History fairly reeks of supposedly well meaning, high minded folk who “ didn’t know”, and then paid the horrible price for their feigned or real ignorance.
Because that’s the point, after all.
History doesn’t really care if you’re pretending to be ignorant, or just a fool.
History exacts an awful price for those who turn a blind eye to evil, for those who will not hear the Devil’s siren song of complicity, or hearing , refuse to understand it’s meaning.
History doesn’t care if you’re really stupid , in the face of true wickedness, or merely playing the fool.
History is a hanging judge.
And whether you know it or not, whether you are intellectually honest enough to admit it to yourself , let alone others, or not, we are all in the docket right now.
What we do over the next weeks and months, not years, but over the next weeks and months, will color our fate and that of our children and grandchildren, for generations to come.
They will either look back and praise you for your courage, or damn you for your cowardice.
But don’t think for a moment that Judgement isn’t coming.
It’s already on it’s way.
You may want to assuage your moral conscience with a catchy tweet or colorful wristband, but History will not be satisfied with that.
Not by a long shot.
So step up, my friend, because Judgement Day is near, and neither good intentions, nor ignorance will mitigate in your favor.
Only actions count where History is concerned.
Think of all those decent German folk who claimed they just didn’t know where the transport trains were headed, and then think of the firebombing of Dresden and the fact that twice as many Germans died in World War Two than all the Americans and Brits put together.
Think of those who claimed the stench of burning flesh from the crematoria somehow never smelled like death, or who thought the ashes of an entire people drifting from the chimneys of Auschwitz was some sort of strange early snow. How well did they come through the Great War and Iron curtain that descended over their lives and turned their countries into prisons?
Think of the hard core, lefty Jews who marched into the Gulag saying,” If only Comrade Stalin knew, he would put a stop to it!”
Well, pal, Stalin knew, and blind obeisance to a false cause didn’t buy them one day’s good time in the Gulag.
And now, no matter what you self righteously tweeted, no matter how much you deplored Israel’s supposed war crimes, no matter how vigorously you boycotted Israel’s “ genocidal hummus” in the food co ops of trendy Cobble Hill, or clicked your tongues, or wagged your fingers and identified with the suffering of the Palestinian people of Gaza, brought about , not by the genocidal, imperialistic, theocratic , fascist terrorist thugs of Hamas, but by the Zionist, Pig, oppressor of the down trodden, aboriginal masses, Judgement Day is coming, and ignorance is no excuse.
You know the guy in the black suit with a bloody knife in one hand, and a severed head in the other, who says “ I’m back!”?
You know that guy right?
Of course you do.
You know him, even though there were no mass demonstrations of condemnations of the Caliphate, no Boycott , Sanction and Divest movement aimed against ISIS, because, after all,, they make nothing you can boycott. They have nothing of value from which you can divest yourselves, and sanctions mean nothing to them because they’re terrorists!
Well, tell me, if you would what differentiates them from Hamas, outside of the means of execution? What is it Hamas makes that contributes to the general welfare of the human race? Suicide bombers? Terrorist attack tunnels?
Isis , I grant you, is a bit more literal , when it comes to the Koran, and a bit more baroque, when it comes to their YouTube presentations.
But consider this; In the past several weeks ISIS has publicly beheaded two nice , New York Times reading, NPR listening, American journalists. Despite the fact that no one has marched against that, I think we’re all on the same page in saying that’s freaking barbaric!
On the other hand, in roughly the same period, Hamas has summarily, and publicly, executed 120 of their own people for supposedly violating curfew laws!
THEN THEY TOOK OUT AN ADDITIONAL 30 OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE, MADE THEM KNEEL IN PUBLIC SQAURES, ORDERED CROWDS OF MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO GATHER ROUND, AND THEN BLEW THEIR FREAKING BRAINS OUT!!
They murdered 150 of their OWN PEOPLE!.
If you want to do the math that is roughly seventy five more public murders than were committed by ISIS in the same period.
That was Hamas who did that, my friend.
But wait a second. I’m a reserve officer in the Israel Defense Forces. So you can’t believe me.
I’m not asking you to.
