Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Old/New Reality of Never Again

This week Israelis commemorated Yom Ha’Shoah (The Holocaust Remembrance Day).  Israel commemorates Holocaust on the day of Warsaw uprising between Passover and the Israeli Independence day – a very symbolic timing between a holiday that celebrates the first time the Jewish people were saved from slavery to win their freedom and the establishment of the state of Israel in the Jewish historical homeland after Jews suffered untold atrocities of the Holocaust.

During his speech at the Israeli Holocaust ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “And let the world know, that when the People of Israel, and the IDF say "never again" – we mean it.”  
As a reminder of the atrocities of Holocaust, I suggest watching the following short video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0td-vyJAC0

This week brought another notable event when President Obama announced the killing of the al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden by the hands of the American Navy SEALs.  The question is whether Obama’s willingness to kill Bin Laden makes him an ally in assuring the “Never Again” pledge that was stated so eloquently by PM Netanyahu on May 1, 2011?
Despite the Obama’s administration determined actions to eliminate Bin Laden, there is still strong evidence that his administration has not changed their Islamic appeasement policies.  First of all, they bothered with the absurdity of burying Bin Laden at sea accordance to Islamic law – they washed the body, wrapped it in a white shroud according to Islamic tradition, and conducted a 45 minutes Islamic funeral in Arabic.  As stated by John Brennan at a White House briefing: "We early on made provisions for that type of burial and we wanted to make sure that it was going to be done, again, in strictest conformance."  Then there was the concern with Arab/Muslim sensitivity for showing the post killing Bin Laden photos.


Of course, the administration and President Obama need to be congratulated for aggressively pursuing and assassinating (yes, let’s call it for what it was – a targeted assassination) the public enemy number one!  However, the bigger question for Israel and the Jews is why our ally isn’t as eager to pursue the leaders of Hamas or Hezbollah?  They are also responsible for the murder of hundreds of innocent people.  Why are the Europeans and U.S. not outraged by so called unification between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas?  Instead, there have been only muted comments that the unified PA leadership should recognize Israel’s right to exist and abandon terrorism.  Could that be, perhaps, because Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah have been targeting mainly Jews?

Above all, we must consider that in addition to Hezbollah and the Palestinian/Arab terrorists, the main threat against the Jews today was not Usama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.  The main threat to our existence is the rise of the Muslim-fascists state of Iran with its mad dash to acquire nuclear weapons.  Iran has repeatedly declared its intention to wipe Israel off the map.  Unfortunately, here again, there is no indication that the Obama administration has not changed its policy of “engagement”.  Obama will not be as aggressive in dealing with the Iranian threat as dealing with Bin Laden.  Was the assassination of Bin Laden just a façade to distracting us from dealing with the greatest Evil in the world today – Iran?!

The post Holocaust pledge of “Never Again” must be the main objective of every Jew and free minded person in the world.  We must remember that keeping Israel strong is the best chance for continued survival of the Jewish people wherever they are so that “Never Again” is assured for generations to come!