Western Leaders Have a Long History of Ignoring Terrorist Murders: Lawrence I. Gould (Opinion)

“Terrorism is the deliberate and systematic murder, maiming and menacing of the innocent to inspire fear for political purposes.” That definition was the consensus of those who attended a seminar in Jerusalem in 1979 organized by Israel’s current premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, in memory of his brother, Yoni.

Yoni Netanyahu was the only Israeli military fatality in the rescue at Entebbe on July 4, 1976.

That definition applies to recent stabbings by territorial Arabs of Israeli Jews in Israel proper and the territories. They are the latest in the history of terrorism against Israelis since the Oslo “Peace” (my quotes) Process began 22 years ago that has resulted in the terrorist murder of more than 1,500 Israelis and the wounding of more than 10,000.

Yet influenced by the State Department, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have ignored those brutal murders, supported by Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestine Liberation Organization (Fatah) and Hamas, as they pressured Israel to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Those concessions include the infamous two-state solution that would give a terrorist-led Palestinian state control of strategic high ground in Judea and Samaria from which to fire rockets and missiles against Ben Gurion Airport and cities, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and others, where millions of Israeli Jews live and most of Israeli industry is concentrated.

That high ground includes areas from which another future attack by Arab armies could be launched to destroy Israel. Israel Defense Forces leaders are acutely aware of that possibility.

The State Department, Presidents Bush and Obama, and the U.S. press have amnesia about the terrible consequences of Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon’s decision to evict about 9,000 Israeli Jews from Gaza and withdraw IDF forces that patrolled the area.

Gaza is now controlled by Hamas, an Islamic terrorist group whose publicized ultimate goal is to destroy Israel. Hamas escalated rocket and missile attacks, as well as the building of tunnels through which attacks would be mounted against Israelis inside Israel. That led to Israeli heavy retaliation in 2009, 2011 and 2014.

The State Department and presidents, not Pentagon leaders, have been indifferent to the threat to Israel’s security of creation of a Palestinian Arab state since Israel won the 1967 war.

If The Plain Dealer is representative of local papers nationwide, the press, including national papers like The New York Times (but excluding The Wall Street Journal), has been similarly indifferent to the threat of the two-state solution to Israel’s security.

Since most Jews who lived in Arab nations migrated to mainly Israel and other Western nations after Israel won its War of Independence in 1948, there have been few Jews left in Arab nations.

This includes Iran since the 1979 Revolution, which brought the Islamist Shiite group to power.

In recent decades, those Muslim nations have severely oppressed Christian citizens, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands and destroying Christian and Catholic churches.

In addition to oppression by Muslim nations in the Middle East and Africa, non-nation Muslim terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Islamic State, al-Qaida, the PLO, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad have killed and tortured hundreds of thousands of Arab Christians, and destroyed their churches or turned them into mosques.

With some notable exceptions, State Department officials and Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, primarily Christians, have largely ignored this Muslim-conducted mini-Holocaust of Christians in Africa and the Middle East. So have a significant percentage of American Christian ministers and Catholic priests, as well as their congregants.

Isn’t this neglect inhuman, and reason to question their fidelity to Christian philosophy and Catholic philosophy?

Iran is now recognized as the leading Muslim nation in support of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. Yet Obama, supported by the State Department, ignored this when they forged the nuclear deal with Iran that included releasing more than $100 billion in Iranian oil revenue that has been impounded by the U.S. and other nations around the world.

Evidently Obama and the State Department are indifferent to the likelihood that Iran will use much of that wealth to support terrorism against Israel and throughout the Western world. This appeasement of terrorist Iran disgraces the American people.

I have not read one article by Raymond Ibrahim, an authority about Muslim persecution of Christians, in The Plain Dealer, nor the Cleveland Jewish News.

One hundred twenty six articles have been printed by the Gatestone Institute. Access them on the Internet via google.com by clicking on “Articles by Raymond Ibrahim: Gatestone Institute.” Ibrahim also is author of the book, “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians,” published in 2013.

Does this neglect mean that The Plain Dealer, perhaps like most American dailies, doesn’t care?

It is significant that Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic candidate for president and a Christian, has ignored Muslim persecution of Christians that has become a mini-Holocaust. Unfortunately, most Republicans seeking the nomination have also been silent.

Islamic terrorism, inspired by the Koran and Islam, has become a scourge of humanity.

The vast majority of leaders of the Western world and its media have been silent appeasers, reflecting a combination of fear of offending the world’s approximately 1.5 billion believers in Islam and refusal to stand up for Western principles.

It’s long overdue for those leaders, also the Western media, to exhibit some spine.