Ed Koch Commentary: A Dangerous Silence By Edward I. Koch

 I weep as I witness outrageous verbal attacks on Israel.  What makes these verbal assaults and distortions all the more painful is that they are being orchestrated by President Obama.

For me, the situation today recalls what occurred in 70 AD when the Roman emperor Vespasian launched a military campaign against the Jewish nation and its ancient capital of Jerusalem.  Ultimately, Masada, a rock plateau in the Judean desert became the last refuge of the Jewish people against the Roman onslaught.  I have been to Jerusalem and Masada.  From the top of Masada, you can still see the remains of the Roman fortifications and garrisons, and the stones and earth of the Roman siege ramp that was used to reach Masada.  The Jews of Masada committed suicide rather than let themselves be taken captive by the Romans.

In Rome itself, I have seen the Arch of Titus with the sculpture showing enslaved Jews and the treasures of the Jewish Temple of Solomon with the Menorah, the symbol of the Jewish state, being carted away as booty during the sacking of Jerusalem.

Oh, you may say, that is a far fetched analogy.  Please hear me out.

The most recent sacking of the old city of Jerusalem – its Jewish quarter – took place under the Jordanians in 1948 in the first war between the Jews and the Arabs, with at least five Muslim states – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq – seeking to destroy the Jewish state.  At that time, Jordan conquered East Jerusalem and the West Bank and expelled every Jew living in the Jewish quarter of the old city, destroying every building, including the synagogues in the old quarter and expelling from every part of Judea and Samaria every Jew living there so that for the first time in thousands of years, the old walled city of Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank were "Judenrein" -- a term used by the Nazis to indicate the forced removal or murder of all Jews.. 

Jews had lived for centuries in Hebron, the city where Abraham, the first Jew, pitched his tent and where he now lies buried, it is believed, in a tomb with his wife, Sarah, as well as other ancient Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.  I have visited that tomb and at the time  asked an Israeli soldier guarding it – so that it was open to all pilgrims, Christians, Muslims and Jews -- “where is the seventh step leading to the tomb of Abraham and Sarah,” which was the furthest entry for Jews when the Muslims were the authority controlling the holy place?  He replied, “When we retook and reunited the whole city of Jerusalem and conquered the West Bank in 1967, we removed the steps, so now everyone can enter,” whereas when Muslims were in charge of the tomb, no Jew could enter it.  And I did.

I am not a religious person.  I am comfortable in a synagogue, but generally attend only twice a year, on the high holidays.  When I entered the tomb of Abraham and Sarah, as I recall, I felt connected with my past and the traditions of my people.  One is a Jew first by birth and then by religion.  Those who leave their religion, remain Jews forever by virtue of their birth.  If they don’t think so, let them ask their neighbors, who will remind them.  I recall the words of the columnist Robert Novak, who was for most of his life hostile to the Jewish state of Israel in an interview with a reporter stating that while he had converted to Catholicism, he was still a cultural Jew.  I remain with pride a Jew both by religion and culture.

My support for the Jewish state has been long and steadfast.  Never have I thought that I would leave the U.S. to go and live in Israel.  My loyalty and love is first to the U.S. which has given me, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants, so much.  But, I have also long been cognizant of the fact that every night when I went to sleep in peace and safety, there were Jewish communities around the world in danger.  And there was one country, Israel, that would give them sanctuary and would send its soldiers to fight for them and deliver them from evil, as Israel did at Entebbe in 1976.

I weep today because my president, Barack Obama, in a few weeks has changed the relationship between the U.S. and Israel from that of closest of allies to one in which there is an absence of trust on both sides.  The contrast between how the president and his administration deals with Israel and how it has decided to deal with the Karzai administration in Afghanistan is striking.

The Karzai administration, which operates a corrupt and opium-producing state, refuses to change its corrupt ways – the president’s own brother is believed by many to run the drug traffic taking place in Afghanistan – and shows the utmost contempt for the U.S. is being hailed by the Obama administration as an ally and publicly treated with dignity.  Karzai recently even threatened to join the Taliban if we don’t stop making demands on him.  Nevertheless, Karzai is receiving a gracious thank-you letter from President Obama.  The New York Times of April 10th reported, “…that Mr. Obama had sent Mr. Karzai a thank-you note expressing gratitude to the Afghan leader for dinner in Kabul.  ‘It was a respectful letter,’ General Jones said.”

