Imagine...If We Were in Israel's Shoes

Previously I said I was going to make my first opinion piece about the North Korean “Missile Crisis”. Events over the last several hours have persuaded me to write about something else other than the attention starved Napoleon of the Koreas, Kim Jong-Il. Instead I’m going to write about Israel and what they are going through right now.

I want to paint a picture for you. Now, most of this picture is going to be from the stand point of Americans. Instead of our large country with relatively friendly countries to our north and south (illegal immigration issues aside) I want you to imagine having North Korea to our north, Iran to our south, and Communist China to our east. And imagine that our country is small enough that you can walk from the eastern boarder to the Pacific Ocean in a day and from the northern boarder to the southern boarder in barely more time than that. Now imagine that our neighbors and dozens of terrorist groups swearing to drive us into the Pacific by any possible means.

This is a glimpse of the situation that Israel faces as they fight the Lebanese and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. Being in such close proximity to so many states and organization sworn to their destruction does not give them the time to be political. It doesn’t give them the time to be diplomatic with terrorists. It doesn’t give them time read a known terrorist his Miranda Rights.

The only thing they have time to do is protect their country. But keep an eye on the UN and the upcoming G-8 summit. Undoubtedly you will hear someone say that the Israelis should show restraint. That they shouldn’t attack the Lebanese for kidnapping and killing Israeli soldiers on Israeli soil. That they shouldn’t go after the terrorist groups responsible for kidnapping an Israeli soldier and civilian a couple of weeks ago. That they shouldn’t go after the terrorist group Hamas who is now in charge of the Palestinian government and letting terrorist groups fire rockets into Israeli neighborhoods.

And the same people that say Israel should not do these things are going to be the same people that tell the US not to try to put sanctions on Iran and North Korea for trying develop illegal nuclear weapons programs. My personal prediction is it will be either Russia or China, or both saying that Israel should stand down and negotiate with terrorists and terrorist governments.

Israel, our best ally (and really the only real one) in the region cannot do that. And we cannot join any such chorus for the sake of political correctness. Our priority should be to allow the Israelis to perform in their own best interests. To step in their way is to show absolute hypocrisy in the War on Terrorism. To do that is to invite disaster in that war, and in the long run to ourselves.