Tug of Peace

by Nidra Poller (July 2009)

Was the timing accidental? Three years of investigation, two months of hearings, and a verdict that falls when the media are glued to the Tour de France and holiday goers stuck in traffic jams? State-owned France 3 TV unashamedly admitted that the verdict was announced during Shabbat in order to avoid incidents.

Meanwhile, in the small town of Firminy, enraged Muslims rioted for three nights, torching cars and buildings after a 22 year-old arrested for extortion hung himself while in police custody.

The press began to gather in the Palais de Justice late Friday afternoon. The buzz was that the verdict would be pronounced before nightfall. By 8:15 most of the Jewish people who had hoped to attend gave up. Around 9:15, journalists were herded through several checkpoints and crowded into the cramped courtroom. Another long wait. The defendants are barely visible inside a rectangular glassed enclosure, with a row of policemen at their backs. Their lawyers, pressed up against the opening, seem to be whispering sweet nothings to their nonchalant defendants. The atmosphere is more cocktail party than courtroom. Around 10 PM the jury and judges enter.

Standing up against formidable odds, Iranian freedom fighters are looking for democratic leadership and support, if only moral support from Western democracies. Is it possible that Europeans will trot obediently behind an Obama administration that has nothing to say for itself? If no one has the courage and/or the means to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from building the nuclear weapon that will doom us to a dismal future, can anyone in his right mind believe that it is better to crush Israel, under the pretext of fostering an outlandish peace process, instead of helping Iranian citizens crush the tyrants who want the bomb so they can crush all of us?

In this defining moment, the decision lies in the hands of individual citizens. Freedom loving individuals fighting Islamic tyranny in Iran. Americans fighting usurpation of our constitutional rights and abdication of our international responsibilities. Jews fighting the recurrence of genocidal ambitions that precipitate a time of darkness for all humanity.

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