Tuesday.....International.....Creed Or Chaos?

         Helen Thomas retired quicker than you can say show us the birth certificate, or some college transcripts, or a social security number...anything...how about a fingerprint, after her remarks about the Jews in Israel. I'm sure she will be lionized at some future date but for now even the administration couldn't see her go fast enough. The sudden offense was not in her specific opinion for those same thoughts are shared by multitudes of others, but that a White House correspondent since the administration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy held these views until a ground swell of overt Israel bashing caused her to drop her guard and express them.
         One word coming up again and again in the last few weeks is burden; has Israel become a burden to the United States? Well, the answer is that it sure has, along with the Constitution, talk radio, most Americans, the alphabet that forms words, numbers that can be added and subtracted, border signs and the neocortex of the human brain where logic and abstract thought primarily takes place... all pose difficult hurdles and are burdens to the current administration. It's reported that Iran now has enough fuel for two nuclear weapons which means that they probably have enough for four.....but tough sanctions are coming!
         The enemies of Israel are like Eli Wallach, squinting to their left to see who Clint Eastwood (U.S.) is looking at, then squinting to their right in hopes of getting the drop on Lee Van Cleef (Israel). The Palestinian/Israeli situation is not that difficult to explore and come to a reasonable understanding of what happened, and what needs to happen, but the International Left has no interest at all in this area. It should not require genius to see that there are legitimate issues on both sides but one thing that is evident and totally unacceptable is killing innocent people, week after week, year after year, decade after decade. That is what the fanatic militant groups in the Middle-East do, and how does the West respond? It virtually ignores it! Israel takes all that it can and, from time to time, strikes back with violence that in no way is comparable to the wanton murder perpetrated upon them, and how does the West respond? It projects the guilt of the aggressor upon them! Dorothy L. Sayers, in her classic treatise Creed Or Chaos wrote concerning Christianity: the cry today is 'Away with the tedious complexities of dogma-let us have the simple spirit of worship; just worship, no matter of what.'  The same malignancy today effects our view of the world. Facts and realities are intrusive of our life. Israel is indeed becoming a burden. It tires us. As Sayers' book strongly affirms, if there is no creed, there will be chaos.
           The American Creed that once united us is being whittled away and chaos reigns in our economy, our foreign policy and our society. I previously recommended a book by Lee Harris called The Suicide Of Reason. In it Mr. Harris describes our predicament this way, We in the modern West simply want to be left in peace, to enjoy our carpe diem ethos, to follow our bliss, to amass our toys, to do as we wish. That is why we are so profoundly reluctant to acknowledge that there are violent forces that feel bitter dissatisfaction at what we in the West prefer to see as the end of history.
         The problem gets progressively worse. Even if this anti-Israeli agenda nears succeeding, Israel, whose people have experienced holocaust before, will defend themselves in such a way that the peace of a world that ignored their plight and sanctioned murder will disintegrate anyway, dissipating the dreams of the indolent West. Helping the Palestinian people is a legitimate and noble goal but legitimatizing the leeches that have attached themselves to them is neither noble or wise.