We Must Stand By Israel

For as long as I can remember the Middle East has always been described as a “powder keg” of sorts, just waiting for someone to strike a match as the world awaited the beginning of World War III to begin. I’ve also always remembered professors and faculty members in many of the history classes I’ve taken referred to the area as “Cradle of Civilization.”

I will always remember how difficult it was to either write or say the word Mesopotamian in some of those World History classes I was required to take in either high school or college, most modern-day scholars are in agreement however, that the area known as Mesopotamia rightly agree that this area in the Middle East is home to some of the first urban civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians.

These civilizations developed complex societies, with writing systems, organized government, and advanced technologies such as irrigation systems which allowed crops to be grown and settlements to provide food sources to allow communities to take root, rather than see tribes wander aimlessly throughout the deserts.

From this, we would see the development of organized governmental systems, writing systems, and the creation of complex irrigation systems from which they would be able to feed their growing cities and provide for their cultural development.

As we look deeper into the development of civilization in this area of the world, we also see the foundations of Judaism, as well as Islam and that of Christianity, as baffling as that might seem. One professor I had in college would encourage us to delve deeper into the studies surrounding the world’s religions and theology to begin understanding more about how the various cultures evolved.

It is incredible to think how much blood has soaked into those sands which gave life to so many great civilizations in the history of mankind. Once again, the air is full of the cries from mothers who cradle their dying children and grandchildren in their arms. Husbands and sons, as well as daughters, are called once again to arms to protect the 8,630 sq. miles that make up their country. 

Israel is 261 miles in length and only 72 miles wide at its widest point, about the size of New Jersey. Not a very large land mass, and within it resides nine million people, who this evening while I am writing this are struggling to survive against enemies who are dragging women, children and the elderly into the streets and are murdering them in the most sadistic and inhuman ways, not that there are humane ways to take a life of an innocent victim.

The “Monday Morning Quarterbacks” have been piling on since the news began to break over Saturday, a Holy Day for the people of Israel as well as the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war of 1973, the significance of which is not lost on many. It has also been compared to that of the attacks on our own soil by the cowards who masterminded the 9/11 attacks twenty-two years ago in New York City.

As our citizens stood glued to our media outlets during the aftermath of 9/11, so have the citizens of Israel who have witnessed the carnage and outright savagery of the murderous rampage by cowardly thugs who would attack innocent children, women and the elderly. These were not soldiers but instead spineless and gutless Neanderthals who deserve no mercy.

These terrorists have now vowed to execute citizen hostages if Israel follows through on the destruction of Hamas structures suspected to be harboring terrorists involved in the recent carnage and the stockpiling of weapons and rockets.

I worry for our own nation as those in power have sat back without a plan to tighten our own borders as thousands every day pour over both the southern and northern borders as we refuse to take this challenge to our own sovereignty. President Reagan said it best when he was quoted as saying, “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”  

The foolish notion and effects of the creation of “Sanctuary Cities” are finally coming to be realized by the very politicians who created the problems they themselves have come to create and are now looking for a bailout by the Federal Government. It however is being met by legislation which would deny a federal bailout of those cities.

Maybe someone will establish a “Go-Fund Me Page” to assist those communities which created their own messes.

The world watches as the events unfold almost 6,700 miles away, but the effects should not be lost upon our local citizenry, as Americans are on the ground there in Israel, some of them from here in Collier County. We must do everything in our nation’s power to remove them from harm’s way, as the battle to protect the sovereignty of the State of Israel and its people is fought with whatever assistance our nation can supply.