I am grateful that you (FP) know that in order for your reporting to really mean something, you have to go to the place and speak to the people involved. So many reporters write copy in the West, but they haven't set foot outside of their office, so it means little. At least you and your team go to Israel.
I am grateful that you (FP) know that in order for your reporting to really mean something, you have to go to the place and speak to the people involved. So many reporters write copy in the West, but they haven't set foot outside of their office, so it means little. At least you and your team go to Israel.
Your introductory sentence about a free society being only as strong as the people willing to defend it is so true. This is why Russia, China, and Iran are acting as they are; they feel we in the West are weak, and maybe we are. We have lived for so long in relative peace and security that we take it for granted. No one alive in my country (Canada) has experienced the country under attack, and truthfully, it is even hard to imagine it.
The people of Israel (including the Israelites) have been constantly under threat in all of recorded history. They have been attacked by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, The Ottoman Turks, and so on to our modern times, where Hamas attacked on October 7th.
I feel ashamed and embarrassed when Western governments (especially ours) feel that they have the moral high ground to lecture Israel about how it should defend itself. As you mentioned in your article, over half of the Democrats polled in the US would flee if attacked and 25% of the Republicans as well. I shudder to think what the same poll would determine in my country.
I do know that if the US or Canada were actually attacked and many lives were lost, there would be an about-face pretty quickly. Nothing quashes complacency like armed thugs streaming through your neighbourhood, eager to kill you and all the people you love.
As an aside (but I feel it's related), large cities like New York and Toronto have been experiencing unsafe streets and crime waves in recent years for what I feel is the same reason. People have been experiencing safety and security for over a generation and they become complacent. Past generations (especially in NYC) experienced terrible eras of massive homicide rates and street crime through the 1970s, 80s and early 1990s. It was only when the people of NYC had enough and decided to take their city back it changed. For twenty years, things improved, and now the new generation takes that peace and security for granted. Humans tend to repeat the same cycles over and over; we never learn.
I do feel a shift in the wind lately, and people who live in these largely Democratic, left-wing, so-called progressive (I call cowardly) cities are realising that if they want to live in peace and security and not have the National Guard and state police in the subway, then they have to support law enforcement. They are, I believe, also now realizing also that you can have all the security in the world, and it doesn't mean anything if you constantly release (with no bail) violent criminals back into society just because you feel it's progressive not to have people in jail. The truth is that jail is progressive. In the not-so-distant past (1962 Canada), people were hanged (executed) for many of the crimes that so many inmates are in for today. 27 states in the US still have the death penalty, and I support it for crimes of murder, rape and terrorism.
This relates to Israel today. They were attacked, murdered, raped and subjected to terrorism on a massive scale. I suspect many left-leaning, peace-loving Israelis changed their views on October 7. This is expected and necessary if one wants to survive. You can only bury your head in the sand for so long. We in the West have no business telling Israel what to do or how to do it. They are fighting for their literal survival. Israel (9 million) is surrounded by over 440 Million Arabs, and even if just one-tenth of the Arabs want to kill the Jewish people, that is too many for Israel to ever be complacent like us.
The media in the West wants us to feel bad for the Palestinians, but I find I cannot. They have repeatedly turned down peace deals and two state agreements over and over for years and years. They have taken literally billions of aid dollars and turned Gaza into an armed camp. They publically state they will do Oct 7 again and again, and this is unacceptable to me. Israel vacated Gaza in August 2005. Gaza gets billions of dollars in aid. They are literally on the Mediterranean, and Gaza could be a paradise, but they are fixated on eradicating the Jews. This is what they live for and are prepared to die for...why? Because Mohammed was denounced as a false prophet by Jewish leaders in Medina almost 1500 years ago. The Palestinains appear to be a people stuck in time and glued to a medieval idea that Israel will one day be solely occupied by Muslims. This will never happen without a third world war and millions of deaths. They know this, but for the sake of their false prophet's ideals they are willing to suffer and die for nothing.
