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Source: http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org/article.php?c=74
Restore Reason and Decency to the Discussion Concerning Israel
(Friends of Israel Initiative) Jose Maria Aznar - Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Tuesday in Washington: Many of us came from Europe. Most of us are not Jewish. We defend Israel because we believe that is the best strategy in current times to defend the West. Israel is facing increasing dangers. It has been forced to defend its people from Hizbullah in the north and thousands of Hamas rockets in the south. And, perhaps most worryingly, Israel is increasingly threatened by the scenario of a nuclear Iran - something the world must certainly act urgently to prevent. On top of that, Israel is under a new kind of attack - an attack on its legitimacy, a "soft-war" where many of its adversaries are employing legal tricks, multinational bodies, and an army of dubious NGOs to present Israel internationally as an illegitimate state. We think this is intolerable. It is unjust, morally wrong, and a strategic risk - not only for Israel and its people - but for all of us. Israel is an integral part of the West, and the weaker it is, the weaker the entire West will be perceived to be. It is not only that if Israel goes down, we all go down. It is that letting Israel be demonized will lead to the delegitimation of our own cherished values. If Israel were to disappear by the force of its enemies, I sincerely doubt the West could remain as we know it. Enough. Stop this nonsense of making Israel responsible for all the problems in the region, if not beyond. Enough of the short-sightedness which refuses to see Israel as a cornerstone of our Western civilization. I hope that you will share our vision, and will help us in bringing reason and decency back to the discussion concerning Israel.