It has taken over 5 years of constant internationl condemnation but, with the help of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the recently elected ‘hard-line’ president of Iran, the world should now clearly know what the Arab-Muslim world plans for Israel. During a keynote address to the ‘A World Without Zionism Conference’ being held in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said ‘Israel must be wiped out from the map of the world…And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism.’ He went on to call for and predict a wave of terror that will once and for all wipe out Israel, which he called an historical affront to Islam. See articles in CNN and Jerusalem Post . Israel has called for Iran, which we should recall is months or at most a few years away from possessing nuclear arms, to be removed from the UN. Western leaders have condemned his statements ‘in the strongest words’ and Iranian ambassadors have been called into capitals throughout Europe.

The big question is, where were these condemnations over the last five years? Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah and the Palestinian Authority/PLO have been saying the same thing both in Arabic and in English throughout the last five years of war and before. This has been the basic Arab rallying cry for at least 75 years.

In the shadow of these obscene pronouncements, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a market in Hadera (on the northern coast) killing five innocent people (including one Arab). In response to this attrocity (in addition to the double, sychronized drive-by shootings that killed three young people 10 days ago and the fairly regular rocket attacks that are launched from Gaza) Israel has initiated a full-blown campaign to root out, arrest and/or kill the leaders of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza. The military has already succeeded in capturing at least one Islamic Jihad official and killing two others. Sharon has announced that this operation has no end point, simply that it will continue until either the terror infrastructure has been obliterated or when the Palestinian Authority begins to meet their obligations to activetly fight terror, something that we all know is not likely to happen under the current, corrupt and weak regime.

So, just another day in the life of Israel…an almost nuclear capable country vows to wipe us off the face of the Earth, a suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowded market and we are left to clean it all up, to wonder what will be next and to move on with our lives. Time to get ready for Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom.