Demonstrations against Israel have been stronger, louder and longer in Europe than in the West Bank. There are, in part, two reasons.

"Homegrown terrorists" are not only people who plot jihad against America. They are also Americans who collect money for those who would plot terrorism and jihad against others.

There was a time when even Europeans understood that naked aggression requires a response and that a government is ultimately responsible for the safety and security of its own people. It is therefore disconcerting to hear the descendants of Hitler's non-Jewish victims demand of Israel the opposite of what they wanted when they were under the gun.

Israel painfully proved in the West Bank that it is possible to win a war against terrorists; in Lebanon, it painfully allowed the terrorists a victory by default. In Gaza, Israel has no choice but to ensure that control of territory is in Israel's hands - at a minimum by maintaining the ability to strike when and where necessary.

If Israel's quest for legitimacy, which would bring it security without foreign forces, is denied, then Israel should be responsible for defending its people, and the Palestinians should understand that their aspirations for statehood will remain unfulfilled.

It would be a step backward for the incoming Obama Administration not to acknowledge that "anti American militant jihadism" is, at its core, religion/governance-centric, not Israel-centric.

There is nothing inevitable or eternal about the problem of Palestinians and Israelis – but at this moment the two sides are not "willing" the same thing. Israel is under attack daily from the Palestinians, and Iran is calling for genocide.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen was honored by JINSA on Monday, December 8, with the "Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award." At the same event, six outstanding individuals from each branch of the U.S. military as well as the U.S. Special Operations Command were presented with the "Grateful Nation Award."

The American presence allows the Iraqi government a place to focus their irritation over their unsettled status and keeps the irritation from degenerating into open warfare again. They, and we, agree that our presence is necessary. But the recent and historic signing of the Status of Forces Agreement puts us one step closer to an American departure.

The terror attacks in Mumbai were not about politics or political grievances. They were about carefully honed hatred coupled with the means to kill. And that is what we in the progressive world – including and particularly the progressive Muslim world – have to worry about. Hatred taught and nurtured.