John McCain, when not talking about campaign finance reform, often makes a lot of sense. This editorial on why the US needs to stand with Israel against Islamofascism is an example of that. A selection:
Telethons and poems glorifying suicide bombers are not steps toward peace. Cash payments to the families of suicide bombers are not steps toward peace. Communiqués glorifying the murder of innocents are not steps toward peace. All of this is evil, pure and simple.
It is not peace, but fear of each other that motivates Arab dictators, and fear of their own populations, whose resentments toward Israel and America have been inflamed for generations to distract them from grievances against their own rulers for the economic and political inequities they are expected to endure permanently.
It is the unenlightened rule of Arab dictators, not the plight of the Palestinians, that condemns the Arab world to the civilizational crisis in which it finds itself. Which Middle Eastern nation grants its Arab citizens the most political freedom? Israel. Which countries’ leaders have the blood of innocents on their hands but hear nothing about it from the Arab League? Iraq, Syria, and Sudan, for starters. Which country has the most egregious record of occupying another today? Syria, in Lebanon. In which countries do Palestinian refugees suffer without rights and the most basic freedoms? Other than Israel, only Jordan has treated these people with any dignity. Which nation in the region has matched its payments to the families of Palestinian murderers with money for health care, education, and other development in the territories? Not one.
McCain has hit it dead on with this one. As Prince Abdullah tries to cajole President Bush into not defending the freedom of a trusted ally, his nation runs telethons in support of terror. His official newspapers spew out anti-Jewish propaganda that would make Joseph Goebbels green with envy. His nation sends 15 of their sons to kill countless innocents. How dare they say that we are an obstacle to peace while they make war on our way of life day after day. They are the ones who prevent peace, they are the ones who make war with innocent civilians because they know that their corrupt and autocratic regimes would be bloodily defeated against a real military force. They are not a force for regional peace, and they should not be treated as one.
