What would Washington do?

This week, Hamas announced it had no intention of keeping the informal truce with Israel it has maintained for the last nine months. The truce was "informal" because Hamas reserved the right to attack – and did – but for the most part laid low and regrouped.

Having gained their second wind, they are ready to resume the war. "In the face of this Zionist aggression, no one should dream about the renewal of this truce," said a Hamas spokesman, Mushir al-Masri.

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Israel rejected a Palestinian Authority proposal that Israel stop targeting militants if they would lay down their arms. Israel insists on the dismantling of violent groups.

Raanan Gissin, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said, "We're not going to pay with Israeli lives while they are experimenting in trying to reach understandings with terror organizations and they continue to carry out terror attacks against us."

Israel's rejection of the proposal did not sit well with Washington, which continues to urge Israel to show "restraint" in the face of unrelenting and unapologetic aggression linked back to most of the capitals of the Arab world.

It is important in understanding Israel's true peril to recall the words of former Prime Minister Golda Meir, who famously (and accurately) observed: "The Arabs can fight, and lose, and return to fight another day. Israel can only lose once."

While the rest of the world experiments with Israel's security, if the experiment fails, the only loser will be Israel. Israel is as literally in a fight for her survival as America was in World War II, or – although the liberals don't seem to care – as America's current war against terror.

Iran's president recently called for Israel to be wiped from the face of the earth in a public speech. Since Iran is developing nuclear weapons capable of fulfilling the threat, urging Israel to show "restraint" is like urging it to commit suicide.

What would Washington do in Israel's place? During World War II, in order to defeat the Nazi enemy, Washington ordered the firebombing of civilian cities, killing hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of civilian men, women and children in an effort to break the enemy's will.

To defeat Japan and avoid the necessity of a costly invasion, Washington ordered a nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both civilian targets, following months of intensive conventional firebombing, also aimed at civilians, and intended to break the civilian population's will to continue to fight.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Washington ordered the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the suppression of civilian rule (at least for a time), an ongoing military occupation of both nations with the permission of the (now) friendly governments, and a policy of unrestricted warfare against enemy combatants, wherever they may be found on earth. Washington justified its post-Sept. 11 actions by pointing to the existential threat posed to America's continued existence should al-Qaida get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.

The identical justification exists (in spades) for an Israeli occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank, including unrestricted warfare against enemy civilians in an effort to break the Palestinians' continued will to fight.

If America's existence is threatened by Islamic jihadists, Israel's existence is threatened by every Arab government on earth – in addition to the Islamic jihadists who threaten America.

If America is justified in invading Afghanistan and Iraq, removing the existing governments, and setting up more U.S. friendly governments in their places, then Israel has the identical justification for invading Syria, Iran or Saudi Arabia, deposing the existing rulers, and replacing them with more Israel-friendly regimes.

During World War II, nothing less than unconditional surrender of the Axis powers was acceptable. They were disarmed, occupied and re-educated. Their systems of government were replaced with U.S.-imposed democracies. Washington has proclaimed the same objectives regarding its Islamic enemies.

Nothing less than total surrender and disarmament, or the total destruction of al-Qaida is acceptable. President Bush has made it clear that there is no room for negotiation with terrorists. Until the terrorists disarm and disband, American forces will continue to hunt them down and kill them wherever they find them.

But when it comes to Israel, Washington urges restraint and negotiation by the Israeli side.

According to Bible prophecy, the world is divided into four main spheres of power in the last days – all of which are already in existence today. The Russian-Islamic bloc, the Asian "Kings of the East" the Organization of African Nation's "Kings of the South" and the European Union's revived Roman Empire, out of which Daniel says the antichrist will rise to power.

Israel is the main player in the Last Days' drama, the preferred enemy and ultimate target of all four of these global power players. Israel is in place and in character for the role she was predicted to play.

Missing from the overall Big Picture is any mention of a fifth, overarching superpower resembling the United States. Where did it go?

Perhaps Washington took some of the advice it is now offering Israel.

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