No place on Earth is completely safe for anyone. Israel has lost upwards of 20,000 citizens and soldiers in wars and terrorist incidents since 1948. However, the Jewish people lost six million members in the Holocaust of World War II; hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed in pogroms in the Ukraine and Russia. Over the years many more were killed in pogroms of the Middle Ages, especially the crusades. Israel cannot make the world safe for the Jews, any more than the United States can guarantee the perfect safety of every American citizen. However, Israel can give the Jewish people the same fundamental safeguard that every other nation has - the right to self defense.
Ami Isseroff
