We gather to mark a momentous occasion. Sixty years ago in Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel’s independence, founded on the “natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate.” What followed was more than the establishment of a new country. It was the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David — a homeland for the chosen people Eretz Yisrael.
Eleven minutes later, on the orders of President Harry Truman, the United States was proud to be the first nation to recognize Israel’s independence. And on this landmark anniversary, America is proud to be Israel’s closest ally and best friend in the world.
The alliance between our governments is unbreakable, yet the source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. It is grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul. When William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower in 1620, he quoted the words of Jeremiah: “Come let us declare in Zion the word of God.” The founders of my country saw a new promised land and bestowed upon their towns names like Bethlehem and New Canaan. And in time, many Americans became passionate advocates for a Jewish state.
My country’s admiration for Israel does not end there. When Americans look at Israel, we see a pioneer spirit that worked an agricultural miracle and now leads a high-tech revolution. We see world-class universities and a global leader in business and innovation and the arts. We see a resource more valuable than oil or gold: the talent and determination of a free people who refuse to let any obstacle stand in the way of their destiny.
- Because destruction is easy and requires no thought but emotion
- Because Islam is a backwards, barbaric, ignorant religion perpetrated by masses who know no better
- Its adherents are gullible, stressed, uneducated; its current puppet-masters are quite the opposite
We believe in the matchless value of every man, woman, and child. So we insist that the people of Israel have the right to a decent, normal, and peaceful life, just like the citizens of every other nation.
We believe that democracy is the only way to ensure human rights. So we
consider it a source of shame that the United Nations routinely passes more human rights resolutions against the freest democracy in the Middle East than any other nation in the world.
The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.
This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil. The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men. No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers. In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power. They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis.
And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the “elimination” of Israel. And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant “Death to Israel, Death to America!” That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that “the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties.” And that is why the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.
There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It’s natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it. Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States of America stands with you.
Sixty years ago, on the eve of Israel’s independence, the last British soldiers departing Jerusalem stopped at a building in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. An officer knocked on the door and met a senior rabbi. The officer presented him with a short iron bar — the key to the Zion Gate — and said it was the first time in 18 centuries that a key to the gates of Jerusalem had belonged to a Jew. His hands trembling, the rabbi offered a prayer of thanksgiving to God, “Who had granted us life and permitted us to reach this day.” Then he turned to the officer, and uttered the words Jews had awaited for so long: “I accept this key in the name of my people.”
Great post!! I’m getting ready to blog on this as well, this put a HUGE SMILE on my face today!!!!!
I do give credit where it is due. I think it was right and proper to take out Saddam in Iraq and understood, unlike many, that the post-war period was not going to be quick nor easy because I took him at his word that he wanted to establish democratic institutions there. I pegged that at between 8-12 years to get the basic *fighting* done if we were serious about it. Nor do I find Rumsfeld to be the nasty villain in what happened in Iraq: our military was not set up at that point in time to deal with *any* significant post-war activity and an entire echelon of brass had to be pushed out of the way in the Pentagon. Many already had their pet projects on the chopping block, and then so did those following them – the Cold War was over and it was time to skip that mentality and get ‘back to basics’. To do that Gen. Petraeus was taken from the field because he *knew what he was doing* and put into US Army TRADOC.
Training & Doctrine.
Where do you start re-building a military to fight a kind of war it hasn’t fought for decades? US Army TRADOC! Gen. Patraeus took the lessons learned from on the ground across *all services* and incorporated them into a new way of fighting an old kind of war that the US has never done too well. You don’t get that from a hide-bound ‘yes man’ at SECDEF, you get that from someone willing to step on toes and re-align our entire defense posture. Who was the CinC? President Bush!
President Bush *did* respond the absolute right way immediately with his ‘Dead or Alive’ poster comment. That is, actually, one of the ways to handle this type of conflict. He did not, however, carry through with the necessary power requests to implement that. His instincts were exactly, 100% dead-on. Too bad he never *ran with that* as we would be in better shape, today, than we are now.
