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Jewish World Review May 21, 2008 / 16 Iyar 5768 History will redeem Bush By Ed Koch
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
We are now getting down to the homestretch as we wrap up the
Democratic primary and begin the race to the November general election.
We will be electing the next president of the United States, and almost
everyone expressing an opinion, informed or uninformed, believes the
Democratic candidate will be Barack Obama.
I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton, but I too believe the
odds of her defeating Barack Obama are overwhelmingly against her. It
looks as if Senator Obama will prevail in the Democratic primary before
or at the Democratic convention.
His rise has been phenomenal and swift. I believe a major
attraction for Democratic voters is his optimistic personality, a strong
desire for change and racial reconciliation. I believe the U.S. has
indeed entered its Golden Age in which discriminatory views are rapidly
breaking down. The result is that there is virtually no bar to the
election nationally and locally of minority candidates, whether they be
black, Hispanic or Jewish, and that gender bias in the selection of
candidates, whether or not Hillary prevails, has been thoroughly
defeated for elections to come. So our efforts now should be devoted to
nominating and electing the best candidates available, particularly for
president of the United States.
Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a proud American and
a proud Jew who, while not religiously observant, fiercely loves and
defends his faith. It has become fashionable for Americans in general,
Jew and gentile, to hold President George W. Bush up to derision. As I
believe many readers and listeners of my commentaries know, I crossed
party lines in 2004 to support the President's reelection, saying at the
time that I did not agree with him on a single domestic issue, but I did
believe he was the only one running who appreciated the threat of
Islamic terrorism to American values and Western civilization and was
prepared to wage a war to defend those values.
I have no regrets for having made that decision and helping
the President to win a second term. Today, according to the most recent
CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, "71 percent of the American public
disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as President, an all-time
high in polling." His position can be compared with that of Harry
Truman who left Washington unpopular and alone in 1953. Today, with the
passage of time, most historians and certainly the American people, see
Truman in a different light, primarily for his willingness to stand firm
against Soviet aggression, whether against Greece or South Korea, and
proclaim the Truman Doctrine, effectively defending the free world from
Soviet efforts to expand their hegemony. Like Truman, George W. Bush,
in my view, will be seen as one of the few world leaders who recognized
the danger of Islamic terrorism and was willing with Tony Blair to stand
up to it and not capitulate.
In the days of Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization and an organizer and supporter of terror,
Western European countries led by France, Germany and Italy, had
understandings with Islamic terrorists that if the terror was confined
to acts against Israel, the European countries would allow the
terrorists to function without challenge. What those European countries
came to understand was that they could not buy peace by offering up
Israel as a sacrificial lamb, because the ultimate goal of the
supporters of Osama bin Laden, and other jihadists throughout the
Islamic world, was and remains the reestablishment of the caliphate (or
Islamic religious rule) in all Muslim lands, including in any nation
that was once under Muslim rule, e.g., Spain. If successful, this would
place one billion, 400 million Muslims under one theocracy.
As part of their master plan, the jihadists intend to bring
the West to its knees, and to replace moderate Arab regimes, e.g.,
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Turkey, with
Islamic republics, ultimately to become part of the reborn caliphate.
For most of Osama bin Laden's career, the destruction of
Israel was not a priority. However, this has now changed as the
jihadists believe that Western countries have grown weary of unending
war and may be convinced to offer Israel up as a sacrificial lamb.
Recently, President Bush went to Israel to celebrate its
60th birthday as a nation and addressed its parliament, the Knesset. He
said, "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists
and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have
been wrong all along. We have an obligation to call this what it is:
the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited
by history."
Bush's remarks were heavily criticized by leading Democrats,
particularly Barack Obama, who said, "Now that's exactly the kind of
appalling attack that's divided our country and that alienates us from
the world."
Really? Is it wrong to call the philosophy supporting
negotiating at the highest levels — President to President without
pre-conditions — with the terrorists and radicals by its rightful name
— appeasement?
The President was accurate in my opinion in recalling the
specter of Neville Chamberlain's pre-World War II efforts to satisfy
Adolf Hitler. Those efforts responded to Hitler's siren call that all
he wanted was the Sudetenland, with Chamberlain responding, "yes," and
returning to Britain waving a paper and announcing, "peace in our time."
Must we really learn the terrible lesson of Munich all over again
seventy years later?
Israel and the Western world are in great danger from a
declared enemy that knows no limits when it comes to achieving its goal
of destroying Western civilization and spreading militant Islam through
threats and terrorism throughout the world.
The danger to Israel comes not from any unwillingness of its
citizens to fight. They are willing to fight the enemy, and Israel is
willing to suffer the deaths of its young men and women in battle to
preserve its values and its very existence. The Western world appears
in many parts of Europe in particular to have lost its self confidence
and willingness to stand and fight an enemy willing to continue the war
until victory is achieved and their goals met. When one side loses its
resolve to fight and win and the other retains its resolve, that side
which has lost its courage will look for ways to appease and entice the
enemy to bring the war to a conclusion. If the enemy says,
understanding the weakness, "give us the Sudetenland," and later says
"give us all of Czechoslovakia," as we know from history, such demands
will be met. Bin Laden, recognizing the willingness of some in the
Western world to give up today's Czechoslovakia - Israel - in two
messages within the past few days, has emphasized his demand that Israel
be delivered to the jihadists, saying, "To Western nations...this speech
is to understand the core reason of the war between our civilization and
your civilizations. I mean the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian
cause is the major issue for my (Islamic) nation. It was an important
element in fueling me from the beginning and the 19 others with a great
motive to fight for those subjected to injustice and the oppressed."
In fact, in most prior bin Laden threats, Palestine and
Israel were rarely mentioned. Shrewdly, bin Laden, believing that with
the war-weariness rising in the U.S. and Europe, and anti-Semitism
escalating in Europe, there are fertile grounds to make Israel the new
Czechoslovakia.
The reason I believe history will redeem President George W.
Bush is that he is one of the few leaders on the planet today who
understands the larger picture. He has not lost his courage and vision
of the future. He knows what calamities await the world if it engages
in appeasement and deserts an ally in order to buy an illusory peace.
We will recognize his worth long after he is gone.
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JWR contributor Edward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York, can be heard on Bloomberg Radio (WBBR 1130 AM) every Sunday from 9-10 am . Comment by clicking here.
© 2008, Ed Koch |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
