Category Archives: Israel

There Is No ‘Genocide’ Against Infrastructure

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South Africa’s Case For ‘Genocide’

South Africa put forward the charge of ‘genocidal conduct‘ against Israel for its actions in Gaza since October 8, 2023. The reported figure of over 23,000 deaths, over one percent of the population of Gaza, is claimed to show a deliberate intent to wipe out all Arabs in the region. The use of heavy 2,000-pound bombs in civilians neighborhoods is alleged to show a complete disregard for non-combatants as well as a disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force.

Lawyers prosecuting Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) quoted members of the Israeli parliament after the October 7 attack in which they said they wanted to flatten Gaza, encourage a ‘voluntary emigration’ of Arabs from the region, and treat them like the biblical ‘Amalek’, a people for which Jews are commanded to wipe out completely. Counsel argued that comments from leaders shows the government’s official policy for the annihilation of the region’s Arabs.

The United Nations’ International Criminal Court has disallowed Israel from bringing any evidence of the Gazans’ October 7 massacre and brutalization of Israelis, mostly civilians. It contends that even if Hamas committed crimes against humanity, Israel must still adhere to basic rules of war.

The Case Against ‘Genocide’

Genocide involves the deliberate mass killing of an ethnic group or particular nation with the goal of annihilation or ethnically cleansing them.

It is bizarre to bring the charge against Israel based on the situation before even considering the prosecution of the war.

  • Israel’s attack on Gaza was both reactive and defensive. It had a ceasefire agreement with Hamas which rules Gaza, which Hamas broke with its invasion and sadistic slaughter.
  • Hamas leaders have pledged to commit the October 7 massacre “again and again.” Israel is compelled to not only bring the estimated 3,000 Gazan perpetrators of the October 7 massacre to justice, as well as the leaders who commanded and supported the operation, but to prevent the atrocities from happening again.
  • Hamas continues to fire at Israel. Hamas and various factions of this Gaza army continue to fire rockets and wage war against Israel. This is not a situation of a military aggressively hunting civilians but an active battlefield.
  • Hamas fires from civilian neighborhoods. The battlefield is the neighborhoods of Gaza from which Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other factions of the Gazan army shoot rockets and attack Israel.
  • Civilian infrastructure is part of the Gazan war effort. The Gazan army and infrastructure is embedded in civilian homes, hospitals, mosques and schools. Arms are stored and tunnel-openings begin in these locations, and are therefore part-and-parcel of the Gazan war effort.
  • The core Gazan army infrastructure is beneath civilian neighborhoods. The Gazan army runs the majority of its operations below ground, underneath civilian neighborhoods.
  • The Gazan army doesn’t wear uniforms. Many Palestinian fighters do not wear uniforms to clearly distinguish themselves from civilians, blurring the battlefield between military and civilians.
  • Israel unilaterally left Gaza completely in 2005. Israel does not covet the land and wanted the region to be a peaceful neighbor where Arabs would have complete self-determination. Instead, Gaza became a terrorist-ruled strip which has waged repeated wars against Israel targeting civilians.
  • Israel is attempting to save hundreds of hostages. Hamas and other Gazans took 240 hostages, mostly civilians into Gaza, many of whom are children, elderly and infirm. Saving them requires quick action.
  • The United Nations made no effort to prioritize Israeli hostages. The UN made clear that it would prioritize Gazans from the first day of the war, and would not help Israel in checking on the hostages well being or securing their release, further necessitating immediate and unilateral actions.

Those are just the basic facts which set the scene for which Israel has to prosecute a difficult war. Even with such impossible backdrop, Israel has attempted to avoid the loss of civilian lives.

  • Millions of text messages sent to Palestinian Arab civilians to get out of harm’s way
  • Leaflets dropped over neighborhoods to make sure civilians got the message to leave active battlefields.
  • ‘Safe zones’ and escape corridors created for civilians to flee hot spots.
  • Israel telegraphed its intentions of where it was prosecuting the battle – starting in northern Gaza – to allow civilians to leave, putting its own Israeli soldiers at risk.
  • The world begged Israel to not launch a ground invasion of Gaza and so relied on air power to start the retaliation against known military targets. It is those aerial assaults that the world now criticizes.

While the world may appreciate the need to dismantle Hamas and the impossible task facing Israel of fighting an enemy which is deeply embedded with civilians, it doesn’t really care. It has no proposals or gameplans to prosecute the war any better, other than demand Israel do so.

A view of the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, October 10, 2023. (Fatima Shbair/AP)

In regard to Israeli leaders’ commentary that Gazans are like Amalek, a metaphor is not a call to action. Amalek was called out because they attacked the weakest Jews as they left Egypt, just as Hamas and its horde brutally butchered women, children and elderly in 2023. Other Israeli comments that all Gazans are culpable have been made by Palestinian advocates, such as James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute who told the United Nations on June 27, 2023 that there is “tragic deformity in Palestinian political culture,” as the majority of the people prefer violence.

Most importantly, Israel has said it will end the campaign immediately if Hamas surrenders and returns all of the hostages.

Israel is now going house-to-house to rescue its captives and destroy Hamas’s army and infrastructure amid a population which supports Hamas and terrorism. Hamas has 58% of the seats in the Palestinian Authority parliament from democratic elections held in 2006. The majority of Gazans support killing Jewish civilians in Israel and supported the October 7 massacre. They are family and friends of Hamas fighters, their teachers and students, donors and recipients of Hamas aid. When Israelis go through the Gazan neighborhoods in this tight battlefield, the civilians which surround them are the soft layer of the Hamas military which Hamas exploits, not uninvolved spectators.

