Rant Time: Protesters And Immigration

It has been about a month since I thought about writing this post but I wanted to give it a little time and think about what I wanted to say. In this instance, that was the wrong approach as the rant has, for lack of a better term, festered a bit. So, what got me riled up? It was all the protesters taking to the streets of Philadelphia in mid April… most of which should have been charged, at the very least, with disturbing the peace.  

I don’t have anything against protests in general as there are many messages and policies about which people are passionate about whether they are right or wrong to hold those views. However, the recent trend has been to, at best, disrupt the lives of those in the vicinity of the marching and chanting and, at worst, simply a collection of misguided hooligans that could care less about the negative impact that they have on those around them. A prime example of the latter occurred during the morning rush hour last month when a small group gathered in Old City with no clear message but with the purpose of simply terrorizing those who got in their way. This small gathering was only the preamble to mass chanting of vitriol slogans during the protests during the evening rush hour.

While many of the “peaceful” protesters that have recently come out of the woodwork there is nothing peaceful about the words that they are using or simply their actions during these gatherings. In many cases there is no question that they are using this ‘peaceful means of expression’ to incite violence and hatred (for which there are a few that should be charged accordingly). In the above mentioned incident, those involved in that small group in Old City should be facing charges as they were clearly guilty of false imprisonment (a woman was unable to move her car or get out of her car) and corruption of minors (they encouraged kids on their way to school to participate in their act of harassment). But, not surprisingly, no charges have been filed.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t expect anything else from a city that insists on breaking the law. Following the Obama administration’s campaign to only deport those ‘undocumented workers’ who commit a crime, many delusional cities have declared sanctuary status including Philadelphia in January of this year. While the DHS directive birthed from that declaration has citied that enforcement will only occur if the person in question is a known criminal or breaks any additional laws after illegally entering the United States. Guess what, I am not buying that load of crap!

Let’s make things really simple. If I break the law, I should be held accountable. By entering the country illegally, by breaking the law, you have committed a crime and the penalty for that crime is to be deported. It is a rather cut and dry matter. The government is not to be held accountable should you have children in the United States (they would be citizens in this instance and cannot be deported) after illegally entering the county… it was your decision to not obey the laws of this country. You are the one tearing apart your family.

Am I saying that the immigration system is perfect? Heck no, it is broken to say the least. But there are many departments and agencies in this country that could be described as FUBAR but that doesn’t mean that we can simply ignore the laws and regulations enforced by those agencies… the IRS is a perfect example of this. Unfortunately, there are misguided politicians in this country that are declaring sanctuary status for their cities. And they should be held accountable for their actions as well as they are aiding and abetting a known criminal with the possibility of criminal conspiracy charges being leveled should it be proven that this was a coordinated and calculated effort to break the law. Arrest them or impeach them (or both) but hold them accountable for their actions like the rest of us are in our daily lives.

But, for now, enforce the law. Don’t just overlook the criminal acts of others and hand out free passes. We have to be held accountable for our own actions and we must protect ourselves and our rights before simply handing them over to others. Now, if you want to see the system changed, get involved. Don’t just start yelling in the streets and making hollow declarations. Take action and put forth the effort to effect change in this country. After all, 99% of the people in these protests are the ones who voted for change in the first place but what are they doing to influence the process and make progress on the policies about which they hold the greatest passion?

However, don’t preach about the rights of others with one breath and try to strip the rights from law abiding citizens in the next like I have heard many politicians and protesters do as they jump from an immigration rally to an anti-gun rally! My rights are not on the table, they are not for debate, and any politician in Pennsylvania should face impeachment should they question that right.

On The Ground

 

This past week Israel finally sent ground troops into the Gaza strip. Not surprisingly, this cause cities in the United States to be invaded by misinformed masses of liberals who believe that the Israelis should simply follow the orders of the commandant and keep giving and giving until they get what they want... heck with 1967, they want Israel to return to the pre 1947 boarders (because the boundaries outlined by the United Nations were a Zionist plot). These protesters, on a certain level believe that Israel somehow deserves these rocket attacks… they would much rather see Israelis ignore the violence and propaganda, put their heads down and work. After all, work will set you free.

