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When I was a school-age girl, I wanted a lot of friends. Some people would expect me to do some really stupid or nasty things to gain their approval, and I would often do these things to "get in good" with the children I wanted to be friends with.

As I got older, I started regretting most of the stupid things I did and all of the nasty things I did to other people.

If I was able to learn this at a relatively young age (my teens and early 20s), how is it that the world still hasn't learned this after 61 years of Israel's existance? Why haven't the U.S. and the EU nations learned that doing stupid and nasty things to their own citizens and to Israel in the name of friendship to the Arab/Muslim nations is never going to get them the "friendship" in the Middle Eastern region that they crave? Why do they think that by being nasty to their one true friend in the region, Israel, that they will gain any modicum of partnership with the totalitarian, despotic leadership of the Islamist lands?

President Obama and Secretary Clinton have been trying to win the "friendship" of the Palestinian Authority by brokering a deal with Israel to freeze new construction in the disputed areas of Yehuda and Shomron. Why is there a dispute over these areas? Because the Palestinian leadership is using these areas as a first rung on the ladder of conquest, a conquest they can't accomplish through military means. Through intimidation and manipulation, these leaders, who take foreign aid meant to help their people and funnel it into their Swiss bank accounts, feed their people lies about the reasons for their squalorous living and blame Israel and the U.S.

Just as Hitler took all the land he could through diplomacy and intimidation (remember from history Chamberlain's proclamation of "peace in our times" after handing over the Czech Sudetenland to the conquest-hungry Hitler only months before German troops marched into Poland, a move that made the allies realize no concessions would placate the Nazi fuhrer), the Islamist nations of the Middle East will take whatever they can get in terms of concessions from Israel and the West without ever giving up anything, physically or diplomatically.

So why, with this model of meglomania, do the governments of the Western nations not see the threat posed? Why are people still trying to appease the unappeasable? Why are administrations from Carter and Bush Sr. to Obama trying to pacify the war-mongering, hatred-spewing, evil terror merchants that control their own people through murder, terror, lies, and intimidation?

Why are we allowing a militarily impotent people to walk all over us? Why are we expecting people of war to understand peace through diplomacy? All we need to do is study the history of the Middle East, World War II, and the life of Muhammed through the Quran. Guile and deceit are their weapons. False friendships and offers of counterfeit alliances are all these regimes have to offer. Why are we trading an olive branch and Israel's security with such non-friends?

If our children can learn the poison of empty partnerships, why can't we? Why can't Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton apprehend the seriousness of their attempts to gain leverage, a leverage that will never materialize, with these malevolent, amoral despots? When will they learn that true friends do not have to be bought, or that bullying the nerdy kid on the block won't make them popular with the oppressors? And when will they learn that the Islamists -- as history has shown each and every time -- only understand force and will only begin to negotiate when they have been defeated soundly on the field of battle?

Only after showing them that we have the capability and the willingness to destroy them if necessary will the Islamist regimes be willing to cooperate with us to bring true peace to the world.

Debbie Israel is a graphic artist (see https://www.cafepress.com/compugraphd2 for some of her work) and tutor living in Highland Park.