It is likely that any other army would have killed five times as many Gazans as Israel at this point of the war. It is impossible to know because this war is like no other.

As to the charge of genocide, Palestinian Arabs are not confined to Gaza. Over half the population lives in the West Bank and Israel has not launched a massive campaign there, as Hamas doesn’t have a strong presence and there are no Israeli hostages in that region. On a macro level, 23,000 Gazans out of 1.8 billion Muslims is a 0.001% figure. By way of comparison, 63% of Europe’s Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and about 39% of global Jewry, an actual premeditated deliberate genocide of unarmed civilians.

There are therefore only two considerations to possibly judge Israel: the terrible loss of children’s lives, and the massive destruction of Gazan infrastructure.

Children are innocent by definition. They have no say in the war and not responsible for the terrible actions of adults. Close to 50% of Gazans are under the age of 18, so one would imagine indiscriminate bombing would cause close to 50% of the 23,000 dead to be children, or around 11,500 people. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the number of children killed is about 8,000, or 30% less than expected. While a tragic figure, it defends Israel’s prosecution of the war as being targeted against military targets.

There is no question there is widespread destruction of Gazan infrastructure. Neighborhoods have been leveled all around the Strip. That is a function that those neighborhoods are, and are above, the battlefield. It is actually surprising that a relatively low number of deaths have occurred with so many bombs dropped on the small territory, suggesting a targeted military campaign.

Hamas is sworn to the destruction of Israel and has ruled Gaza unilaterally since 2007 enabling it to embed itself throughout the region. Despite the hostile neighbor next door, Israel has limited its activities against the strip to a blockade to limit the flow of weapons, and to respond when attacked. It has never targeted the region or its residents for annihilation.

It is a tragedy for Palestinian Arabs, for Israel, and the world that so many children in Gaza have died. But the fault remains with the Arab rulers who teach their children death and martyrdom, while they attack Israel from those children’s homes. Israel is trying to minimize those casualties in an impossible battle, and the figures show that it is doing so.

The smoldering rubble of the Gazan battlefield is shocking but there is no genocide of buildings. However, the overall architecture of Gaza’s war mentality and machinery has been enabled by the United Nations, the entity which now sits as judge of Israel’s actions. It is a morbid farce, and must be confronted and rooted out for there to be a prayer of coexistence.

Related articles:

Israelis Targeting Terrorists, Palestinians Targeting Civilians

The Death of Civilians; the Three Shades of Sorrow

Hamas Is The Very Definition Of A Genocidal Group

The Only Way The Conflict Can End

Gazans Support Killing Jewish Civilians

The War Against Israel and Jewish Civilians

Vastly Different Reactions To Two Proposals For “Voluntary Emigration” From Gaza

Regime Reactions to Israel’s “Apartheid” and “Genocide”

University Presidents’ Congressional Hearing On Antisemitism Prioritized Muslim Community

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The December 5, 2023 Congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses was about a very serious and obvious dynamic: Jew-hatred. It was right there in the title, and was called for in response to widespread attacks against Jews on college campuses.

Three university presidents attended: from Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT. Elizabeth Magill of UofP resigned shortly after the hearing after smugly responding to the question of whether calling for the genocide of Jews was against university policy that “it’s a context-dependent decision.” Claudine Gay of Harvard also resigned for a different reason even though she offered a similar response; she stepped down because of allegations of plagiarism.

Claudine Gay of Harvard, Elizabeth Magill of UofP, Pamela Nadell of American University and Sally Kornbluth of MIT

The “context” comment was defended by university-backers as whether such calls for genocide were directed at individuals or were severely harassing to step beyond the bounds of free speech. However, the opening comments of each university president reveals a very different context orientation.

Gay shared in her opening comments that she appreciated the need for the hearing “on the critical topic of antisemitism,” as the world had seen a dramatic spike in antisemitism after the brutal Hamas massacre, including at Harvard. She then added “At the same time, I know members of the Arab and Muslim communities are also hurting. During these past months, the world, our nation and our campuses have seen a rise of incidents of Islamophobia.”

Why were these statements about Muslims inserted into a hearing about Jew-hatred?

She was not alone.

Magill spoke and about Hamas’s October 7 massacre and the targeting of Jewish businesses near the school. She added “we are seeing a rise in our society in harassment, intimidation and threats toward individuals based on their identity as Muslim, Palestinian or Arab.” Again, why did a university president’s prepared opening remarks discuss hatred for some non-Jews – particular non-Jews – when the hearing was on Jew-hatred?

Pamela Nadell, a professor of Jewish history at American University then addressed the panel. She concluded her remarks “I urge congress to do everything in its power to support the national strategy [against antisemitism] and also the forthcoming national strategy to counter Islamophobia.”

The trend was clear. One needn’t have listened to MIT’s president’s opening remarks.

Sally Kornbluth of MIT talked about new initiatives launched to fight hate on campus. “In addition to fighting antisemitism, it will address Islamophobia, also on the rise and also underreported. MIT will take on both. Not lumped together but with equal energy and in parallel.”

