. Yet, when the IRA started it's foolishness and when Argentina stole land from them, the English responded in an age-old manner that refused to acknowledge defeat. Since then when everyone in the world turned their back on us over the Iraq question who stepped forward? In a minor key, who came 4th in the Olympics? I can go on.
"The parallels to Rome". I must admit this is something that has caused me concern too. To be quite un-PC, when women take power as they did in Rome and are doing here in much the same way, automatic decline seems to swiftly follow. Don't worry I am a father and grandfather and have no other reason for saying this other than a concern about where and how we're going as a country and a civilization. This coupled with the promoting of "alternate life styles", an abyss of an entertainment industry, a general slackening of morals leading to "me, me, me" generations will cause us enormous pain eventually. However I do believe the people's common sense will save us as it has in the English speaking countries before.
"Dumping Churchill". When the guys were in uniform from 1939 to 1945 they had, during lulls in the fighting, numerous lectures on the future of British society. Britain was and still is today to a lesser extent, a very class conscious society and the upshot was after WWI there was enormous resentment among the working and lower middle classes about the treatment of veterans and fighting another war which could only benefit the upper classes. Hence the lectures. They told the ranks what to expect after the war. How society would become level with no elitest spikes etc.. Health, home ownership. fair taxation, expanded secondary education and so on. So, in that first election the overwhelming majority of men voted Socialist and we were blessed with 5-6 years of socialistic experimentation. That is why Churchill was rejected in 1945-1946, but of course the people's native common sense brought them swiftly back to center and he was reinstated in (1951?).
Phew! That's it. Cheers, Tom Good to hear from you; I really do agree with a good 80% of what you write despite my native indignation over your put downs of my people. Gordo
Chamberlain was an idiot to cede part of Europe to Hitler. Chamberlain was not being a stragegist and "trying to buy time." He was a pacifist trying to avoid war at any cost. Churchill was critical of his actions and later did much to save Britain.
The German air assault (Battle of Britain) nearly defeated England. If Goering had had brains and focused attacks on the Channel radar stations and the figher bases it would have been a different story. Shifting the air attack to English cities spared what was left of the RAF figter force to live to see another day. No wonder Churchill said "never before was so much owed by so many to so few". US lend-lease was long ongoing before battle as FDR did everything in his power to support the war against Hitler. 50 destroyers and numerous aircraft and munitions were supplied. The US Navy destroyer Rueben James was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic by a German U boat long before we ever got into it.
I have always admired the willingness of Israel to fight to defend it's freedom. Tough, resourceful and courageous they are. Willing to do what is necessary to stay free. No one wants to forget thay they have a top military force as well as Nuclear weapons. Iran is just small time at the moment. I am sure that any movement towards Israel will unleash a reaction that Iran does not need. Probably some of the leaders are not afraid to die but many of their people are. One can only hope that the people of Iran discover sanity before it is too late.
Even the average street bully would not tackle Israel if he had any sense. I would support them any way that we can.
Chamberlain was an idiot? Wanted to avoid war at any cost? What a ridiculous attitude for the man to take, huh? They had lots of swords and pikes with which to fight, didn't they. Churchill was critical? Winnie was critical of all those who would not face up to the fact that Germany was rearming and practising for war from 1933 onwards. Rightly so, but the reluctance with which the people viewed the prospect of war was very understandable to those who lived with the overpowering effect of WWI, which ended only 15 years before Hitler took power. I suggest you think of the 911 incident, multiply it by 10,000 and play it out over 4 years: I think your aggression would subside a little.
Britain was nearly defeated? If this, if that, if the other? The fact is they weren't defeated no matter how many "ifs" you come up with.
German lobbying stopped the US entering the war; the vast majority of Americans wanted to join in. The Landlease act was gratefully received in Britain; anything would have been so received in the state they were in. It was not free though, territory was given by Britain for munitions.
What would the US have done if Britain had capitulated and Germany had the whole European continent with it's science and military machines at their disposal, and how long do you think the US would have lasted.
