Pat Buchanan, not satisfied merely looking like a Herblock depiction of a bigot, a man who never allows an opportunity to slam Israel slip through his fingers, has been on a rampage because Israel has finally gone after the murderous thugs and sadists of Hezbollah.

The fact that the terrorists don't wear uniforms means that every time the Israelis kill one of them, Buchanan and his ilk get to insist that Israel is targeting civilians. Buchanan's concern for civilians isn't nearly so evident when it's Jews who are targeted by Hamas, Hezbollah and the PLO's suicide bombers.

One of the sillier things Israel has done in recent years was to fall for the land-for-peace con game. They surrendered territory and any number of settlements as a gesture of good will. Good will gestures made to terrorists and tyrants are the height of folly and cowardice, and it doesn't matter whether it's the Arabs or Adolf Hitler. Offer your hand to the tiger and don't expect him to stop nibbling when he gets to your wrist.

Because Israel plays such a prominent role in the news, and because it's managed, against all odds, to survive for 58 years, one can easily over-estimate its actual place in the world. The fact of the matter is unless you were at the top of your geography class, you'd be hard-pressed to find it on your globe. To give you a clear idea of what Israel is up against, keep in mind that there are 22 countries in the Arab League. The League encompasses 5,200,000 square miles; Israel was 8,000 square miles before giving up the aforementioned turf. What's more, there are 312 million people living in those 22 countries. Israel's population is 6 million, more than a million of whom are Arabs.

As far as Buchanan and his friends are concerned, it would seem that the only thing that's required to make Israel the jewel of the Middle East is for those 5 million Jews to disappear.

You have to wonder what it is about those 8,000 square miles that the Arabs covet. It's not as if Israel sits on huge oil deposits. Why aren't 5 million square miles enough? I mean, if you had $5 million, would you cry yourself to sleep every night because you didn't have $5,008,000?

Let's face it – before the Jews built universities, hospitals and concert halls, and planted trees and crops, the place was nothing but 8,000 square miles of kitty litter.

So many people are happy to trumpet "No blood for oil." How is it that we never hear them, or Mr. Buchanan, telling the Arabs, "No blood for sand"?

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