MEXICO FIRES MISSILES INTO TEXAS; McALLEN PLAYGROUND TAKES DIRECT HIT

Well,  now that I have your attention...

The media would have a field day if this had actually happened. I am certain our Republican and Tea-Bagging constituency would be handing out coupons for NRA supplied firearms and bus tickets to the border. Even the Democrats would be hard pressed to stand and do nothing about a direct missile attack on McAllen, Texas from the south.

I am certain borders would be sealed and the National Guard sent to make sure whoever launched those missiles would be dust before another round could to lobbed into the United States...even though the Mexicans actually used to own that territory and still may have valid claims to it. Before it was a state, Texas was its own country, and before that, it was part of Mexico.

There isn’t a country on the map today that wasn’t born of conflict. No border exists that hasn’t had blood shed on it for one reason or another. It’s the nature of humans to assign boundaries. Just look at Alsace-Lorraine. I mean, who exactly does it belong to? France or Germany…or maybe it should be its own country…which it was for 11 days back in 1918.

No foreign government would dare tell the U.S. to back off and not fire into Mexico. It wouldn’t happen. The world would just sorta stand back and wait to see how far into Mexico we would go. But no sovereign state would tell another sovereign state that they did not have the obligation to return fire…unless we’re talking about Israel.

Justice Richard Goldstone’s retraction of his report to the United Nations is too little too late. A Jew branding Israel as a terrorist state that disregards international law was a victory for terrorists and anti-Semites worldwide. The spin on that report did enormous damage and while Justice Goldstone says that despite his errors in judgment there were positive steps taken as a result of the report, it’s not enough to justify his callous disregard for the truth when it was presented to him.

And as if that is not enough, his retraction does not adequately address the lack of response from Hamas, not to mention their inability to understand the heinous nature of their crimes against their own people.

Bradley Burston of Ha’Artez, Israel's oldest daily newspaper, admonishes his readers thusly:

Beyond all else, what Richard Goldstone has given us is an example of someone who is willing, despite everything, to acknowledge when mistaken and to come forward and own up.

Personally, I’m having a little trouble with this. Part of me thinks it is too little too late, and that the damage cannot be undone. Yet, another part wants to see Israel step up to the plate, continue its changes in policy, and strive to be a better role model in the humanitarian aspect of military operations. Not that it would matter to the rest of the world, but we would know. And we would care.

In this month of Adar, as we get ready to retell the story of the Exodus, we are commanded again and again to remember that we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, and that experience must never be far from our communal collective conscience.

Wifely Person's Tip o’the Week

Now is the time to stop buying flour and start using up the chametz in your pantry!