LOVE LETTER TO ISRAEL

Nidra Poller

Count me in on the National Union, haverim! How can I tell you merci, thank you, grazie, toda rabah and bravo for your courage and double bravo for your finesse. Where else do you see an army combine heavy duty military action with the delicate handcraft of the finest jewelers? Truth is, we have more experience in making jewelry than in making war. And that’s part of my wondrous admiration. This meteoric rise to proficiency in sixty years of sovereignty. Less than a lifetime! While these wimpy Europeans who are scolding you for smashing Hamas have so many centuries of war under their belts and no stomach for facing up to tyrants. Ceasefire, they squeak, like decrepit old codgers sitting on the porch of a rest home. Ceasefire, whoever you are, whatever you’re doing, just stop it! Some of us here in the Diaspora—I should say the galut, n’est-ce pas?—grow impatient when we see you hunker down instead of hitting back while Hamas uses you as a dart board for Qassams and the Iranian godfather trumpets his intention to exterminate you…and us. We don’t always understand your exquisite concern for the civilians who vote these Jew-killers into power. “Can’t you see,” we admonish you, “you’re playing into their game. They all run together when it’s a question of hounding Jews to death, but as soon as you lift a hand, poof!, they are innocent civilians who shouldn’t be punished for voting for Hamas.” Here, from a safe distance, we give you marching orders. Smash Hamas, Crush Hizbullah, Take out the mullah’s nuclear sites. Other voices, equally determined, command you to make concessions, make peace, make nice, make the UN approve us and our enemies love us and, above all, don’t make waves. We meddle in your elections, own and disown you according to changing fashion. Some of our young people wave your flag, too many of our high profile commentators drag you through the mud, and we all—whether or not we admit it—huddle under your sheltering wing.

Now, suddenly, you strike like the outstretched hand. It’s so clean. So intelligent. So beautifully coordinated. The art of war! Only last week Hamas was publicly gloating: hee hee, we ended the truce and Israel doesn’t know what to do about it. Hamasniks were strutting around in uniform, laying on sharia with increasing brutality, drooling over the coming destruction of Israel and suddenly, pam! Divine retribution stomps the villains in one fell swoop and my Jewish heart swells with pride. This is the difference, this is the “never again.” We do not count on easy tears over the victims of the Shoah, we count on Israel.

You are brave, and tough, and lucid. You strike with precision because your minds are not clouded with hatred. This is the secret of Jewish survival through centuries of persecution. It’s the secret of Israel’s survival, a pearl in an ocean of hostile Muslim nations: you are not consumed with hatred.

European leaders prattle while Islamic fire licks at their feet. They still hold the reigns of power domestically (nominally?), still pretend to count for something internationally, and have no shame in mouthing platitudes about restraint, end to violence, political solutions, and disproportionate force. Hasbara-wise, what can you say to these people? The best statement is the action. Voilà. We did it. We folded our air force into a mighty fist and destroyed Hamas’s evil toys with one-two-three quick clean blows.

How can you explain-- to the morally tone deaf-- the whys and wherefores of this operation? An in-your-face mirror would be the best tool. Look here, monsieur European Union, see yourself in the act of defending Hamas. Hamas, not helpless civilians, not innocent peace partners, Hamas that vows to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews worldwide. Hamas, buddy-buddy with Iran. Iran and Hamas that want to kill you too, unless you submit to sharia law and worship their prophet. Sharia law that Hamas imposed in Gaza. Imposed on those innocent civilians you claim to cherish and protect. Amputation, beheadings and, or so it seems, crucifixion are among the refined punishments recently established by Hamas. Yes, refined, because when Hamas forces took over the Gaza strip in the summer of 2007, they threw Fatah members from tall buildings. When Hamas strikes its Fatah rivals in Gaza, they run to Israel as if she were their ima.

Hold a mirror to the scolder’s eyes, that they might behold their scale of values. And then shower them with press clippings. Only a month ago, in Mumbai, jihadis executed close to 200 civilians. Some were mowed down like sitting ducks. Some were carefully picked out, tormented, tortured, killed, and mutilated. The worst treatment of all was reserved for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife Rivka, and other Jews in the Chabad center. Is that what you want for all of us, monsieur and madame hand-wringer? You want us to be helpless victims of crazed jihadis who break down the door, hold us at their mercy, subject us to atrocious torture and death? Show me one iota of difference between the Mumbai jihadis and the Gaza jihadis…and the jihadis who will come for you one day. Unless we stop them now.

The French can’t find a sensible translation for “cast lead.” Don’t think any of their knowing journalists would even try to tell us what it means. I learned from Steve Plaut that oferet yitzuka comes from a Hanukah song (one I’ve never heard): “Daddy bring me a little Hanuka menorah in cast lead.” It signifies, says Steve, Israeli unity in this fight against Hamas. After fiddling around with melted lead and molten lead, French-speakers—including the Israeli embassy here—have opted for hardened lead (plombe durci). No way a kid would ask daddy for a hanukiah in hardened lead. The French term for cast metal is trempé. And that does make sense. Plombe trempé is strong, durable, tough.

