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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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November 18, 2007 Proclaim Liberty Throughout The Land…The Israel Aid issue by Gerald A. Honigman Proclaim
liberty throughout all the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof…
My great grandfather, Benjamin, eloped with his fourteen year old bride, Esther, married in Elkton, Maryland, and proceeded to sire my grandfather and over a dozen of my grand uncles and aunts…Philly's Esther and Benjamin Honigman Family Circle. My Grandfather served in WWI and my Dad in WWII. Dad later put in almost three decades with the Philadelphia Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant. Now, let's begin… I often hear folks complaining about all that aid we give the Jews "over there." True, Israel has received two to three billion dollars in aid each year from us for some time now. That aid is much appreciated, is largely returned to us via purchases in America, and comes with a big down side as well--as is most recently being manifested in the suicidal concessions Dubya, Condi, and the State Department expect Israel to make in Annapolis to alleged Abbas "good cop" Fatah terrorists who still refuse to recognize the Jewish State. It's fine for Arabs to have almost two dozen of their own (most forcibly Arabized from non-Arab peoples) in their Arab League, but how dare Jews have their resurrected one… Please take a good look at the opening quote above from the Hebrew Bible, aka "Old Testament." That's the inscription on the symbol of America's Revolution, the Liberty Bell, which sits within almost a stone's throw of where I was born. There is no people who share--indeed gave--the values Americans so cherish more than the Jews. Indeed, when Europeans arrived here, they saw America as the "New Zion." The all-American holiday fast approaching, Thanksgiving, was modeled on the Hebrews' fall holiday of Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles. Israel--the resurrected Jew of the Nations, as the Hebrew Prophets foretold--is a shining "light unto the nations" (as G_d wanted it to be, the definition of its choseness), with all of its admittedly human imperfections. Compare it, for starters, using the same lenses of moral scrutiny to what's in its neighborhood, and the anti-Semitism of Mr. Peanut's latest book becomes all too real. There are Arabs serving in Israel's Parliament who openly side with other Arabs who call for Israel's destruction. Find the Arab country with freedom like that… America helps Israel because it's in its own interests to do so--despite all the petrodollar connections, including those in the State Department and at the highest levels of government. President Bush I and his appointed fellow petrodollar buddy at State, James Baker, supported Saddam until the latter made his moves on that giant oil well known as Kuwait. Killing, gassing, and maiming hundreds of thousands of Kurds and dispatching others made no never mind prior to this. And yet, some proclaimed we went to war with Iraq to save the Jews…again. I'm sure Israel felt this way when it was told by Bush I that it had to keep its hands tied behind its back while Saddam sucker punched it with about forty missiles aimed at Jewish civilian populations. Did anyone know then whether or not Saddam would have those warheads topped with biological or chemical materials he possessed? Had Israel responded, there likely would have been no need for Bush II's Iraq II. And remember Bush and Baker's ire over Israel's taking out Saddam's nuclear reactor at Osirak in Operation Opera? Decades earlier, like-minded bigots claimed that America fought WWII to "save the Jews." Reality check… Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941…not vice-versa. We fought the war to save Europe--not Jews--and very likely ourselves afterwards. American bombers were given orders not to bomb Nazi Final Solution facilities or railway tracks leading to Auschwitz, while flying over them to get to the area's industrial targets. Jews fleeing Nazis were denied entry into America while Nazi butchers like Dr. Mengele were aided by us to escape to South America and elsewhere…including to the United States. The Jews' saint, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, gave orders which had the United States send the German ocean liner, S. S. Saint Louis, away from Florida. It was loaded with prominent German Jews trying to escape the Holocaust. Many, if not most, wound up dying in gas chambers and such. A movie, The Voyage Of The Damned, would later be made about this. So, let's cut the manure about America fighting to save Jews. Next…let's return to the aid issue. The current war in Iraq--whether you support it or not--is costing America more, for the sake of Arabs, in one week than Israel gets in foreign assistance in one year. America has already spent about $400 billion dollars for Iraq, with much more set to come. It would take Israel centuries to get this from America. And Israel doesn't ask for American blood and souls to be shed on its behalf or to be bribed to display America's own values and democratic inclinations. How long will the latter last among Arabs after America's exit from Iraq? Ironically, the one people in Iraq who better share those values--the Kurds--are the folks the James Baker types in the State Department are determined to shaft (again) on behalf of their Arab friends who want to be sure oil fields in Kurdish lands remain part of the "purely Arab patrimony." "F_ _ _ the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway" Baker's law firm represents Saudi Arab interests in the United States--including defending them in a law suit filed by America's 9/11 victims. Baker's law partner is America's ambassador to Riyadh (and current Secretary of State Rice has an oil tanker named after her…etc., etc. and petrodollarly so forth). Egypt gets almost the same amount of aid as Israel, and many of the other overtly or covertly mostly despotic, anti-democratic Arab countries get bundles as well. Mind you, this does not count places like non-Arab, but Muslim, Afghanistan or Pakistan. Together, Iraq and Afghanistan will cost Americans about $700 billion by the end of 2008. And what about the trillions of dollars America has given to Europe over the years? Why do the same folks who complain about America "saving Jews" not mention any of this? Having stated the above, I believe that before one cent in aid is given to anywhere, no American should be going to bed hungry, homeless, or worrying about the family going bankrupt due to health problems. We do need to take care of the home front first--especially if we have this kind of money to spread around…including to those who hate us. But, when the issue of American aid to Israel arises, fairness indeed demands the broader perspective. Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. Visit his website at http://geraldahonigman.com/.
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I'm
a proud Philadelphia boy.
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