Thursday, September 8, 2011

A LACK OF COURAGE AMONG THE NATIONS

In his speech to Harvard University in June of 1978, Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn makes it clear what courage is:

“A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, in each government, in each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. The decline in courage, at times attaining what could be termed a lack of manhood, is ironically emphasized by occasional outbursts and inflexibility on the part of those same functionaries when dealing with weak governments and with countries that lack support, or with doomed currents, which clearly cannot offer resistance. But they get tongue-tied and paralyzed when they deal with powerful governments and threatening forces, with aggressors and international terrorists”. 1

Today more than ever before, we are dealing with many countries that lack courage or as Solzhenitsyn commented, “manhood”. We see this in Obama’s foreign policy in the Middle East, in the Americas and Africa as good examples. A decline in courage is happening all over the world and it appears that it is growing like an unstoppable virus. A case in point is what happened in early August 1995; the Croatian army ethnically cleansed the Serbian village of Krajina, which became the worst refuge calamity of the Yugoslavian civil war since World War 2. The Clinton administration during that time played an important factor in that dreadful calamity. 2

The Obama administration and the UN are following the same policy as Clinton in seeking the removal of Israelis of their historical rights to their land that was recognized by the San Remo Resolution of 1920 and the UN in 1947, which paved the way for the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. Yet the UN ignores what was established by international law, encourages, and seeks to create an independent state of Palestine inside Israel and to physically remove Israelis from their historical homeland, with the blessing of the Obama administration. There is no doubt, that the endorsement by the UN of an independent state of Palestine will have far reaching repercussions not only for the Palestinians, but also for the whole region. An independent state alongside a Jewish State of Israel cannot co-exist side by side with a terrorist organization like the Palestine Authority who collaborates with Hamas and Fatah.

The only way for peace to exist is by annexing all of Judea and Samaria and to uphold what the international community already recognizes as binding and legal according to international law. The lack of courage to stand up for what is right and true is the hallmark of many nations. The most recent incident of this kind took place when former defense secretary Gates said the following:

“Netanyahu's government has offered the Obama administration "nothing in return" for its generous security aid, which includes access to top-quality weapons, assistance in developing missile-defense systems and high-level intelligence sharing”.3

What followed that remark from Gates was no resistance from other committee members. This lack of courage from other committee members is part of the problem. The words of Mark Twain are still true, Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Why was there no opposition to Gates remark? The world will continue to undermine the state of Israel, unless Israel takes action and not be allowed to be bullied by the US and the UN. Israel must take a stand based on international law, and her legal rights as a member of the United Nations.We all need courage and with courage, we must tell the truth. George Orwell said is it clearly, in a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

      © Abraham J. Santiago



3.      http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/robert-gates-israel-is-an-ungrateful-ally.html