Good Friday Morning!
1. Question – What is behind America’s
allegiance to Israel?
2. Thought – During the October war, however,
Israel’s very existence depended on the airlift of
precisely those “useless” tanks and planes we
had always derided. Had it not been for Nixon’s
timely resupply turning the tide of battle, Israel might
have confronted an unthinkable doomsday choice between
accepting defeat and unleashing nuclear weapons.
For leaders determined to avoid global incineration,
battlefield hardware matters, and it matters a lot:
survival may well depend on both its quality and quantity.
Peaceniks might cherish the image of an invading enemy
stopped in his tracks by flower-power demonstrators
placing daises in gun barrels, but in the real world a
well-equipped tank battalion will halt aggression more
reliably.
Despite President Nixon’s commanding role in leading
the United States through the world crisis in October, the
cease-fire that ended the distracting war allowed American
liberals – including Jewish liberals – to get
back to the serious business of hounding him out of
office. Whenever the president’s defenders cited his
role in rescuing the Jewish state, his attackers dismissed
it as a reflection of Tricky Dick’s vestigial
anti-Communism. “He doesn’t really care about
Israel – in fact he’s an anti-Semite!” I
heard on many occasions. “The only reason he helped
the Jews was that the Russians were against them, and
he’s always been obsessed with beating the Soviet
Union.” (Right Turns by Michael Medved)
“When I touched my hand against the Western Wall and
placed my prayer between its ancient stones, I thought
of all the centuries that the children of Israel had
longed to return to their ancient homeland. When I
went to Sderot and saw the daily struggle to survive
in the eyes of an eight-year-old boy who lost his leg
to a Hamas rocket, and when I walked among the Hall of
Names at Yad Vashem, I was reminded of the existential
fear of Israelis when a modern dictator seeks nuclear
weapons and threatens to wipe Israel off the face of
the map — face of the Earth.”
(President Obama)
No texting and driving. Watch out for Prom goers! Drink
more H2O! And question those ‘Bernie’ and
‘Hillary’ bumper stickers.