Publisher's Note: My friend, Norman Gersman of New York, has accepted my invitation to write a guest essay. It is my honor to publish it here:
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My wife and I enjoyed a dinner with another couple about two weeks before the election. We had all agreed before hand that when we discussed politics it would be kept civil with no name calling so we could stay friends. They are Obama supporters, Israel supporters, and active in their synagogue. When the issue of Obama and Israel came up I was assured over and over again that Obama would support Israel. Israel has nothing to worry about. The fact that Obama hung for many years with people who looked forward to a Palestinian victory was of no importance. “Don’t worry” I was told.
I had a telephone conversation just a few days ago with one member of this same couple and was told that they think Israel could have began Operation Lead Cast now, before the end of current President’s term of office, because Israel is not sure of Obama’s support. I asked: “you told me that Obama will support Israel, so why should Israel worry?” The response was: “we think Obama will support Israel, but we are really not sure what he will do or say.” I ended the conversation quickly before I could say something regrettable. They think, do they ... so flippant when millions of lives are at stake. My anger has not subsided.
So now our President-Elect has returned from his vacation in Hawaii to the cold gray skies of Washington D.C. He must realize that a huge chunk of the American electorate is waiting to find out where he will take American foreign policy in the Middle East, but Obama fails to say a word. He says that we have only one President at a time and therefore it is not appropriate for him to say anything until he is President. Yeah, right. His failure to speak on this issue is a loud and clear statement in itself. This is a clueless man, who now having won the Presidency only has a tiger by its tail.
I look forward to how Obama deals with an organization like Hamas and its leaders. I don’t think he realizes that the leaders of Hamas are not rational people like most of us. Negotiations and truces are instruments to be used only to further their aim of Israel’s destruction. “There is no solution for the Palestinian people except Jihad” states the covenant that created Hamas. This is a bloodthirsty organization that rules over its own people by intimidation, death and the barrel of a gun. I think that Obama will fail to recognize their evil, or the evil of radical Islam to the western world.
Israel will not fall if the Obama administration fails to support her. My only fear is that Israel will lose its humanity if forced to stand alone with no allies. When a catastrophe occurs anywhere in the world Israel is always among the first to offer and send equipment, medicine, people ... whatever is needed to help.
Today, Israel fights a war with both hands tied behind its back to limit civilian casualties. I just read that Israel is using a sound bomb just to scare people away from a building before it is destroyed. At some point Israelis will fight with both hands and we shall lose a compassionate people, they will become hard.
A failure by Obama to recognize evil and destroy Hamas will mean that America and the free world will be leaderless during the next four years. Our ship of state will crash upon some big rocks. It is time for the President-Elect to take a stand .... now. We must know if our leader has a moral compass.
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