Moral Courage
I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of mind
-Lee Kuan Yew
It should go without saying that Jews and Muslims are cousins. We worship the same God and are descended from the same people. Our cultures share vast similarities. We even eat the same food. Who doesn’t love hummus? I wish there were peace. But life isn’t fair. Extremists exist. There’s evil in the world.
Colonizers
When referring to Israel, some refer to the “Israeli occupation” or Israelis as “colonizers.” This is a lie.
In recent history, Palestinians fought a war with Israel and lost. Israel let them stay. Israel could have exiled Palestinians or set up military bases within Gaza and run it like a police state, i.e., an actual occupation. Israel didn’t. Now, let’s go further back in history–
As a dedication to our late mother, my family donated the central arch going into the synagogue facing the Western Wall. This helps fund an archeological excavation to see what was there throughout history. The excavation is next to the Western Wall. I’ve been to the site multiple times.
They keep finding artifact after artifact back to the Roman times and before. More than anything, they find Jewish artifacts. Going back hundreds then thousands of years. Jews have always lived in Israel. Long before the concept of a Palestinian people even existed. It’s right there.
The occupation and the colonizers exist. It’s everyone in Israel but the Jews. It’s the Jewish native land the Israeli gov seeks to live in peacefully with their neighbors. Israel has offered dozens of peace treaties, all of which Hamas rejected outright with no alternatives presented. Hamas doesn’t want peace. Hamas wants all Israelis to die.
The side murdering babies, torturing civilians to death, and abusing and raping women is also gaslighting.
Moral Framework
Hamas shares the same views as the KKK, except they’re more violent, run a country, and have a different skin color. If you’re someone with socially progressive values, Hamas wants you dead. Think of Hamas as historical religious fundamentalists.
If you grew up believing in natural rights and valuing human life with the Judeo-Christian view that each individual life is sacred, then Hamas is inconceivable. You read what Hamas says, and you think it’s rhetoric. “They can’t actually believe that.” But they do. Once you realize they believe what they say, jihadist actions start to make sense. They follow the same patterns.
Jihadists don’t mince words. Read what they say in their public statements, what they write in their publications, and what they teach in their schools. From Hamas’ founding document:
The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, 'O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'
Moreover, Hamas is sadly not a religious minority. Most Palestinians in Gaza believe Hamas represents and supports their beliefs. From AP:
The poll found that 53% of Palestinians believe Hamas is “most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people,” while only 14% prefer Abbas’ secular Fatah party.
Intentions
Intentions matter. When you understand intentions, you know what actions genuinely mean. One side spends money on bomb shelters and anti-missile defense. The other side converts humanitarian aid into weapons to murder civilians.
Hamas was given water pipes, providing critical infrastructure for their people. Hamas recast the water pipes to create thousands of missiles. Hamas even posted videos of how they converted the water pipes to missiles. Hamas doesn’t care about the Palestinian people. Hamas cares about killing Jews.
If Palestinian children die digging tunnels used for terrorism, why does it matter to the Hamas death cult? Death is useful to jihadists. Jihadists want to be martyrs, and they want to kill infidels. They value human life differently.
Israel cut off electricity to Gaza. If you assume bad intentions, you think it’s to starve Palestinians and commit genocide on the Palestinian people. If you assume positive intentions, you realize Israel asked all civilians to evacuate south before they attacked. Hamas is telling civilians to stay. Cutting off utilities forces civilians to evacuate to the south to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties.
Israel gave a path for Palestinian civilians to evacuate to safety. Hamas blocked and set land mines on that path. Hamas knows they can’t win a war against Israel. Hamas wants the world to hate Israel and will play their tactic of sacrificing Palestinian civilians to win the PR war. Hamas is a death cult.
Asking Questions
There are 49 majority-Muslim countries. There is one secular, majority Jewish country with a tiny land parcel of formerly barren desert. It’s internationally condemned and scrutinized more than all Muslim countries combined. Why is that? If all Israelis left tomorrow, what would Gaza become decades from now?
Gaza borders Egypt. Over a million Palestinians live in Israel, while less than 1/10 that number of Palestinians live in Egypt. Why does Egypt not want to take in Palestinians from Gaza? Is it perhaps the same reason Israel doesn’t want to take in Palestinians from Gaza? Egypt was offered control over Gaza– why do Egypt and other Muslim countries not want Gaza?
Timeline
1937: Arabs reject the Peel Commission to create a Jewish and Arab state.
1947: Arabs reject the UN partition plan to create a Jewish and Arab state. Wage war against the new nation of Israel. Lose more land than the partition gave them.
1967: Israel wins yet another war against its Arab neighbors, conquering Gaza, the West Bank and Sinai in a defensive war. The Arab League declares the "three no's": No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. Israel voluntarily hands control of the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism back to the Islamic Waqf, and made it illegal for Jews to pray there.
1973: Golda Meir offers most of Sinai back to Egypt in return for peace - Egypt rejects any offer that doesn't include 100% of the Sinai, and months later attacks Israel on Yom Kippur.
1979: Israel voluntarily hands the Sinai back to Egypt, returning land conquered in a defensive war.
1993: Israel recognizes the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority over the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Oslo Accords. Yasser Arafat uses it to support terrorism.
2000: Israel offers Yasser Arafat recognition of a Palestinian state in all of Gaza and 94% of the West Bank with East Jerusalem as its Capital. Arafat rejects it and launches the Second Intifada.
2005: Israel pulls out of the Gaza Strip, dismantles all its settlements, and forces Jews to leave their homes. Palestinians respond by electing Hamas who turn it into a terror state.
2008: Israel offers Mahmoud Abbas once again recognition of a Palestinian state in all of Gaza and 94% of the West Bank with East Jerusalem as its Capital and even offered to dismantle all their settlements. Once again, the Palestinians reject it.
2010-2021: Hamas launches periodic rocket attacks against the state of Israel and builds terror tunnels in order to kidnap and murder Jews while using the people of Gaza as human shields against the IDF. Israel offers passage for medical treatment in Israel and increased work permits to promote peace and economic stability in Gaza.
2023: Hamas commits the worst act of mass murder against Jews since the Holocaust.
Moral Courage
Don’t be swayed by what’s popular or in vogue. That’s moral cowardice. That’s a pitiful life not worth living.
On your deathbed, you can think of how innocents were being slaughtered, and people cheered, saying it was deserved. You stood by saying nothing. A regime with the moral framework of a 7th-century theocracy made its intentions clear and acted on them. You did nothing. You let others deal with it while living under the rule of law in Western society– the pinnacle of privilege.
Look at yourself in the mirror. Who would you have been when they rounded up the academics during the Cambodian genocide? Who would you have been when they rounded up Jews, gays, and minorities during the Holocaust, during Mao’s Communist revolution? Your actions speak louder than your words. You know who you would have been. You would have gone along with it because that’s the person you are. A person who proclaims they care but, when there’s a cost to bear, has no love for their fellow humans— a person who doesn’t care about principles, about the truth.
I’m not saying you should post or say something publicly. Jews have always been alone. We’ve always been discriminated against and had to work harder than others. Even in America, Jews are more likely to be victims of hate crimes than any other minority. The Jewish people have been through worse, and we’ll persevere as we have for millennia. We’re stronger now than we’ve ever been. We don’t need your sympathy. Words are cheap.
I want you to have an opinion when controversial topics arise. I want you to chime in when your friends bring up the conflict in the Middle East. Have the courage to speak the truth. It’s the little steps that matter. Maybe one day you’ll be courageous enough to say what you think in public. Maybe not. But say something, start somewhere. Live a life of truth, or what’s the point?