I think he is absolutely gonzo nuts to not close the southern border, particularly as the Red Mafia has been infiltrating the Cartel structure to replace it with an amenable and highly violent gang-based structure. I can reliably name three individuals with over $10 billion in ‘sitting around cash’ that would see that as a *good investment* to get their hands on the Mexican petroleum industry: Mogilevich, Firtash, Abromovich. Probably Depripaska if he wanted in on it, as he has money enough to buy Bob Dole. I really don’t like having organized crime that has more money coming in than al Qaeda and HAMAS *combined* in one individual taking an interest in our southern border. The Red Mafia has no ethics, no morals, no scruples, no ‘code’: give them cash or they will put the screws on you. Ask Iran, as two of those three are doing that right now to the Mullahs. Good on ’em? Do you really *want* organized crime to get its hands on Iran’s oil and gas reserves?
Remember how he looked into Victor Putin’s soul? I think he got a wrong number…
I am extremely proud that this President can reach out with good words to Israel! How about a ‘free trade agreement’? Got one of those already? How about doing that with our other long term allies? UK, Australia, Japan, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria? Colombia actually needs one to bolster its COIN work which it has been doing very well in against FARC. Mexico, OTOH, has waasted US good-will and is heading towards an insurgency and *now* asking us to help stop it… what they need is accountable government and taking care of corruption: that will win in COIN more than planes and guns and troops. Colombia is doing that, how about Mexico?
I would like to see results from the $15 billion in aid the US sends to Africa to fight AIDS. Is it actually doing anything or is a good percentage of it going to fill the Swiss bank accounts of kleptocrats in the region? Inquiring minds want to know!
NCLB was DOA as is all of Dept. of Education. Reagan promised to cut it… didn’t. Why is anyone funding a Department that doesn’t work?
For a guy that putatively comes from the oil business, he doesn’t seem to know much about refinery capacity or the need for marginal expansion of production in the US.
I do, indeed, applaud on the few things he gets right! After a decade of neglect by *both* parties the single major survival system of the US needed to be revamped and re-inforced… that is the Armed Forces. Really, with so many nations able to wield an ASAT capacity, we should start to do something about protecting *that* part of our infrastructure. None of the next candidates have that on their agenda, so expect satellite capability to suddenly get heavily degraded by ‘unknown nations’.
I am very glad when the President does the right thing. Applause is given. It has been very, very, very sparse in my lifetime. I have a harsh grading scale: National Survival First. That means protecting the Nation and standing by and with our Friends and Allies above all else. When we start trading away liberty and survival for a ‘good economy’, that puts both liberty and survival at risk. That survival starts at home and the border and goes out from there… my applause has been damned sparse during my adult life for anyone actually in an elected branch of government. And I don’t consider those two things to be unimportant nor to put liberty and freedom at risk.
Which is why I have run out of people to vote *for*.
It was a tremendously powerful speech, BZ, and that’s exactly why the Democrats objected so strenuously to it, especially Obama and President Bush never even mentioned his name. Well, my reaction to Obama’s outrage is “if the shoe fits (and it does) wear it!”
I’ll read the post below this one and leave another comment so you don’t feel so bad. 🙂
Hear Hear!!!
Good post on a great speech.
western culture owes the Jews so much, our common law is straight from Moses, and the contributions of Jews and Jewish thought are to numerable to mention, and in every field, from Law, agriculture, science, society as a whole.
Great post BLO!! I loved it! Bush was supreme!!
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The terrorist monkey can not be negotiated with. The only reason to maybe talk to Ahmadamadmonkey in say maybe Switzerland is to provoke him by debating his ideology and criticizing the hatred. Force him to say lots of stupid and insane things which would be widely publicized thus educating more people to his ideology’s insanity. This, I am quite sure, Obama would never do.
Ouch, Obama and the poor little Dems were hit a little too close to home by what GW said. It’s one of the best things Bush has ever said. Bravo! And he didn’t even have to mention the Dhimmicrats or any body’s name.
So sure, then he folded in Saudi Arabia, but what he said in Israel almost makes that OK.
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absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
appease the appeasers
don’t embarrass them
by calling them appeasers
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absurd thought –
God of the Universe said
have a sit down with Hitler
he should have been sweet-talked
he had goodness within
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Appeasement Talk Bothers Appeasers
Help Halt Terrorism Now!
USpace
🙂
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You’re right. Appeasement only works in la-la-land and Hollywood. If we don’t fight them there we will have to fight them here.
Breaking: Blind Hog Finds Truffle…
Video @ 6:00
Great Post – worth reading even a week after the event. One would have expected the Democrats to look for something to argue about when Bush gives a speech in the Knesset. It’s obvious they were just looking for attention.