On the other hand, our closest ally – the one with the special relationship with the U.S., has been demeaned and slandered, held responsible by the administration for our problems in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.  The plan I suspect is to so weaken the resolve of the Jewish state and its leaders that it will be much easier to impose on Israel an American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leaving Israel’s needs for security and defensible borders in the lurch.

I believe President Obama’s policy is to create a whole new relationship with the Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and Iraq as a counter to Iran – The Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Muslim world which we are now prepared to see in possession of a nuclear weapon.  If throwing Israel under the bus is needed to accomplish this alliance, so be it.

I am shocked by the lack of outrage on the part of Israel’s most ardent supporters.  The members of AIPAC, the chief pro-Israel lobbying organization in Washington, gave Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she had carried out the instructions of President Obama and, in a 43-minute telephone call, angrily hectored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Members of Congress in both the House and Senate have made pitifully weak statements against Obama’s mistreatment of Israel, if they made any at all.  The Democratic members, in particular, are weak.  They are simply afraid to criticize President Obama.

What bothers me most of all is the shameful silence and lack of action by community leaders – Jew and Christian.  Where are they?  If this were a civil rights matter, the Jews would be in the mall in Washington protesting with and on behalf of our fellow American citizens.  I asked one prominent Jewish leader why no one is preparing a march on Washington similar to the one in 1963 at which I was present and Martin Luther King’s memorable speech was given?  His reply was “Fifty people might come.”  Remember the 1930s?  Few stood up.  They were silent.  Remember the most insightful statement of one of our greatest teachers, Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me?  And if I am only for myself, what am I?  And if not now, when?”

We have indeed stood up for everyone else.  When will we stand up for our brothers and sisters living in the Jewish state of Israel?  

 If Obama is seeking to build a siege ramp around Israel, the Jews of modern Israel will not commit suicide.  They are willing to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, but they will  not allow themselves to be bullied into following self-destructive policies.

To those who call me an alarmist, I reply that I’ll be happy to apologize if I am proven wrong.  But those who stand silently by and watch the Obama administration abandon Israel, to whom will they apologize?

The Honorable Edward Irving Koch served New York City as its  105th Mayor from  1978  to  1989.

Comments

[Jonathan Cymberknopf]

G-d bless you Mr. Koch for not remaining silent. My father, a Holocaust survivor, passed on earlier this year. He used to love you. Now I know why. Thank you, your voice will help to wake up a lot of people.
May G-d continue to bless you on the merit of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and keep you healthy. Amen.

[Katherine]

Mr. Koch, I never understood your support of Obama in 2008. That is water under the bridge at this point...you have finally woken up thank G-d.

There is a gem of a woman named Pamela Geller in NY.
Her website is www.atlasshrugs.com
You should consider joining forces with this
amazingly powerful woman.

Keep the articles coming...scream from the rooftops about this destroyer and disaster called Obama.

[MLK JR]

IT SEEMS ALMOST COMICAL THAT MOST OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY VOTED FOR A MARXIST MUSLIM. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? DON'T FORGET THIS WHEN HE COMES UP FOR ELECTION NEXT TIME.

[Anna Wang]

I was briefly introduced to you when Mayor of NY by an old friend who still lives there, in that famous Park in NY..

I also visited Jerusalem when a student in London and came away an Hadjeh in 1965.

It saddens me that these holy cities in the Middle East may be destroyed because of our human quarrels. .....

My fervent hope is we live in peace and harmony..........

[Melissa O in DC]

THANK YOU for speaking truth, Mr. Koch. THANK YOU!!! Keep it coming. You should also reach out to my friends, Brock and Bodie Thoene. www.thoenebooks.com They see the same thing that you do when they look at Israel today. You are not standing alone. I, and other like me, are with you.

[Obummer]

Ed,

We love you and think your great but you should have seen this coming. You have made your bed and now it is time to sleep in it. You can't have it both ways. You supported and voted for him. Blame yourself.

Obummer!

[Tom Hilton]

Ed Koch supported Obama in 2008, and he supported Obama's domestic policies, too.

Ed Koch was "scared" of Sarah Palin!

Now this radical Marxist Muslim is ruining America and stabbing Israel in the back as we TOLD you he would. Who are you scared of NOW?

Glad you finally WOKE UP, Ed. It might be too late.

[Obamanation]

57% of American Jews still support Obama. 55% approve of his Israel policy.

[Dork Dorkster]

There is never a moment of silence when Ed Koch is around.

