One area in which I have NOT gone soft, however, is Israel. As many of you know, I was privileged to serve as Press Secretary to Sen. Rudy Boschwitz for a number of years, and while I learned much from Rudy, probably the most important thing I took away from my time with him was the absolute moral imperative of supporting Israel.
So when a local idiot named Bill Habedank wrote a letter to the local paper a couple weeks ago calling Israel's war of self-defense a "genocide," I snapped. The result of my snapping is the letter below, which ran in the Red Wing Republican Eagle on August 13.
Red Wing Republican Eagle
Aug. 13, 2014
I have never seen as much bigotry and ignorance stuffed into
one letter as that of Bill Habedank on Aug. 5.
To compare the courageous, embattled people of Israel to
genocidal Nazis is not only profoundly ignorant, but it is also deeply
disrespectful to the memory of the more than six million Jews killed by Nazi
Germany. That Holocaust is the main reason the state of Israel was established
by the United Nations in 1948.
In the current conflict, Habedank is apparently rooting for
the Palestinians and their leadership in the form of Hamas. Hamas, of course,
is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, and the Hamas
charter calls for the “eradication” of Jews and the nation of Israel.
Apparently Habedank agrees with that sentiment.
Hamas, like most bands of terrorists, is guilty of numerous
war crimes, including:
- --
Hiding rockets, armaments and its own leadership
among civilian populations;
- -- Firing rockets at civilian airports
- -- Using women and children as human shields
- --
Fighting without uniforms, disguising themselves
as civilians who conducting terror operations
In the past few years, Hamas has taken the billions in aid
given to them and, rather than build homes, schools, hospitals or mosques, they
have used the money to build tunnels into Israel to be used to kill and kidnap
Israeli civilians. At the same time, they’ve fired thousands of rockets into
Israel – all aimed at civilian populations – firing the rockets from next to
schools, hospitals and other civilian structures, thereby endangering their own
people.
Habedank decries “mass murder” in the Middle East, but the
only ones attempting mass murder are the Hamas terrorists, whose stated aim is
to “wipe Israel off the map.” Habedank certainly has the right to speak his
mind, but civilized people in a wonderful community like Red Wing should be
embarrassed that his type of anti-Semitism and bigotry are on display among us.
Tim Droogsma
Red Wing, MN
