By Rob Meyne
- Nov. 24, 2023
- 5-min read
Hamas, which is both a terrorist organization and the ruling body of Gaza, on October 7 conducted the biggest act of terrorism targeting Jewish people since the Holocaust. It was the bloodiest, most tragic act of its kind in our lifetimes.
In terms of pure hatred, Hamas and its sycophants have delivered something we have not seen since 911 or the Holocaust. Anyone who doesn’t instantly recognize that has given up their place at the table of rational debate.
Hamas launched an unprovoked assault on ordinary people, not in response to any actions by Israel, and did not target government or military targets. They tortured average citizens, killed them, and took them hostage. Their victims included many Americans.
Israel is our closest ally, and the only real democracy, in the region. They are longtime friends with whom we have officially been aligned since their founding. At one time, a huge majority of Americans supported Israel. Many still do, but it is changing.
The Hamas assault may prove to be one of the events we look back on someday and say, “how did we not rise and stop this once and for all?” If we do not recognize the need to stand as one in support of what is good, decent, and righteous, we may be dooming our world to further suffering that would have been preventable had we just done that right thing.
Thousands have rallied to show their support for Hamas, and their hatred of Israel. Don’t be mistaken. There is no middle ground on October 7 and the Israeli response: either you recognize the Palestinian/Arab attack as an indefensible act of pure evil, or you equivocate and grasp for ways to minimize and excuse it. Many in the Democratic leadership have done just that. Notably, not a single nationally prominent Republican has defended Hamas.
Hamas apologists and supporters, in the U. S. and around the globe, have already gotten to work spinning the news and rewriting history in a way that justifies the Palestinians explicit endorsement of genocide.
Yet no reasonable person can support them at this point. Women were gang raped to the point of having their pelvises shattered. Babies were thrown into ovens, burned alive, or beheaded. Jews and Americans were burned in their homes, shot or beaten to death, and taken hostage. Depending on what survey you look at, something like a quarter or more of Americans openly support Hamas.
Hamas stands sharply against everything Americans have traditionally believed in. Millions of Americans apparently no longer share those values. But if you still place a high priority on mercy, kindness, decency, freedom, and the value of life you cannot support Hamas.
In Washington, sixteen Democratic members of the House did not vote for a simple resolution condemning Hamas and the terrorist attacks. (One GOP member did not support it.) About 12% of the entire Democratic caucus could not agree that terrorism and terrorists are bad. No wonder their party can’t define what is a woman, thinks men can have babies, and believes everyone who isn’t a white male is a victim.
Biden supports a cease fire, which is what Hamas wants. It would give Hamas time to regroup and defend itself. And there are presently periodic pauses to allow the movement of hostages or humanitarian acts.
Yet where does it end? Will continued pauses bring an end to the Hamas reign of terror? No. Cease fires will only guarantee survival of the terrorists. Only letting Israel do its job can lead to an end of the war and the kind of peace that only comes after victory.
Biden is intent on funding the Palestinian terrorists, mostly by giving money to Iran. Iran is the largest funder of terrorism, and the main source of funding for Hamas. Obama made direct cash payments to Iran that then funded terrorism. Biden has lessened enforcement of sanctions against Iran, allowing them to sell their oil. In addition, Biden recently agreed to pay $6 billion in ransom to Iran for the release of five American hostages. Most recently, Biden released some $ 10 billion more. Anyone who doesn’t understand those funds underwrite this barbarism are fools or hypocrites.
At the end of the Trump presidency, Iran had only about a billion dollars on hand. Today they have some 80 billion. They have more money for terrorism because we have given it to them or allowed them to earn it through petroleum sales. Questions?
The hopelessly naïve among us will say it is only for humanitarian relief. Horse shit, or Camel shit, as the case may be. All money is fungible. Once you have it you can use it for anything you like. You can’t give Hamas money for anything unless you want it to end up funding terrorism.
You would think most Americans would agree that if people are burned to death in their homes, raped, shot in cold blood, or taken hostage, it is a bad thing. Yet many Americans, and the Democratic leadership, are falling all over themselves to justify the actions of Hamas.
Some acts are so horrendous, you cannot look at them in two ways…unless you are devoid of decency. It is that simple. Hamas is evil. If you don’t get that, you may be a lost cause. (A recent post: “All I need to know about Islam, I learned on 911,” may be overstating it a bit, but just a bit.)
Adding insult to injury, since the attacks, Biden announced a national strategy to combat Islamophobia. Jewish people were killed, by Muslims, so Biden thought the right response was to be worried about Muslims. It is like they reacted to an increase in rapes by announcing a plan to combat fear of rapists.
Let’s dispense with this, too. Palestine is not a nation and never has been. Israel was not taken or stolen from Palestine. Israel was formed by the United Nations in the wake of WW II, to help provide a homeland for the Jewish people, who were almost wiped out through the genocidal policies of the Third Reich. The suggestion that Israel was stolen from Palestine is an uninformed lie. “Palestinian” didn’t even become a popular term of use until the second half of last century.
You can confuse issues as much as you want by going back in time and claiming that 8 or 80, or 800 years ago, such and such a group claimed a particular piece of land. This happens often in the U. S., where people claim one plot of land or another rightly belongs to native Americans. As often as not, that tribe won the territory through conquests of their own, of course, and all the planet was originally occupied through emigration and expansion at any rate. Humans didn’t all of a sudden appear everywhere, all at once. They moved there, often taking territory by force. That is how the world became populated.
Such discussions can be interesting, but they don’t prove which side is acting more appropriately today. An argument that rape and murder is justified because of historical territorial disputes is both wrong and worthless. If you can’t decide who are the good and the bad guys in this drama, you need to do some serious soul-searching. Stat.
If we cannot look at the world and agree on which global entities are our friends and which our enemy, we cannot be a light of hope in this world. And we ultimately won’t be able to look at ourselves with constructive discernment, either. Our progeny will pay the price for our fecklessness.
We are at an inflection point, and no one is sure which way it is going to go. Pick a side.
Rob, well done! Unfortunately after reading the article on the promise of unbiased information via AI, my fear is that many of us (Americans) aren’t interested in the truth or facts—we sit on the couch and navigate to a source of ‘news’ that validates the opinion we’ve blindly adopted through listening to the loudest, angriest voice.
Cheers,
Greg