[anon e mouse]

maybe mr koch is entirely misreading the
motivation of the Obama administration...
maybe its time that the US stopped its one
sided defense of everything that Israel wants to do in a land that was"given" to
them by the United Nations..one which they
had not occupied for thousands of years and
one which in order to give them a homeland
displaced thousands of jordaniand living
in palestine..maybe mr koch should realize
that if in 1967 before the war, the world
would have guaranteed a safe and secur Israel behind those borders Israel would have gladly accepted..and maybe mr koch should also understand that in order for there to be a two state solution, Israel must stop being held hostage by its right
wing orthodox political parties who are
acting at the "behest" of god and the bible
to expand what they view as the "right of
Israel" to the land of judea and sumeria..
the US has stood by the state of Israel
since its inception.and we continue to be
its protector and ally...but as most American Jews recognize its time for the US
to make sure its own national interests are
first in that part of the world and that
there is a peace between the Israeli's and
palestinians that is fair to both sides and
supported by the majority of the surrounding
nations who have already indicated a willingnesss to restor normal diplmatic relations with Israel in the context of
a two state solution

[anon]

I love Ed Koch. I wish he would run for Govenor and kick some ass. He is not afraid to speak his mind, and agree or disagree it is refreshing to hear.

In terms of Israel, yes his position has changed, but so has mine in terms of Obama who has proven to be a huge failure. Koch should be applauded that he can man up admit that he was wrong and embrace the reality of the situation.

Too many politicians when faced with the reality of their mistakes (we can start right here in New York) stick their heads in the sand instead of admitting they are wrong.

Mayor Koch is 100% right on Israel and Albany.

I wish when I am Ed "How am I doin" Koch's age I should be doing as well as he is.

[Haim J Tuil]

Only to reply to anon e mouse comment:
In 67 there was not a single country in the world who supported the notion of sure borders for Israel. All the "allies" turned they eyes to the other side when the UN secretary withdrew the UN forces from the borders of Israel at the first shout of the egyptian leader, like these guys in the subway who do not stand and keep reading their papers when an aged person is standing....
wisdom post mortem does not bring back the person to life, and with so many ifs, it's possible to rebuild the world differently.

[Adam Sonnenklar]

to: anon e mouse
Very apt name, "mouse", you are a coward and an ignorant of facts. But then, since when did facts bother the far Left?

[MLK JR]

ED SUPPORTED OBAMA. HE CHANGED HIS MIND NOW. OBAMA HASN'T CHANGED. HE IS THE SAME. SO, ED, WHY DID YOU VOTE FOR HIM. IF A JEW VOTED FOR A MUSLIM, THEY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN.

[Sallie G. Schaffer]

Mr. Koch, You knew what obama was, when he was running for President. Yet you still backed and voted for him. Why? For you being a democrat was more important than being right.

[Ari Hirim]

Obama-nation...

[biblthmp]

There is a strange thing I have noticed about Jews. They not only love their enemies, but they also hate their friends.

[Mervyn Michalow]

Ed is exactly right. Therefore it is time to do something! We should start a campaign for now for Jews against the re-election of Obama 2012!

[Katherine]

"I SINCERELY HOPE THAT WHEN OBAMA GOES IN FOR HIS ANNUAL CHECKUP, THE DOCTORS AT BETHESDA WILL DO A BRAIN SCAN. FOR SURELY THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG WITH A MAN WHO SEEMS TO BE FAR MORE CONCERNED WITH A JEW BUILDING A HOUSE IN ISRAEL THAN WITH MUSLIMS BUILDING A NUCLEAR BOMB IN IRAN."

Burt Prelutsky

[Katherine]

This was just posted on: www.atlasshrugs.com

A letter to the World from Jerusalem
By Eliezer ben Israel (written in 1967)

I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe.
I am a Jerusalemite- like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood.
I am a citizen f my city and integral part of my people.

I have a few things to get of my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you, or even persuade you.
I owe you nothing. You did not build this city; You do not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it. And we will be dammed if we will let you take it away.

There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin , Moscow , London and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves – a human moral code.

Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightening. Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would – be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning temple rather then surrender; and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arm wither.

Foe two pain filled millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to this city. Three times a day we petitioned the almighty: “ gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city and dwell in it as Thou promised.”

On every Yom Kippur and Passover we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem. Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the ghettos in to which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror, the holocaust ( and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it ) all these have not broken us. They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed but they forged us into steel. Do you think that you can break us now, after all we have been through? Do you really believe that after Dachau
and Auschwitz we are frightened by you threats of blockades and sanctions?
We have been to hell and back – a hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in you arsenal that could scare us?

