November 10, 2023

By George Tristan

There continues to be unprecedented worldwide protest and condemnation of the actions undertaken by the Israeli government since the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas. The unrest and opposition to Israel’s response by Palestinian supporters, is due in large part because they consider the Israelis to be colonizers or occupiers of the Holy Land. Therefore, they perceive Hamas terrorists to be freedom fighters and their actions justifiable in their so-called revolutionary war against Israel.

Ironically, the premise for the war is largely misunderstood by the public. The true and accurate history of the land rights is not taught in secular colleges or progressive think tanks. It would take one only a few minutes of online data mining to learn that in 132-136 BC, the Romans conquered the nation of Israel in the third Roman-Jewish war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt. Following the end of the war, Emperor Hadrian renamed the land of Israel to Syria-Palestina (Palestine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian.

In the centuries that followed, Arabs in the region declared themselves Palestinians to establish a national identity, disassociating themselves from their original Arabic heritage. Even so, this small patch of land, the size of New Jersey, has historically been considered by historians and archaeologists, the original homeland of the Jewish people, which is validated by first century writings and historical artifacts. The international community understood this and is why the League of Nations authorized the British Mandate of 1948, to return the land to the Jewish people and reestablish the nation of Israel. In actuality, the “Palestinians” are the occupiers. Avoiding these facts is either ignorance or intentional bias against the Jewish people.

In war, UN-intended civilian loss of life is inevitable. This point is tantamount to understand what we are witnessing in this most recent conflict. The number of Palestinian civilians killed is reported by Palestinian health officials but has not been verified by any independent agency. Even if these numbers were considered accurate, it must be made clear that Hamas uses its own populace as human shields. The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and Israeli government, using pre-recorded phone calls, text messages, and flyers dropped from airplanes, are doing all that can be done to prevent civilian casualties by alerting the Palestinian people of their need to evacuate the war zone. Hamas, however, has strategically worked to prevent Palestinian civilians from traveling to safety in southern Gaza. Hamas, therefore, is largely responsible for the death of many of their own civilians. https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestine-10-25-23/h_d94a41d543f156e1d42a04705c8ca503

Let us remind ourselves how the United States responded to the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese killed 2,403 Americans, and on September 11, 2001, al-Qaida killed 2,974 Americans. In response, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, instantly killing 120,000 Japanese civilians with tens of thousands dying later due to radiation poisoning https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki. The decades long war in Afghanistan resulted in the death of an estimated 176,000 to 212,000-plus people, including 46,319 civilians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%932021). The United States rightfully brought the Japanese to their knees in surrender during WWII, and decidedly decimated al-Qaida in the Afghan war. There was no talk of proportionality or a cease-fire of the United States as we sought justice then, nor today should it be required of Israel after suffering the worst single-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Hamas documented the barbarity of their October 7 attack to instill fear in the Israeli people. Using GoPro cameras, they recorded the atrocities and even live-streamed the horrors. Rape, decapitation, gouging out of eyes, the cutting off of fingers, limbs and women’s breasts, and the burning of people alive have been verified and are indisputable. Most news outlets, however, are reluctant to show the videos or even speak of the torturous ways that Israelis were murdered. These crimes against humanity, however, should be made known to all so that it can be understood why the Israeli government has undertaken the justifiable task of eliminating Hamas once and for all.