Israel Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the news. He’s going to speak to a joint
session of the US Congress in the House of Representatives. Already, it’s become
quite a speech—and it hasn’t even been given yet.
This is no
ordinary speech. It’s a magnet.
Like moths
to a flame, it attracts those who stand against Israel. It motivates peace-lovers
to declare, ‘I reject Israel!’
Like the
Purim story we will soon read, this Netanyahu story is about Man. It’s about
how Man reveals what’s in his heart.
For some,
the heart burns with hate. That hate certainly flares in Washington, DC. It ignites
outside the annual conference for the American Israel Political Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) conference, which opened yesterday, March 1, 2015.
AIPAC is an
American group that promotes Israel to Washington lawmakers. It’s a magnet for
anti-Israel and anti-Jew protest.
This year,
as in past years, that anti-Israel protest has been organized by a group
called, CODEPINK.
You’d think
that the name, CODEPINK, would suggest a feminist group that focuses on
feminist issues. You’re wrong. CODEPINK
is an anti-war ‘peace’ group (Homepage, FAQs, “What we do”).
It doesn’t
pursue peace. It pursues the destruction of the state of Israel.
CODEPINK made
this goal clear in 2013 (Zach Pontz, “CODEPINK Calls for Destruction of Israel
at AIPAC Policy Conference Protests”, The Algemeiner, March 4, 2013). It
makes that goal clear again now (Jim Hoft, “Jew-Haters & Leftists Protest
AIPAC in DC – Compare Israel to ISIS – Block Entry – Chant for Genocide”, Gateway
Pundit, March 1, 2015).
CODEPINK leads
a raucous protest against Israel (“Peace Activists Protest AIPAC’s Summit &
Netanyahu”, PopularResistance, March 1, 2015) using the title, “ShutDownAIPAC”
(ibid). It’s joined by a host of Israel-haters: JewishVoiceForPeace, NKUSA, Avaaz,
“Free Palestine” advocates, “ICC4Israel”, “Stop the Wars” and Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) advocates, to name a few.
These ‘peace
advocates’ have waived a flag from Hezbollah which, you may know, does not
promote peace with Israel. They’ve shouted, “Israel’s got to go”, and “Free
Palestine” (a code-phrase that means, remove all of modern Israel from the
Middle East) (Amy Miller, “EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Hezbollah Flag Raised at Anti-AIPAC
protest”, Legal Insurrection, March 1, 2015).
They certainly
haven’t come to the doors of the AIPAC conference to promote peace. They’ve come
to denounce Israel.
Netanyahu,
meanwhile, comes to speak to Congress because he believes that the deal the US
is negotiating with Iran (to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon) will
not keep Iran from getting that weapon. The deal, Netanyahu says, will just
‘kick that can’ down the road for no more than 10 years, probably a lot less
than that. That, he says, is no solution.
He comes to
Washington because he wants to do everything he can to protect Israel (“Israel’s
Benjamin Netanyahu Heads to Washington for Congress Speech”, Wall Street
Journal, March 1, 2015).
With CODEPINK
and its friends storming the AIPAC conference just a few blocks from the House
of Representatives (where Netanyahu will soon speak), Netanyahu knows that
these protesters aren’t the only folk in Washington who turn against him. Black
congressional members have announced they’ll boycott the speech. They won’t stand
with Israel.
They’ve communicated
with the White House. They intend to ‘sabotage’ the speech (Jim Hoft, “BREAKING:
BLACK CAUCUS DEMOCRATS Plan to Sabotage Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress”, Gateway
Pundit, February 25, 2015).
US Vice
President Joe Biden has spoken out against the speech. He won’t stand with
Israel (Alexandra Jaffe, “34 Democrats skipping Netanyahu's speech”, CNN,
February 27, 2015).
US Secretary
of State John Kerry has spoken against the speech. He won’t stand with Israel
(“Protest Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress”, Institute for Policy Studies,
no date).
US President
Barack Obama has spoken against the speech. He won’t stand with Israel (ibid)
Four US
Senators plan to boycott the speech. They won’t stand with Israel.
Susan Rice,
President Obama’s National Security Advisor won’t stand with Israel. She’s
called the speech ‘destructive’ (Wall Street Journal, above, ibid). She’s
derided it as ‘desperate’ (“Jewish groups condemn Boteach ‘genocide’ ad on
Susan Rice”, Times of Israel, March 1, 2015).
The
Jewish-based Anti-Defamation League won’t stand with Israel for this speech (WSJ,
ibid). Neither will the Jewish-based J Street (Fred Fleitz, “Soros-backed J
Street mounts all-out crusade against Netanyahu’s speech to Congress”, The
World Tribune. com, March 1, 2015). Neither will the leaders of Reform Jews
(Reform head joins growing Jewish American chorus against PM’s speech, Times
of Israel, February 8, 2015).
Perhaps in
anticipation of a backlash from Americans for his opposition to the speech
(Hillel Fendel, “Gallup Poll: Americans' Support for Netanyahu Soaring”, Arutz
Sheva, March 3, 2015), President Obama’s White House has released a list of
all that Obama has done for Israel (Cynthia Blank, “White House Releases List
of What Obama's Done for Israel”, Arutz Sheva, March 2, 2015).
That list
might not go very far. A week earlier, columnist Caroline Glick published her
own list—of all that Obama has done to hurt, hinder or undermine Israel’s
national security (“Column One: In Israel’s hour of need”, Jerusalem Post,
February 26, 2015).
As with our
Purim story, Man here reveals himself with his words and deeds. He declares if
he stands with Israel, or not.
The G-d of
Israel has brought Israel’s Prime Minister to Washington, DC to speak before
the leaders of the world’s most powerful nation. That speech is a litmus test.
It reveals who stands with Israel and who doesn’t.
It reveals
what is in Man’s heart. It’s part of the Purim story that’s been written just
for us.
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