Hunker Down With History Book

Hunker Down With History Book

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

July 20, 2006

Richard Cohen’s column “Hunker Down With History” should best have been entitled “Hunker Down With History Book,” as the left-leaning editorial writer demonstrated a serious lack of historical context and knowledge.

Suggesting Palestine was “first a colony of Turkey and later of Britain,” dismisses thousands of years of history. Jordan is Palestine. Palestine is Jordan. The land that is Israel, as bestowed by G-d upon Abraham and his descendants, has been the home of the Jewish people for several millennia – surviving attacks and invasions from the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire and others who are also extinct.

That the land of the Jewish people should be called Israel since its independence in 1948 does not diminish its place in history. To suggest that “Israel hunker down,” as Cohen so callously suggests, again demonstrates his lack of knowledge of the enemies of the Jewish state. And to call for such a hunkering contradicts his earlier statement that Hezbollah, “zealots are not amenable to reason.”

To hunker down is akin to suggesting that Israel wait it out or hide until the attacks are over. The attacks will never be over until Hezbollah and Israel’s other enemies achieve their ultimate goal – the destruction of Israel and the elimination of the Jewish people. These are the principles of Hezbollah, not as Cohen avers, “hatred of Israel.”

If anyone is unsure of the goals of Israel’s enemies, review the comments of Iran’s leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who not only is a Holocaust denier but has called for wiping Israel off the map. This is the same Iran currently funding Hezbollah.

Israel is in the right place geographically and on the right side of history – defending its right to simply exist. Richard Cohen is just wrong and should hunker down with a history book. Remember if Israel’s enemies lay down their arms, there can be peace. If Israel lays down its arms, there will be no more Israel.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Alexandria, VA.