News-Sun - Abandoning the Middle East is Not an Option
By Congressman Mark Souder
This column was first published by the KPC Media Group in the News-Sun (Noble & LaGrange Counties), the Evening Star (DeKalb County), and the Herald-Republican (Steuben County).
The Book of Revelation says that the final battle, Armageddon, will occur in the valley below Megiddo in Israel.
Today, however, the question is who will be doing the attacking. Will it be Hezbollah terrorists from Lebanon shooting rockets into this Israeli valley? Palestinian terrorists using car bombs or suicide attacks? Or will Iran launch a nuclear weapon aimed at annihilating Jews from the face of the earth?
I recently returned from a week in Israel with other members of Congress. We met with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, former Prime Ministers Netanyahu and Barak, President Peres, the writer Natan Scharansky, and many others.
There were basically two topics that kept coming up again and again how to deal with the Palestinian terrorists who daily attack Israelis, and how to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Jews lost their homeland in the 1st century A.D. and were scattered to the face of the earth. In 1948, the State of Israel was again formed as a Jewish homeland. While shrunken in size from the land God designated for His chosen people, Israel is nevertheless both a comfort to the Jewish people, who have suffered persecution and systematic destruction throughout the world, and a fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy.
Israel has been a beacon of democracy in a region that, to put it kindly, has not exactly been such a light. The number of countries that have true freedom in the Middle East is only one. Israel is a lonely beacon.
And not only is Israel a democracy and friend to the United States, but our two countries share a deep Judeo-Christian heritage. When you travel around the country, this heritage overwhelms you. Here was where Gideon fought; where David cut off a piece of Saul's coat. Here is where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount and where He shared the last supper.
The continued challenge to Israel's right to exist whether the Jewish people should be destroyed, really is a core part of the world's fight against terrorism.
The Islamist terrorists bent on annihilating Israel also want to kill us, and moderate Arabs too. All "infidels" must die.
Faced with these challenges, abandoning the Middle East is not an option. Nor is stopping our government's efforts to track phone calls and money in our quest to destroy terrorist networks. Wishful thinking is not a foreign policy. The United States, like Israel, must be vigilant or we will be destroyed.
It is no doubt important to build adequate weapons systems, maintain top-flight intelligence agencies, and be thankful for our dedicated armed forces. But one cannot visit Israel without also seeing the hand of God.