Chris Stewart: “We live in a very dangerous world. It seems like there is chaos and darkness all around us. As a former Air Force pilot…”

“We live in a very dangerous world. It seems like there is chaos and darkness all around us. As a former Air Force pilot, I have seen the results of abusive power in a very real way. It seems like every time we turn on the television or we read the news, we get the feeling that the world is being turned upside down. The wheels have come off the train and we seem to be careening towards the cliff: Russia takes Crimea and then sends un-uniformed troops into eastern Ukraine; tens of thousands of deaths in Syria, with millions of refugees; the recent evacuation of our own Embassy in Libya; Iran working toward a nuclear weapon; ISIS in Iraq creating essentially a terrorist state; the crisis of Chinese power threatening significant parts of the Eastern world. The list of concerns is very long, indeed. But nowhere is the strife and uncertainty more dangerous, more strategic, and more critical to U.S. interests than what we are witnessing in Israel and their military operations in Gaza. Israel is the most important ally in the region that we have. It has the only democratically elected government in a very unstable and violent part of the world. It has a vibrant, free capitalistic society that respects human rights, that respects women's rights, that respects minority rights, even the religious minorities. Let me say this as clearly and as unambiguously as I can: Israel is our friend and our ally.…”