Dagger: Rick Perry is the Governor of a Major U.S. State

Governor Rick Perry of Texas exhibited extremely shrewd foreign policy analysis during his recent trip to Israel when he a) compared the problems on the Texas/Mexico border with those between Israel's border with Gaza; and b) stated that Israelis were ordained by God to possess Israel. It's difficult for me to express in words how I feel about these comments. Flabbergasted? Incensed? Bewildered? Nonplussed (look it up)? None of these words fully encompass the emotions stirred up by Rick's insightful and enlightening comments.

Let's just run through some reasons that the Israel/Palestinian problem does not really compare to the Texas/Mexico problem. Perry actually attempted to back up his statement with the fact that only 28 Israelis have been killed by rocket attacks against Israel in the past eight years but over 1,000 people have died in Juarez, Mexico in the past year. I'm not sure which member of Rick's staff dug up this nugget and encouraged him to use it, but they should put a sign around their neck that says "snitch" and leave them in the streets of Juarez. Rick, the modern state of Israel was formed when the world powers after WWII displaced an entire country full of people (the Palestinians) and gave it to another group of people (the Jewish people) after that group was nearly wiped off the face of the earth. Since then the Jewish people have been under a constant state of attack from both the Palestinians, whom they displaced, and the other Arab countries in the region. These attacks have come in the form of all out war as well as constant terrorist attacks aimed at disrupting the way that all Israelis live their every day lives. Israel has not lived in a state of peace since its very inception and it is unlikely that it ever will. I'm not trying to downplay the severity of the problem in Mexico because it is a huge problem and one that puts innocent people at risk, but the drug dealers' goal is to make money not to wipe the state of Texas from the face of the earth.

As far as Rick's firm belief that God ordained that the state of Israel belong to the Jewish people, that is his personal belief and he is entitled to it. Unlike his belief that his border problem is worse than the Israeli/Palestinian one, he is certainly not the only person in the world that believes that God ordained the Jewish people to have Israel. I'll just say that politicians basing their foreign policy on the Bible makes me uncomfortable to very uncomfortable.

It's disturbing to me that I don't even have to touch on the fact that Rick Perry suggested that Texas might want to secede from the Union in order to prove what a complete lunatic he is.