NETANYAHU’S SPEECH – NO MORE ANNE FRANKS
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Prime Minister Netanyahu said it all and very well. To the point, precise and compelling. The Obama response was dismal and the Democrat response from those who did not attend but still “listened” was absolutely dumb. The “funny “commentators such as Jon Stewart rose to their usual trash. As a second war-time kid I found their critique simply appalling. But what can you expect from knuckleheads who never studied their history but nevertheless queue up to praise their master’s moral equivalence.
I told this before in my columns. As a six-year old kid I played with Jewish boys my age who were hiding in the basement of a house in Holland during World War II. I still see their faces. Dark-haired, dark eyes, very white. Once we ventured upstairs and their guardians were furious, afraid they might be seen through the windows. Suddenly, I was told they had been taken away one night, never to return. You don’t forget that, as so many other cruel things of World War II I won’t forget.
No more Anne Franks. Today, history is repeating itself. Iran began the same way as Hitler did. Grab here, grab there. Today’s Neville Chamberlains in the White House and other capitals are appeasing the Iranian regime. Iran has been spreading its claws throughout the Middle-East for years for Shiites to get the upper hand over Sunnis (remember the Catholic-Protestant wars?) ISIS is roaring its ugly face there and in North Africa as well, with brutal copy-cats in northern Nigeria, and Al-Qaeda continues to expand in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. Jews, Christians and even moderate Muslims are murdered with barbaric cruelty. On TV. Don’t forget that Hitler murdered many good Germans before World War II started. Then we did not have TV, only shabby newspapers.
If not checked now, Iran and ISIS-Al Qaeda will soon be the Nazi-Japan team of the past. What current Western Leaders negotiating with an untruthful Teheran do not get is that “The enemy of your enemy is your enemy.” Prime Minister Netanyahu hit the hammer on the nail. I repeat the old saying once more, “me, my brother and my cousins against the stranger.” As soon as Iran gets the bomb, everybody else in the Mid-East will want the bomb. Pakistan will be a willing provider. Oil money will pay (you and I, in our luxury cars.)
Appeasement does not work and never did. Only showing the deliberate sword of a stern opponent does. How many brutal murders do we allow as a “red line?” Appeasement is cowardice and rewarded with many more dead. We sit warmly and nicely in our homes watching the horrors on TV, drinking and eating our meals, like our predecessors did when World War II was brewing, without TV but not less impervious. What happens elsewhere is bad but what can we do. Until it hits you on the head with a 9/11 like Pearl Harbour, or a mass-killing in Paris, and there will be many more dead accompanied by economic collapse. And then it may be too late as it was with World War II: 60 million dead, among which 6 million Jews gassed and tortured. What we need in place is a strong Western coalition with a strong Western – i.e. US – leadership. What we have now is a watery chicken soup going stale.
We commemorate the dead of the Nazi gas chambers and say never again but we are busy letting it happen once more. The US Administration and its blind cohorts are repeating the same blunders. Several commentators have raised the red flag, but the US Administration remains unruffled and a “liberal” (whatever that means) electorate is keeping its head in the sand. Prime Minister Netanyahu was Churchillian, its Western detractors are Chamberlainian, once more we are going down the drain with these morons at the helm and their compliant cowards in the media. As a war kid, having SEEN it, I am profoundly shocked and above all ashamed, and I have enough of it.
Jordan and Egypt demonstrated will and resolve. The US did not. King Husain is a hero.
And so is Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi of Egypt.
Speaker Boehner showed courage inviting Netanyahu. Kudos to him and shame on a White House calling the speech “destructive”. Who are these people? Sending democrat ops to Israel to undermine the Israeli elections to get “Bibi” out of the way for Barack Hussein and his Shiite friends?