I have watched the city bombarded twice. By nations calling themselves civilized. In 1948 , while you looked on apathetically, I saw women and children blown to smithereens, this after we had agreed to request to internationalize the city. It was a deadly combination that did the job:
British officers, Arab gunners and American made cannons.

And then the savage sacking of the old city: The willful slaughter, the wonton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tomb stones for building materials, for poultry runs, army camps – even latrines.

And you never said a word.

You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our holy places, the western wall in violation of the pledges they had made after the war – a war they waged, incidentally against the decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionnaires, in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls.

Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift “ to save the gallant Berliners. “ But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the east Germans ran through the middle of the German capital - but not one peep out of you about the other wall, the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem.

And when the same thing happened twenty years later, and the Arabs unleashed a savage unprovoked bombardment of the holy city again, did any of you do anything? The only time you came to life was when the city was at last reunited. Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of “ justice” and the need for the “Christian” quality of turning the other cheek.

The truth is – and you know it deep inside your gut – you would prefer the city to be destroyed rather than have it governed by Jews. No matter how diplomatically you phrase it, the age old prejudices seep out of every word.

If our return to the city has tied you theology in knots, perhaps you would better reexamine your catechisms. After what we have been through, we are not passively going to accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal homelessness until we accept your Savior.

For the first time since the year seventy there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem. For the first time since the Romans put the torch to the temple every one has equal rights. (you preferred to have some more equal then others) We loath the sword – but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace – but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to.

We are home. It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wander
over the face of the globe. We are not leaving. We have redeemed the pledge
made by our forefathers – Jerusalem is being rebuilt. “ Next year “ – and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time “ in Jerusalem!”

[Lori Redmond]

We either stand with GOD's chosen people or we don't...I'm guessing that GOD is going to have the last say!

[Yafah1]

Many people voted for Obama because they wanted a change in politics .... in the government .... they change they received BUT ... they forgot to ask him what kind of changes he was going to be making!
By electing this man - the put their faith in him and not in G-d. People were so blinded by him that they believed in him and his deception --- and were totally blinded by him - hypnotized by his words and swayed by his color!
Unfortunately, it's wake up and pay day time - What is it going to take for people to fight the regime?

Each day is a new day and one wonders what he is going to come up with next!

I lived under the French occupation in WW2 - remember Hitler .... America was safe within ..... sending the soldiers there did not give the rest of the people in the US understanding of this regime ....

"Some people trust in chariots and horses ... but I will trust in the L-rd our G-d" ... We had better get on our knees and pray for His mercies and forgiveness for our wrong choices of leader who is not even supposed to be the leader .... who has totally hidden his identity in order to be elected !!!

[anon e mouse]

"we are home" compliments of the United
States and the United nations partition
of Palestine...you may have once owned
the land..but everything changes..Rome
once ruled the world...and so did Constantine....you have a right to have
Jerusalem as your capital..you do not have
a right to deprive others from sharing
the holy city as theirs as well...and although it has taken the arabs a long time
to come to terms with the jewish state
nevertheless Egypt, Jordan are at peace..
and others await to do the same..but
it requires cooler heads on both sides..
and less reliance on biblical and religious
dogma

[Flunked history did you?]

Evidently the Jewish learned nothing from the Holocaust. Consider the eerie, no horrifying similarities in the meteoric rise of Obama, an unproven political hack, to that of a man named Adolph. The only differences are Obama is black, and cannot speak coherently without a teleprompter.

When you voted for Obama, you bought the "pig in the poke", All those that bought into his fraud have no one to blame but themselves. A vote for him was a vote to slit your own throats. Shame on you for believing all the hope and change rhetoric.

To bad you can't take him and your reciept back to liars are us and exchange your defective product.

Liberals (progressives)should be renamed regressives.

[anon e mouse]

what a ridiculous suggestion...maybe you
should turn off rush limbaugh and stop
parroting that nonsense..Obama has surrounded himself with jewish advisors
he is hardly anti semetic...and the fact
that you have the poor judgment to analogize
him to hitler is an indication of your
total lack of historical perspective..there
are plenty of jews in this country and a
majority in Israel who prefer to make peace
even if it means territorial concessions
to the palestinians...lets see how this
next presidential election goes..who are
you relying on to beat the pig in the poke
sarah...mike...newt...the democrats will
eat them for lunch