From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free is a threat that should be taken at face value. It is a declaration of genocide. A declaration the Hamas marauders punctuated with their October 7th litany of murder, rape, disfigurement, and defilement of at least 1200 Israeli men, boys, women, girls, toddlers, infants, and even the unborn, and which Hamas quickly proclaimed it was going to repeat over and over again. Let’s give Hamas credit for unambiguous candor.
Let’s also give those others credit for candor, if not stupidity, as well; those useful idiots who gleefully strutted, displaying and shouting their genocidal slogans on college campuses and street rallies like automatons while the blood of the victims; the unarmed men, women and children who Hamas tormented, raped, defiled and murdered, and whose blood still ran warm where they lay.
The Israelis have, of course, responded to the massacre furiously and precisely as Hamas intended them to. Israel declared war as any nation worthy of the name would, and the Israelis are aggressively prosecuting that war as Hamas hoped they would, having embedded themselves among the innocent men, women, and children of Gaza.
The toll suffered by the civilian population of Gaza has been horrendous, just as Hamas intended. Hamas knew and counted on a devasting toll of civilian casualties, knowing that the unspeakable loss of life among nonbelligerent Palestinian men, women, and children would be catastrophic. Hamas counted on a devastating Israeli counterattack into the densely populated enclave from which they sent their marauders and into which their killers, rapists, and kidnappers had retreated with their Israeli hostages.
The toll among innocent Palestinian men, women, and children was not only intended by Hamas; it was essential to their strategy. The carnage in Gaza once the war began was inevitable, and it wasn’t a byproduct of the October 7th rampage. It was the purpose of the rampage. The carnage was Hamas’s way to checkmate those Muslim nations that had begun to pursue peaceful relations with Israel. It was to create rage on the Arab street and amnesia on streets all over the rest of the world about what started the bloodshed in the first place.
Hamas did what it carefully and deliberately planned to do, and Israel, in turn, reacted forcefully as it had little choice but to do. Hamas became the elected government of Gaza in 2006, but any elections after that have been essentially terminated.
Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the group's governing politburo, said that the Israeli response to the organization’s savage rampage was fully anticipated. Indeed, it was essential to Hamas’s objective. Hamas did not, however, expect the swift and decisive reaction from the United States. Biden’s immediate deployment of two carrier task forces to the area, as well as other US forces and enormous shipments to Israel of supplemental ammunition, has probably stayed the hand of Iranian proxies that al-Hayya was counting on to join the fray forcefully.
The course of future events once the current bloodletting in Gaza is done is, of course, uncertain. The status quo, from the river to the sea, really does have to change, but not the way either the Palestinians or the Israeli settler bloc would like to see change unfold.
The Palestinians need and warrant a national identity other than that of displaced persons on land that has been their home for many generations. They are not going to go away, nor should they. And, as is well known in the region, no other nation would welcome them.
The settler movement in Israel is a problem, and it is a problem Israel created and a problem Israel will have to solve. It cannot be solved at Palestinian expense, but it has to be solved.
Palestinians, sooner or later, will have to recognize that the notion of the Holy Land devoid of Jews is fanciful and that the Land of Israel without Israelis is like the vast expanse of Arabia without Arabs. Jews have been present in Israel for nearly 4000 years.
Jews were banished twice from Israel, once by the Babylonians in 586 BC and again by the Romans in 70 AD. Over 3000 years, Jerusalem has been destroyed 17 times. Israel is determined that it will never be destroyed again and that there will never be a third banishment of Jews from the Holy Land.
Khalil al-Hayya says Hamas intends to repeat the October 7th massacre, and it wants to do so repeatedly. Massacring Jews was the platform Hamas ran on nearly twenty years ago. The citizens of Gaza, sooner or later, will have to decide whether that cause, which is Hamas’s only cause, is in the best interest of the people. Hamas places a far greater premium on killing Israelis than on serving the people they govern. Hamas, if it survives, promises to attack Israeli citizens again and again, which in turn assures that Israel will counterattack again and again. While Israel and Hamas will suffer losses in each exchange, it is the people of Gaza who will suffer the most.
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Ronald Reagan was the greatest president of modern times. The only mistake he made was not destroying IRAN. They hate us and want us off the map (I am talking about all Western civilization not just the Jews). But our infamous president thinks it's okay to send money to them. They are winning, because they have infiltrated our academia and poisoned our schools. We allow this crap all over money. The universities are filthy rich from oil money. If I were sending one of my kids to college now I would make sure that they don't take one penny from any Arab countries.
I find myself in agreement with 80-90% of your writings each week - and 100% on this. It is so disturbing that so much misinformation - and seemingly outright lies - has been distributed on this subject. I don't know the answer - as the national news programs seem to ignore facts such as those you note - in the 'overboard' effort to be 'fair' to terrorists and barabarians.