Hamas War

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Being "Mr. Nice Guy" Doesn't Help

Israel doesn't frighten anyone or any country.  Deterrence doesn't work.  The world sees Israel as a pathetic rudderless country begging its enemies for peace, willing to cut out its heart and shoot its mother.  Our sticking to fictional "rules" and "moralities," we deny our very legitimacy.   No other country would endanger itself this way, and it hasn't done us any good.

It's amazing, totally miraculous that we've survived so long.  G-d keeps giving us more chances.  G-d is merciful, and G-d loves us, even when we abuse His love.

G-d is like a mother.

There's a human mother, actually unfortunately more than one, who is begging for news of her beloved son who was kidnapped by Arab terrorists.  Miriam Baumel has been informed that the British Government has been sitting on information that can shed light on what happened to her son Zachary and two others captured by Syria in  1982--almost forty years ago, but the British won't release the report.  The British fear Syrian reactions.  They don't fear Israel.  They don't fear any moral punishment.  They fear the Syrians more than they fear G-d, ours or theirs.
According to the report Miriam Baumel has unsuccessfully been lobbying the UK government to see the Lucas report for two years. She has repeatedly been rebuffed with the Foreign Office response: "We are conscious that the release of sensitive information would cause harm to our relationship with Syria."

"I just want the public to know this is a humanitarian matter," the Chronicle quoted Baumel as saying. "We keep getting information that these boys and my son were seen in Damascus and that there were witnesses, and anyone who saw something or who could help must help. I feel the possibilities are great that he is still alive, but certainly the families of those who were seen in Damascus are entitled to closure," she added.

"I am calling on the British government to act in a humanitarian manner and let the families know by releasing this document, for us to go further in finding our children. If you have children, if one of your children would be lost, how would you feel?" Baumel added.

3 comments:

David Star said...

mAt no point in British history has there been any sign of integrity in their attitude toward the Jews as a religion,as a British citizen or as a nation.
When my mother arrived in London back in 1906, the first words she learned from English "ladies" were,another bloody Jew".
I have a hard time thinking of the leadership of that country being anything but anti-Semites. In this group, I also include their "Jewish" members of Parliament.
By the way, my mother wisely left for the USA after 4 years.

Batya said...

Good example, David, thanks for the comment.

LondonMale said...

As someone who has lived in London for 40 years, I can say that there are many British people who are not anti-Semitic.
That said, the media here seem to have an anti-Israel slant. Not all of it, but a lot of it.
today there was a bizarre argument on Radio Five, a national BBC radio station.
The presenter got angry with a Jewish American who was defending Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas.
The presenter got emotional becaue there were over 100 Gazan deaths but "only" five Israeli deaths. To the presenter, this meant Israel was using disprportionate force and was morally wrong.
It was weird. There was no accounting by the presenter of the causes of the conflict, or of the military success of Iron Dome. Why should the more successful military by automatically assigned the tag of "morally wrong?".