Every one of the speakers could not focus on the dedicated topic of Jew-hatred in scripted remarks to a congressional hearing about antisemitism at their institutions, and each mentioned “Islamophobia.” Racism persists at the schools but went unmentioned. Slurs against the LGBT community on campuses continue but were not called out.

Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs were specifically highlighted because the October 7 massacre was committed by Islamic extremists in the Palestinian Arab community. The “context” for university presidents was how to handle Jew-hatred on their campuses from a campus community which approved of and celebrated the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

It was as though the heads of American universities would have called out Germanophobia during World War II when discussing Jew-hatred emanating from German students and Nazi-supporters on campus.

It was a sad spectacle in American history but at least members of congress still cared enough about Jews to call for such hearing.

That is not the case on the world stage, where the United Nations’ adoption of Palestinians as permanent wards ensures that the global body always takes their side and only finds fault with Israel. The U.N.’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) will now narrowly focus on Israel’s actions in Gaza and provide no “context” that Israel is responding to Hamas’s massacre of civilians and threats to repeat the attacks “again and again,” whose soldiers hide like cowards beneath their families.

University presidents and the United Nations are telling all of us clearly that there are reasons people hate Jews before, after and while they are slaughtered. And most importantly, those antisemitic grievances should confine Jewish activities and constrict sympathy for Jewish suffering.

Related articles:

When Founding Fathers Are Psychopaths And Cowards

Say Its Name: ‘Hamas’

Chumming For Antisemites

Considering Campus Antisemitism

The Antisemitic Campus: Decolonize Palestine

The Campus Inquisition

Courageous Jews On Hostile Campuses

The Gaza Red Herring Covering Iran’s Nuclear Breakout

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds around the Muslim Middle East and Israel to declare that everyone in the region wants to avoid seeing the Israel-Palestinian War from Gaza spiraling into a regional conflict.

He is completely wrong. It is very much a regional conflict with Iran, and the region wants the Iranian threat addressed.

Secretary Antony Blinken’s X post that countries want the conflict contained

Iran has been actively stoking the conflict for years. The Islamist regime has backed the Houthis in Yemen stoking a civil war there, a war against Saudi Arabia next door, and assaulting shipping in the Red Sea. Iran backs Hezbollah in Lebanon which is shelling Israel. It is also one of the main backers of Hamas in Gaza which launched the sadistic atrocities of October 7.

The United States was on the cusp of brokering a deal with Saudi Arabia before October 7, which would have included the United States bringing the oil-rich nation nuclear capabilities, as the U.S. utterly failed to contain Iran’s nuclear program. Saudi Arabia had long made clear that if Iran got nuclear weapons, it would pursue them as well. The U.S. decided to make the best of a horrific situation, and rather than watch the Saudis secure nuclear blueprints and material from North Korea, it offered to supply the Islamist kingdom with the know-how, provided that the kingdom also normalize relations with Israel.

Iran’s nuclear break-out led directly to Saudi’s launching a nuclear program with America’s assistance.

When Israel called up a fighting force of roughly 350,000 people after October 7, it sent 200,000 of them to the Lebanese border, not Gaza. Roughly 100,000 were stationed around the West Bank to contain the various Hamas-allied terrorist groups like Lion’s Den and Jenin Brigades. The smallest segment went to Gaza.

Similarly, Israel did not only evacuate Israeli civilians from the entire area near Gaza on October 8. It also pulled all civilians away from the Lebanese border.

Israel readied for war on many fronts, not just Gaza, to confront Iranian proxies on every side.

Many Israeli military leaders are pushing to launch the battle against Hezbollah in Lebanon now, while 200,000 troops are stationed at the border and the civilians in the region have been evacuated south. They argue that the Iranian proxy with 150,000 missiles pointed at Israel is a threat which must be dealt with proactively and not according to Iran’s timetable.

This war started from Gaza but the conflict centers around Iran. Blinken may believe that the conflict is local and to be contained as he broadcast, or perhaps – hopefully – he toured the region to prepare for destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons in the very near future.

Related articles:

Will US-Israel-Saudi Arabia Play Godfather And Kill Heads Of The Crime Families

On 9/11, Commit To Blocking Iran and Saudi Arabia From Ever Possessing Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Will Biden Enable Hamas’s Sponsors of Iran, Qatar and Turkey

Paying to Murder Jews: From Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran to the Palestinian Authority

Some Global Supporters of the P5+1 Iran Deal

Israel: Security in a Small Country

Seeing Security through a Screen

Fire United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres

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On January 3, two bombs went off in Iran during ceremonies marking the death of Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was head of Iran’s Quds Force, and assassinated by the United States four years earlier because it claimed he was “directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people.”

Despite the backdrop of Soleimani being a murderer, the fact remained that the bombing was an act of terrorism, so the United Nations felt compelled to issue a statement, despite the victims being supporters of that mass murderer. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres official statement read “The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack today on a memorial ceremony in Kerman city in Iran, which reportedly killed more than 100 people and injured many more. The Secretary-General calls for those responsible to be held accountable. The Secretary-General expresses his deep condolences to the bereaved families and the people and the Government of Iran.  He wishes the injured a speedy recovery.”

Guterres reached out to the government of Iran despite its fomenting wars throughout the Middle East as it pursues nuclear weapons, and also demanded that the terrorists who killed 100 people celebrating a mass murderer be brought to justice. One would therefore imagine a much stronger statement from Guterres for Israel after October 7 when thousands of Palestinians killed 1,200 people and brutally raped and sadistically tortured civilians in their homes in Israel.

