ISRAEL UPDATEApril 29, 2001 - We are now four months into the Bush presidency. We can see the monumental challenges that he and his cabinet are facing.
Vladimir Puten is not only trying to assert his role as a world leader, but also establish the former Soviet Union's legitimacy as a world power.
Puten has also had four meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair seeking consolidation with the European Common Market, That would greatly reduce America's influence around the world.
Saddam Hussein continues to defy the U.N., but it is America who leads the way. Jordan and Syria have young rulers who are trying to assert themselves not just in their nations, but in the world as well.
In the last month China has stepped to the forefront as a defiant nation to western interests and American sovereignty in the world.
Meanwhile, there are many other nations that are forcing their Presidents and Prime Ministers to resign. With the threat of coups and wars, restless nations clamor for leadership and positive progress.
Realizing this, we saw this week President Bush's condemnation of Israel's defense tactics against terrorists attacking Israeli citizens with mortars.
America is at a critical crossroads of foreign diplomacy and needs its leaders to act according to G-d's wisdom. Coming against Israel will no doubt appease the nations of the world, but will also invoke G-d's wrath on this country. We can't fight G-d.
April 29, 2001 - On Tuesday, April 17, 2001, Israeli Defense Forces launched a three-pronged attack into the Gaza strip, exchanging fire with terrorist forces and bulldozing houses.
Our State Department wasted little time in condemning the attack and bringing strong language to bear on the Israeli government forcing a withdrawal and leaving Israel to look once again like an overreacting aggressor.
It was not hard to notice however, that the media excluded any report of some 80 random mortar the past two months, leveled on Israeli cities; the last attack dropping 6 shells in a densely populated area.
During the first years of the Oslo Accord, Israelis were subjected to a number of suicide bombers on buses and in crowded plazas that killed and wounded scores. Then the violence erupted in what is being called the Intifadah (uprising). Israeli citizens were harassed by random sniper fire and rock-throwing youths.
Now, those so-called "freedom fighters" are using mortars to attempt to show the world their supposed cause can justify the random killing and maiming of non-military personnel in the name of nationalism.
But, whether it is a bus or market place destroyed by a bomb, random sniper fire or mortar fire, the end result is more dead and wounded, more breakdowns in the peace talks and more censure of Israel for being aggressive.
Perhaps the six and seven-year old Palestinian children yelling, "But if I starve I will eat the flesh of my conqueror, beware of my hunger and rage," shows Israel is not the problem after all.
To be continued…