Posted by
Beninindiana on Friday, July 14, 2006 2:52:39 AM
As a former soldier I completely respect the Israeli situation. Let's imagine this was our own neighborhood for a moment.
Your father gave you a large plot of land to raise your family and try to make it better than he had in his life. So, you start your family and life is good. The kids learn to be prosperous and try to get along with the neighbors as best as they know how. Life is good. At some point A couple of your neighbors get together and buy a small bit of land adjacent to your property. On this land they put their most incorrigible children. After that they begin to tell all of the rest of the neighbors that the land you occupy was really part of the land that they purchased initially and that you really had no right to it. Some time goes by, your children multiply and improve the land. But, you have these neighbors. They have managed to snow some of the other neighbors and now half of the block is pressuring you to make a concession so the bad neighbors will just be quiet. You think about it for a little bit and decide, yes I will give them some of what I have so they can know the joy I have known.
Time goes by and you become even more prosperous on your diminished plot. The neighbors, however, have done what they have always done. raise hell and take for granted the things that have been given to you. Now the land lies fallow again and they see your shiny new tractor. Oh, things would be better for them if they had that tractor. The guy down the street, who never liked you anyway buys the neighbor a gun to get your tractor. While it may have been easier and better to help them make the most of what they had, instead they tell them how bad you are and tell them to take what you have. You see this happen, you buy a couple of guns yourself, just to be prepared in case the worst happens. At he same time your sister says we have so much and they so little lets just give them a little.
Your sister is a smart woman and you like her so you decide to take her advice. The neighbors say, "We got some of their land twice and they rolled over both times." Now they decide they want even more. But, at this point you have just enough to keep your family in good stead. You simply cannot give anymore. Here come the neighbors and they take one of your kids. At this point you have a choice. Do I a) Give them some of what I have little enough of already. Or b) Do I decide that it is at a point where I have to stand up for my own.
My thought is that you would choose b. At some point you must not only stand your ground but right the wrongs that have been done to you and yours. And in what may be overly simplistic terms is what Israel faces.
After many, many years of appeasement they decided that they could stand for no more. MAny in the media will have you believe that it is an incursion or a skirmish. They are wrong. It is at this point that we must decide what we are made of. Do we stand for those who stand for themselves, or do we let our neighbors farm get burned and pray that ours is not next.