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December 30: reality comes pouring in on all sides. First, forgive my initial naïve enthusiasm. I don’t take back the pride, but I recognize that oferet yitzuka has just begun. The troops massed on the border will, we hope--but wish they didn’t have to—move in and do what can only be done on the ground. Young men and women who would like to be celebrating the civil New Year like their counterparts in Europe and the U.S. will face firebombs instead of popping champagne corks. They are putting their young lives in danger. Every casualty breaks my heart. But for Europeans there will never be enough Israeli casualties. Well-balanced body count--that’s their concept of just war. They applied it in 2000 and they have already set it in motion for this round of war without end (but they don’t know who is causing it, who is fighting it for them, and how it will end if someone doesn’t fight back).

Think tanker Antoine Basbous, director of l’Observatoire du Monde Arabe (Arab-world Watch) called in on 27 December by the state-owned France 3 TV channel to give his expert viewpoint was asked what he thought about Condoleeza Rice’s condemnation of…Hamas for persistently attacking Israel. Basbous blurted out: “That’s ridiculous! Only one Israeli was killed!” He went on to explain that after dozens of Israelis were killed, maybe perhaps there would be good reason to point a finger at Hamas. Given that, in his opinion, European nations could have no influence on the conflict as long as the Americans continued to coddle Israel, he concluded with high hopes that Obama would soon step in and repair America’s battered image in the Arab world.

The next day, France 3, which is the most anti-Zionist, anti-American, anti-Sarkozy of all the state-owned channels, laid it on thick and heavy. No lie was too blatant as long as it battered Israel’s image in the Eurabian world. Half the casualties, declared a France 3 journalist, lying through her teeth, are civilians. Egypt wants to help the wounded, she whined, but Israel won’t let them cross the border. Massive demonstrations in Arab countries, by Arabs in Israel, she announced with joy, adding in a thousand (Arab?) protestors in Paris.

No longer stunned and dazed, the surviving Hamasniks are busy grinding out Pallywood images. The husky men in uniform writhing in death throes have been pulled off the stage. It’s all civilians now, preferably women and children. Even when news reports are truthful about the death toll, they still choose images of dead children and wailing mothers. PLO spokeswomen ride the airwaves, weaving the lethal narrative of Palestinian suffering. Nothing to eat, nothing to drink (and no one asks how come they have so many rockets) no work, no exit. All they want is a state of their own, to live in peace and prosperity.

By December 29th all traces of Israel’s carefully prepared explanations has disappeared from French media. Years of rocket attacks, unilateral withdrawal, months of patience, the truce, the breaking of the truce…none of this exists anymore. Feeble attempt at balanced reporting backfire. Israeli victims can’t compete with the massacre of the innocent in Gaza. Sderot, Netivot, gutted homes, pierced hearts of Israeli victims have no visual impact. The sun is shining, the homes are neat and clean, the health personnel are bright and fresh, it all looks so lovely compared to the dusty grey ruins of Gaza where dozens of hysterical men and boys drag the wounded like sacks of potatoes and dump them in dirty hospital corridors.

It is all the fault of Israel in our media today. Hamas has been washed clean in its own blood. Hamas has no charter vowing to destroy Israel, no brutal police force, no Taliban style oppression, and no launching pads. The rockets fall into Israel like snowflakes. Gaza is innocence personified. French commentators are on automatic pilot now. Nothing will stop them. They only have eyes for anti-Israel demonstrations, their microphones only reach as far as the mouths of those who condemn us. Newscasters cheerfully announce demonstrations organized by the Muslim Brotherhood as if the Brotherhood were a branch of Virgin Megastore.

Forget about the hasbara. These people who claim to love Muslims couldn’t care less if they die in idiotic martyrdom or rot in stupid tyrannies. These Europeans, who think they are so smart, can’t be bothered to look into the subtleties of the Arab world, to notice that Egypt and Saudi Arabia, for example, are chuckling under their flowing robes at the sight of Hamas getting its nose bloodied. Not to mention Mahmoud Abbas, chortling like Santa Claus while the elves do all the heavy lifting.

Cast Lead is more revealing than crystal clear glass. Behold the champions of human rights, trashing Tsahal and covering for Hamas. Don’t explain anything to them; ask them to explain why they want Jews to die like Chabadniks in Mumbai instead of living like free men and women? Ask them why they themselves want to die like Jews in Mumbai instead of defending their crippled democracies?

And please, haverim, don’t back down. Go jusqu’au bout. We are with you, we’ll defend you on the home front while you defend us on the battlefield. Just don’t back down, don’t hold your fire, don’t listen to the sirens of hypocritical peacemakers. And watch out, because our enemies are surely preparing a Kfar Qana. Don’t flinch when they parade the second-hand dead babies. Your greatest gift to the fight against global jihad lies in NOT explaining why this operation is justified.

As for their jingle about ceasefire and international peacekeepers, it’s not a bad idea…AFTER the war is over. I would suggest that this time, instead of sending in UN or NATO troops, they post French journalists all up and down the Gaza Strip. The contingent stationed near the border with Israel, to keep an eye on the rusting rocket launchers, just in case, should be reserved exclusively for France 3 personnel. Women only. I’m waiting for their reports, when the last straggling heroes of Hamas make a demonstration of Muslim brotherhood.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Friday