Israel fights back

We live in a highly secular age when we're not supposed to talk in terms like "evil" any more.

But how can one characterize actions like the beheading of Nick Berg last week without using that term?

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How can one describe the attack in Gaza two weeks ago when Arabs stopped the car of a young mother of four and, with automatic rifle fire, killed her, her unborn child and all four of her kids?

How can one characterize what happened to this nation on Sept. 11, 2001, without using that word?

Evil should be more real to us in the 21st century than ever before. So I don't know why we shy away from using the word.

We all recognize there are bad people around us.

That's why we put locks on our doors, build fences around our properties, pay police forces to protect us and arm ourselves to defend our families from wrongdoers.

But somehow, when it comes to international relations, we pretend there aren't bad peoples, bad nations, entire groups of people sworn to do evil.

Some prefer to believe that nearly all disputes in the world can be solved through diplomacy.

Have you ever tried diplomacy when you were being mugged?

It doesn't work.

The only thing that works is force. The only thing that works is fighting back. The only thing that works is winning the battle – whether it's with the help of others, the help of a weapon or your own self-defense skills.

It's true with nations, too.

I finally figured out why there is so much media attention on and so much Arab criticism of two recent actions by Israel – the building of a security fence and the killing of two terrorist leaders.

Do you know why the firestorm?

Because they are working.

As amazing as it might seem, since the first part of that security fence was completed in March, there has not been a single successful suicide bombing in Israel.

And, of course, despite all the hyperbolic warnings about revenge for the killings of Hamas leaders Sheihk Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantissi, there has not been a single successful suicide bombing attack in Israel since those targeted assassinations either.

Perhaps most tellingly, not a single suicide bomber has infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, which has been surrounded by a fence similar to the security perimeter being constructed along the West Bank.

Israel is doing just what we do in our own personal lives to protect ourselves. It is building fences to protect its civilians from hostile neighbors and it is punishing mass murderers with execution.

It's the right of any nation to defend itself and that is what Israel is doing. Israel is militarily capable of destroying its enemies – all of them. But it does not. It shows restraint – even in the face of murderous provocation.

There's a lesson for all of us in this recent experience.

We can't solve all of our problems through negotiations – no matter how hard we try. Sometimes we just have to defend ourselves. Most of us know this in America. There was near-unanimous support for the invasion of Afghanistan. There was strong support for the invasion of Iraq.

But it's a political season, and now power-hungry opportunists are tearing at the fabric of our society, dividing us while our troops fight to protect us and our way of life.

They say we should have tried harder to convince other nations to join us. They say we didn't give diplomacy enough time. They say we as a people are arrogant. They say we are being as mean and cruel and evil as the enemies we overthrew.

Personally, I'm getting sick of these compromisers with evil, these appeasers of terrorism, these weak-kneed, blame-America-first whiners.

You know what I say?

Learn from the Israelis. It's time to build more fences and kill more terrorists. That's a policy that works.