April 14, 2002 -- Orange County Register

Reborn in the 20th century following Hitler's extermination of 6 million Jews before "a silent world", the continued existence of Israel today should be considered a miracle. Surrounded by 21 totalitarian Arab enemy states, tiny, divided, permissively democratic Israel has survived 54 years of Arab onslaught. Less than half the size of San Bernardino County, 1/600 the area of the combined Arab nations, Israel is only 9 miles wide at its narrowest point! With meager natural resources, it has not only survived but thrived, transforming arid, barren wastelands into farms and forests, creating advanced technologies, while serving as a haven for persecuted Jewish refugees and others desiring freedom. For 54 years it has defended itself against hostile internal Arab factions and external enemy neighbors, dedicated to wiping it off the map, while subjected to a biased UN's anti-Israel sanctions, double standards, and forced concessions of "land for enemy promises". With the United States as its only true friend, it has endured criticism and condemnations by a world dependent upon Arab oil, and in addition, it has been subjected to reporting by a media that has long propagandized against the tiny, progressive but struggling nation.

Yes, for 54 years, media editorials and columns have often employed falsified and revised Mideast history and distorted, biased reporting that has been blatantly or subtly prejudiced against Israel. At an O.C."Solidarity For Israel" program (Jewish Community Center, April 10) hundreds roared approval of a suggestion that the L.A. Times be boycotted for its long biased reporting on Israel. And though the Register has had fairer and more objective reporting, I must comment on editorial writer Alan Bock's questionable analysis of today's Mideast crisis (A Mideast moment", Reg., March 17). In reporting on an IDF counter-terrorism incident where a reported Arab suicide bomber was shot before detonation, Bock referred to "execution" photos of the "Palestinian militant". Would Bock refer to the suicide terrorists of 9-11 as Arab "militants" or to US "execution" of Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan? He and many others also mischaracterize the ongoing Mideast conflict, suggesting Arab terrorists are "freedom fighters" dedicated to recovering "Israeli Occupied Territories". Often there's reference to Israeli "violence" against the Arabs rather than IDF counter-terrorism. Boch evidently agrees with Secy. Powell who has long urged "Israel restraint" in it's counter-terrorism efforts. Should the US show similar restraint against Islamic Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists? Today, Powell has evidently succeeded in changing President Bush's pro-Israel, (antiterrorist) "hands off" Mideast policy and has traveled to Israel to force Israel into halting its war against Arab terrorism by an immediate "cease fire". Powell and other world leaders have long demanded that Israel give up the territories that the world and media call "Israeli Occupied" for the purpose of establishing a "Palestinian State". Fact: Transjordan invaded and brutally occupied Samaria and Judea (biblical Israel) from 1948 to 1967, expelling its Jews. For 19 years it was "Jordanian Occupied Territory", but there was never an attempt to form another "Palestinian State" since Jordan, over 70% "Palestinian, was and is a "Palestinian state" 4 times the size of tiny Israel.

Fact: In the 1967 war to save itself from annihilation by the surrounding Arab states, Israel miraculously LIBERATED the territories formerly under the British rule since WWI, where passports named Jews as "Palestinians", and Arabs were labeled Arabs! Why, therefore, has the world, the media and the UN demanded that Israel relinquish the "Liberated Territories" to its dedicated enemies? Didn't King Hussein of Jordan expel Arafat's terrorist PLO in 1971 killing up to 12,000? And after "Desert Storm" didn't Kuwait expel about 350,000 of its "Palestinians" while Saudi Arabia expelled almost 1 million Yemenese who had sided with Saddam? Remember, Powell and Bush Sr. helped save this Mideast "Hitler" from extinction, and earlier the world condemned Israel for destroying Bagdad's atomic facility. Isn't the US and the Free World today still menaced by Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction, and are we not today at war with the very same Islamic-Arab, suicidal bombing, terrorists who wish to destroy Israel? After 54 years, Israel is again at war, perhaps a final war for its very survival. I submit that after 54 years of futile attempts by Israel to coexist with its Arab enemies, and 54 years of Arab terrorism, insurrection and war, (hot and cold) - "Peace Now" Jews are either in denial, or are pathological optimists to disbelieve Arab dedication to wiping Israel off the map. Arafat's recent speeches to his people encouraged thousands of suicide bomber volunteers. What does it take for the US and the Free World to conclude that this duplicitous leader has no credibility and his "land for peace" promises were and are meaningless. Could prewar England rely upon Hitler's promises of "peace" in exchange for a slice of Czech land?

The ultimate solution for Israel and the world: Eliminate Islamic-Arab terrorism wherever it exists. Israel must expel its internal enemies and their Arab enclaves as did Jordan and many other nations in history. For no nation can long survive with an ever expanding, dedicated and deadly internal enemy. In addition, Israel must adopt a constitution establishing itself as a non-pluralistic Jewish Democracy, (e.g., patterned after such democracies as Japan) where only Jews are citizens and only Jews determine Israel's future. And it must establish defensible borders to include Samaria and Judea, if it is to survive. For this may be a final showdown between Israel and it's internal and external Arab enemies who will stop at nothing to destroy the tiny, Jewish State that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust.

Dr Howard Garber, Chapter Chairman
Americans For A Safe Israel
www.afsi.org
(Message/Fax: 714) 282-VOTE

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