It is hard to believe, let alone understand, but five years after September 11, there are still too many people who just don't get it.

Israel and the West are under assault. Our values, our beliefs, our entire way of life are at stake. Everything we hold dear – faith, family, country – must be defended.

These aren't just some melodramatic words or a bit of empty posturing – they are cold, hard facts. And as difficult as they may be for many of us to accept, accept them we must, because the alternative is extinction.

Today, and for many days to come, I'm afraid, you'll see plenty of opinion pieces and newspaper articles pointing the finger of blame not at the bad guys who perpetrate the violence, but at those who seek to defend themselves and the rest of us from harm.

For example, a professor at New York University has the audacity to write in today's Jerusalem Post that "Bush's policies have brought greater damage to America than the attacks themselves." What sheer and utter gibberish.

But let's not allow the weak-kneed among us to divert our attention from what we all know must be achieved: victory. And nothing less.

May the memory of those who were murdered on September 11, 2001 be for a blessing.