Israel and Hamas
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
Hamas committed an unspeakable evil. It targeted defenseless civilians for extermination. How anyone, regardless of their feelings toward Israel, could sympathize with this barbaric act is beyond me. Israel seems intent on destroying northern Gaza and to that end is forcing its 1 million Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza. What is striking is that Egypt and Jordan have closed their borders to the Palestinians. Lebanon and Iran haven’t opened their borders to them either. In fact, the only ones who want to accept refugees are members of the Squad and their fellow Democrats. If Muslim nations do not want Palestinian refugees, then neither should we.
In retrospect, the Israelis were incredibly stupid. Israel has tough gun control laws. Less than 2 percent of Israelis are permitted to have guns. It would seem that all Israelis should have guns and that gun ownership should be mandatory in the settlements that are close to Gaza and Lebanon to counter Hamas and Hezbollah. Apparently, the Israelis thought that their military could respond quickly to any threat and protect their citizenry. They were wrong. Why they didn’t have armed security at the music festival is beyond me. They need to rethink the security of their citizens who live so close to those who want to kill them. The only reason for such strict gun control is that they must fear their Muslim citizens. This is akin to the gun control laws in the Deep South that were enacted to prevent blacks from owning guns.
Those who hate Israel often refer to it as an apartheid state. Those who try to counter the charges are wasting their time and the name-callers should be ignored. Defenders of Israel point to its Muslim citizens having the vote and being in the Knesset. However, Israeli actions on the West Bank are akin to apartheid. Nevertheless, all the Muslim countries in the Middle East practice apartheid themselves. All restrict the actions and liberties of non-Muslims and discriminate against them. They also restrict women’s rights, persecute Christians and non-Muslims and are uniformly intolerant to the LBGTQ. Why aren’t they called apartheid too?
One thing is certain. As the war progresses people will forget the atrocities that caused it and will turn against the Israelis as the progressive Western press will blame Israel for the suffering of the Palestinians. Hopefully, Israel will ignore all noise and do what it considers best in order to survive.
The Palestinians resoundingly reject Biden’s suggestion of a two-state solution. Rather they and their supporters call for a Palestine “from river to sea.” This is the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Here Israel is situated meaning the Palestinians want to erase Israel. These are the Palestinian homelands. But these are also the Jewish homelands and the Jews have words from the Old Testament to justify their claim. Exodus 23:31 says “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.” This was literally done and created both the modern state of Israel and its eternal enemies.
There has never been a Palestinian state. Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, as was most of the Middle East. After World War I, that territory became administered by Britain. The Brits led by Winston Churchill subsequently divided the territory into nations and established Israel. Although the Palestinians did not have a nation, there were over 500 villages and 600,000 residents living in the territory that had to be either relocated or absorbed into the new nation of Israel. In many cases, the removal of the residents by force was not peaceful and, in some cases, tragic. The worst instance was in the village of Deir Yassin where Zionist paramilitary groups killed (some say massacred) Palestinian men, women and children. I had a Palestinian MBA student whose family survived the massacre and called it Palestine’s Wounded Knee. In fact, the removal and displacement of the Palestinians is akin to that of the American Indians. It is a miracle that we do not have Native American terrorists killing whites and demanding the return of their Homelands.
Israel now exists and will continue to exist. The Jews who fled Europe have created a miracle in the desert. They have taken barren desert and transformed it into a vibrant dynamic economy that is as rich in human capital and ingenuity as it is empty in natural resources. However, with both Palestinians and Israelis claiming the same land and evoking the same god, peaceful coexistence will be an eternal challenge.
