D.C. Summit

Well, I am finally back in the land of blue skies and free wi-fi access. I apologize for not being able to blog this last week, but I just wasn't willing to pay $20 for a crummy internet signal. :)

What a life changing experience! On top of attending the classes taught at Summit, I was able to play tourist and see places like the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Capitol Building, and was able to meet with the New Mexico Representatives and Senators.

The first two days of my trip were student-only conferences, which consisted of speakers from all over the world. I attended several lectures, ranging from information about different terrorist groups to Israeli history. Overall there ended up being over 400 students from around the country who came to the Summit. The next 3 days were open to the public (just under 4,000 were in attendance), and included speakers such as Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Michelle Bachmann, Glenn Beck, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (via satallite) to name but a few. But of all the speakers I heard, I must say it was the Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers that impacted me the most. These are men and women who love their country, long for peace, but will defend their homeland no matter what the cost. The love of the Israeli people was truly demonstrated through these soldiers.

I took two very important lessons away from this trip: The first is that Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East, and it is not only in her best interest to have the support of the United States, it is in our best interest as well. For you see, when Israel is fighting her enemies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda, she is also fighting our enemies. Because of this, it is extremely important that America ensures Israel has the military edge over these groups. For if Israel were to ever fail in the fight against her enemies, the burden would then fall to us. And not only would it fall to us to send our forces to the Middle East, it could fall to us here at home. Right now Israel is our buffer between these terrorist groups. If she was no longer to exist, there would be nothing keeping them from attacking the United States on American soil. Something people also don't realize is that the U.S. benefits greatly from an Israeli alliance via shared technology. Israel has been very gracious in sharing much of her cutting edge military technology with the U.S., and American lives have been saved as a direct result. So, we as Americans must realize that when the brave men and women of the IDF are protecting their borders, their families, and their children, they are also protecting our borders, our families, and our children.

The second lesson I learned on this trip is how peaceful Israel is. It is a very common misconception in the media that Israel is "occupying" land and is the aggressor towards countries like Palestine. Something that the media will not tell you is that Israel in fact has offered to give back the West Bank and Gaza to her enemies--even though she is under no legal obligation to do so--not one, not two, but five times in the past, and the Palestinian authority has refused her offer every single time. Israel wants peace, and they are willing to give up the land that means so much to them in order to achieve it. Israel will not attack a country unless it is absolutely vital to her survival. One of our speakers put it well, he said that Israel is not perfect, she makes mistakes. However, this doesn't take away her right to exist and defend herself like any other nation.

On a personal note, it was interesting to learn how much Israel loves and supports America. On September 11, 2001 after the horrible terrorist attacks on this nation, there were countries all over the Middle East whose citizens were dancing in the street with joy at the tragedy that befell our country. However, Israel lowered their flag and declared a national day of mourning for her American allies.

It is impossible to type here everything I learned at this Summit and do it any justice. I would encourage all of you to research the topic of Israel and see for yourself what a wonderful, peace-loving nation she is. I will leave you with a quote from one of the IDF speakers at the conference that really impacted me and sums it up well:  

"If the Arabs would lay down their guns, there would be no more war. If the Israelis lay down their guns, there would be no more Israel."