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Friday, April 25, 2008

-- Oscar Wilde

There is quite a stir being made at a ladies web site called BlogHer over an essay by one of the staff writers there reviewing a book that suggests the solution to peace in the Middle East would be to pack up all the Jews and rebuild Israel in a region of Russia called the Kaliningrad Oblast which could be special purchased for the occasion: Quo Vadis, Israel?

Some people are very upset, and the author is getting quite a schooling in the comment thread of her own post, where she is nothing if not contrite. Where have we heard this idea before?

I'm not seeing anti-Semitism here, just naivete. The author admits she knows nothing, found a concise book, googled up some good reviews (Surprise! There are a lot of people out there on the internet who would like to see Israel dismantled and the Jews shipped out) and went and told everyone about what she read without thinking it through too deeply. Big mistake.

At first blush, it does make sense if you believe in peace at any price (especially when someone else is paying!) -- just surrender and it will all be over. But as Ronald Reagan pointed out (video), the people who are willing to do this bring war closer as they embolden the enemy and in the end, they don't speak for the rest of us:

...every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the ultimatum. And what then? When Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we are retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will have weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he has heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he would rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us. You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance...

BTW, if the author really wants to learn about Israel's history, and isn't afraid of thick books, try Howard Sachar's A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time.



5 Comments

I am surprised that they didn't recommend Birobidzhan for the Jews. That's the Jewish "homeland" designated by Stalin. It's located somewhere in eastern Siberia, and is sparsely populated. Shhhhh! Or else someone will get ideas!

Hmmmm. It doesn't sound so bad:) Got the Transsiberian Railroad and all:)

http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/city-dvost.htm

Sophia,

Gore will really hate them cause they will be all for Global Warming!

One sad part of the original post, the one that started the hoopla, is that it reminds me of another old saying. "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

-- a public school teacher, doing her best to root out as much ignorance as possible

I have read the thread and the comments AND I am seething...

The author has no knowledge of Israel, nor of the fact that more than half of Israelis come FROM THE MIDDLE EAST... It is a piece by a thoroughly idiotical AND evil woman who comments on what she doesn't know...

The fact that she backpedals shows that she didn't expect the reactions... Not that she truly apologizes...

"Syme: It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. You wouldn't have seen the [Newspeak] Dictionary 10th edition, would you Smith? It's that thick. [illustrates thickness with fingers] The 11th Edition will be that [narrows fingers] thick. Winston Smith: So, The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect? Syme: The secret is to move from translation, to direct thought, to automatic response. No need for self-discipline. Language coming from here [the larynx], not from here [the brain]" -1984 (film)


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