However, there were numerous opportunities given to Hamas by Israel to avoid this escalation. More opportunities than should have been given. Each time Hamas has refused. Finally, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered this final hand, this opportunity for de-escalation, and opportunity for a resolution and end to the violence. Given the circumstances, I don’t know if he could have phrased this any better:

To Ismail Haniya, and the leaders and operatives of Hamas:

We, the people of Israel, owe you a huge debt of gratitude. You have succeeded where we have failed. Because never before, in the history of the modern State of Israel, has the Jewish people been so united, like one person with one heart. You stole three of our most precious children, and slaughtered them in cold blood. But before we could discover the horrible truth, we had 18 days of pain and anxiety while we searched for them, during which our nation united as never before, in prayer, in hopes, in mutual support.

And now, as you continue to launch deadly missiles indiscriminately, intended to maim and murder as many civilians as possible, while you take cowardly refuge behind your own civilians - you continue to inspire us to hold strongly onto our newly discovered unity. Whatever disputes we Jews may have with each other, we now know that we have one common goal: we will defeat you.

But we are offering you now one last chance. Within 24 hours, all rocket fire - and I mean all rocket fire - will cease. Completely. Forever.

 

I give you formal notice that our tanks are massed at the Gaza border, with artillery and air support at the ready. We have already dropped leaflets over the northern parts of the Gaza strip, warning civilians of our impending arrival, and that they should evacuate southward, forthwith. If you fail to meet our ultimatum, we are coming in, and, with God's help, this time we will not leave. Every centimetre of land that we conquer will be annexed to Israel, so that there will never be another attack launched at our civilians from there.

Even so, we will continue to keep the door open to allow you to surrender gracefully. The moment you announce that you are laying down arms, we will halt our advance, and there we will draw our new borders. If you continue to attack our citizens, we will continue to roll southwards, driving you out of territory that you will never again contaminate with your evil presence.

It pains me deeply that your civilians will be made homeless. But we did not choose this war; you did. And if our choice is between allowing our citizens to be targeted mercilessly by your genocidal savagery, versus turning your civilians into refugees, I regret that we must choose the latter. If only you loved your people as much as you hate ours, this war would never have happened.

To the rest of the world: Israel has tired of your ceaseless chidings that we should "show restraint". When you have your entire population under constant missile fire from an implacable enemy whose stated goal is the murder every man, woman and child in your land, then you may come and talk to us about "restraint". Until then, we respectfully suggest that you keep your double standards to yourselves. This time, Hamas has gone too far, and we will do whatever we have to in order to protect our population.

Hamas, once again, I thank you for bringing our people together with such clarity of mind and unity of purpose. The people of Israel do not fear the long road ahead.

This conflict is not just about the rockets that are being fired or the troops on the ground. This is a conflict that has come to a head because of the drastically different values that are placed on human life. This is not a new observation by any means but it always seems to get lost on those that flood the city streets in the western world to protest the rightful defensive actions taken by Israel. Whereas the IDF stands between the threat and civilians, Hamas has put the civilians all around them to shield them from the consequences of their aggression… it is because of this dichotomy that you will continue to read about the chasm between the casualty totals.

With the conflict still raging and more and more reservists being called to serve, peace may be the objective but, right now, sanity is our goal. While I don’t anticipate a quick resolution, I pray for a quick and permanent end to the violence. All of which rests on the shoulders of the men and women of the IDF to whom we are all grateful and will continue to pray for. But, let us end this post in a way that you might not be expecting… with a little humor from Benji Lovitt whom I had the pleasure of briefly meeting during our Jerusalem days. He has single handedly given us many moments, one liners, pictures, and turns of phrase that have made us smile, if not laugh loudly and annoyingly, and in some of the more serious instances laugh so hard that hummus came out of our noses. So here it is, what I think is the best picture and caption from Benji Lovitt so far:

Aaaaand there went the ceasefire.
You just couldn't control yourself, could you, Hamas?
I mean, Jim.