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Posted on 10/19/2001 9:33:35 AM PDT by veronica

Why I am returning to Israel now

By G. Gordon Liddy

WASHINGTON (October 19) - As one who has lived through 70 percent of the 20th century and as a student of history, I remember the birth of the modern Israel when I was 18 years old and appreciate its singularity as the only democratic country in the Middle East, an area aswarm with medieval and/or tyrannical governments infected with religious fanaticism and hatred of other religions and cultures.

As a Christian (albeit a poor example of one), I am aware that Christianity sprang from Judaism and has among its adherents those who betray Jesus by hating in his name, despite the incredible illogic of one who worships a Jew as God harboring in his heart animosity toward Jews because they are Jews.

As an American who has served as an officer in our army, a special agent of our FBI, an official of our Treasury, and an aide to one of our presidents, I am acutely aware that Israel is, and has been since its birth, the only true friend and reliable ally of the US in the Middle East.

My first visit to Israel, nearly a decade ago, after I had been broadcasting in the US for less than a year, was occasioned by a visit from the late Lili Blankstein, a beautiful and brilliant woman who had been born in Bergen-Belsen and whose father had been in the forefront of the Zionist movement in Europe. She spoke six languages in addition to Hebrew and informed me that those she represented, which have never been identified to me to this day, appreciated my views on matters Israeli but thought I could better serve my listeners if I "knew what I was talking about" (Mrs. Blankstein was never one to mince words).

She told me that those she represented were prepared to sponsor the bringing of my program to Israel and that there, it would be made possible for me to speak to anyone I wished, no matter how high or low, Jew or Palestinian, and to visit any area under Israeli control.

I tested this offer by asking to see the Golan Heights and the Palestinian camps in Gaza. I asked for a briefing by those responsible for national security and to jump with the IDF paratroops. Although I was an experienced parachutist, I was required to complete IDF parachute training successfully before I was allowed to jump from a C-130 as second man out the door after the commander, Lt.-Col. Moshe Ziv. To this day, I wear proudly the IDF parachute wings awarded me through the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

I found Israel remarkably small in area, even with the war-won Judea and Samaria, and incredibly vulnerable to military attack without it. I examined the Golan from my military experience and determined quickly that to surrender it would be madness. From the point of view of one who has enjoyed the great benefits of a market economy, I found the boundless talents of Israelis for business hamstrung by an inherited middle-European form of socialism and the people so alarmingly worn down by constant aggression against them that I was one of the few Americans not surprised by the offer, years later, of then-prime minister Ehud Barak to virtually give away the country to the Palestinians.

To the surprise of the naive American Department of State, but not to me, this munificent offer was rejected by Yasser Arafat because, despite his talk of "peace" in English to the world, his true intentions are regularly stated in Arabic to his constituents - he will not be satisfied until every Jew has left Israel, preferably dead.

I want to return to get a sense of the resolve of the Israeli people and better educate myself on the issues so that I can do my small part to rebut on the air to the American people the specious arguments of the Arabist State Department and the blatant Palestinian propaganda being fed them by the major American television network news organizations, led by the notorious Canadian Peter Jennings of the American Broadcasting Company - fittingly a subsidiary of the Disney enterprises. Shalom!

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