Israel fights because it has no choice. It exists because of the USA. She could do much to improve relations with the Islamic world and in so doing save the world from the catastropy that will occur in all likelihood. I have often wondered why, for example, they don't declare the West bank an internatial zone. Invite the UN and other international agencies into that tiny stretch of land. Who then would attack it with impunity; and wouldn't it put Israel at the center of things etc. etc. etc..
We have had two world wars, both of which wreaked havoc, not only on the militaries but on civilians and the capital assets of the countries involved. Is a third, a nuclear exchange avoidable?
We are no longer an island with 3,000 mile moats on either side; we are as vulnerable as anyone else. Do not wish war on us because this one will be, in the words of Saddam Hussein, the Mother of all Wars.
Tom, I am calling a halt unless you can give me a VERY good reason not to. I have enjoyed the exchange but I can see that it is about to degrade into foolishness.
Cheers, Gordo
PS Are you using me as a foil for your students? What type of History do you teach? How much of this do you truely believe and how much, not. How much of what I say do you accept fully, agree partially and outright reject?
Gordo,
There are two Toms in this thread, and to make it even more confusing, we're both Tom McLaughlins and we're both responding to your posts. I'm the one whose name is on the web site and my cyber friend from Calgary, Alberta. My posts show "tom mclaughlin" and the other Tom's posts show just "tom." He signs them at the end, "tomax7."
As for your 9-6-08 post, I agree with most of it. The part where you say:
"Daily, hourly for years [the Israelis] have humiliated the Palestinians, cutoff or eliminated the services they were accustomed to and slowly built up a climate of hate in the arab comunity which will only be appeased(there's that word again) when Israel gives back the west bank to it's inhabitants of the past 2,000 years. The Hamas, Hezbolla and Hizbolla are arming, plotting and increasing their terrorist expertize all the time: Israel will commit suicide if she doesn't take notice and accept the inevitable"
My view is that Israel commits suicide by giving up the West Bank and Golan. They gave up Gaza and, rather than "eliminating services" Israel continues to supply Palestinians in Gaza with water, electricity and fuel - even though those Palestinians send Hamas/Iranian rockets into Israel daily! Are you aware of that?
Hezbollah chants "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" constantly. They're dedicated to Israel's destruction. And you want Israel to kiss up to them? Sorry Gordo, but you're way off here.
I teach 20th century US History. I also agree with you when you cite England's solid support of the USA in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. England and Israel are our strongest allies in the region.
And yes, Britain enabled Israel with the Balfour Declaration. And yes, it's debatable that America would have defeated Germany and Japan without Britain's help - or without Russia's for that matter. I don't think you could make the case that England and Russia would have survived without the USA.
Unless I'm being satirical, I write what I believe here and try to stand behind it.
None of my students, present or former have posted on this particular thread, unless Anonymous who thinks I'm a pompous idiot was in my class. That's possible. I suppose I may have come across as a pompous idiot at times in my long career, but oh well.
Tom McLaughlin: Yes it is confusing, and I had no idea there were two of you responding. Seems somewhat dihonest of our Canadian friend. Do not, and unlikely to ever agree with you on Israel. They could be much more forthcoming. There seems a total lack of vision in that land: "eye for an eye" is the only action they take.
THE END. Gordo
...Gordo, sadly you are a man of quick judgment.
I was in no way being dishonest and take exception to the note of your comment.
Simple investigative skills would see that 'this' tom is from Canada and the owner of this blog always has his picture with 'tom mclaughlin' on it.
I however also try to sign off with 'tomax7' which is my nickname and website.
As stated, sometimes it pays to be slow to speak and even slower to judge.
...not sure why my profile won't show when one clicks on "tom" - is it on this end?
I think since Google bought out Blogger something got cross threaded.
test.
Sorry for flodding your blog tom.
Ah ok, Google did change my account name. I used to be able to log in with 'tomax7' and it would show everything, and oddly enough it still works, albeit only showing "tom" as the poster.
Have to use my full email address to log in.
Doncha love technology?
My apology to Gordo, now you should be able to see who's who.
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