Defending Freedom: A Tribute to the Warriors of Israel
by Nils A. Haug • May 10, 2024 at 5:00 am
These assaults are not only aimed at Israel and its inhabitants but, ultimately, at the West.
Adversaries of the West -- whether religious fundamentalists or authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran and its allies -- appear intent upon imposing a new totalitarian world order. To do so, they seek destruction of the two main countries standing in their way: United States of America and Israel, the global champions of democracy, freedom, Western values, and human rights.
Regrettably, with freedom often comes the need to protect it, at times by force, from those who would take it away. Sometimes, this requires measures open to criticism by those who may have a different goal....
"Therefore, having judged that to be happy means to be free, and to be free means to be brave, we do not shy away from the risks of war." — Pericles, funeral oration, 432 BCE.
Israel... is fighting for the values of civilization opposing terrorist barbarism so that the rest of us in the West will not have to. We should be sending whatever they need to end the terrorism, not withholding precision-guided weapons -- especially, as we sanctimoniously claim, if we do not want to harm civilians.
"I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land." – Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1986.
As people of peace, the warriors and all citizens of Israel long for such a time with all their hearts, but first there are battles to be won.
The initial defenders of Jewish destiny -- which later gave birth to the West's Judeo-Christian cultural heritage -- were a rather insignificant Middle Eastern tribe of Hebrews guided by somewhat obscure precepts recounted in five small books, and led in battles by their legendary leader, King David.
These early warriors were not only defenders of an ancient civilization, but early progenitors of the modern Jewish democratic nation and the West's political tradition. Through their priests, kings, and prophets they became custodians of a Holy Writ that provided definitive truths, morality, ethics, freedoms, human rights, and principles of righteousness essential for future generations of humanity.