Churchill faced much opposition to his calls to arms until it was “too late” and the whole world was in flames. Then too, nincompoop electorates crawled under their beds, closing their eyes, continuing to vote for their pocketbook or social handouts or whatever, hoping it would blow over. Evil never stops and one has to face it head-on and kill it in the bud. To prevent it from getting worse. It is interesting to note that this apathy always happens with weak western administrations in place (same for World War I under Wilson, same for World War II under Chamberlain and Roosevelt, who only got in when attacked at Pearl Harbor, and the same with 9/11 when Osama could have been had a long time before under Clinton but was let go.) At least Reagan and Thatcher stared down the USSR.
No more Anne Franks. Israel will defend itself and it can. Iran and its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas have been shown that several times. Their wrongheaded agenda does not come cheap. Western nations should make it even more expensive by severe economic sanctions and showing strong defense. Perhaps the current Republican majority will stop the runaway train. But Israel, Jordan and Egypt need firm Western leadership to support their bravery, and only the US as an exceptional nation can provide it. The current US Administration has constantly and willingly undermined that reality and responsibility for the last six years and does not show any sign of changing course. Arguing that “the people” don’t want it is like hiding behind mama’s frock. How many other things has this Administration done that the people did not want? Wake up.
No more Anne Franks.
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En weer worden de jodenvervolgingen van de tweede wereldoorlog misbruikt om de terreurstaat Israël te rechtvaardigen.
Dank voor uw commentaar. Doe uw onderzoek. Lees The Bully Pulpit, 26 July 2014.
John,
My parents also were hiding Jews on our farm during the Second World War. They also didn’t survive the war – all three were taken away by the Germans when they raided our farm on December 17, 1944. My father saw them coming from a distance and managed to escape in time. He went into hiding until the end of the war. My mother and her three children were kicked off the farm and stayed with relatives until the end of the war when we were reunited with my father.
Another experience I will never forget happened during the period January- May 1967 when I was part of a team conducting a farm survey on the east and west banks of the Jordan Valley. I became friendly with a prosperous Palestinian farm family on the west bank and visited them multiple times. In each of our conversations they expressed their deep concern that Israel would eventually occupy the west bank and ruin their lives. That came to happen within one week after we had completed our field work and I had left Jericho where we had been based. I have not heard from them since.
So, what have I learned from those two experiences? I have learned that war is awful and that we should be very careful paying heed to those who call for war. During his previous speech to the U.S. Congress, Mr. Netanyahu vigorously encouraged the U.S. government to take on Iraq. We all know how that adventure ended. So, why should I listen to Mr. Netanyahu now?
All the best,
Henk
Henk: What a pleasure to read you valuable comment! Did not know you read my blog. I am not privy to Netanyahu’s speech with respect to Iraq. A lot of people supported that invasion, including many who say now there were not. I remember I was dubious, sort of on the fence. Implementation is much more difficult than rolling in the tanks. But Sadam was throwing a lot of missiles into Israel. Remember those Quds? Wouldn’t you support the police coming in if your neighbor throws bombs in your yard and take them out? I worked for five years on Iraq after the invasion as a consultant with the WB, and learned a lot. Much of the WMD that Sadam had, had been smuggled out of the country into Syria (where did Assad get all that stuff from?) and Russia (who had supplied it), so no wonder they could not find it. Some is now still found in some warehouses. Of course, the liberal press made a political issue of it. On the other hand, if Sadam had stayed on, Iran might not have obtained the overbearing position in that country it now has. Read my “Don’t cry for me, Iraq.” Certainly, that invasion had troublesome results and was initially badly managed. But we were making considerable progress in streamlining project development work and institutional reforms until the Obama administration threw Iraq under the bus. Had the allies stayed there in some substantive capacity, the current situation might not have developed. But all this has in my view nothing to do with what Netanyahu said this time. I worked with many Palestinians in the Mid East Region, and of course they were opposed to the creation of Israel (Read my