The fact that Hamas publicly murdered 150 of their fellow Palestinians was revealed today by none other than Mahmoud Abbas, the President of The Pastine Authority, who has also said that Hamas is responsible for the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, whose UN Ambassador to the the Human Rights Commission has publicly stated that every rocket Hamas fired was a war crime, because they were aimed at innocent Israeli civilians, while hiding behind innocent Palestinian civilians.
That was the PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR who said that!
Not the Israeli ambassador.
That same Palestinian Ambassador acknowledged that Israel warned civilians to evacuate every target it struck and thus was NOT guilty of war crimes..
“Dude” you might well say,” I didn’t know that.”
Well “ Dude” now you do.
The Palestinian President went on to say that if Hamas did not accept the principal that their military forces be brought under Palestinian Authority control, and live by the treaties The Palestinian Authority has signed with Israel, no less, that he, the Palestinian President would tear up his unity agreement with Hamas.
He said he would push for the opening of the Palestinian border crossings, but only if Palestinian Authority Forces and not Hamas controlled those check points.
And do you know , dear friend, why the Palestinian President was being so harsh on the very champions of the down trodden Palestinian masses for whom so many marched, and on whom so many bestowed the mantle of” victim of Zionist aggression”, as opposed to “genocidal, theocratic, imperialistic,fascist Terrorist thug?”
He developed that newly enlightened attitude toward Hamas because he found out they were planning a coup in the West Bank, were planning to assassinate and replace him, as a further step toward establishing the exact same Caliphate which ISIS claims to have begun in their place.
But unlike some of its supporters, Hamas is at least honest about it’s intentions.
They proudly announce that their plan is to annihilate the Jewish people, not Israelis , but all the Jews on earth…then after they’ve done that ,they’ll start in on everyone else who doesn’t tow their particular Islamist line on the march to the Caliphate. That ,by the way, means you.
You don’t believe me?
Just ask the guy with the black mask and the bloody knife and the severed head.
He has no moral ambiguities about what he intends to do.
But, you shrug and say, “ This is all too complicated for me. If that’s the way they’re gonna be, let’s just call the whole thing off.. I’m going to watch The Voice or Charley Rose. Because, after all, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
That’s where you’re wrong.
There’s plenty you can do.
And whether you do it, or not, will determine History’s harsh judgement.
You can say loudly and clearly to your elected leaders, “ Spend hundreds of millions, if you feel generous, to rebuild Gaza, to rebuild houses and schools and real hospitals,( not fronts for terrorist attack tunnels). . But not one cent to rebuild Hamas’s ability to wage offensive war. Not one cent!”
It’s your money, you chump!
They played you for total rubes and suckers in 2009 , saying “give us cement and steel. We can’t build rockets out of cement and steel after all. So what are you afraid of?”
And they took YOUR MONEY and built terrorist attack tunnel!
They did it for five years under your noses!
You don’t care about Israel?
Great! No one is asking you to.
No one is asking you to love us or even like us.
You can even continue to boycott our genocidal hummus if it makes you feel better. BUT IT’S YOUR MONEY! IT COMES OUT OF YOUR POCKET!
You tell your leaders now, the price for rebuilding Gaza is insuring that Hamas no longer has the capability of waging offensive war.
But what about the resistance to the illegal Israeli occupation?
Ask Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority.
He’ll tell you.
He’ll show you the Palestinian corpses.
He’ll show you what they did with your money.
You can’t claim ignorance any more.
For once, stand up for REAL PEACE.
Insist that Gaza be demilitarized, just as it was supposed to be under the Oslo accords which created the Palestinian Authority.
Insist that Abbas just doesn’t say the right things, but does the right things to regain control over a genocidal, theocratic, imperialistic, fascistic group of terrorist thugs who have brought so much misery down upon the heads of his own people.
Because whether you know it or not, whether you admit it or not, Israel is the last levee that stands between you and a flood of Islamist terror that will wash it’s way onto your shores if it is swept away, not by the military abilities of Hamas , but by the good people who claimed they just didn’t know….and then paid the price that History demands of fools.
Dan Gordon
Capt. IDF ( Res)
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.