Why
I Returned to Israel Now
Posted October, 2001
by G. Gordon Liddy
As one who has lived through 70% of the 20th
century and a student of history, I remember
the birth of the modern Israel when I was 18
years old and appreciate its singularity as
the only democratic country in the middle east,
an area aswarm with medieval and/or tyrannical
governments infected with religious fanaticism
and hatred of other religions and cultures.
As a Christian (albeit a poor example of one)
I am aware that it sprang from Judaism and has
among its adherents those who betray Jesus by
hating in his name, despite the incredible illogic
of one who worships a Jew as God harboring in
his heart animosity toward Jews because they
are Jews.
As an American who has served as an officer
in our army, a Special Agent of our FBI, an
official of our Treasury and an aide to one
of our Presidents, I am acutely aware that Israel
is, and has been since its birth, the only true
friend and reliable ally of the United States
in the Middle East.
My first visit to Israel, nearly a decade ago,
after I had been broadcasting in the United
States for less than a year, was occasioned
by a visit from the late Lili Blankstein, a
beautiful and brilliant woman who had been born
at Bergen-Belsen and whose father had been in
the forefront of the Zionist movement in Europe.
She spoke six languages in addition to Hebrew
and informed me that those she represented,
which have never been identified to me to this
day, appreciated my views on matters Israeli
but thought I could better serve my listeners
if I “knew what I was talking about” (Mrs. Blankstein
was never one to mince words). She told me that
those she represented were prepared to sponsor
the bringing of my program to Israel and that
there, it would be made possible for me to speak
to anyone I wished, no matter how high or low,
Jew or Palestinian, and to visit any area under
Israeli control.
I tested this offer by asking to see the Palestinian
camps in Gaza and the Golan Heights. I asked
for a briefing by those responsible for the
national security of Israel, and to jump with
the IDF parachute regiment. Although I was an
experienced parachutist, I was required to go
complete IDF parachute training successfully
before I was allowed to jump from a C-130 as
second man out the door after the commander,
Lt. Colonel Moshe Ziv. To this day, I wear proudly
the IDF parachute wings awarded me through the
Israeli Embassy in Washington.
I found Israel remarkably small in land area,
even with the war-won Judea and Samaria, and
incredibly vulnerable to military attack without
it. I examined the Golan from my military experience
and determined quickly that to surrender it
would be madness. From the point of view of
one who has enjoyed the great benefits of a
market economy, I found the boundless talents
of Israeli for business hamstrung by an inherited
middle-European form of socialism and the people
so alarmingly worn down by constant aggression
against them that I was one of the few Americans
not surprised by the offer, years later, of
then Prime Minister Barak to virtually give
away the country to the Palestinians.
To the surprise of the naive American Department
of State, but not to me, this munificent offer
was rejected by Yassir Arafat because, despite
his talk of “peace” in English to the world,
his true intentions are regularly stated in
Arabic to his constituents—he will not be satisfied
until every Jew has left Israel, preferably
dead.
I want to return to get a sense of the resolve
of the Israeli people, and better educate myself
on the issues so that I can do my small part
to rebut on the air to the American people the
specious arguments of the Arabist American Department
of State, and the blatant Palestinian propaganda
being fed them by the major American television
network news organizations, led by the notorious
Canadian Peter Jennings of the American Broadcasting
Company—fittingly a subsidiary of the Disney
enterprises. Shalom!
