Flotilla, Schmotilla
Saturday, June 19, 2010Lipstick Conservative
By Stefanie Schappert
Special to The Clyde Fitch Report
stefanie@lipstickconservative.com
Back when I was a fledgling journalist still in school, I wrote a paper about a church in Washington Heights that housed both a Christian and a Jewish congregation under their holy roof. The community was scarce on resources and money, and so a dual church and temple was born. I remember writing about how progressive the members were to welcome both religions, how I believed that this was a prime example and concrete proof that peace could be achieved between two religions.
About three months later, Muslim extremists flew two planes into the World Trade Center and I realized how naive I really was. I saw things as I wanted to. I ignored the facts of my own research as I was writing that paper. Ignoring the facts that, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, 32 armed conflicts were underway worldwide in 2000 and more than two-thirds of them involved Muslims. Little did I know it would be a harbinger of things to come.
Flash forward to 2010: To this day I am still amazed by the naivete of my fellow New Yorkers, including the Jewish ones. Now, before anyone gets their hackles up, I am half-Jewish. I won’t get into semantics — my mother was Catholic and I did not go to Hebrew school — but I was born of a Jewish family and have the double-digit numbers of aunts, uncles and cousins still living in Brooklyn to prove it.
A Jewish friend of ours, who lost a number of people in the attacks, decided only days after 9/11 to start a group called Fuel for Truth (FFT), a grassroots organization whose mission is to remind American Jews that “never again” (in reference to the Holocaust) means “never again,” and to fight against the propaganda coming from the Middle East. It’s amazing how many Jews here in New York fall prey to a left-wing ideology — one that, if practiced in Israel, would most certainly lead to Israel’s destruction. They are living safe here under the strong arm of the U.S., despite our President’s love affair with all things anti-Israel.
I have thought about writing on this subject for many months now, especially after an acid exchange with an “Israel should stop occupying Palestine and do more for the peace process” Oxford graduate writing on the Facebook page of a friend and member of FFT. But since the flotilla disaster and the firing of Helen Thomas, I cannot be still any longer.
Let’s just start with this amazing quote:
“If the Arabs would put down their weapons, there would be no more violence. However, if the Jews put down its weapons, there would be no more Israel.”
One could repeat these sentences, famously uttered by Benjamin Netanyahu in a 2006 speech to the Israeli Knesset, until they are blue in the face. Yet somehow, Americans, again even Jewish ones, will argue against it.
Let’s just state some other facts that seem to elude the average “Free Palestine” person. Most Jews want a two-state solution and they are not occupying land — it was given to Jews as part of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and signed by the United Nations in 1947. And besides, Judaism is older than both Christianity and Islam, so how can the Jews be stealing land from Arabs? Technically, they were there first, anyway. As for the argument against the settlements, could Israel be a bit more sensitive? Yes. But economies grow, prosper and expand. The Israelis are just living life — what’s the other option? To sit in limbo forever waiting for the Palestinians to accept some sort of peace deal that will never happen or blow them up? Israel is just moving forward, which is exactly what the Palestinians should do. At what point do they take responsibility for themselves instead of playing the victim? The settlements are just more propaganda for the Arab world to condemn Israel with.
As an Israeli friend of mine on Facebook points out, “Israel supplies neighboring Palestinians with medical care, electricity, water and allows Palestinians to cross into Israel for jobs — all while harboring terrorists and voting an internationally recognized terrorist group (Hamas) into political power.” Every time Israel gives up land to the Palestinians in an effort for peace, Hamas moves in to blast even more rockets into the Jewish State.
And, yet again, the world sees this as Israel’s fault.
Meanwhile, Hamas, as we know, is committed to the destruction of Israel, period. And they are supported by Iran and its bloodthirsty president, Mahmoud Ahmedinijad. Which leads us, inevitably, back to the flotilla incident. After all, we know Hamas is continuously smuggling weapons into their territory and those weapons are being used against Israel.
So when a “humanitarian aid” ship (oh my! Hamas would never try and trick us!) is asked to stop numerous times by the Israelis and does not stop, Israeli officers go search the ship and are brutally attacked by the “aid workers” who beat them with metal batons, steal their guns and throw them overboard.
Just look at the video yourself for clarification:
Then, to top it all off, the world goes into a tizzy, with the Arab propaganda machine spitting out news package after news package vilifying the Israelis even though the video that I pasted in, above, shows exactly the opposite of what is being reported in the Arab press.
May I also ask why press was already on the boat to begin with? Hm, makes you wonder?
Then, right from the good old U.S., the biggest ally of Israel (at least before Obama, anyway), dean of the White House press corps Helen Thomas remarks that “Israel should get the hell out of Palestine and go back to Germany”:
Not too insulting, hm? Then, to top that off, the anti-Semitic and impotent U.N. is demanding an investigation of Israeli soldiers. Food for oil anyone? Maybe we can even get the head of the U.N. Human Rights Council to personally spearhead the investigation. Yeah, that won’t be one-sided.
And please, I hate to break it to you folks, but it’s not like any other Muslim country will take in the destitute Palestinians. The neighboring Arab countries hardly provide aid — it’s the U.S., Europe and Israel, along with Iran, who are pretty much bankrolling the Palestinians — and Hamas. My Muslim girlfriend, born and raised in Egypt, now living here in New York, agrees: “None of them want the Palestinians,” she says. No, the Palestinians are just another cause the Arabs can use to legitimize their hate for the Jews.
I remember a few years ago when I was walking my dog down to West End Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. All of a sudden, a little girl of about 5, wearing a pretty dress, started running across the street. I gasped, thinking she could get hit by a car, until I heard her yell “Daddy!” and watched her run into the arms of her father, who scooped her up and swung her around, while the mother on the other side of the street watched with adoration. It was beautiful. They were Orthodox Jews.
And, in that moment, I realized all anyone really wants is a small piece of the pie, no matter what race or religion. That’s why this country is the land of opportunity. All we want is a safe place to live, to raise and to provide for our families. It’s just too bad the Muslims don’t agree.
Stefanie Schappert is a freelance journalist based in New York. A staunch conservative in a self-professed city of liberals and the military wife of a Green Beret, she created Lipstick Conservative to share her unique viewpoint on politics and culture. Schappert is also reporting on the Tea Party movement for the New York edition of the Examiner.com. Other credits include Fox News Channel and NY1 News. Schappert’s conservative viewpoint came into sharp focus following the events of September 11, 2001, the resulting political climate, and living through her husband’s multiple deployments to the Middle East. This former NFL cheerleader and lifelong dancer is known to hang out with quite a liberal crowd and has been the buzz kill during many a dinner party. Contact Stefanie or learn more at lipstickconservative.com.
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Lipstick Conservative does not necessarily represent the views of The Clyde Fitch Report.
