The unparalleled, barbarous terrorist attack that struck an unsuspecting America and decimated the Twin Towers in New York and segments of the Pentagon in Washington has become a symbol of the violent world in which we live. Along with the thousands of innocent people who died, another death, that of the long held illusion that such atrocities cannot happen in the United States - "the land of the free and the home of the brave" - was forever put to rest.
In innumerable media interviews with Americans who witnessed the horrific disaster and who , miraculously, were spared from the tragic fate that befell so many hapless victims, one question kept recurring: "Why do they hate us ?" It is a familiar query, asked by generations of Jews who were persecuted in crusades, inquisitions, pogroms and Hitler's intended 'final solution'. Yet, neither the unspeakable Holocaust, in which one third of the Jewish people were annihilated, nor the State of Israel that rose, with G-d's help, from the ashes of Auschwitz, has eliminated the need to ask that searing question.
There is no greater desecration to the memory of victims of terror, be they the countless Jews who are daily murdered and injured by Arab terrorists in the name of 'liberating Palestine," or the thousands of men, women and children who were murdered in the dastardly attacks in New York and Washington by killers who justify these insane acts in the name of their "religious beliefs," than the sickening attempts by leftist liberals to ?explain the reason for these atrocities.? However, hate and violence cannot be rationalized and, more importantly, must never be appeased.
To those soul-sick, bleeding hearts, just as to the cruel terrorist perpetrators of continuous violence in the Middle East and recently, in the United States, the "reason" is the existence of Israel. As a recent Newsweek poll ominously reports, when asked why the Twin Towers and Pentagon were targets for terrorist attacks, 58%of the Americans questioned responded that Israel is in some way to blame. This, of course, is "grist" for the mill" for hundreds of Jew-hating movements, like the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, the Stormtroopers, Aryan Nations and a myriad of militias who openly preach Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish Problem" to growing numbers of their followers. Not surprisingly, Jews are once again being singled out to be the scapegoat for whatever ails humanity and Israel is being increasingly isolated by both 'friend' and foe. Incredibly, these "wake up" calls have not caused Jewish leaders to arouse from their lethargic slumber and call for an immediate mass emigration to the Jewish State.
However, the world would do well to remember : G-d, blessed be his holy name, chose the Jewish People as His own particular treasure and promised that we would never again be exiled from our eternal Homeland, Eretz Yisrael. Let the nations ?plot their plots and plan their plans,? but in the end G-d always wins.
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Shifra Hoffman, a noted journalist and activist, is the Founder of Victims of Arab Terror International (VAT).
In innumerable media interviews with Americans who witnessed the horrific disaster and who , miraculously, were spared from the tragic fate that befell so many hapless victims, one question kept recurring: "Why do they hate us ?" It is a familiar query, asked by generations of Jews who were persecuted in crusades, inquisitions, pogroms and Hitler's intended 'final solution'. Yet, neither the unspeakable Holocaust, in which one third of the Jewish people were annihilated, nor the State of Israel that rose, with G-d's help, from the ashes of Auschwitz, has eliminated the need to ask that searing question.
There is no greater desecration to the memory of victims of terror, be they the countless Jews who are daily murdered and injured by Arab terrorists in the name of 'liberating Palestine," or the thousands of men, women and children who were murdered in the dastardly attacks in New York and Washington by killers who justify these insane acts in the name of their "religious beliefs," than the sickening attempts by leftist liberals to ?explain the reason for these atrocities.? However, hate and violence cannot be rationalized and, more importantly, must never be appeased.
To those soul-sick, bleeding hearts, just as to the cruel terrorist perpetrators of continuous violence in the Middle East and recently, in the United States, the "reason" is the existence of Israel. As a recent Newsweek poll ominously reports, when asked why the Twin Towers and Pentagon were targets for terrorist attacks, 58%of the Americans questioned responded that Israel is in some way to blame. This, of course, is "grist" for the mill" for hundreds of Jew-hating movements, like the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, the Stormtroopers, Aryan Nations and a myriad of militias who openly preach Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish Problem" to growing numbers of their followers. Not surprisingly, Jews are once again being singled out to be the scapegoat for whatever ails humanity and Israel is being increasingly isolated by both 'friend' and foe. Incredibly, these "wake up" calls have not caused Jewish leaders to arouse from their lethargic slumber and call for an immediate mass emigration to the Jewish State.
However, the world would do well to remember : G-d, blessed be his holy name, chose the Jewish People as His own particular treasure and promised that we would never again be exiled from our eternal Homeland, Eretz Yisrael. Let the nations ?plot their plots and plan their plans,? but in the end G-d always wins.
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Shifra Hoffman, a noted journalist and activist, is the Founder of Victims of Arab Terror International (VAT).