The October 7 statement from Guterres was appalling:

“The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms this morning’s attack by Hamas against Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip and central Israel, including the firing of thousands of rockets towards Israeli population centres. The attacks have so far claimed numerous Israeli civilian lives and injured many hundreds.  The Secretary-General is appalled by reports that civilians have been attacked and abducted from their own homes. The Secretary-General is deeply concerned for the civilian population and urges maximum restraint.  Civilians must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law at all times. The Secretary-General extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and calls for the immediate release of all abducted persons. The Secretary-General urges all diplomatic efforts to avoid a wider conflagration. He stresses that violence cannot provide a solution to the conflict, and that only through negotiation leading to a two-State solution can peace be achieved.”

Rather than demand that the terrorists “be held accountable,” as with Iranians, Guterres urged “maximum restraint” by Israel. Instead of offering condolences to victim families AND the state as he did for Iran, Guterres omitted any mention of feelings towards Israel.

In the aftermath of Jews suffering the worst single day killing since the Holocaust and most savage day of sexual assault ever, the head of the United Nations demanded no accountability for the terrorists and no sympathy for Israel. Guterres and the United Nations have demonstrated a failure of basic civility and humanity, and are enemies of justice, peace and the Jewish people.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Related articles:

The UN Declares That Palestinian Schools Are ‘Inviolable’ While Jews in Nurseries and Schools in Israel and Around The World Are Fair Game

UN Secretary General Says Hamas Speaks For “The Palestinian People”

The United Nations Fails Own Resolution To Combat Terrorism

United Nations’ Particularism About Racism But Universalism On Anti-Semitism Reveals Its Jew Hatred

The United Nations Ignores Radical Muslim Violent Extremism and Terrorism

Will The UN Ever Support Israel Addressing Terrorism And Violent Extremism?

Amid The Terror, The United Nations Once Again Protects Palestinians

Vastly Different Reactions To Two Proposals For “Voluntary Emigration” From Gaza

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Gaza is a crowded mess and there are two proposals for “voluntary emigration” which are getting vastly different reactions.

Situation In Gaza

The population of Gaza is roughly 2.1 million people, all Arabs, almost 99% of whom are Muslim. Roughly 39.8% of the population is under 14 years old, making it one of the youngest geographies in the world, with less than 3% of the Strip over 65 years old. The median age of 19.2 years old ranks it at #209 out of 227 areas scored by the World Fact Book. By way of comparison, the median age in Israel is 30.1, in USA 38.5, and 40.6 in the United Kingdom.

Gaza is small and highly populated, with a density of roughly 5,500 people per square kilometer, placing it in the top ten between Hong Kong and Gibraltar.

The US-designated foreign terrorist group Hamas exclusively governs Gaza since 2007. That means that roughly half of the Gaza Strip has only known the rule of a fanatical Islamist group committed to killing Jews and the destruction of the Jewish State next door. Fighters, typically aged 18-24, have known almost nothing other than Hamas and its mission.

As of 2022, UNRWA provided services to nearly 1.8 million people in Gaza, or about 83% of the population. It manages most of the schools in the Strip, many of which openly call for killing Jews and destroying Israel according to reports from IMPACT-SE. The report also covers that “13 UNRWA staff members have publicly praised, celebrated or expressed their support for the unprecedented deadly assaults on civilians [in Israel] on 7 October.”

Since July 2001, for over 22 years, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research has shown that a majority of Gazans support killing Jewish civilians inside of Israel. It is therefore not surprising that an estimated 63.6% of Gazans supported the October 7 Sadistic Massacre according to the Arab World for Research and Development.

Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Proposal Condemned

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “a small country like ours cannot afford a reality where four minutes away from our communities there is a hotbed of hatred and terrorism, where two million people wake up every morning with aspiration for the destruction of the State of Israel and with a desire to slaughter and rape and murder Jews wherever they are.” As such, he expressed his support for encouraging “voluntary emigration” of the Strip’s population to other countries as part of his postwar vision.

The reaction to Smotrich’s proposal was quick. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller labeled the suggestion as “inflammatory and irresponsible.” The New York Times reported that France and Germany had similar reactions.

United Nations’ Proposal Embraced

The United Nations also has a plan for Gaza. It involves the voluntary emigration of roughly 1.8 million Gazans for whom UNRWA provides services to relocate to Israel. It makes this proposal – still to this very day – as part of UN Resolution 194 which was passed in December 1948, over 75 years ago while the Israeli War of Independence was still being waged.

The proposal has long since passed its expiry date but dozens of Islamic and Arab countries, as well as the United Nations itself, keep on trying to breathe life into an idea to massively move over 80% of the population of Gaza – the majority of whom want to kill Jews – into Israel to extinguish the Jewish State.

Several Western countries and members of the progressive media were appalled that two members of the Israeli parliament suggested a “voluntary emigration” of Gazans to various countries but simultaneously embrace such emigration to Israel. It’s a peculiar mix of anti-Zionism and hypocrisy which seems very prevalent in these dark days.

