Is Peace Possible?
Some of you still think that peace is possible for Israel in the Middle East. Some of you still believe that if Israel would only engage with or negotiate with its Arab enemies, there is chance of peace. Some of you argue that the roots of the conflict and the anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish terrorism and hatred are the so-called occupation, the settlements, the zealot settlers, the road blocks, poverty and a sense of humiliation and hopelessness among the Arabs, especially the Palestinians.
Some of you still believe that if Israel would only withdraw from the so-called occupied territories to the 1967 borders, and a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as a capital would be established, and the Golan Heights would be given away to the Syrians, Israel would at last live in peace with its neighbors.
But the targeting in Mumbai of the Chabad House and the vicious torture and the murder of the Jewish and Israeli hostages should remind us that the root of the conflict is extreme Muslim indoctrination to jihad, violence and hate against Jews.
There is no chance for any true peace in the Middle East for many years to come when several generations of young Arabs and Muslims have already been lost through daily brainwashing to the dark side of civilization, and nothing Israel or the U.S. will do can bring them back. Similar to Nazism, the central theme of their brainwashing is irrational and obsessive hatred of Jews.
Otherwise how can you explain the targeting of Jews in Mumbai, a community of 4,000 Jews in a city of 17 million Indians?
The lone Islamist Pakistani terrorist who was captured during the attack reportedly told his Indian interrogators that the attack at the Chabad House and the killing of the rabbi, his wife and any other Jews present were part of a plan decided a year earlier. His group came largely from rural, southern Pakistan, and therefore it is unlikely that any of them had even encountered a Jew, or knew anyone else who had, before Nov. 26.
Why would a group of Islamist terrorists from Pakistan who hate India and want it to give up control of Indian Kashmir send two of its 10 terrorists, 20 percent of its force, to kill the rabbi and any Jews with him?
Why would Pakistani terrorists expend so much effort to find the main Jewish center in Mumbai - in a city and country that is essentially devoid of Jews - instead of having a grand shootout in the city center? With all their hatred for Hindus and Christians, why did they not attack a Hindu temple or a church and probably kill many more?
Historic parallels
For the Islamists, as for the Nazis, the destruction of the Jews and the Jewish state is central to their ideology and indoctrination of hate.
This brings to mind the historic discussion as to why Hitler weakened the Nazi war machine by diverting so much time, money and manpower in order to murder every Jewish man, woman and child in every country the Nazis occupied. Why, even on the verge of defeat, was the Nazis' main concern hastening the extermination of the Jews?
And, in a final, grisly parallel with the Nazis, for the Islamist terrorists in Mumbai, killing Jews was not enough. They needed to torture them first. One doctor told the Indian News Web site Rediff.com, "It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again."
So, many of you me often ask me, what is my solution to the conflict?
I have never understood why people believe that every conflict can be solved diplomatically. Many attempts by Israel to find a diplomatic solution have caused further violence and bloodshed. The 1993 Oslo agreement and the Camp David accords of 2000 led to more than 5,000 fatalities and injuries to Israelis. Sometimes, the only solution against evil is a military one, just as it was the only solution against Nazism.
Making Israel and the United States stronger than ever militarily, and hunting down and targeting the terrorists and their sponsors is the solution. Cease-fires and negotiations are used by enemies as a delaying tactic and a period for renewed military buildups and training.
In the Middle East, negotiations and territorial withdrawals are perceived as appeasement and weakness and as a motivation to restart violence.
How much more bloodshed is necessary for people to understand that even if Israel gave away all territory demanded and even went further and limited its territory only to the city of Tel Aviv, there would still not be peace, but a jumpstart and invitation for another war? (Shoula Romano Horing, Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, December 12, 2008)