In “Why Israel and the U.S. Are in Crisis” in the American Thinker today, Pamela Geller provides some important background to illuminate recent remarks by the former Spanish Prime Minister José MarÃa Aznar:
“Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined.”
Former Spanish Prime Minister José MarÃa Aznar wrote that in the Times of London. It is powerful, magnificent. And I wish him great success with his “Friends of Israel Initiative,” but I am deeply disturbed by the direction the narrative is taking — such that friends of Israel such as Aznar now feel as if they must once again make the case for the legitimacy of Israel.
Why debate “Israel’s right to exist” or “Israel’s right to defend itself”? Why not debate France’s right to exist, or Iran’s, or Germany’s?
How did it come to this?
There are definite points in history when things are on the cusp of real change. More specifically, there are defining moments when the direction of history can go either way.
When José MarÃa Aznar was Prime Minister of Spain, the world was a wholly different place, as recently as 2004. He served at a time when men — not appeasers, shills, and tools for jihad — were driving the bus. There was Bush, the inestimable John Howard (Australia), Blair (no great shakes, but light-years ahead of brick-brain Brown) — and one of the best of the group was Aznar.
Yet this group did not seize the moment. They thought they had time and reason on their side. They did not. They blew it. “The greatest threat to mankind and civilization is the spread of the totalitarian philosophy,” Ayn Rand wrote. “Its best ally is not the devotion of its followers but the confusion of its enemies.” To fight it, we must understand it.
Yet Bush described Islam as “a religion of peace” in the wake of the Islamic jihadi attack on America. It wasn’t that Bush was a shill for jihad; it was just that he was uninformed, and worse, not curious. He had whispering in his ear the stealth jihadist Grover Norquist and his band of Muslim Brotherhood brothers propagandizing the nonsensical meme that it was “just a few fringe extremists” who “hijacked” the religion” — as well as the planes. Ten years and 15,511 Islamic attacks catastrophically demonstrate what a turning point that window of opportunity really was.
Grover Norquist is a powerhouse with deep pockets. Many Republicans are in his pockets and in his debt. Norquist’s ties to Islamic supremacists and jihadists have been known for years. Just six weeks after 9/11, The New Republic ran an exposé explaining how Norquist arranged for George W. Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic supremacists at the White House on September 26, 2001 — to show how Muslims rejected terrorism….