Related articles:

“Two States For Two People” And An Arab “Right Of Return” Are Mutually Exclusive

There Is No Backing For A Palestinian “Right Of Return”

While the UNSC Debates Israel-or-Hamas Regarding Gaza, Gazans Debate Whether to Stay-or-Go

When the Democrats Opposed the Palestinian “Right of Return”

Stabbing the Palestinian “Right of Return”

Does the UN Only Grant Inalienable Rights to Palestinians?

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials

The Only Way The Conflict Can End

When Founding Fathers Are Psychopaths And Cowards

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Most countries were founded by professionals including lawyers and businessmen. Sometimes they included pharmacists, doctors and inventors. Often they included generals and military leaders.

As Palestinians now call for the world to accept a new State of Palestine in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 massacre, it is worth considering a country whose founding fathers are psychopaths and cowards.

Consider that Hamas has ruled Gaza outright since 2007, so every child under 16 years old has only known a land governed by the U.S.-designated terrorist group. On October 7, it assembled well over one thousand people of its army and related groups and invaded Israel, slaughtering children and the elderly. Hamas led the horde to rape, mutilate and butcher Jewish women. They grabbed 240 people and took them into Gaza as hostages.

Members of Hamas clearly meet the definition of evil psychopaths.

The leaders of Gaza were not done with their cruelty.

Knowing that Israel would respond to get their people back, pursue justice for the fallen and make sure that Gazans did not repeat the attack, the leaders of Gaza hid in tunnels developed for their exclusive use and of their army. Readied with power and food, the leaders of Hamas sat tight in the underground bunkers and let women and children suffer from Israel’s bombing campaign above. The leaders of Hamas dined as they let their people starve.

Cowards, everyone of them.

It’s bizarre for people to use the expression “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” when discussing Hamas. This action isn’t similar to Israeli leader Menahem Begin blowing up the King David Hotel in 1946 when it served as the British administrative headquarters, phoning in warnings in advance for people to leave the building. The Hamas henchmen entered people’s homes, bound families together and burned them alive.

Palestinian leadership is horribly twisted and evil.

Despite the deep depravity, a majority of “54% [of Palestinian Arabs] believe that Hamas is the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people today,” according to a December PCPSR poll.

Palestinians have not disowned their leaders as yellow-bellied maniacs, even as they are being pummeled.

So what will future generations of Palestinian Arabs think about their founding fathers if October 7 turns out to a “war of liberation” the way celebrated by American university professors? Will Palestinian history books discuss how the founders of Palestine raped and sadistically tortured Jewish women? How they shot elderly people waiting at bus stops? How they hid underground comfortably while civilians took the brunt of Israeli reprisals?

Or will they lie to themselves and cleanse history that none of those things happened, even though the Palestinian Arab attackers filmed themselves in the act?

While psychopaths are mostly thought of as people who cannot discern between good and evil, a main feature is pathological lying and portrayal of victimhood. Psychology Today shares that “when caught in the act with their unscrupulous behavior, most sociopaths and psychopaths will not show signs of contrition or remorse (unless it is strategically advantageous for them to do so). On the contrary, they are more likely to double or triple down on their aggressive tendencies, increase hostility, deny responsibility, accuse and blame others, and maintain a facade of arrogance and conceit.”

Yahya Sinwar and the rest of Hamas are already being cleansed of any wrong-doing, with 75% of Palestinians supporting the October 7 massacre. Hamas leadership said that the October 7 massacre “is just the first time and there will be a second, a third, a fourth because we have the determination, the resolve and the capabilities to fight…. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force. We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do this again and again.”

Palestinian supporters argue that Israel’s attacks on Gaza are creating the next generation of terrorists. Jordan’s Queen Rania said Israel’s response in Gaza will “create a new generation of resistance that is fiercer and more violent.”

But it is not so. The repeated “aggressive tendencies, increased hostility” and blaming others are hallmark features of being psychopaths. People led by psychopaths for decades are becoming psychopaths themselves.

James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute was invited to speak to the United Nations Security Council on June 27, 2023, months before the October 7 Massacre. While vigorously defending Palestinians he shared that there is a “tragic deformity in Palestinian political culture” with people preferring violence over peace. After sixteen years of Hamas rule, the “deformity” has metastasized into a deep rot.

A country founded by psychopaths will in all likelihood be a failed state, prominently featuring cruelty, and a populace blind to empathy and reason.

Related articles:

The Failed Palestinian State

The United Nations Ignores Radical Muslim Violent Extremism and Terrorism

Excerpt of Hamas Charter to Share with Your Elected Officials

Hamas Is The Very Definition Of A Genocidal Group

“Deformity in Palestinian Culture” Is A Permanent Feature

When Our History Begins

This Is Actually A West Bank War

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Two polls about the sentiments of Palestinian Arabs from Gaza butchering of people inside of Israel showed the same curious result, that Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank were much more in favor of the massacre than those from Gaza. the Arab World For Research and Development showed support for the October 7 in the West Bank being 83% compared to 64% in Gaza. West Bank Arabs similarly had greater support for Hamas at 87.7% compared to Gazans at 59.6%. The quarterly poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) of December 2023 showed much the same, where “support for Hamas has more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months ago”, with 82% of Arabs in the West Bank and just 57% of Gazans saying that October 7 was the “correct” action.

Figure 1: Comparison of West Bank and Gaza Arabs about supporting October 7 Massacre and the Commitment to destroy Israel to gain all of historical Palestine

The question is what are the reasons for West Bank Arabs being so much more supportive of the massacre than Gazans.

