I’m going off on my book tour to talk about The Covenant, a novel that tells the truth about Palestinian terrorism and the ordinary Israelis who have been fighting on the front lines for years.
By the time I come back to Israel, the election for president of the United States will be over and done. But I’d like to tell you how it makes me feel when people on my e-mail list write me that I should butt out of the U.S. election because I live in Israel. People who write me that George W. Bush is an idiot because he doesn’t care about the environment or health care or abortions. That he lied about WMD, and shouldn’t have gone into Iraq or Afghanistan. That it’s his fault the war on terror is going badly. That they are proudly going to vote for his opponent, John Kerry, and give me a long list of reasons why.
It makes me sickeningly angry and depressed. And this is why:
I remember seeing my mother-in-law, who survived Auschwitz, and my father-in-law, whose first young wife and two babies were gassed there, wearing gas masks and sitting in a sealed room with their children and great-grandchildren because Saddam Hussein was logging bombs at us and we were afraid he’d gas us as he did thousands of Kurds, his own people.
I remember watching the families of suicide bombers who killed hundreds of Israelis in the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Netanya getting checks for $25,000 from Saddam Hussein.
I remember my daughter going to get gas masks for my grandchildren in the recent war because we were afraid Saddam Hussein would do it again.
I remember Arafat and Rabin on the lawn of the White House with President Clinton smiling and forcing them to shake hands. I remember the dozens of times Arafat came to the White House and was welcomed like a world leader. I remember Clinton’s silence when the Intifada started, and how I felt when he wouldn’t come out and condemn the Palestinians for breaking the agreements; when he suddenly backed off, talking about how both sides in the conflict were responsible.
I remember Clinton at the Democratic Convention, shaking hands with Kerry.
I remember Jimmy Carter – who made numerous attempts to harm Israel during the Intifada, trying to tie our leaders’ hands at defending us – shaking hands with Kerry.
I remember how, finally, after September 11, we had a president in the White House who let us go after terrorists at home. A president who, despite the lack of support of Israel’s enemies – the UN, France, Germany, and the rest of the EU who had been kissing Arafat’s backside for years while he killed our children – decided to take out Saddam Hussein, and who did it, brilliantly in a few weeks, despite all the media nay-sayers and back-biters.
Thank you, George W. Bush, for getting Saddam Hussein off Israel’s back so that my children and my in-laws can put away their gas masks for good.
Thank you, George W. Bush, for passing the Patriot Act, which outlaws terrorist funding, and for going after the bankers who fund the murder of our children.
Thank you, George W. Bush, for understanding there is an Axis of Evil, and for putting Syria and Iran in it.
Thank you, George W. Bush, for saving millions of women and girls from a fate worse than death by getting rid of the Taliban, so now they can go to a doctor and go to school – and they won’t be stoned publicly for not walking around like little tents.
For those of you who haven’t made up your minds, I hope this will help. As for those who sincerely believe they love Israel but are voting for John Kerry, you are voting for a man who wants to bring the U.S. closer to countries like France.
In the words of an eloquent article by Ed Lasky in The American Thinker, ‘France has enthusiastically taken on the role of the most anti-Israel nation in Europe; its Ambassador to England called Israel ‘that s—-y little country’; its former Prime Minister called the establishment of Israel a ‘historic mistake’; it has seen the most anti-Semitism of any European nation since World War Two…. France willingly supplied Hussein not just with weapons but also with the nuclear reactor that Israel destroyed in 1981 and continues to supply nuclear technology to Iran whose desire for nuclear weapons to destroy Israel is well known.’
You are voting for a man who wants closer ties with the EU, which -continues to supply funds being used by the Palestinians to commit terror attacks.”
A man who wants approval from the UN, whose ambulances ferry terrorists in Gaza to plant bombs to kill Israeli soldiers.
You are voting for a man, continues Lasky, who ‘spoke negatively about Israel’s security fence before the Arab-American Institute last year, when he bemoaned ‘how disheartened Palestinians are by the Israeli government’s decision to build a barrier off the Green Line, cutting deeply into Palestinian areas’ and went on to say that ‘We do not need another barrier to peace… and that provocative and counterproductive measures only harm Israel’s security over the long term.’ ‘
The fence, of course, has reduced terror attacks to almost zero in its areas, saving thousands of Israeli lives.
