It is not often, when Purim comes, that Haman (rattle, rattle) can be hung on St. Patrick?s Day. It is even better when an equally snakey Haman, incarnated in the universally beloved and beneficent ruler of the world?s largest gunnery range, Iraq, is offered as the red dot laser-lit attraction at the forthcoming multinational military ?necktie party.? Given Turkey?s decision to disallow US and British troops using northern-border bases as the start lines for the Allied southern thrust toward the oil fields, an alternate ?road map? must then be adopted.
Why not Haifa as a launch point for the troops? So long as the U.S. State Department has offered Israel an unworkable ?road map to peace? (where, in the grave?) for Israel, as yet another fragmentation shell in its unrelenting barrage of mixed signals and ?fog and smoke? ambiguity of intent, it is respectfully submitted in a spirit of justice and equity that this alternate plan be adopted by the Allies for their thrust toward Baghdad. It is guaranteed that there would be no obstacles whatever to an Allied landing and staging of equipment at the sunlit port of Haifa. There shall the British and Americans be greeted by genuinely grateful and cheering crowds of Israeli citizens waving, not burning, the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack.
From there, it is only appropriate that a parade to the border with Iraq through Jordan be organized. After all, it is only right that the nations most responsible for the creation of the forthcoming Palestinian state confront face-to-face those citizens of the proposed Arab state, those who are the recipients of this great Western beneficence.
In the tradition of the gigantic parades of the U.S. Civil War, let the formation be led by marching bands, and at the front of the formation let there be a clutch of diaphanously-clad, belaurel?d nymphs in the persons of rabbi Michael Lerner, Edward Said, Yossi Beilin, and Shimon Peres casting rose petals before the thunderous formation as it tramp-tramp-tramps through the grateful, welcoming crowds of Nazareth, Jenin, Shechem, Ramallah and thence to Jerusalem. The formation shall then turn left and east to head into an equally warm reception in Amman. Let Colin Powell, Madonna, and Dame Vanessa Redgrave be parade masters, riding atop the turret of a flower-bedecked M1 Abrams tank, waving blissfully at the crowds of Arabs who cheer them as they pass through. From the reviewing stand, Arik Sharon and Chairman Arafat, overcome with emotion, shall spontaneously embrace in a tearful expression of brotherly love. Thrill as Hamas, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad fire their rifles and rocket grenades into the air, gasp with glee as a band of suicide bombers offer a twenty-one person salute.
A more probable scenario to unfold would be that were such action undertaken, the heads of Colin, Madonna and Dame Vanessa would be on the ends of poles waved before crowds of flag-burning Arab rioters screaming ?Death to America! Death to England!,? and the Allied troops would be fighting for their lives before they got past Nazareth, a far worse fight than I believe they will confront in Iraq. And if the IDF stood by and watched from a distance sipping sodas and shaking their heads, thinking, ?So now you know the situation on the ground in Israel today,? who would blame them? But, of course, they would not. The IDF would fight to the last warrior on the Allies? behalf, just as they are doing now, if one gives the matter three seconds? thought. The issue is not just Israel?s survival, but that of Western civilization. Like the lady said, ?You?re next, buddies.?
And is this scenario so ridiculous? What do you think every Israeli citizen is doing right now, but trying to march in the parade of their normal lives, while feeding, out of their own tax dollars, the very people who wish to exterminate them? The Israeli people are fighting the battle of their lives.
The march is on now, Mr. Powell. Come to Israel and walk a mile in Israeli shoes. Then you may draw up road maps in the sand for other people?s countries. And a happy St. Patties? and Purim to you. Aye, and may our conciliatory policies not have made of the USA and Britain the next battlegrounds before we get a chance to finish our drinks.
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Walter James O?Brien is a power plant construction consultant based in Everett, Washington U.S.A. He can be reached at gasturbine@myway.com.
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Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.
Why not Haifa as a launch point for the troops? So long as the U.S. State Department has offered Israel an unworkable ?road map to peace? (where, in the grave?) for Israel, as yet another fragmentation shell in its unrelenting barrage of mixed signals and ?fog and smoke? ambiguity of intent, it is respectfully submitted in a spirit of justice and equity that this alternate plan be adopted by the Allies for their thrust toward Baghdad. It is guaranteed that there would be no obstacles whatever to an Allied landing and staging of equipment at the sunlit port of Haifa. There shall the British and Americans be greeted by genuinely grateful and cheering crowds of Israeli citizens waving, not burning, the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack.
From there, it is only appropriate that a parade to the border with Iraq through Jordan be organized. After all, it is only right that the nations most responsible for the creation of the forthcoming Palestinian state confront face-to-face those citizens of the proposed Arab state, those who are the recipients of this great Western beneficence.
In the tradition of the gigantic parades of the U.S. Civil War, let the formation be led by marching bands, and at the front of the formation let there be a clutch of diaphanously-clad, belaurel?d nymphs in the persons of rabbi Michael Lerner, Edward Said, Yossi Beilin, and Shimon Peres casting rose petals before the thunderous formation as it tramp-tramp-tramps through the grateful, welcoming crowds of Nazareth, Jenin, Shechem, Ramallah and thence to Jerusalem. The formation shall then turn left and east to head into an equally warm reception in Amman. Let Colin Powell, Madonna, and Dame Vanessa Redgrave be parade masters, riding atop the turret of a flower-bedecked M1 Abrams tank, waving blissfully at the crowds of Arabs who cheer them as they pass through. From the reviewing stand, Arik Sharon and Chairman Arafat, overcome with emotion, shall spontaneously embrace in a tearful expression of brotherly love. Thrill as Hamas, Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad fire their rifles and rocket grenades into the air, gasp with glee as a band of suicide bombers offer a twenty-one person salute.
A more probable scenario to unfold would be that were such action undertaken, the heads of Colin, Madonna and Dame Vanessa would be on the ends of poles waved before crowds of flag-burning Arab rioters screaming ?Death to America! Death to England!,? and the Allied troops would be fighting for their lives before they got past Nazareth, a far worse fight than I believe they will confront in Iraq. And if the IDF stood by and watched from a distance sipping sodas and shaking their heads, thinking, ?So now you know the situation on the ground in Israel today,? who would blame them? But, of course, they would not. The IDF would fight to the last warrior on the Allies? behalf, just as they are doing now, if one gives the matter three seconds? thought. The issue is not just Israel?s survival, but that of Western civilization. Like the lady said, ?You?re next, buddies.?
And is this scenario so ridiculous? What do you think every Israeli citizen is doing right now, but trying to march in the parade of their normal lives, while feeding, out of their own tax dollars, the very people who wish to exterminate them? The Israeli people are fighting the battle of their lives.
The march is on now, Mr. Powell. Come to Israel and walk a mile in Israeli shoes. Then you may draw up road maps in the sand for other people?s countries. And a happy St. Patties? and Purim to you. Aye, and may our conciliatory policies not have made of the USA and Britain the next battlegrounds before we get a chance to finish our drinks.
--------------------------------------------------------
Walter James O?Brien is a power plant construction consultant based in Everett, Washington U.S.A. He can be reached at gasturbine@myway.com.
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.