Brunt of response. Many commentators have said that they believe that Gazans are facing the repercussions of the attack while West Bank Arabs have not seen their neighborhoods leveled. The poll numbers possibly support such notion with 87% of West Bank Arabs and 44% of Gazans thinking Israel will lose the war. Gazans likely feel they have already lost.

I would like to offer some other potential reasons.

Gaining self-determination. Gazans got autonomy and self-determination in 2005 when Israel left the Gaza Strip for Palestinian Arabs to rule themselves. West Bank Arabs yearn for that same self-determination that Gazans already have so are even more committed to the fight.

Killing Israeli Jews

West Bank Arabs have shown a dramatic preference for violence which began to spike after the May 2021 attacks, which gained further momentum in polls starting in December 2022.

Figure 2: Sentiment of West Bank Arabs about Israeli Jews and opposition to coexistence

Killing Jewish Civilians Inside Israel. In March 2021, 17.8% of West Bank Arabs supported “armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel.” That figure jumped to 33% after the May 2021 attacks and stayed roughly at that level until September 2022. It spiked again in December 2022 to 46% and has stayed at that level, with a peak of 57% in March 2023.

Supporting “Intifada”. Along with the increased desire to kill Israeli Jewish civilians is the rising preference in the West Bank for an “Intifada”, the misnomer which means terrorism and war. In March 2021, 29% of West Bank Arabs supported an Intifada which jumped to 51% in the June 2021 poll. Support softened through September 2022 to 38%, but spiked again in December 2022 to 51%, peaking at 54% in December 2023.

Ending The Palestinian Authority

While Gazans have been ruled by Hamas, West Bank Arabs have been ruled by the Palestinian Authority. They have long felt that the PA is corrupt but that sentiment has gained momentum.

Figure 3: Sentiment of West Bank Arabs about Palestinian Authority and feeling safe

Palestinian Authority is a “Burden” and Abbas Should Resign. West Bank Arabs have long complained about their leadership. PA President Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005 to a four-year term and remains in power fifteen years later, refusing to hold elections.

In December 2020, 50% of West Bank Arabs thought the PA was a burden on Palestinians and 61% thought Abbas should resign. After the May 2021 Hamas-Israel fight, 55% thought the PA a burden with 70% thinking Abbas should resign. In March 2023, the numbers jumped again to 66% and 76%, respectively. Those figures continued to rise into the October 7 massacre.

Dissolve the Palestinian Authority. Not surprisingly based on the sentiments above, West Bank Arabs grew increasingly of the view that the PA should be dissolved, from 34% in March 2021 to 49% in March 2023.

West Banker Arabs Feel Less Safe. Some of this attitude can be tied to feeling safe. In March 2021, 64% of West Bank Arabs felt safe. That dropped to 46% from December 2022 to June 2023, as the Israeli Defense Forces conducted raids into West Bank towns to foil terrorist plots by several new groups such as the Lion’s Den and Jenin Brigades, terrorist groups unique to the West Bank.

West Bank War

While Hamas rules Gaza and was able to launch this war having built deep infrastructure in the land since 2006 with hundreds of miles of tunnels throughout the Strip, the war is actually ABOUT the West Bank and Israel proper.

Gazans know that Hamas isn’t great having lived under their harsh and corrupt rule since 2007 when it threw out the Palestinian Authority. West Bank Arabs only know the PA and welcome a change of regime but most importantly, a change of situation. They want the Jewish settlers gone, ideally from all of Israel, and from the West Bank at a minimum.

Hamas successfully got rid of Jews and Israel in Gaza, and West Bank Arabs want this “war of liberation” to do the same in the West Bank and Israel. Figure 2 shows that 40% of West Bank Arabs opposed a “two state solution” in December 2020 which grew to a significant majority of 71% by March 2023. Figure 1 highlights West Bank Arabs now have a 74% commitment to “retaking” all of “historical Palestine” compared to 66% of Gazans.

Hamas called this war the “al Aqsa Flood,” referencing Islam’s holy mosque in Jerusalem, far from Gaza. Palestinian Arabs believe that stopping Jews from visiting the Jewish Temple Mount is the main reason for the war – followed vey closely be retaking all of “historical Palestine.”

Figure 4: Poll of all Palestinians about the reason for October 7 massacre has majority focused on Jerusalem – stopping Jewish visitation and ending the Jewish State

The fighters from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others were particularly brutal in raping and mutilating women and babies, killing the elderly and burning families alive. And they recorded it, ensuring that Israel would respond to the attack with full force to bring a full war. And it’s a war which Palestinian Arabs – especially those in the West Bank – want to see to liberate themselves from Israel and the PA.

Figure 5: Poll of all Palestinians about the end goal for the war is about the destruction of Israel

The war is taking place in Gaza but it is not about Hamas or Gaza. This fight is being conducted with the support of all Palestinians by the Palestinian army to liberate Jerusalem. To some, that means the West Bank, to others it means Israel, and for yet others, it’s all of “historical Palestine” which encompasses a “Palestinian State from the River to the Sea.”

