We are all Jews!

From The Suburban (Canada) 7/5/08, by R. James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence, vice-president of Booz, Allen, Hamilton and co-chair of the Committee on the Present Danger:

...It's not only the other two great Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islam, that owe a substantial debt to Judaism, it's the world as a whole. The reason is that between three and four millennia ago something happened in the Sinai among a tribe of refugees from Egyptian oppression that introduced the world to the concept of the rule of law - the idea that the law is not the whim of, but rather has its source above, those who rule.

This concept is at the heart of what makes decently- governed societies possible...In the absence of ...the notion that the rule of law somehow derives from a source above the rulers, electoral democracy can degenerate into mob rule and capitalism into theft. ...

...The US does not look back to Rome or France at the height of their power in determining the way to deal with those who today govern the most powerful nation in history. Thankfully, in regard to the powerful being subjected to the rule of law we are...all Jews. Perhaps nothing more distinguishes the free world, with Israel as its frontline family member, from the Islamist fundamentalism that challenges it as its greatest existential threat....

.... I am convinced that it is this veneration of the law - with its status above the ruler - that is at the heart of anti-Semitism.

Jews have almost always been the first target of tyrants, because their beliefs and religious practices, honed by nearly two millennia in Diaspora, clearly declare that in their view the law is above the ruler.... As a consequence they are often the first group that tyrants, secular or theocratic, feel they must suppress or destroy.

We should all reflect upon the historic reality that when anti- Semitism raises its head, the rest of us, unless we are willing to live with a foot on our neck, will be the next targets....

... The law is, after all, above the ruler. At the same time that fidelity to this concept is the greatest irritant to Israel’s enemies,it is precisely that fidelity that will not only sustain the Jewish state but will guarantee that it will survive and thrive as a valued ally in the family of free nations.