Dennis Prager writes Nov. 10, 2015:
JERUSALEM — I want to explain why I am in Israel.
I am in here with 450 American (and a German and a Canadian) listeners to my radio show. About 400 are non-Jews.
We are here on a “Stand with Israel” tour organized by the syndicator of my radio show, the Salem Radio Network, and I am accompanied by my wife, my producer Allen Estrin and his wife, and my radio colleague Mike Gallagher.
People frustrated with the direction of America and the direction of the world regularly ask: “What can I do to make any difference?”
Here is one of the best answers I know: Visit Israel. And do so especially when there are terror attacks.
If every time there were a spate of attacks on Israel, few people canceled their trips to Israel. Or, if I may imagine a much better world than we live in, tourism to Israel actually increased, three huge things would be achieved.
First, Palestinians would get the message that there are many people outside of Israel who find the stabbings of Israeli Jews morally repulsive.
Second, Palestinians would have to weigh their emotional high from murdering Israelis against the economic benefit Israel would receive in increased tourism.
Third, Israelis would know they are not alone. When I came to Israel to broadcast my show during the worst of the suicide bombings of the Intifada in 2000, Israeli after Israeli would say to me, “Thank you for coming.” (You can watch the documentary I made then.)
Israel, it ought to be recalled, is the only country in the world targeted for annihilation. That has been true from the day it was proclaimed as a state in 1948 until today. It was true before Israel was forced to conquer East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, where the Palestinians (outside of Jordan) live. It was true before there was a single Jewish settlement on the West Bank. It was true after three Israeli prime ministers — Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Ehud Olmert — agreed to give up virtually all of Gaza and the West Bank to Palestinians to set up a Palestinian state. It was true after Israel gave every inch of Gaza to the Palestinians.
All of which proves that when Palestinian spokesmen say they want peace, they do not mean peace with Israel. They mean peace without Israel.