Related articles:

Palestinian Poll About October 7 Massacre

An Inconvenient Truth: Palestinian Polls

Palestinian Chutzpah: Asking For Recognition As State After October 7 Massacre

Israel May Have Stopped A Bigger Massacre From The West Bank

Gazans Have Always Wanted To Kill Jews Inside Of Israel

HAMAS Is Palestinian. The Popular Palestinian Political-Terrorist Party

Palestinian Arabs Are Fighting For All of Israel, Not A New State In West Bank and Gaza

Palestinians View Jews Like The French Viewed Nazis

“Deformity in Palestinian Culture” Is A Permanent Feature

Judaism Is Uniquely Tied To The Land Of Israel

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In the worthwhile debates over the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict, there are is much inanity, ignorance and disinformation. It is good and proper to discuss the best ways of dealing with the conflict but such discussion should be based on basic truths.

As it relates to Jews, a key item to remember is that Judaism was designed – and remains – a particular local tribal religion, as opposed to Christianity and Islam.

Christianity and Islam are global universalistic religions. They spread their gospel by word and sword, converting people everywhere. Each sought to save people’s souls, so thought nothing of killing disbelievers and apostates. The world we know today is an outgrowth of Christian and Muslim crusades, invasions and colonization efforts.

Judaism has no such aims. The Jewish faith is tied to The Promised Land, the land of Israel. In the era before planes, trains and automobiles, Jews were commanded in the Bible to visit Jerusalem three times every year, requiring every Jew to live in the land (in sharp contrast to Muslims who are supposed to visit Mecca once in a lifetime because they are supposed to live everywhere).

Jews have a diaspora, which is everywhere outside of the land of Israel. Christians and Muslims have no such concept.

Jews believe that peaceful non-Jews can ascend to Heaven, and therefore do not engage in forceful conversions. It is unique in this way, not pre-judging people of other faiths about the state of their souls.

Christians burning “heretics” at the stake in the main square of Lisbon, Portugal during the Inquisition

It is a major reason that there are so few Jews in the world despite Judaism being around much longer (3,500 years) than Islam (1,400 years) or Christianity (2,000 years). The particular nature of the faith has kept the numbers small, in addition to being victims of massacres perpetrated by universalistic religions.

There are biblical commandments that can only be done in the land of Israel to this day. Jewish farming has particular laws to keep within the borders of Israel which do not apply to farming in the diaspora, such as shmita, letting the land lie fallow every seventh year.

Sign on an agricultural plot of land in central Israel where the farmers observed shmita in 2015 (photo: First One Through)

The tribal nature of Jews has made them a source of suspicion for centuries. NOT wanting to convert people was viewed as elitist (even though Judaism believes people of other faiths aren’t damned). Whether religious or secular, living in Israel or the diaspora, people saw the remnant of Jews who survived the pogroms, genocides, expulsions and crusades as a stubborn lot.

Jews don’t simply move to the land of Israel because of history and heritage; that’s why Palestinian Arabs who had grandparents who once lived in the land want to move there.

Jews are intrinsically connected to the small strip of land in a way that has no parallels in other faiths.

It has led to interesting population statistics in the land:

  • More Jews moved to Palestine/ land of Israel under the Ottomans between 1800 and 1914 than Muslims. And more Muslims moved to the land under the British from 1922 to 1948 than Jews.
  • Jews have been the largest faith group in Jerusalem since 1867

Further, Israel’s national anthem is the oldest in the Middle East, and is the only national anthem in the world focused on its capital city of Jerusalem.

The Jewish homeland is the land of Israel and its diaspora is the world outside of that land. No other faith has such concept of homeland and diaspora.

Related First One Through music videos:

Aliyah to Israel (Music by The Maccabeats)

Ethiopian Jews Come Home (Music by Phillip Phillips)

The anthem of Israel is Jerusalem (Hatikvah)

1001 Years of Expulsions (Music of Schindler’s List)

Jewish Migration Since 1900 (Music by Diana Ross)

God Is A Zionist (Music by Joan Osborne)

Ten Ignored Population Statistics in Israel (Music by Seal)

J Street Pushes US To Stop Protecting Israel At The United Nations

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J Street, the far left-wing pro-Palestinian group which markets itself as pro-Israel pushed the Obama Administration in 2016 to label Jews living east of the Green Line (EGL) as illegal settlers at the United Nations. That action laid the foundation for a rash of anti-Israel measures around the world.

Now, after the October 7 massacre in Israel, J Street is once again pushing the United States to stop protecting Israel at the UN Security Council.

On December 21, 2023, J Street issued a press release with four goals: 1) to pause fighting to enable Hamas to rearm; 2) get the US to “stop vetoing Security Council resolutions related to the conflict“, so more global pressure can come down on Israel; 3) get “an American commitment to recognition of Palestinian statehood” since Palestinians have clearly shown they are decent and responsible actors; and 4) put in place “strict oversight and scrutiny of arms” purchased by Israel, because J Street is convinced that conditioning aid to Israel while Iran and its proxies pursue a genocide of Jews is critical right now.

J Street;s Jeremy Ben Ami

The release concluded: “We urge the Biden administration to take immediate action to ensure that the Israeli government significantly shifts course before this conflict costs more lives and wreaks more pain and devastation. The way the current campaign is being pursued only jeopardizes Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas and secure the release of the hostages – while laying the groundwork for even deeper, long-term security challenges.”

No such calls for “immediate action” by the US and others to pressure Hamas. J Street called for only Israel to be pressured.

Students for Justice in Palestine at Tufts wrote in March 2022 “that many Jewish people begin their anti-zionist political journey through J Street U,” J Street’s university division. The anti-Israel community knows that the woke Jewish group is a tool for young and old people in America to find their anti-Israel bona fides, to change America’s pro-Israel positions.

