Emboldening Our Enemies

When Israel experiences a terrorist attack, the surprise should be that anyone is surprised.

The latest, but by no means the last, occurred in Bulgaria, of all places. Last week a busload of Israeli youth who had just disembarked from a plane exploded at Sofia airport, killing at least four and wounding more than two dozen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident "an Iranian terror attack." He promised a tough response. Whether Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood or any number of other groups, the war against Israel and the Jewish people continues.

Killing young people resolves nothing, but don't expect the U.S. government to learn anything from this. Over several administrations, the U.S. government has aided Israel's enemies -- and ours -- by exhibiting weakness, hoping they will lay down their arms. This thinking only emboldens our enemies, otherwise there would be fewer terrorist attacks. We'd better learn lessons from these incidents before it's too late. Or maybe it already is.

I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.

Publication date: July 23, 2012