Peace

We Jews regard peace as the most important goal in the life of any one person, in the life of the family and in the lives of Israel and all the world.

The evidence for this immense desire for peace is understood by anyone who has ever recited the Kaddish prayer, which we say several times during every Jewish service. That prayer includes the sentences: “May there be abundant peace from heaven and life upon us and all Israel. He who makes peace in his heights may he make peace upon us and all Israel.”

The Hebrew greeting “Shalom” also means peace and the famous citation from Isaiah 2:3, which is set in stone in front of the United Nations building in New York, reads: “..and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

You can look up I Chronicles 22:8; Psalms 68:30 or Psalms 79:10 or numerous other references, all showing that Israel and the Jewish people have for millennia taught the world not to make war and to prefer peace.

To date, unfortunately, this lesson has not been learned and the Arab haters and their supporters continue to attack innocent Jews in Israel, in France and wherever Jews are defenseless.

Likewise, the haters have attacked our country, as demonstrated by the monstrous cruelty of 9/11 when three thousand Americans were indiscriminately slaughtered by Arab haters and their allies.

Seeking now to produce another Holocaust, the European nations, allies of the Arab haters, have once more begun to beat Jews in the streets, burn down synagogues, boycott Jewish produced goods and exclude Jews from jobs and academic meetings.

Because the same hate mongers who attack Jews are also attacking our country everywhere, our government had no choice but to got after the killers in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is of course the first duty of any government to protect its citizens from murder. That is the reason the government of Israel was forced to reoccupy the areas of Israel mainly inhabited by the Arab settlers in Israel, i.e., Judea and Samaria.

Seeking to protect Americans from further “9/11” attacks, our President, George W. Bush, sent our armed forces to Iraq, whose government pays homicide bombers for killing Americans and Israelis. That country is also the source of much of the slaughter of Christians in Africa, in Asia and in Europe. The Europeans, always admirers of bloody dictators like Hitler, Arafat and Hussein, tried to prevent the war against Iraq because they make so much money from giving Iraq the means to produce weapons of mass destruction. Now, however, the die is cast. The war is on and it behooves us as Americans to support our men and women who are dying and risking their lives in that war.

Because we value freedom of speech above all our values, we of course want to protect those who protest the war in the streets. These protesters pretend that they are for peace and against war. The truth is of course and evidently otherwise. The truth is that the anti-war protesters are for war. They want to make war upon Israel and the Jewish people instead of war against Iraq and the Arab hate mongers.

Look at the signs carried by the so-called “peace activists” at their street rallies. Innumerable signs blatantly appeal to hatred of Jews. The signs call for the destruction of Israel, the persecution of American Jews and the burning of synagogues.

Moreover, the San Francisco “peacenicks” refused to let the anti-Israel Rabbi Lerner speak at their rally because no Jews are allowed.

When will we ever learn? The Israel haters want to bring on another Holocaust. If you don’t know what that word really means you might want to see the recent movie “The Pianist”, although that is of course far short of the real experience.

Now we are told by the haters that the war against Iraq was instigated by “the Jews” and is only in the interest of the Jews. This crazy interpretation flies into the fact that the Bush cabinet does not contain a single Jew and that hardly any Jews voted for George W. Bush. Yet, the prime American Nazi, the publicist Pat Buchanan, wrote that the war is being fought “to make the world safe for Israel.” Buchanan was strongly opposed to the election of Gore-Lieberman in 2000 because Lieberman is a Jew. He urged his followers to vote Republican. Now, however, that George W. Bush turns out to be a strong supporter of Israel, Buchanan curses Bush and claims that Bush is a “tool” of Israel.

It is of course true that Israel was severely threatened by the weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iraqis. It is also true that Israel receives massive aid from our country. Finally, it is true that much of the electronic weaponry used by our armed forces was invented in Israel. In the Buffalo Jewish Review and elsewhere, you can read all about the tremendous help that the Israeli electronics industry has provided our country.

In view of all this, do not be fooled by the so called “peace” activists. They are our enemies. They don’t mean peace. They mean the peace of the grave for us and for Israel. May they be recognized for what they are and may our armed forces be victorious soon in the interest of real peace. Bimheyro v’yomaynoo,

Shalom u’vracha.

Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including Grandparents: A New Look at the Supporting Generation (with Dr. Ursula A., Falk, 2002), & Man's Ascent to Reason (2003).

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