I have about a week and a half before I return to Israel and put on a uniform as a Sar El Volunteer attached to my reserve unit. So as Joe Six Pack Civilian I can say things , both in subject matter and in form, which I cannot do while in uniform. I, thus, intend to take advantage of it while I can. And since I’m going to be traveling, and then teaching, and then enjoying my son and grand son, and having meetings about charity projects and theatrical productions( oxymoron), this may be my last chance to do so .
I, quite frankly am amazed that people, who feel themselves aligned with the left, with the progressive movement, as we call it in the United States , could be comfortable making common cause against a Western democracy like Israel ,and with a genocidal , theocratic, imperialist, gay hating , misogynistic, female genital mutilating, child bride abusing,” honor killing”, group of Moslem, fascist thugs, like Hamas. I’m quite simply amazed by this, nonplussed, gobsmacked !
So let’s, for the moment, at least, take Israel and Hamas out of the equation, since the mere mention of the Jewish state,, indeed the very notion of a Jewish state, drives some folks into such paroxysms of frenzy, that there is absolutely no hope whatsoever for anything even remotely resembling discourse.
It’s like that Bob Dylan lyric, from” I Shall be Free”
“ Now I got a friend who spends his life
stabbing my picture with a bowie knife,
Dreams of strangling’ me with a scarf,
when my name comes up he pretends to barf,
I’ve got a million friends.”
That’s sort of the relationship between Israel and a certain breed on the left,who do moral back flips to see in Hamas, a group of put upon freedom fighters, and in Israel, the re incarnation of Nazi Germany..
Now, fun’s fun, but that’s just flat out perverse!
So let us , for the moment, take Israel and Hamas out of the question and in their place let’s put…I don’t know…let’s say , ISIS and the Yezidis.
ISIS, or ISIL or The Islamic State, or The Caliphate, whichever name you choose for them, are the folks who just beheaded photo journalist James Foley and posted, on You tube, the gristly video of his head being sawed off by ISIS terrorist Abdel -Majed Abdel Bary, a former British rapper calling himself L Jinny, and now referred to by some as Jihadi John.
Let’s make a wild leap of faith , shall we? Let’s imagine, that if you are one of the Israel bashing , Hamas cheer leaders , that you are none the less, actually repulsed by the beheading of Mr. Foley, by the aforementioned former British rapper , turned ISIS terrorist. Let’s say you actually think it’s a barbaric act for which there can be no excuse. No amount of perceived persecution, no insult to the Prohhet Muhammed, Peace be upon him, could possibly justify such an act of barbarism, nor excuse the terrorist organization, which not only sanctioned the beheading, but ordered it as a matter of policy, as a tactic in their war against the West.
I know that’s a lot to ask, but I’m hoping, at the very least, we can find common ground in roundly condemning the act and the actors and in stating firmly that any organization that would perpetrate such an act in the name of establishing a world wide Moslem Caliphate , are in fact a bunch of theocratic, genocidal, Imperialist, Moslem, fascist thugs.
In case we’re going too fast let’s break that down; Theocratic- because they believe Allah not only sanctions their actions but orders them and is pleased by them.
Genocidal – because they have made clear their intent to wipe out, annihilate, indeed commit genocide against their enemies, and indeed proudly proclaim their intent to do same.
Imperialist- because in establishing the Caliphate , they indeed intend for it to be an empire.
Moslem- because that is the religion they profess to follow.
Fascists- because the dictionary defines Fascism as “ a political movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for centralized autocratic government, headed by a dictatorial leader.”
Can we all agree we’re on the same page thus far?
Can we all agree that nothing excuses that type of barbarous fascism; not Hitler believing the German Folk got the wrong end of the stick after WWI, or the Jews were all to blame for it, and not any insult to the Prophet, peace be upon him, nor any thwarting of Islamic dreams of righteous conquest? Still on the same page?
Good Lord, I hope so, otherwise you truly are lost and beyond redemption and, as odd as it seems , I still have hope for you as a rational human being as capable of recognizing virtue, and siding with it, as you are of recognizing vice, and opposing it.
Now ask yourself this question: What if Foley was a Jew? Is the action still inexcusable ?
What if he was a Jew and an Israeli? Is there still no justification?
What if he was a Jew, and an Israeli, and a soldier in the IDF, let us say, or even worse, a Jew who lived in one of the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria ? Are you sure you wouldn’t be able to find some rationale for the same act? Are you sure you wouldn’t say , yes, but…. and then come up with a laundry list of grievances to mitigate the act of barbarity? Come on now, fess up. You sure you wouldn’t be able to find some empathy in your heart for the down trodden ISIS masses who must have suffered at the hands of the Zionist Occupier?