You are voting for a man who, Lasky reminds us, ‘denounced the ‘endless cycle of violence and reprisals’ – thereby equating Israel’s defensive measures to root out killers to the murder of innocent Israelis by Palestinian terrorists’; a man whose much-touted “solid Senatorial record on votes for Israel” amounts to ‘painless offers of moral support’ written and introduced by others.
You are voting for a man who in 2000 ‘did not join 60 co-sponsors of the ‘Middle East Peace Process Support Act’ – a bill calling on the President not to recognize a unilaterally declared Palestinian state. He also failed to co-sponsor a pro-Israel ‘Peace Through Negotiations Act.’ In 1993 he failed to join 55 Senators in signing the Grassley/Lautenberg letter to the State Department, demanding that Hamas be listed as a terrorist organization. He did not support the assassination of Sheikh Yassin…’
You are voting for a man who surrounds himself with Mideast “experts” like Sandy Berger, who said in May 2000 that Palestinian violence was ‘a blessing’ because it might speed up the negotiating process, and Martin Indyk, an ex-Ambassador to Israel widely known as Arafat’s Yes-Man, who recently told the Israelis to unilaterally surrender the Golan Heights to Syria because it was the only way to get rid of Hizbullah violence.
You are voting for a slick, multi-millionaire dilettante, who in twenty years in the Senate only managed to author, or co-author the following bills. (See http://www.factcheck.org/article282.html for all bills and details ):
S.1206: Names a federal building in Waltham, Massachusetts after Frederick C. Murphy, who was killed in action during World War II and awarded (posthumously) the Medal of Honor (1994).
S.1636: A save-the-dolphins measure aiming “to improve the program to reduce the incidental taking of marine mammals during the course of commercial fishing operations” (1994).
S.1563: Funding the National Sea Grant College Program, which supports university-based research, public education, and other projects “to promote better understanding, conservation and use of America’s coastal resources” (1991).
S.423: Granting a visa and admission to the U.S. as a permanent resident to Kil Joon Yu Callahan (1987).
H.R.1900 (S.300) Awarded a congressional gold medal to Jackie Robinson (posthumously), and called for a national day of recognition (2003).
H.R.1860(S.856): Increased the maximum research grants for small businesses from $500,000 to $750,000 under the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (2001).
S.J.Res.158: To make the week of Oct. 22-Oct. 28, 1989 “World Population Awareness Week” (1989).
S.J.Res.160: To renew “World Population Awareness Week” for 1991 (1991).
S.J.Res.318: To make Nov. 13, 1992 “Vietnam Veterans Memorial 10th Anniversary Day” (1992).
S.J.Res.337: To make Sept. 18, 1992″National POW/MIA Recognition Day” (1992).
S.Res.123: To change the name of the Committee on Small Business to the “Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship” (2001).
S.Res.133: To make May 21, 1991 “National Land Trust Appreciation Day” (1991).
S.Res.144: To encourage the European Community to vote to ban driftnets for all European Community fishing fleets (1991).
S.Res.216: Honoring Milton D. Stewart for his leadership and service at the Small Business Administration (2002).
S.Con.Res.26: Calling for the United States to support a new agreement providing for a ban on commercial mining of minerals in Antarctica (1991).
For those of you who decide that you prefer this man to one who (in the words of one of my e-mail list-members) “took out Saddam Hussein, stepped on Arafat’s neck, backed Israel’s war on the terrorists, and gave the EU and UN Palestinian apologists the mighty finger,” what can I say?
I wish you the joy of your conscience come voting day.
I’d also like to say this: If George W. Bush is reelected (please God), do I expect him to do things I won’t like? Do I expect him to pressure Israel into doing things I don’t approve of? You bet I do. I’m not naive. But given my choice, I also expect to be around at the end of the next four years to vote again. With Kerry, I’m not so sure.
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