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Dear Friend of Israel, dear Friend of FLAME: As I am writing these lines, thousands (quite literally!) of rockets are falling on Israel. All come from the Gaza Strip, which Israel – probably quite foolishly – turned over to the Arabs several years ago. It isn't really quite clear how a militarily dominant nation would have countenanced this enormous build-up of rockets since, quite obviously, it would have been in position to prevent it. But there it is, and now Israel, a major military power, has to deal with it.
Fortunately, at least until now, there has been very little damage and very few casualties. And that can mostly be ascribed to the outstandingly excellent development by Israeli science of the Iron Dome Interception System. The IDIS is extremely successful and accurate. It is a real miracle how this system operates because it essentially intercepts one bullet in flight with another bullet.
But it is possible and indeed quite probable, that sooner or later one of those rockets is going to get through and will hit a school or a hospital. That would have very grave consequences, of course.
If Israel would have expected gratitude for its evacuation of Gaza and for leaving to the Gazans the present of the advanced agricultural and industrial installations that the departing Jews left for them, they would be disappointed. Because all the thanks they got was this rain of rockets. It could perhaps be a lesson of what Israel may expect in case the two-state solution is put into operation.
The escalation of the rocket shower, for which there is no immediate end in sight, can be ascribed to the failure of the recent peace negotiations in which our Secretary of State, John Kerry, and even the President himself were involved and expended time, effort and even reputations. This failure could perhaps have been predicted because there have been numerous such peace negotiations, and none of them have succeeded.
These recent peace negotiations failed because of the impossible demands of the Arabs. One of their "non-negotiable" demands was the "repatriation" of the descendants of the approximately 600,000 refugees of the 1948 War of Independence. They are said to have increased to more than 5 million people, which would be a record even for the vaunted "Arab womb." Virtually none of those people has ever set foot on Israeli soil. Furthermore, if those 5 million people or any number even close to it were allowed into the country they would, in one swoop, overwhelm the Jews, which would thus obviate the Jewish state.
Another unreasonable demand of the Arabs, one that might be considered absurd, is their insistence to deny Israel the recognition as a Jewish state or the State of the Jews or anything like it. That is really strange because the creation of a Jewish state and a Arab/Muslim state was supposed to be the outcome of those peace negotiations. And, of course, the Jews would have had no objection at all if the Arabs would have called their new-founded state "The Islamic Republic of Palestine" or anything like that.
But the kiss of death to any peace that could be produced in this effort was when Mr. Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority (the Fatah faction, the "good guys") and Hamas, the organization that governs Gaza and though former bitter enemies, formed a union to make common cause in these negotiations. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the US government and by many other countries.
One of the main tenets in what passes for Hamas's constitution is the destruction of Israel. How can one possibly make peace with those who have sworn to destroy them? The failure of these peace negotiations – one in a long line of such failures – makes one believe that what the Arabs really want is not another state of their own, but the destruction of Israel and the killing of all the Jews. Or, to use their colorful phraseology, "to drive the Jews into the sea" and "to excise the cancer of the Zionist entity from the Middle East."
What a shame, what a pity that really is. If the Arabs had played their cards right in 1948 or any time thereafter, they could have formed a condominium or an economic union with the State of Israel, which would have made them the most successful and richest country in Arabdom. How different that would be, instead of their being on the dole of the world, a country of "martyrs" and of suicide bombers.
We, FLAME, (Facts and Logic About the Middle East) have for over twenty-five years propagated the cause of Israel and of the Jewish state by placing full-page ads in media. We have been quite successful in "educating" the American people about the truth of Israel, its virtues and its accomplishments and its importance for our country. Of the over 30,000 supporters of our cause, quite a few are of the Christian faith. That diversity is very important to us, of course. Most of our Christian supporters are quite devoted and most generous.
We are very thrifty with the funds that you and other supporters contribute to us. We work out of Spartan offices, and our executives work without pay (pro bono) and have never been paid, from the very beginning. We publish in major national magazines and in metropolitan and small-town newspapers all across the country. More than 10 million people read our messages every month. We send our messages, with appropriate cover letters, every month also to all members of Congress (Senators and Representatives), to the Vice President and to the President, to the Secretary of State and to all Justices of the Supreme Court. Many of them respond in writing and approvingly to our mailings. For your information, we include one of such letters and the corresponding message to Congress with this letter.
Finally, we place our messages in the campus newspapers of a number of universities. Regrettably some of them are hotbeds of anti-Israelism and propagators of the odious BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) movement. We want to make sure that the leaders of the following generation are informed about the truth and realities of Israel.
We know that many demands are being made on you because you are a charitable and generous person and contribute to Jewish causes. We know that you cannot contribute to all of them, though most are very deserving of your support. But please consider the importance and the unique job that FLAME is doing in telling the story of Israel to people all over the United States and to all members of the US Congress. We are most deserving of your generous support and hope you will agree.
Thank you very much, shalom and sincerely yours, P.S.1: Please consider donating appreciated securities. That has, as you know, tax advantages, and you can avail yourself of them by making a contribution to our good cause. P.S.2: And please, in order to secure continuity, consider including us in your will. P.S.3: Tf you choose to support FLAME as a donor, we'll send you two recent hasbarah messages, which you'll find useful in your Israel advocacy and which are suitable for easy photocopying, so you can pass them on to friends.
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