by Dr. Lazerson

I recently attended a Holocaust memorial in Miami Beach. The event, which turned into a rally for Israel, was well attended and featured remarks by Jack Kemp.

Across the street was a noisy counter-rally by the Arab community, demonstrating their support for the Palestinians. I was amazed to see them holding signs that read "Stop Killing Civilians!

Real Bizarre! It reminded me of that great line from the movie "Back To The Future"; "Hello; McFly; Anybody Home?"

What a contradiction! Were my eyes deceiving me? Palestinians urging others to stop harming innocent civilians? The very same people who glorify suicide bombers, who try to harm as many civilians as possible, including women & children, as they eat pizza, ride busses, shop in the market, or sit down with the family for a Passover celebration.

"Hello? Anybody home?"

It is in the United State's (& Europe's, mind you) own interest to encourage Israel to wipe out the terrorists; They should actively support Israel, just as freedom-loving countries formed a coalition against the Taliban.

These loonies have a hit list a mile long. If terrorists are allowed to remain in the Middle East, they will eventually send the suicide bombers to our own cities. To them, all Westerners are "infidels" and deserving death.

Israel, thank G-d, wins the physical battles, but we have a rough time with the media. Here, we always seem to be trying to dig ourselves out of a hole. The Arab propaganda machine is quick to distort facts and make up damn lies.

Take Jenin for example. It's always referred to as a "refugee camp." Almost all their towns are. I always pictured it as a place where people sleep in tents and draw water from nearby wells. The fact is that Jenin is a large town with buildings, stores, running water, electricity, taxis, busses and restaurants; It is home to some of the most anti-Jewish terrorists, funded and deeply connected to the PA, under, surprise surprise, Arafat's command.

The media is full of reports of alleged atrocities committed by the IDF against civilians. My son, who serves in the IDF, tells me of fellow soldiers witnessing Arabs in Jenin shooting at fellow Arabs who came to retrieve bodies for burial.

Why would they prevent their own people from burying their dead? Very simple.

They wanted to use this as a ploy to deceive the media into thinking that Israel was bad. Another big surprise, eh?

Another matter was the destruction of homes and buildings. It must be mentioned that the US strategy was indeed different than the IDF's campaign of "Operation Protective Wall." The US went after the Taliban with an air bombing blitz that was almost 24/7 for two months straight! One can only imagine the devastation, for there were no daily records of how many killed on both sides. This media technique is reserved only for Israel, where the media takes a biased role of equating both sides. Like a baseball score, they report the daily scoreboard; today the tally is 1264 killed on this side and 256 on the other.

Since we tend to sympathize with the underdog, it leaves one with the feeling that the ones with the lower number of losses are the big bullies. It makes no mention of the fact that there would be no need for Operation Protective Wall or army checkpoints or even, perhaps, an Israeli army, if the Palestinians had actively pursued peace rather than violence. Let's be clear. There is no moral equivalence of Israelis acting in legit self-defense and Arabs (disregarding their part of the peace accords) accumulating weapons and attacking Israel.

Why wasn't this same principle of the "daily scoreboard" applied to the US Afghanistan campaign? Because the numbers might astound us. Maybe it wasn't just numbers of people. Perhaps it was entire towns villages wiped off the map? Since it was all hush-hush, we shall never really know.

In Jenin, the IDF chose to send in the ground forces rather than bomb the heck out of 'em and level the joint. They took their time, went house to house, building by building - many which were booby-trapped by the terrorists, narrow street to narrow street, at risk to their own lives. They did this to minimize Arab civilian casualties.

And yet, what was the end result for these noble efforts? Once again the media pointed fingers at Israel claiming "foul play!" When it comes to Israel, we're damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don't.

This being the case, we'd better take the "do" side of things. Israel needs to be proactive and take decisive action to respond to terrorism as the US has done. We cannot negotiate, discuss details, make new treaties and accords, and shake hands when the other party has a very different agenda. The PA, full of doubletalk - (one thing in Arabic and another in English), still has not accepted the notion of living side by side with an Israeli state. Israel is not on their maps. It simply doesn't exist. Their school books and educators teach the kids to hate Jews. And their suicide bombers are glorified as heroes.

The last point, and this may be the most important, involves use of the media favorite "occupied territory." What a doozy expression. It gets the cerebral cortexes whirling, the heart pumping, and the blood boiling. If "occupied" refers to a foreign or outside conquering army or group of people taking over another piece of land, then let's call a spade a spade.

The entire planet is "occupied territory!" Nearly every single country on Earth is currently hosted by some outside, not-always-been-here-forever, people or nation. We need not look any farther than our own USA.

Ask the Native-Americans how they feel about Columbus Day! Yes, the Indians were here first. Then came the Spaniards, the Portugese, the French, the English, etc. Europe, that loves pointing accusations at tiny Israel, is a history filled with roving groups of peoples, kings, conquerers, displacers, warriors who pursued gold, honor and mainly lots and lots of land. Wherever their armies marched to, wherever their ships took them, they planted a flag and claimed it for the glory of the homeland. The Europeans are experts at "occupation."

But the analogy goes just so far. In Israel's case, the Jews have been there since Abraham. We're talking almost 2,000 years before Islam even came on the scene! Biblically, of course, Israel is the "Promised Land," given by G-d to the children of Jacob. Thus, besides the fact we won this land with victories in four major wars, (of self-defense, mind you) Israelis are not "occupiers" but liberators. The Jewish people are living in a land that is truly theirs, both historically and militarily.

By the way, there never was a separate state in the Middle East belonging to "Palestinians." Just a few years back, "Palestine" referred to the Jew's homeland. It is the so-called Palestinians who are the real occupiers, not Israel. And when Jordan controlled the area not so long ago, the world never heard a blooming thing from any so-called Palestinian.

Imagine what would happen if the Mexican-Americans decided to take back what they still consider to be "their" land of Texas from the "oppressors," the American nation of today. Suppose they began training, recruiting, receiving funds and smuggling weapons from Mexico and Latin America. With backing of their religious leaders, they deemed it proper to strap explosives to their bodies and blow into pieces as many of the "enemy" as possible - even as they sat munching innocently on Big Macs, or riding to work, or sitting together for an Easter meal. Then they began shooting at random drivers on the highways on a daily basis. And imagine for a moment that these same "freedom fighters," "activists," "militants" (we wouldn't dare label them "terrorists") took their holy war to our capital, Washington, DC, and started bombing malls and restaurants and killing members of the President's cabinet.

Would the Americans urge restraint? Pullbacks? Negotiations? Land for peace deals? Like, hey take New Jersey and leave us alone!

Right. The "Vitamin B" campaign would begin. Big time. You know, the B-1 bomber, the B-7 bomber, the B-19 bomber, etc. Their organizations would be shut down. Permanently. Hostile communities, entire towns harboring and nurturing terrorists would be given a one-way ticket to kingdom come.

No second thoughts. No apologies. No UN dignitaries declaring how bad the US soldiers were. And no outrageously biased bad press. Those who stayed in their towns to fight (like in Jenin) would bear the full fury of what Bush called America after 9/11- the "aroused sleeping giant!"

And it would be done with or without a boycott from the European Union (although they'd never have the guts to play this game with America), for the US would rightfully declare "we have a right to live freely and we will do all we can to insure this right!"

What would the end result be? The madness would stop. People could start riding busses and driving along the roadways without fear.

They could go out at night for a slice of pizza and a cup of coffee and not have to worry about coming home alive. And they could live together with the Indians who believed in peaceful, mutual coexistence under the American constitution.

Hello? Anybody home?