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July 12, 2015 10:29 am
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Every Rocket Aimed at Israel is a Blow to Human Progress

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avatar by Lee Bender

Opinion
Rockets fire from Gaza. PHOTO: Alalam.

Rockets fire from Gaza. PHOTO: Alalam.

Last week, another announcement of an amazing discovery came from the high-tech, innovative Start-Up Nation: (also known as Israel).

This time it was a cure for terminal cancer with breakthrough immunotherapy. Israel is the most reliable, capable, predictable, democratic, and unreserved ally of the United States in the Middle East. This is in direct contrast to the violent, unreliable, turbulent, and generally anti-U.S. Arab Street.

As stated by former ambassador Yoram Ettinger: “Israel is the most battle-tested, cost-effective laboratory of the U.S. defense industries, … enhancing the U.S. global competitiveness, exports, research and development, and employment. He also noted how much other countries have come to rely on Israel’s technology industry.

Israel’s accomplishments are astonishing, as illustrated by Nobel Prizes awarded: Israel (with a population of 6.2 million Jews) has won 12 awards, six of which are in chemistry. In contrast, of the 22 Arab states  with a population of 350 million, only six have been awarded. Israel is also a major humanitarian first-responder to natural disasters around the planet.

But this good news of cancer breakthroughs and other life-saving accomplishments were not celebrated because they don’t fit the media’s image of Israel: the unrelenting oppressor of the Palestinian Arabs.

Forget that the Palestinian Arabs of Israel have more freedom, rights, and educational and employment opportunities than in any Arab country; that they have rejected a state of their own living side-by-side with Israel six times since 1937; that their charters call (or have called) for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews; that their mosques, schools, and media regularly engage in some of the most vile anti-Semitic measures promoting hatred and demonization of Jews; that they name streets and plazas for their “shaheeds/martyrs” who have engaged in mass murder of Jews; and that they have failed to abide by the Oslo Accords of 1993, which called for an end of incitement to hatred and murder, and a genuine effort at peace. In short, it is a dark culture of hate whose identity is based on negating that of Israel.

So remember: every single missile, rocket, bomb, and other terrorist attack against Israel- from Gaza, Lebanon, or Iran, has the literal potential to rob the world of incredible cures for cancer, medicines and treatments, and other high-tech biological, agricultural, and scientific innovations. Each missile has the potential to retard progress and the ability to repair the world (tikkun olam).

So when our government funds the Palestinian Authority or Hamas (via UNRWA) or frees up money for Iran, via the impending nuclear agreement, this is what is at stake.

And when the European Union, the UN, NGOs, academic groups, and organizations promote BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and delegitimizing actions against Israel, these “missiles” also have the potential to set back mankind.

This is the moral case for Israel: a country acting out of a sense of Jewish values to treasure life, share its know-how with the world -even with its Arab/Muslim neighbors. Every rocket, missile, and bomb directed at Israel is aimed at driving a stake into the heart of our Judeo-Christian values and civilization.

Lee S. Bender is the co-author with Jerome Verlin of the book, Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed From A-Z (Pavilion Press, 2012) and is co-President of ZOA-Greater Philadelphia District

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