Doubting Thomas: This week I watched two EXCELLENT and unique Time/Life documentaries one the birth of the Nazi state and the second about the details surrounding the development of the Auschwitz extermination camp, a mere 60 plus years ago. I see again and again why I think the way I do. That the Jewish people for millennia have survived to create a prosperous, beautiful, technologically advanced state is nothing short of miraculous.

Despite those who call for us to rid ourselves of the Holocaust rationale for Israel I say they SHOULD view what I have viewed and read all I have read about the two thousand year fate of the Jewish people. Moreover, they should go there to see reality for themselves. There is NO question in my mind the Holocaust was and is the single most important rationale for the emergence of the State of Israel and the reason to defend it at all costs. That Hamas and its allies will NOT leave this tiny nation and people alone is testament to the cruelty, inhumanity and dogged determination of Israel's enemies.

Anti-Semitism is alive and well. I was utterly SHOCKED, since I happen to love Helen Thomas, a dogged 90 year old White House journalist, when she made one of the most egregious statements I have ever heard a journalist make suggesting angrily that the Jews leave Israel and return to Germany and Poland. I will NOT give her a pass for this one because of her age!

In one nanosecond she spit in the face of the victims of the Holocaust. It took someone of her age to reflect the sick sentiments of anti-Semitism which span generations. What she said was tantamount to relegating the rest of Jews who sought sanctuary in Israel to return to the ovens of Auschwitz in Poland and the liquidation in Germany once again. This cruel and insensitive remark is the VERY reason the Jewish people MUST act in our own self interest.

If Helen Thomas's feelings were unique I would say chalk it up to a ninety year old woman's battered mind but they are NOT unique and she does NOT have a battered mind. Many share her feelings and THAT is why the State of Israel must defend itself by any means necessary to ensure its survival that it remain an oasis for a people who have known the UNTHINKABLE and UNFORGIVABLE results of comments like hers!