The bully Pulpit, last July). But it was agreed legally. The India-Pakistan move in 1947 did not happen without issues either and still has problems, but for now it seems contained. Palestinians are smart but they never got a chance with their corrupt leadership (Read my Hamas Mistreats the Palestinians) and they are not helped by a corrupt western media either. Hamas is a proxy of Iran, so is Hezbollah. Iran preaches that Israel should be wiped of the map. Hamas has it in its Charter. All they want is to get rid of the Jews. I am with Netanyahu. He did NOT call for war. He said that if the allies do not take a firm stand, Israel would go it alone. They have the right of self-defense. He recommended to strengthen the sanctions and oblige Iran to stop terrorist support and action, which they have been doing world-wide. Iran has been meddling all the time in Iraq when I worked on that country. They are systematically expanding their influence in Lebanon, not to speak of Shiite Assad in Syria, whence they are fighting Sunni ISIL, and now they are in Yemen where we had to close. Step by step Iran gets closer to the bomb and geographic expansion. The negotiations have not led to any Iranian concession on stopping terrorist support and removing the threat to Israel. Iran is the greater threat. Tell me, why should I listen to Obama? What are his credentials? None. My early ancestors were Jews. I take issue with those who don’t stand up for them, that’s why I wrote this blog and I have many supportive comments by e-mail. But I am so glad to hear from you. We should get together some time. My best, John
Thanks, John. I was alerted to your blog by a Facebook email, referring to Netanyahu’s speech. I felt I had to react after reading your story. And so we find ourselves disagreeing on the Israel-Palestine problem. But that’s alright – friends can disagree, as you rightly point out – and we both are probably too old to change our minds.
Your sympathy clearly is with Israel because of your ancestry, as you noted, and your WW2 experience; mine is with the Palestinians after having lived with them during the run-up to the 1967 war.
I grant you that the Palestinians have made an ugly mess of their relations with Israel and the U.S. because of their inept and corrupt leadership over the years. That’s a great tragedy. On the other hand, Israel has made a final resolution of the conflict just about impossible because of its illegal settlement activities on the west bank ever since they occupied it in 1967. The other great tragedy is that the U.S. never made a serious effort to stop this and kept on supporting Israel with weaponry and funds. In your response above you ask: “Wouldn’t you support the police coming in if your neighbor throws bombs in your yard and take them out?” Of course, I would. But if I am sitting in my neighbor’s yard and refuse to leave, I should know that I’m asking for trouble.
You were not aware of Netanyahu’s earlier speech to Congress. I found a link to excerpts of that speech in the Wikipedia.org article on Netanyahu under the heading “References”, #49, at the end of the story. Let me see if I can insert a direct link to it here:
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/iraq-2002-iran-2012-compare-and-contrast-netanyahu-s-speeches-1.468213
It worked!
I also draw your attention to an insightful letter to the editor by Jennifer Ireland in today’s Washington Post. A key sentence is: “We must not be lulled into thinking Mr. Netanyahu’s speech was about anything other than going to war with Iran.” I fully agree.
Well, that’s enough for today. We should have that beer one day and perhaps talk about Rwanda and Burundi, as we did forty years ago.
Best, Henk
Thanks Henk: so we agree to disagree. The issue of the settlements is very deep. If Israel had stopped those settlements, that would not have changed Arafat, nor Hamas’s terrorism. Look what happened after Gaza. Did you read my Bully Pulpit? And look at http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1919/jewish_settlement_in_the_west_bank_is_not_the_issue.
There are many other commentators who say not to make the settlements the scapegoat of Palestinian/Iranian backed terrorism.
The Israeli position merits close attention. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/stop-scapegoating-israeli-settlements-article-1.1217232
I don’t pay credence to the Washington Post. They have become a one-sided leftist paper and the Democrat mouthpiece, like the NY times. I gave up on them a long time ago. I repeat that Netanyahu did not call for war. He said the present deal that is negotiated is a bad deal. Better no deal than a bad deal, and that is not a call for war.
As to the US, they did not do anything either in Crimea and East Ukraine, which is far worse than those few settlements.
An Israeli friend of mine in the WB and I came to the conclusion that the problem is insoluble, as it has been for the last 3000 years. Why?
Amen!