RUTHFULLY YOURS

Friends, I have a piece about Israel in the current issue of National Review. I thought I’d “blow it out” here in Impromptus. By that I mean, do an expanded version, in bulleted sections. See what you think.

During last month’s presidential debate, many of the candidates mentioned Israel. Jeb Bush, for example, said that we need to reestablish “our commitment to Israel, which has been altered by this administration.” Carly Fiorina said that the first phone call she would make, from the Oval Office, would be to “my good friend Bibi Netanyahu.” Its purpose would be “to reassure him we will stand with the State of Israel.”

Ted Cruz said, “If I’m elected president, our friends and allies across the globe will know that we stand with them. The bust of Winston Churchill will be back in the Oval Office. And the American embassy in Israel will be in Jerusalem.”

From time immemorial, American presidential candidates have pledged to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Then, when they become president, they find it inconvenient. Ted, however, is serious.

(I’d better append my disclosure: here. He is a friend, and I back him.)

After the debate, some observers wondered, “Why so much attention to Israel? Are these people running for president of the United States or president of Israel?”

I myself have received similar questions over the years. People ask, sometimes with scorn, sometimes with sincere curiosity, “Why do you write so much about Israel? Why are you hung up on Israel?” I would think the answer were obvious. But if it were, people would not ask these questions. And honest questions deserve honest answers.

Israel is the only state whose very right to exist is called into question. (Ukraine, however, is beset with problems of its own. And Taiwan has well-founded anxieties.) Ever since it was born in 1948, people have tried to kill Israel. It is a tiny country amid enemies.

Four wars of annihilation have been waged against Israel. There have been smaller conflicts as well, though still serious. Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties with Israel. The first came in 1979, the second in 1994. Israel is still waiting for the third treaty.

Was ExxonMobil better at climate science than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? This is the bizarre position now being adopted by climate activists such as Harvard’s Naomi Oreskes and 350.org’s Bill McKibben. As early as 1977, Exxon researchers “knew that its main product would heat up the planet disastrously,” McKibben claimed in the New Yorker last month. “Present thinking,” an Exxon researcher wrote in a 1978 summary, “holds that man has a time window of five to ten years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical.”

Ten years later, in 1988, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme jointly established the IPCC and, according to a U.N. General Assembly Resolution, tasked it with preparing “a comprehensive review” of the state of knowledge of the science of climate change. Two years later, the IPCC produced its first assessment report. By the late 1980s, the threat of human-driven climate change had, Oreskes wrote in the New York Times last week, “become an observed fact.”

Father of stabber:”It is not a loss when you are talking about Palestine…My son is an offering to the Al-Aqsa [Mosque]”
Mother of killer of 2:”O mother of Martyr, let out cries of joy”
Father of killer of 2:”He avenged [the women of Al-Aqsa]… against the impure enemies…He made everyone lift his head up high.May he find favor in the eyes of Allah”

Uncle of stabber:”This is a wedding, it is a celebration.We consider him [a Martyr] with Allah”

PA promotes Martyrdom-death

Fatah official about Fatah youth:
“Potential Martyrs for the beloved Palestine”

Fatah official posts music video:
“My blood will be shed for Al-Aqsa”

Children express desire to die for Allah and Al-Aqsa

“Mom, I want to die as a Martyr.
I want to carry out a Martyrdom operation (i.e., terror attack)
in order to kill some Israeli soldiers”

Amid the current Palestinian riots and wave of terror attacks, Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials continue to praise terrorist murderers as “Martyrs” and “heroes.” Some also encourage Shahada – seeking death as Martyrs for Allah. Becoming a Martyr (Shahid) represents the highest religious achievement that can be attained by a Muslim.

You might think that the obstacles to peace are the rockets from Gaza, the brutal murders of Jews and the recent suicide bombing. You might think that it was the Muslims who taunted and beat Adelle Banita-Bennett, suddenly widowed at 22, trying to escape the Muslim terrorist who had murdered her husband. You might think that it’s the fact that a majority of Muslims in ’67 Israel spit on the Two-State Solution and that PLO boss Abbas rejected the Oslo Accords in a speech at the United Nations.

And you would be wrong.

None of those things are obstacles to peace. If they were, surely the media would have told us so.

The real threats are the fig, palm and carrot trees around a hiking path near Jerusalem. The true threat to peace comes from the pine trees that shade the kids playing in the water in a Ma’ale Adumim park.

The pine tree, you see, is a Jewish tree.

HERO: Israeli man who subdued a terrorist with his nunchucks after stabbing and trying to steal weapon of soldier. pic.twitter.com/6qYsEWDvds

— Israel News Feed (@IsraelHatzolah) October 12, 2015

It was another bloody day of attacks on Israelis, but one civilian hero showed just what a handy pair of nunchucks can do against a terrorist.

According to police, a Palestnian man on a Jerusalem bus stabbed an IDF soldier and attempted to steal his gun.

Enter Jerusalem resident Yair Ben Shabat: “I jumped onto the bus and helped them struggle with the terrorist. I took nunchucks out and hit him where I had to for them to be able to pry loose the weapon he held.”