Israel Insider (www.israelinsider.com) has reprinted a letter from Alan Keyes to Mesora. Title "With the brave people of Israel", the letter touches on some excellent points and made me shiver.

I write to express my solidarity with the people of Israel in this difficult time, and to assure you of what I know you cannot doubt, that millions of Americans stand with Israel as well. We will remember the truth of Israel's honorable record, insist that others treat Israel in light of that truth, and not succumb to the cowardly passions of the moment.

When the European Union asserts moral authority to coerce Israel into a shameful surrender of its just claims, we will remember that many Europeans sat on their hands and did nothing while millions of Jews were slaughtered in the era that gave birth to the state of Israel. [...]

We will remember that Israel acquired the Sinai, West Bank and Gaza not in a war of conquest, but in a desperate and just defensive war for survival.

We will remind the "international community" that territory acquired in a defensive war of survival can, according to universal understanding, international law, and common sense, be retained until a negotiated peace is reached. And we will proclaim the truth that the Israeli people have again and again shown their willingness to put those territories on the table in the hope of achieving just such a negotiated settlement for just peace.

Alan Keyes is a former Republican candidate for U.S. President and a former host of "Making Sense" on MSNBC - AlanKeyes@msnbc.com

I copy the full letter below.

With the brave people of Israel
By Alan Keyes April 26, 2002
Letter to Mesora reprinted with its permission.
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I write to express my solidarity with the people of Israel in this difficult time, and to assure you of what I know you cannot doubt, that millions of Americans stand with Israel as well. We will remember the truth of Israel's honorable record, insist that others treat Israel in light of that truth, and not succumb to the cowardly passions of the moment.

When the European Union asserts moral authority to coerce Israel into a shameful surrender of its just claims, we will remember that many Europeans sat on their hands and did nothing while millions of Jews were slaughtered in the era that gave birth to the state of Israel.

When "the international community" asserts its moral authority to dictate Israel's security policy, we will remember what the "international community" did in 1967, when Arab forces were amassing to launch a death blow against Israel, when Egyptian President Nasser kicked out the U.N. troops from the Sinai, and the international community did precisely nothing.

We will remember how the "international community" sat and waited for those hundreds of thousands of Arab troops to deliver a deathblow to Israel, and we will remember that such a blow wasn't thwarted by international outrage, but by the unanticipated brilliance of the Israeli military.

We will remember that Israel acquired the Sinai, West Bank and Gaza not in a war of conquest, but in a desperate and just defensive war for survival.

We will remind the "international community" that territory acquired in a defensive war of survival can, according to universal understanding, international law, and common sense, be retained until a negotiated peace is reached. And we will proclaim the truth that the Israeli people have again and again shown their willingness to put those territories on the table in the hope of achieving just such a negotiated settlement for just peace.

Israel's friends in America will insist that the world acknowledge that the Israelis have shown that they will negotiate in good faith, and keep agreements reached in good faith. We will remember the historic Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, which resulted in Israel's peaceful return of the Sinai to the Egyptians. An agreement made, an agreement kept.

We remember that with Egypt, with Jordan, even quietly with Syria, the Israelis have proved to be a people of their word, when faced with a negotiating partner willing to meet its solemn obligations.

And because we will remember all these things, we will continue to insist that American and international policy recognize the poisonous significance of the unbroken record of murderous deceit which is the history of the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, and Yasser Arafat. While the Israelis have made concession after concession, and followed through with real and dangerous steps, such as turning over to Yasser Arafat authority in the West Bank and Gaza, Arafat has consistently refused to honor those agreements, to make significant concessions, and to do the one needful thing -- to stop killing Israelis.

We remember, and see to this day, what the "international community" of appeasement refuses to see -- that the Palestinian strategy remains the manipulation of all discussion through the intentional use of terrorist violence, with the ultimate goal of destroying a demoralized, intimidated and isolated Israel.

We will remember these things, and speak the truth about them, not only out of respect and solidarity with the decent and heroic people of Israel. We will do so as well because we know that peace for all people of the region cannot be built on a foundation of manipulation, deception, violence.

The first pre-requisite for peace, and for self-government, is the restraint of one's own passions and violence out of respect for justice and fairness. Israel's noble restraint is unique in the history of the world. Israel has continued, to this day, to impose on herself the rational restraints of justice and truth, under circumstances of danger and assault far exceeding those normally sufficient to entice a people to submit entirely to rage and retribution. It is difficult to find words to express the contemptibility of the moral lectures such a noble people routinely receives from the self-appointed guardians of moral smugness in Europe and elsewhere.

The people in the Middle East deserve a better fate than tragic self-immolation. They will attain such a better fate only when they understand that the plea of victimization, even if true -- which in this case it is not -- cannot excuse the surrender to evil in one's own soul. The friends of Israel serve the cause of the people of the entire region when we insist that the path to peace requires dismantling the Palestinian terror machine.

The truth, and the truth alone, will set the Palestinian people free, for they are imprisoned not by the Israel's just defense of its right to exist and defend its people, but by the self-imposed hatred that poisons the soul, and withers the future.

Israel is today, as Israel has always been, a sign of hope that God's children can seek to be pleasing in His sight. Israel is today, as Israel has always been, hateful in the eyes of those whose neck is stiff, and whose heart is filled with hate and falsehood. Until it shall please God to make the land of His special favor a pleasing sight to all the nations, may it please Him to continue to give all Americans the eyes to see in Israel, as is truly the case, a beacon of justice, courage, and truth.

My prayers, my heart, are with the brave people of Israel.

Posted by David Melle
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