October 21, 2008
Motzei Chag (After the Holiday)
"Chilling Prospects"
For us here in Israel, the Sukkot-Simchat Torah holiday season has ended; in the Diaspora, it will be another day. This holiday is the season of our joy, and, indeed, it is celebrated with gladness and song.
But now it is time to come down to earth and focus on matters both mundane and serious. There are a dozen issues on my lists -- topics to be explored. Yet I've decided to devote today's posting to one issue alone: The election in the US. The ramifications of what is taking place are extraordinarily serious.
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Just days ago, someone in the States with whom I am very close told me that he could understand how I might favor McCain because he is stronger on terrorism, but...and but... there are many other reasons to vote Obama. I would suggest that there is no "but." That the heart of the matter lies with this issue.
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I wish to make it clear that I am not writing this as an Israeli, who wants to see an American president who will be good for Israel (although, clearly, I do). I am writing as a voting American citizen who has lived most of her life in the US. My overriding concern here is for what is happening to America, and by extension the Western world.
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What my being in Israel has done is to broaden my perspective. And I seek here to bring that perspective to Americans. John McCain's tougher stance on terrorism is important not just for Israel, but also for America. The failure of many Americans to perceive this is both shocking and frightening. It's as if nothing has been learned.
What should have been learned -- back in the 1930s, when Hitler was not stopped -- is that appeasement does not work.
Yet now we are facing a world threat as serious as the Nazi threat and -- may Heaven help us all -- the US electorate seems prepared to put into office the candidate who espouses a philosophy of appeasement. The candidate who simply doesn't get it: who is ready to sit down and talk with Iran without preconditions, who is vigorously promoting a state for the Palestinians without demanding that they first relinquish terrorism.
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It could be that the US electorate is prepared to vote Obama because it not only he who doesn't get it. What I fear is that a large percentage of Americans don't get it either.
From where I sit it is very clear. There is evil afoot in the world, an evil that it behooves us to stop before it is too late. Islamic Jihadists -- with an Iran that intends to go nuclear seeking to lead the way -- are deadly serious about establishing a new Caliphate and destroying the Western way of life. Wake up, my friends! The Twin Towers wasn't taken down by downtrodden, poor, hopeless Arabs, but by educated Arabs living a materially comfortable life, and motivated by an ideology of hate.
Here in Israel, we pulled -- so foolishly, so wrongly -- out of Gaza, leaving behind infrastructure and greenhouses. The Arabs there had an opportunity to make something of themselves, to build their agriculture. But their hate took precedence. They destroyed the greenhouses and built rockets to launch at Israel instead.
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The radical Muslims are watching. They will take the measure of the man who sits in the White House and they will know what their advantage is. Hitler took the pulse of the world back at the time of Munich, and saw that he wouldn't be stopped by the world. So it would be now...
I will suggest to you that putting Obama in the White House brings World War III closer.
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Thus am I not swayed by arguments about health care or tax cuts. For those who don't have a broader perspective regarding the precarious state of the world, these things loom as over-riding issues. I do not make light of them -- if you have no health care or cannot manage on what you're earning, it is hardly a small matter.
But in the face of WWIII? In the face of forces that would destroy the way of life you know and the traditional values you once held dear? It's time to put first things first.
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Time was that America was the leader of the free world. But now America seems to be imploding fast. I am terrified. So are many of my associates. How about you?
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If you are an American citizen, I suggest that before voting for Obama you search your heart with regard to which candidate you truly believe is better equipped to keep America and the Western world strong and to defend America against her enemies. Unless you are convinced that Obama is better able to do the job, think and think again before pulling that lever next to his name.
Here in Israel the voting public is caught in a parliamentary electoral system that relies too much on party lists, and back room wheeling and dealing, and doesn't permit the voice of the people to be clearly heard.
But in America, the people vote for the president. It is likely that the vote has never been more critical to the future of the US.
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I ask everyone who is an American citizen to give deep and serious thought to the issues I raise here. And then I ask that each of you forward this to others who are voting American citizens.
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see my website www.ArlenefromIsrael.info
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