Rant on Israel

I’m writing this note against my better judgment. I’ve been told in the past not to write about politics, and no one comes to my content wanting my opinion.

This week, I’m going to break both of those rules.

I’m Jewish, and the amount of anti-Semitism in the US is alarming.

Or, at least, the protests are misguided. Yes, the plight of the Palestinians is terrible. Yes, there are innocent people who will be killed. You might also at least admit that there were many innocent Israelis killed, and it wasn’t the Israelis that started this conflict. Instead of the world blaming Israel and the Jews for every wrong in the world, maybe we should think about how we got here in the first place.

The Palestinians voted for Hamas

Neither Israel, nor the Jews, voted Hamas to run the Gaza strip. That was the Palestinian population. They were the ones who voted for a group of terrorists whose only goal is to eradicate all Jews, and especially all that live in Israel.

Hamas are the cowards. We don’t see Israel using civilians as human shields. We don’t see Israel starving its citizens for the benefit of the terrorists. No, we see Hamas doing that.

If we want to talk about who is worse for the population of Gaza, you would have to say it’s Hamas. After all, they could provide humanitarian aid. All news reports say they have plenty of supplies, but not the general population. Doesn’t that tell you something about the leadership?

Hamas are not freedom fighters.

Freedom fighters fight for something positive. How and what can you say Hamas is fighting for is positive. They aren’t fighting for a free and democratic Palestine. They are simply fighting to rid the world of Jews. It’s in their charter.

Now, tell me something. If this was Mexico sending a mercenary force across our border, and we lost over 20,000 citizens (the equivalent of how many Israelis were killed), what would our response be?

I can tell you it wouldn’t be proportional. We would flatten Mexico, and our population would demand that action. Yet, we have college kids who believe Hamas has the right to eliminate Jews as their primary purpose in life. And, from what I’ve seen, it’s not just college kids, but those between eighteen and twenty-five.

Remember the Hospital.

Yeah, you remember the hospital supposedly bombed by Israel. Well, as it turns out, according to all legitimate intelligence services, it wasn’t Israel. It was an errant missile from within Gaza.

Remember, there were supposedly 500 people killed. Well, as it again turns out, it was between 10 and 50 people. No one wants to see a loss of life, but 10-50 is certainly a different number than 500.

I’ve yet to see Al Jazeera or any Arab government put the word out that the original reports were wrong. They seem happy to let their population riot over erroneous information.

The chants of death to Israel over the world seem to have the wrong chant. Israel is not trying to eradicate Muslims or Palestinians. Israel is determined, and in my opinion rightly determined, to rid the world of Hamas.

Was it wrong for us to eliminate ISIS?

By the logic around the world about Israel, it would have been wrong for the US to eliminate ISIS. I don’t think we’ll find many people in this country who believe this was the wrong thing for us to do.

We saw ISIS as an existential threat, and we’re thousands of miles away. How can we then say Israel doesn’t see Hamas as an existential threat, and they’re only meters away? I would love if those who think Hamas are freedom fighters to take a good look at what they stand for.

How about the Palesinian refugees in Arab countries.

Israel has existed for over 75 years. In that time, the displaced Palestinians have been living as second or even third class citizens in various Arab countries where they’ve not been integrated into society.

These countries don’t want Palestinians, but they are fine with blaming Israel for their problems with the Palestinian population. If the other Arab countries cared about the Palestinian population, wouldn’t they have found a way to integrate the Palestinian refugees into their societies? After all, 75 years is a long time to pretend that the Palestinian issue in other Arab countries will go away.

Why doesn’t the world demand that Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugee camps do something to make those camps go away? Why isn’t the world demanding Arab countries do something about the plight of the refugees living in their country?

It all comes down to anti-Semitism

From where I sit in a comfortable place in Northern Vermont, this looks simple. The world, and specifically the US, is way more anti-Semitic than we like to believe.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. As it turns out, we have huge swaths of anti-Semites on both sides of the aisle. We have the white supremacists on the Republican side, and we have the fog headed radical left on the Democratic side. Both are anti-Semites, and yet our most prestigious educational and social institutions can’t bring themselves to call out what they clearly can see.

Why are there few in the US who are not calling out this behavior pure and simple racism? We already have a lunatic fringe calling for the eradication of black people. Why are we standing by as the lunatic fringe calls for the elimination of anyone, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and yes, Jews?

I would love to hear some well thought out answers to these questions. And, please don’t tell me that the Jews have it coming to them because of the way they’ve treated Palestinians. There are plenty of Arab countries who have been just as bad, and we don’t hear cries for the refugee camps to be no longer needed.

The truth is, I’m frustrated and a little scared. Humans have this ability to be unbelievably cruel. Maybe taking a step back and looking where pressure needs to be applied would be a good thing.

At the end of the day, the only solution is a two state solution. Before we get there, Israel must have a partner whose only purpose is not to eliminate all Jews from the face of the earth.

There, I’ve had my say for the day. Some of you will totally disagree and decide it’s time to move on. That’s what the unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email.

Thanks for letting me vent. I’ll see some of you back here next week.