But I digress.
Forget about Mr. Foley being a Jew.
He wasn’t. So you need not ever face what would or would not be a moral dilemma vis a vis his beheading.
ISIS beheaded a nice American , non Zionist, photo journalist and you can roundly condemn them for doing same.
Now let’s talk about the Yezidis. They are an ancient, aboriginal people, a non Moslem minority, not unlike the Kurds, and not unlike the Jews, living in a majority Moslem Middle East..
The theocratic, genocidal, imperialist, Moslem, fascist terrorists of ISIS referred to Yezidis as “ Devi Worshipers “ and set out to forcibly convert or annihilate them, with the result being that some forty thousand Yezidis sought refuge atop Mt. Sinjar , in their ancient homeland, while the theocratic, genocidal, imperialist, Moslem fascist terrorists of ISIS surrounded the base of the mount, intent upon killing each and every one of the Yezidis.
Indeed their plight aroused the sympathy of the world and the US and European countries enacted mercy flights of food and medicine to the trapped Yezidis atop Mt. Sinjar. In fact the US authorized air strikes to relive their siege. Again, it may be a wild leap of faith, but I’m going to assume that you Hamas cheer leaders ,enablers and apologists, found no fault with that.
Now here come the hard parts. Ready?
What is the difference between ISIS and Hamas
And what is the difference between the Yezidis and the Jews of Israel?
I can hear the indignation!
How dare I compare ISIS to Hamas?! First of all Hamas, unlike ISIS, which has murdered it’s way to power, is the duly elected representative of the Palestinian People in Gaza!
BZZZZT!
That, unfortunately, was the sound of Alex Trebeck telling you that was the wrong answer.
In 2006 Hamas did indeed win elections for parliament . However Mahmoud Abbas was still president of the Palestine Authority, and the Palestine Authority, not Hamas, was still the ruler of both the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas, however, was not satisfied with winning parliamentary seats and in a bloodthirsty coup, machine gunned to death their fellow Palestinian soldiers of the Palestinian Authority. They lined them up against walls and machine gunned them, They shot their knee caps off while interrogating them. They blindfolded and bound them and pushed them off multistory buildings to gristly deaths. That’s how they seized power. by murdering their way into taking over Gaza. That, is how they have maintained power, through murderous terror. In the past three days, as of this writing, they have murdered some twenty five of their fellow Palestinians, without benefit of trial or even official charges having been brought against them. They just took them out into the streets and shot them. What was the crime? Suspicion of collaboration. Not proof mind you. Just grab someone who may disagree with you, say they’re a collaborator and summarily gun them down in the streets so everyone else will see and get the message as well.
Did you protest against those deaths by the way? Because, even by the Palestinians own numbers that’s more people killed than died at the hands of Israeli air strikes, during the same period. But i didn’t see any protest marches against those murders. Did I miss something? Were you really out there while I was distracted? Come on now…tell the truth. You didn’t protest, did you? How come? Was there a re run of the Voice that night? No?Well because those were collaborators, you say. They were JUSTIFIED in killing them in time of war. Were they? Would you justify killing anti Iraq war or Afghan war protestors in the west during time of war? And what about those original Palestinian soldiers they gunned down by the hundreds? Did you protest that? They weren’t collaborating with anyone but the Palestine Authority.
Yes, you might say, but you can’t compare a group that would behead an American journalist with….with what? A group that would order and carry out the kidnapping and murder of three school boys? Because that’s exactly what Hamas officials have finally admitted to doing.
Ahh yes, you stammer and stutter, contorting yourself in every direction to justify murdering the three boys , which was the way this whole horrible war started, according to Hamas’s own plan! Ahh yes, you say, but those boys were Settlers.
And what exactly does that mean?
“It means they were Jews living in lands the Palestinians claim for themselves!” you say laying that trump card, triumphantly on the table.
You know though , that’s a problem too.
Because 1.6 million “Palestinians” live inside Israel and enjoy full civil rights and complete equality. So much so in fact, that you can not find one Palestinian living in Israel, who wishes to trade their Israeli citizenship to be a “ citizen” of Hamas run Gaza. I defy you to find one….one in 1.6 million!
But while 1.6 million Palestinians can live in Israel, you seem to have no problem with the notion that NO Jew will be allowed to live in Palestine, should it ever become an independent state. It must instead, be judenrein…oh, sorry, that was the Nazi term. It must be Jew Free. And I don’t remember you ever protesting that one either.
Well that’s because the Jews stole the Palestinians' Land!
Bzzzt! There’s Alex again.
