Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Setting the Record Straight

Setting the Record Straight
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 6, 2023

As the war against Israel enters its second month, following the October 7 invasion into, and slaughter of 1,400 Israeli civilians, tens of thousands rallied for so-called Palestine over the weekend in the nation’s capital - rife with vandalism and graffiti - including on White House property. The anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas rally included shouts and chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Globalize intifada.” 

To support such a notion, as US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) does, as she still refuses to condemn Hamas decapitating Israeli babies, is to support the evisceration of Israel and the death of the entirety of the Jewish population. Tlaib, as did fellow Squadite US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) posted on her social media pages the proven lies that Israel was responsible for bombing Al Ahli hospital in Gaza killing 500 civilians. None of that actually happened. The truth was known within hours, yet the false accusations remain on the two US House members’ social media pages.

To support so-called Palestine is to support Hamas - the Arab/Muslim population of Gaza voted overwhelmingly in 2006 for Hamas to be its governing body. That was their one and only free election, as none have been held since. Israel evacuated Gaza in 2005 leaving its infrastructure intact for the Gazan/Arab/Muslim people as Israel is not a colonizer, as is also falsely reported ad-infinitum. To support Hamas is to support, as is written in their own charter, the eradication of Israel and the murder of the Jewish people. (Hezbollah has the same goals written into their charter as well.) To support Hamas is to support the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran is the puppetmaster pulling the strings of Hamas and Hezbollah. The Islamic Republic of Iran is also the training ground for thousands and thousands of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. (Hezbollah operates out of Lebanon and fired 30 rockets into northern Israel, some reaching the outskirts of Haifa.) This is the same Islamic Republic of Iran whose government under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is feverishly working to build nuclear bombs - not for defense, but for offense. Israel’s Iron Dome, on the other hand, is for defense. This is the same Islamic Republic of Iran that consistently refers to the United States of America as the “Great Satan” and to Israel as the “Little Satan” as its supporters regularly chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Those who want you dead do not wish to negotiate a two-state solution, they only seek the Final Solution as did the Nazis during the Holocaust. 

And again, those calling Israel a colonizer, have never learned actual history. The land designated as Palestine by the British turned into what would have been the original two-state solution - Israel for the Jewish people - a return to their Biblical, historical, ancestral homeland, and Transjordan for the Arab/Muslim people - who subsequently rejected that plan. Jordan is Palestine. These were not colonies, but individual nations. This was not and is not about land, for if it had been, the Jewish people would have a genuine beef as the original Palestine, designated as the Jewish homeland, would eventually be divided into the two nations referenced above, with the Jewish people receiving but 20 percent of that land, and the Arab/Muslims the motherlode of 80 percent. This is not about land, but about a people who willingly fled what became Israel - they were never expelled, to become, what they have labeled themselves for 75 years - refugees. None of the 48 Arab/Muslim nations expressed a willingness to take in these “refugees,” why should Israel, or worse yet, why should the United States as some members of the Hamas-supporting Squad in Congress have demanded. 

Did the scant numbers of survivors of the Holocaust decry refugee status from Albania,  Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia? There literally was nothing for them to go home to, if there was even a home at all. Europe lay waste to the barbarism perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin. 

And while on the subject of lies the media likes to endorse, Israel is not an apartheid state. Its 1.5 million Arabs (700,000 in 1948) have equal rights - including women, to serve in the Knesset, to work as lawyers, as doctors, even serve on the Supreme Court. On the other hand, Jews in almost all Arab/Muslim nations had been reduced to Dhimmi status - second class citizens - in apartheid circumstances, and experienced rabid anti-Semitism. Textbooks in Arab/Muslim nations, as well as maps, would not even mention Israel. And what happened to the Jewish populations of these Arab/Muslim nations?

Nation 1948 Jewish Population      Recent Jewish Population

Afghanistan      5,000          0 (2021)

Algeria 140,000 50-200 (2021)

Bahrain               500-600 36 (2007)

Egypt 75,000   100 (2022)

Iran                 65,000+ (1956)        9,200 (2022)

Iraq      135,000          5-7 (2014)

Lebanon          5,000           100 (2022)

Libya        38,000              0 (2020)

Morocco     265,000       2,100 (2020)

Oman 0 (1900)              0 (1900)

Pakistan     2,000-2,500                  800 (2017)

Sudan  350              0

Syria     30,000                  100 (2022)

Tunisia   100,000               1,000 (2020)

Turkey     80,000         12,000-16,000 (2022)

Yemen     63,000              6 (2020)

What happened to all those Jewish populations? They were not welcome in those countries, thus relegated to Dhimmi status in those apartheid nations. Most fled to the new State of Israel, while many others either immigrated to the United States or ended up in France.

Still confused? Here’s a checklist to consider.

Subject                 Israel Palestinians/Hamas

Unilaterally invading the other NO             YES

Intentionally targeting civilians NO             YES

Warning civilians to get out of harm’s way YES             NO

Tearing down posters of hostages NO             YES

Taking hostages         NO             YES

Supporting charters calling for death NO             YES

Vandalism and graffiti of property NO             YES

Support from the United Nations NO             YES

Equal rights for women         YES             NO

Equal rights for minorities YES             NO

Equal rights for homosexuals YES             NO

Using its own people as human shields NO             YES

Beating up opposing protesters NO             YES

Intentionally raping and slaughtering women NO             YES

Intentionally decapitating babies NO             YES

Giving escort to safety to Gazan civilians YES             NO

Even Joe Biden is cognizant enough to say Hamas is worse than ISIS. Yet his former boss, Barack Obama, said both sides are to blame, despite the facts that Hamas unilaterally and without provocation, invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,400 Israeli civilians, and took more than 250 Israelis, Americans, and foreign nationals hostage. And there’s a demand for a cease fire? First of all, there was a ceasefire on October 6 until Hamas shattered it with their barbarism. And, if the same attacks occurred on American soil, on a per capita basis, there would have been roughly 48,000 murdered and roughly 7,000 hostages taken. Would the United States capitulate to calls for a cease fire? Probably not even under Biden.

“I want to make clear Israel’s position regarding a cease fire. Just as the United States would not agree to a cease fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7,” assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Nor should there be, at the very least, until all hostages are released and returned safely to their homes.

Netanyahu is absolutely right about not calling for a cease fire. He is also right about not listening to Biden, the perpetually useless and virulently anti-Semitic United Nations, the Hamas caucus of the Democrat Party, or the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protesters. None of them are actually Prime Minister of Israel, responsible for the life and death decisions such as sending young men and women into a war - even a justified war. Israel does not start wars, but they do finish them - successfully. Israel has every right to defend its G-d given, Biblical, ancestral, and historical homeland and all its people. For the day Israel loses a war, they cease to exist. Every war is a fight for survival. Israel is the one and only one Jewish state on the planet and without Israel, what guarantee of a homeland do the Jewish people have? What truly safe space do the Jewish people have to take refuge, to live, and to prosper should the need arise. While the United States has been a haven and beacon for religious freedom since before its founding, the visceral, sinister spate of anti-Semitism is akin to precious little ever experienced in this country. If need be, without Israel where will the Jews of America go to live their best Jewish lives?

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He and his wife last visited Israel in 2019.

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