I No Longer Feel Safe Here Anymore

I No Longer Feel Safe Here Anymore

By

Leonard Zwelling

The conflict in the Middle East is thousands of miles away. Despite being upset with events there, why should I feel that those events make me feel unsafe here in the United States? The answer is rather simple. It feels like the world is coming apart and those in charge have no answers to the trauma being inflicted on the innocent by evil whether that evil is in Russia, Gaza, or Iran. My feeling is that if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere including the country that has sheltered so many of us from so many other places.

I am very worried about the rise of even more anti-Semitism at a time when that scourge is visiting yet again.

I might feel differently if I thought my own government was a light onto the nations and its leaders had my best interest at heart. I don’t.

The President is a well-meaning man, but he has been spun around and befuddled by world events in Europe, China, and the Middle East. Tell me, Joe. What’s the plan? Telling me that Ukraine will prevail does not tell me how. Declaring that Taiwan is a free country does not assure me that Xi won’t invade, or even be afraid to do so given what he has seen Mr. Putin pull off in Ukraine. Finally, tell me how the Jewish state to which you have pledged your support is supposed to eliminate the threat of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran given what Hamas did on October 7. How is the United States going to strike a posture of being deliberate, strategic, tactical, and humane given what is happening in the world. And how can I as a U.S. citizen feel confident in your administration when I don’t even believe you can retain the presidency against a man who has been indicted 91 times? Wake up, man. Most Americans felt that they were better off before the pandemic than they are now. Who was president then? Not you.

Finally, while the world is sympathetic to the Israeli cause after October 7, it won’t be for long once the Israeli Defense Force has to kill innocent civilians to get to Hamas fighters who are probably dug in below ground with supplies on one side and hostages on the other.

The real question is can America produce a leader capable of both working his or her way through this, protecting our citizenry, wherever they are, and expressing a vision for a world where I, as an American, and a Jew, can feel safe? Where’s an FDR or Reagan when you need them?

Mr. Biden. Mr. Netanyahu. Tell me how you make this right and how I can once again feel safe. You can’t get the hostages out. You can’t even get the American passport holders out of Gaza. The United Nations is toothless and the Sunni states are doing nothing.

One thing that President George H. W. Bush was able to do was put together a coalition of the willing to fight against Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait. Can Biden do the same here? That’s what is needed. A world-wide demonstration of solidarity among the civilized against Hamas. This may be one of those times when overwhelming force may not be the best answer even as our collective blood boils and cries out for vengeance.

Let’s see who is really clever and can bring this thing to an end without killing ten thousand Palestinians and hundreds of Israeli troops.

Do that and I’ll feel safe again.