Israel unilaterally withdrew from every square inch of Gaza in 2005, and it used the Israeli army to uproot Jews by force , from their homes, farms, businesses, and places of worship to do it. If we did that to Palestinians you’d call us war criminals. But we did it to Jews, and we did it for one reason. To give peace a chance. The policy , in case you forgot or never knew, was called “ Gaza First” and it meant that if we could live in peace with a Palestinian entity in Gaza, which by treaty with the Palestinians , was to forever have been demilitarized, then that could be a template for the “ Two State Solution” a Palestinian State and a Jewish State living side by side in peace and security.
Okay, but, you sputter, I wasn’t talking about Gaza , i was talking about stealing the land on the West bank and besides, Gaza is under siege. You have a cruel blockade of Gaza that is strangling them!
BZZZTT. Thank you Alex.
As we withdrew from Gaza, on the day we were withdrawing, they began firing rockets at us. The so called siege is a sanctions regime meant to be a non lethal way, which I thought you would applaud, since it means, no war, no air strikes, no dead Palestinians, of trying to get the current Occupiers of Gaza to stop firing rockets at us! The US has had a similar set of sanctions regime against Cuba for over half a century and I don’t recall a single rocket falling on US soil from Cuba. We’ve had almost twelve thousand rockets fired at us since 2005 when we ENDED the occupation of Gaza!
By the way, even during the current conflict hundreds of truckloads of humanitarian goods have been transferred per day into Gaza by Israel, which also continues to supply Gaza with the electricity it uses to make the rockets it fires at us!
As to the lands of the West Bank, both Gaza and the West Bank were annexed by Egypt and Jordan in 1948 and ruled by them for twenty years. Did anyone refer to those exact same lands as “ occupied territory “ in all that time. Did ONE Palestinian refer to the West Bank as Occupied territory prior to 1967?
In 1967 Jordan, despite Israel’s pleas to that country to stay out of the war, attacked Israel…and they lost. Israel immediately offered to return almost all of the West Bank, and Jordan ,together with the other Arab states, issued the three “ no’s “. No recognition of Israel, no negotiation with Israel and no peace with Israel. Twenty years ago Israel signed the Oslo accords with the PLO and CREATED the Palestinian Authority and every Israeli government since then has said it would negotiate to create two states for two peoples. One for the Palestinian people and one for the Jewish People. The problem, and it is the main problem, is that NO Palestinian leader has agreed to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. That is of vital importance because if our “ partner “ does not recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish State as having a rightful place in the Middle East than what we will be negotiating will be nothing more than another cease fire in an ongoing war to destroy us and displace us with a Palestinian state from the Jordan river to the Sea, which is EXACTLY what Hamas proudly proclaims is its intent.
Moreover it’s charter makes it clear that it’s war is not just with the state of Israel but with the Jewish People. It’s charter says” We look forward to the fulfillment of the promise of Allah when Moslems will rise up and kill the Jews until the rocks and trees cry out , O’ Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him”. Or as Hamas spokesman Abu Odeh succinctly put it, “ We never target civilians. We only target Jews”.
So what is the difference between ISIS and Hamas?
Both state clearly that their goal is the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate under Sharia law. Hamas does not just see the West Bank as Occupied territory, they see, and proudly proclaim, that Tel Aviv is occupied territory.
But what ought to get your attention is the fact that they see Spain as occupied territory as well…and parts of Italy and Europe up to the gates of Vienna, indeed any land that was ever under Moslem rule is “ Occupied Territory” a violation of the Islamic Trust, occupied by infidels, which means each and every one of you non Moslem, Hamas apologists and enablers.
They simply want to START with us.
But they want to finish with you.
Both Hamas and ISIS murdered their way into power.
Both govern by terror.
Both are absolutely committed to carrying out genocide.
Both are theocratic, fascist, imperialistic, genocidal, terrorist organizations and armies.
What is the difference between the two?
The West has allowed the cancer that is ISIS to spread.
Israel and Egypt have contained the cancer that is Hamas in Gaza, and Israel is putting it into remission.
As for the Yezidis and Israel, what is the difference between them?
Both are ancient, aboriginal minorities, in a sea of Islamist fanatics, bent on annihilating them.
The Yezidis went up onto Mt. Sinjar as a last refuge while the forces that would destroy them gathered around them for the final solution.
We’ve been up on that mountain ourselves before.
It was called Massada.
It was called Nazi Occupied Europe.
It was called Entebbe.
It was called Ma’ a lot.
It is called Israel.
The only difference between us, is we have a country an an army with which to defend it.
And on the day when we are not stronger than the genocidal, theocratic, imperialist, fascist Islamist terrorists, bent on our destruction, we will be right up there on Mt. Sinjar with the Yezidis.
Don’t hold your breath.
Dan Gordon
Joe Six Pack Civillian
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