And here’s the answer: it’s the right thing to do.
Of course, I hope that the Jewish community will recognize, in increasing numbers, the commitment of the Republican Party to the security and prosperity of Israel.
But in the end, that’s not what’s really important.
The United States has an obligation to help good and free people defend themselves against evil killers. Meeting that obligation is what’s important.
And I can tell you that the president of the United States feels exactly the same way. You hear it in his voice, you see it in his eyes, and you know it by his actions.
Unfortunately, some of the nations of Europe have taken a very different and disturbing view. As I remarked when I spoke to you last year in Washington, I am repulsed by the manner in which those countries have abdicated their responsibilities.
Germany and France, in particular, appear entirely unwilling to stand against aggression and international violence.
They would have us believe that Yasir Arafat’s henchmen and the State of Israel’s soldiers are moral equals. They would have us accept that Saddam Hussein only needs more time to disarm.
Such thinking can only be described as terribly misguided.
And such thinking has serious consequences.
America Will Never Abandon Israel
Despite our president’s best efforts to avoid conflict, I fear that only war will lead to the end of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and to the beginning of a free Iraq.
Action against Saddam Hussein is likely to be accompanied by a wave of terror against Israel. And the aftermath of the conflict is likely to be accompanied by a new round of European discussions about how Israel needs to make concessions for peace.
During this period, the U.S.-Israel alliance will be tested. And we need to be certain that the Europeans and others understand that America will never abandon our ally and friend.
Fortunately, we have a president who will leave no doubt.
On June 18, 1940, Winston Churchill rose before the House of Commons and said the following:
“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”
My friends, the fanatics know that to defeat Israel would be to strike a crippling blow against the whole free world. In this way, the Israel of our day and the Great Britain of 1940 are remarkably similar.
In the weeks and months ahead, let us rededicate ourselves to our common mission, the defense of freedom.
And let us pray, as Abraham Lincoln did, that we receive that Divine Assistance without which we cannot hope to succeed, but with which success is certain.
I would like to end this evening by reciting with you the last portion of the Kaddish in remembrance of Colonel Ramon:
Oseh shalom beem’roh’mahv, hoo ya’aseh shalom, aleynu v’al kohl Yisrael v’eemru: Amen. (He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace, upon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.)