We in the West must recognise this mindset and take steps to guard against it taking root here. I do beleive we in the West have a lot to fight and die for but we will need more than 48% of Democrats (Liberals) and 75% of Republicans (Conservatives) to do it.
I am grateful that you (FP) know that in order for your reporting to really mean something, you have to go to the place and speak to the people involved. So many reporters write copy in the West, but they haven't set foot outside of their office, so it means little. At least you and your team go to Israel.
Your introductory sentence about a free society being only as strong as the people willing to defend it is so true. This is why Russia, China, and Iran are acting as they are; they feel we in the West are weak, and maybe we are. We have lived for so long in relative peace and security that we take it for granted. No one alive in my country (Canada) has experienced the country under attack, and truthfully, it is even hard to imagine it.
The people of Israel (including the Israelites) have been constantly under threat in all of recorded history. They have been attacked by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, The Ottoman Turks, and so on to our modern times, where Hamas attacked on October 7th.
I feel ashamed and embarrassed when Western governments (especially ours) feel that they have the moral high ground to lecture Israel about how it should defend itself. As you mentioned in your article, over half of the Democrats polled in the US would flee if attacked and 25% of the Republicans as well. I shudder to think what the same poll would determine in my country.
I do know that if the US or Canada were actually attacked and many lives were lost, there would be an about-face pretty quickly. Nothing quashes complacency like armed thugs streaming through your neighbourhood, eager to kill you and all the people you love.
As an aside (but I feel it's related), large cities like New York and Toronto have been experiencing unsafe streets and crime waves in recent years for what I feel is the same reason. People have been experiencing safety and security for over a generation and they become complacent. Past generations (especially in NYC) experienced terrible eras of massive homicide rates and street crime through the 1970s, 80s and early 1990s. It was only when the people of NYC had enough and decided to take their city back it changed. For twenty years, things improved, and now the new generation takes that peace and security for granted. Humans tend to repeat the same cycles over and over; we never learn.
I do feel a shift in the wind lately, and people who live in these largely Democratic, left-wing, so-called progressive (I call cowardly) cities are realising that if they want to live in peace and security and not have the National Guard and state police in the subway, then they have to support law enforcement. They are, I believe, also now realizing also that you can have all the security in the world, and it doesn't mean anything if you constantly release (with no bail) violent criminals back into society just because you feel it's progressive not to have people in jail. The truth is that jail is progressive. In the not-so-distant past (1962 Canada), people were hanged (executed) for many of the crimes that so many inmates are in for today. 27 states in the US still have the death penalty, and I support it for crimes of murder, rape and terrorism.
This relates to Israel today. They were attacked, murdered, raped and subjected to terrorism on a massive scale. I suspect many left-leaning, peace-loving Israelis changed their views on October 7. This is expected and necessary if one wants to survive. You can only bury your head in the sand for so long. We in the West have no business telling Israel what to do or how to do it. They are fighting for their literal survival. Israel (9 million) is surrounded by over 440 Million Arabs, and even if just one-tenth of the Arabs want to kill the Jewish people, that is too many for Israel to ever be complacent like us.
The media in the West wants us to feel bad for the Palestinians, but I find I cannot. They have repeatedly turned down peace deals and two state agreements over and over for years and years. They have taken literally billions of aid dollars and turned Gaza into an armed camp. They publically state they will do Oct 7 again and again, and this is unacceptable to me. Israel vacated Gaza in August 2005. Gaza gets billions of dollars in aid. They are literally on the Mediterranean, and Gaza could be a paradise, but they are fixated on eradicating the Jews. This is what they live for and are prepared to die for...why? Because Mohammed was denounced as a false prophet by Jewish leaders in Medina almost 1500 years ago. The Palestinains appear to be a people stuck in time and glued to a medieval idea that Israel will one day be solely occupied by Muslims. This will never happen without a third world war and millions of deaths. They know this, but for the sake of their false prophet's ideals they are willing to suffer and die for nothing.
We in the West must recognise this mindset and take steps to guard against it taking root here. I do beleive we in the West have a lot to fight and die for but we will need more than 48% of Democrats (Liberals) and 75% of Republicans (Conservatives) to do it.