by Sidney Sweeting, DDS
When the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, recently addressed a joint session of the United States Congress he stated that "we have created an oasis of hope and opportunity in a troubled region...but there has been not one day of peace." That's over 21,000 days without peace.
As he spoke with passion and determination his voice cracked as he declared "Let me state this as clearly as I can; we will not yield to terror...we will not surrender to terror...and we will win the war...and restore peace to our society." He then invited the Palestinians to join him in creating a true peace saying that they have a right to freedom and national aspirations and asked them to stop teaching their children how to hate but instead to provide an outlook of hope.
After Israel had succeeded in having Arafat removed from Lebanon in 1982, many thought they would then have "forty years of peace" but within weeks after Bashir Gemayel was elected the new President of the republic of Lebanon he was killed by a bomb placed by a member of the pro-Damascus National Syrian Socialist Party thus dashing Israel's hope for a lasting peace.
When Hezbollah started firing rockets into Israel some three weeks ago I was not aware of anyone asking for intervention to put pressure on them to stop, but as soon as Israel started to retaliate we started hearing cries for the US to put pressure on Israel. Fortunately, both the US and Israel know that to do less than what they are doing would be like trying to push the tide back. The terrorists will move into the populated areas and then move back, with their rockets.
Anyone with any measure of compassion will grieve for those civilians who have been killed or displaced but unfortunately wars are not fought today as they were in the days of bows and arrows when the opposing armies would fight just on the battlefield.
I again quote Prime Minister Olmert "Our moment is now, History will judge our generation by the actions we take now...by our willingness to stand up for peace and security..and by our courage to do what is right...If we don't take Iran's bellicose rhetoric now, we will be forced to take its nuclear aggression seriously later". There is sufficient evidence to prove that Iran's fingerprints are all over this aggression.
Consider how many of Israel's neighbors have stated that Israel should not be allowed to exist, but we have never heard Israel say that about one of them.
Israel is doing what is necessary for them to survive. Let us hope that they succeed.