The United States is Israel’s sole supporting voice at the United Nations and J Street is doing its utmost to weaken that voice, just as Iran and Hamas desire.

Related articles:

J Street Signals “Open Warfare” On Jewish And Pro-Israel Communities, Urging The United States To Take Action AGAINST Israel

J Street Asks Politicians To “Disavow” AIPAC

J Street’s Ben Ami Smears Moderate Jews As Racists

Snapshot Of J Street’s Friends and Foes

J Street is Only Considered “Pro-Israel” in Progressive Circles

The Evil Architects at J Street Take a Bow

J Street is a Partisan Left-Wing Group, NOT an Alternative to AIPAC

The Three “Two-State Solution”s

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There is a fantastic idea that has been floated around the Middle East for many decades: two states for two peoples, one Jewish and the other Arab. Even though the notion continues to be bantered in political circles, few details are understood about what that plan means.

The pro-Palestinian camp talks about “THE” two state solution, meaning the Arab Peace Initiative proposed in 2002. The United States and other governments talk about “A” two state solution, which could mean a wide variety of negotiated outcomes. The United Nations has a third alternative, which is the most toxic and has directly led to permanent hostilities between Israel and its neighbors.

“THE” 2 State Solution: Arab Peace Initiative

There are three primary matters which stand between Israel and the Palestinian Authority: land/borders; capital city; and the future of Palestinian refugees.

Land: The API calls for Israel to withdraw from ALL territories taken in its defensive war of June 1967. This would include Gaza, the West Bank, the Sinai, Golan Heights, and areas of southern Lebanon still under dispute. Israel has already withdrawn from some of those lands including Sinai, Gaza and many areas of the West Bank. The API seeks the remainder.

Capital: The API calls for East Jerusalem to be the capital of a new Palestine. An early draft of the API called for “al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital,” seemingly softening the stance to something Israel could accept.

Refugees: The API states that Palestinian Arabs outside of Israel will seemingly not move to the Jewish State. The final language of “Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries,” may only be in reference to UNRWA Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan whom the API thinks should not have to settle them. The API language was in sharp contrast to an earlier version which stated “To accept to find an agreed, just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees in conformity with Resolution 194,” which would have given Palestinians wishing to live in peace with Israel the option of either moving there or getting compensation.

“A” Two State Solution

The United States and Israel see the end of the conflict differently. Through the Madrid Conference and Oslo Accords, as well as other efforts made by the Obama Administration in 2014 and the Trump Administration’s “Deal of the Century,” the three major matters had different contours.

Land: Israel believes that it has already given back some of the territory it took in June 1967. It returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and handed Gaza and major population centers in the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. UN Resolution 242 (1967) called for “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” which does not call for ALL territory to be abandoned.

The United States agrees. The Obama Administration tried to broker a series of land swaps which would have essentially given Palestinians a state on the same amount of land but in different locations than came about from the 1949 Armistice Lines (49AL). The Trump Administration started with the same concept that the 49AL were arbitrary and not conducive to long-term peace and that Israel has already complied with the land provision of Res. 242. Team Trump did not try to match a certain number of square kilometers with history, and instead sought to create borders which accounted for current reality on the ground and a dynamic to forge an enduring peace.

Capital: Israel annexed the section of Jerusalem that was divided for nineteen years between 1949 and 1967, and further extended the municipal boundaries. It considers the city its eternal capital, but has offered sections of the city to be part of a Palestinian State as part of the peace efforts, with American prodding.

Refugees: Israel has offered some limited number of Palestinian Arabs to move to Israel. The figures have ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 over time under different plans. The US position has long been that Palestinian Arabs should move to the new Arab State, as the basic principle of two states for two people.

The United Nations’ Two State Solution

The UN’s plan is the most aggressively pro-Palestinian of the three.

The UN agrees with the API regarding a new Palestinian State on all of the land in Gaza and the West Bank being part of Palestine, as well as East Jerusalem being the capital of the country. However, it continues to insist on the full “right of return” for six million “Palestine Refugees” who are registered with UNRWA in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The UN’s promise to Palestine Refugees has caused them to be frustrated by the failure to move to neighborhoods where grandparents used to live. It has led them to build terrorist tunnels to penetrate the land which the UN promises to them, rather than build an economy. It has kept them in a restive state for generations, not accepting the existence of the “Zionist entity” which they believe will soon cease to exist according to recent polls.

The United Nations’ adoption of Palestinians as their perennial wards has harmed peace in the region. It has a position on refugees which it knows Israel cannot accept, deliberately putting the Jewish State as the obstacle to peace rather than a counterparty with whom to find a solution. Permanently putting Israel on the defensive with one-sided resolutions makes Israel unwilling to seriously consider the UN on any matter.

It is destructive to any peace process for the United Nations to call for a “two-state solution” without clearly articulating that there is no “right of return” to Israel. The death toll in the region will certainly rise while Palestinian Arabs believe their future is in Israeli homes.

Related articles:

The Israeli Peace Process versus the Palestinian Divorce Proceedings

The Left-Wing’s Two State Solution: 1.5 States for Arabs, 0.5 for Jews

Palestinian Arabs Do Not Want Negotiations or a Two State Solution

“Two States For Two People” And An Arab “Right Of Return” Are Mutually Exclusive