{"id":19285,"date":"2024-10-09T18:09:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T15:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?p=19285"},"modified":"2024-12-03T13:10:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:10:33","slug":"keep-saying-god-bless-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/keep-saying-god-bless-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep saying: God Bless America"},"content":{"rendered":"I am appalled that America didn\u2019t start bombing Iranian nuclear facilities back in April, to show Taiwan, China, and everyone else that America protects its allies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These last few weeks have been volatile emotionally \u2013 again. We keep reliving October 7\u2019s horrors and heroism, as new horrors threaten us and new heroes emerge \u2013 some, alas, posthumously.<\/p>\n

Amid the cascade of well-deserved articles about how Israelis saved Israel, I am donning my American historian\u2019s PhD robes to utter that magical phrase gracing the English language and the Zionist lexicon: \u201cGod bless America.\u201d<\/p>\n

God bless America because America\u2019s two major party nominees are competing \u2013 again \u2013 over \u201cwho\u2019s best for Israel.\u201d God bless America because US President Joe Biden recoiled on October 7, visited Israel, and has since authorized over 500 much-needed munitions deliveries to boost Israel\u2019s war effort. And God bless America because, in a divided republic, Americans united against Hamas, repudiated the academic lunatics \u201cexhilarated\u201d by Jew-killing, and supported Israel, Israelis, and the Jewish people.<\/p>\n

True, academic decadence confronted Hamas\u2019s depravity on October 7, and the devil won. The feminists\u2019 silence, the Social Justice Warriors\u2019 sick glee, the rampaging snowflakes\u2019 aggression, represented the triple double-cross. They stabbed Jews in the back \u2013 as such Jew-haters have done for millennia. They threw Western civilization under the bus \u2013 as these illiberal liberals have done for decades. But they also violated their defining principles as educators, as feminists, as progressives.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, when all-American decency confronted Hamas\u2019s depravity, the red-white-and-blue angels wept, sang, prayed, and shipped weapons, helping us wallop our enemies.<\/p>\n

Many forget today, but as Israel reeled, most Americans rallied around their Jewish friends, the embattled Jewish state, and President Biden. The December Harvard CAPS Harris Poll found 69% of Americans following the war closely, 73% characterizing Hamas\u2019s massacre as \u201cgenocidal,\u201d with 84% calling October 7 a \u201cterrorist attack,\u201d and 81% supporting Israel, not Hamas.<\/p>\n

Defying media and social media exaggerations demonizing Israel\u2019s self-defense campaign, even in May, 69% still recognized that \u201cIsrael is trying to avoid civilian casualties\u201d in Gaza. Those numbers resisted the media\u2019s ever-escalating sanctimony storm.<\/p>\n

These poll numbers echoed Gallup polls over years 20 showing that 70% and 80% of Americans support Israel \u2013 despite the hysterical headlines.<\/p>\n

From coast to coast, Americans empathized with Israel. On October 9, the White House National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, choked up, live on CNN, after seeing the disturbing rape and murder images on video, which, unlike too many feminists, he wouldn\u2019t deny or excuse. A record 425 members of Congress co-sponsored a resolution proclaiming that Congress \u201cstands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six weeks later, dozens of senators went silent while watching Israel\u2019s film depicting Palestinians\u2019 sadism that day. Some fled the room, weeping.<\/p>\n

A nationwide alliance of Hispanic Christian leaders joined Israel\u2019s more prominent Evangelical church supporters in defending the Jewish state and demanding Hamas free the hostages, whose plight moved millions. On Broadway, dozens of stars, including Billy Porter, Debra Messing, and Jeremy Jordan, adapted \u201cBring Him Home,\u201d from Les Mis\u00e9rables, to honor the hostages.<\/p>\n

Madonna was devastated, declaring during a London concert: \u201cI turn on social media and I want to vomit. I see children being kidnapped, pulled off motorcycles; babies being decapitated, children at peace raves being shot and killed.\u201d She posted a heartbreaking video of the invasion on Instagram, while proclaiming: \u201cMy heart goes out to Israel\u201d and \u201cI am aware that this is the work of Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

True, Madonna needed to hire extra security after that. But she had the security as an American that in key moments you stand for goodness, knowing that the overwhelming majority of Americans will have your back.<\/p>\n

Over 2,000 Hollywood actors, producers, and screenwriters, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Amy Schumer, embraced Israel while denouncing Hamas\u2019s \u201cevil.\u201d And in New York, when two non-Jewish construction workers, identifying themselves as proud Americans, confronted a neighbor tearing down hostage posters, the video of the confrontation went viral.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the America I know!<\/p>\n

True, a small, rabid, well-organized group of anti-Jewish anti-Zionists dominated the headlines, giving cover to the twisted minority of Jew-hating anti-Zionists. It\u2019s a structural problem \u2013 extremists command attention. But it\u2019s an existential problem, too. Too many decent, hard-working, fair-minded pro-Israel Americans are so demoralized by media shrillness, they withdraw \u2013 on this issue and many others. This Silenced Majority\u2019s passivity obscured the rare bipartisan consensus recognizing that America and Israel share common values, interests, challenges, enemies, and a common fate, especially now.<\/p>\n

Why hasn’t America bombed Iranian nuclear facilities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I HAVE my criticisms. I am appalled that America didn\u2019t start bombing Iranian nuclear facilities back in April, to show Taiwan, China, and everyone else that America protects its allies. I don\u2019t understand the aversion even many American Jews have to giving Israel a clear victory over evil jihadists who are anti-American, antisemitic and anti-Zionist.<\/p>\n

In short, politicians, left and right, infuriate me. And, yes, I\u2019m especially annoyed by the Biden-Harris \u201cexperts\u201d so fearful of \u201cescalation\u201d that their hesitations fueled and prolonged this conflict. And, yes, we Israelis better understand that democracies need backbones because the lesson of World War II still holds: you don\u2019t negotiate with dictators, you crush them. But that other World War II takeaway still holds, too \u2013 never underestimate the American people\u2019s decency, and its capacity to distinguish between good and evil.<\/p>\n

So, while processing this roller-coaster year, noting a feckless Canadian prime minister, a surly British prime minister, and a hostile French president, we Israelis should thank America and thank American Jewry, appreciating these deep, enduring, strategically essential, enduring, friendships.<\/p>\n

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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