Let's get the Middle East back into perspective here!

I actually had a lot to say about the situation in the Middle East and have been compiling notes for the last several days.

One of my main bitches is that Israel withdrew from Lebanon 18 years ago and during this whole time Hezbollah etc. etc. have been digging in amongst the general population of South Lebanon with the co-operation and support of Iran and Syria and the indifference or inability of the Lebanese Government to stop them, and EVERYONE knew what was coming!

Another assault on Israel

Then I ran across this piece and it basicaly speaks for itself!

An Israeli Defense – A Letter to the Leaders of the World

Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders of the world. I carry these words from Jerusalem, as a response to the difficult scenes displayed from Kana. Every human heart contracts when viewing these scenes. There are no words powerful enough to provide comfort with this type of a disaster. And still, I look you straight in the eye and say loud and clear: Israel will continue its military operation in Lebanon.

The Israeli Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are being fired at hospitals, old-age homes, and kindergartens in Israel. The IDF has been instructed to continue to hunt down Katyusha reserves, launching pads, and gun barrels through which these savages bomb and attack Israel.

We will not hesitate, we will not apologize, and we will not be weakened. If Katyushas continue to be launched into Israel from Kana, we will continue to bomb Kana. Today, tomorrow, and the following day. Here, there, and everywhere. The children of Kana could have been sleeping peacefully in their homes, uninterrupted, had the demonic messengers not taken over their land and turned our children’s lives into hell on earth.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time you understand: The Israeli State will not longer be stomped on. We will no longer allow anyone to take advantage of highly-populated areas as a front to bomb our citizens. No man will be able to hide behind women and children with the sole purpose of murdering our women and children any longer. This anarchy and irresponsibility is over. You can denounce us, you can boycott us, you can stop traveling to Israel, and if it will be necessary we will stop traveling to your country.

I am the voice of six million Israeli citizens who are being bombed, symbolic of the six million Jews who were exterminated and cremated into ashes and dust by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these atrocious and sinful acts were barbarians lacking in any human decency who had one simple goal: To obliterate the Jewish race off the face of the earth, in the words of Adolf Hitler, or to erase the State of Israel off the world map, in the words of Mahmud Ahmadinijad.

And just like you didn’t take things seriously then, you are ignoring them now. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen. Never again. We will never again wait for the world to rescue us from the gas chambers. We will never again wait for a salvation that will not come. We now have our own air force. Israel can now stand up to those who want to kill us.

They will no longer be able to hide behind their women and children. They will no longer be absolved of all responsibilities.

Every place from which missiles are fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for our attacks. It needs to be said clearly, one time, to the entire world. You are welcome to judge us, ostracize us, boycott us, and defame us. But kill us? Absolutely not.

Four months ago, Ehud Olmert was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the post of Prime Minister, based on his plan to unilaterally withdraw from 90% of the occupied territories, which are part of the heart and soul of the Jewish people, with the sole purpose of ending most of the occupation and allowing the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and pacify the tensions until the conditions for a permanent settlement between us would be ready.

Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip to the internationally recognized border and gave the Palestinians an opportunity to build themselves a new reality. His predecessor, Edud Barak, ended the long-term Israeli presence in Lebanon and withdrew the IDF to international lines, allowing Lebanon to flourish, develop, and base itself as a democratic country with a strong economy.

What did the State of Israel receive in return for these? Did we have one moment of peace and quiet? Was our outstretched hand greeted with an encouraging handshake? Ehud Barak’s peace initiative at Camp David released upon us a wave of suicide bombers who shattered and blew up more than 1,000 citizens, women and children, into pieces.

I don’t remember any of you this enraged back then. Could it be because we didn’t allow close-ups of the dismembered teenagers at the Dolphinarium? Or the broken lives of those celebrating Passover who were butchered at Park Hotel in Netanya? There’s nothing we can do, that’s how it is here. We don’t display dead bodies in front of TV cameras. We mourn quietly.

We don’t dance on the rooftops when the children of our enemies are killed. We express true sorrow and remorse. All these are the animalistic rituals of our enemies. Today they are our enemies. Tomorrow, they will be yours. You’re already acquainted with the murderous flavor of this terror. You’ve tasted it. You will taste it again.

And look at Ariel Sharon’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip. What we get for it? A shower of Kasam missiles on otherwise-peaceful towns, suicide bombings and attacks, and the kidnapping of a soldier.

I don’t remember you reacting with such panic and fear at that time either. And here, for the past six years the withdrawal from Lebanon has been struck with the words and crimes of a dangerous Iranian messenger; an extremist who has taken over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem and ultimately Paris and London.

An enormous infrastructure of terror has been established by Iran on our borders, threatening our citizens, getting stronger in front of our eyes, waiting for the moment when Iran becomes a nuclear stronghold, waiting to bring us to our knees. Don’t get me wrong: we are not going down alone. You, the leaders of the free world, the enlightened world, are going down with us.

So today I would like to put an end to this hypocrisy. I can’t remember such a reaction to 100 citizens being killed each day in Iraq. Sunnis killing Shi’ites who kill Sunnis, all of whom are killing Americans, and the world is silent. And I am having a difficult time remembering a similar reaction when the Russians wiped out entire villages and set fire to large cities in order to depress the mutiny in Chechnya.

And when NATO bombed Kosovo for nearly 3 months, and crushed a civilian population, you all looked away. What is it about us, the Jews, the few, the persecuted, that awakens all of this cosmic justice? What is it that we have that the others don’t?

I stand here before you today, loud and clear, with my head held high, looking you straight in the eye, not apologizing. Not giving in. Not whining. This struggle is for our freedom. For our image.

For our right to have a normal life within our recognized and legitimate borders. This is also your struggle. I pray and believe that you will understand it now. Because if you don’t, you might regret it later. When it is too late.

Ben Caspit