Let us harken back to those days, early in the Iraq war. Remember the sentiment that we all had. That of wishing for retribution and reprisal for 9/11. We all had those thoughts, except for those who cheered on the murder of over 3,000 innocent people as rightful retribution against us. I remember being in the company orderly room as a platoon leader, watching the acts of 9/11 play out on the television. There were couches in the orderly room, and a pool table. They were all in front of me. Instead of inching closer and closer to the screen like seemed to be the common reaction, I stayed in the back, as close to the wall as I could, pacing back and forth with eyes that never jotted for an instant from the screen. I am not a tiger, in truth or in metaphor, but that is the best analogy I have for my sentiment that day. I pranced back and forth, like a tiger in a cage, with my vengeful eye on the object with the hope that I could pounce – that I could be a part of the retribution.
Fast forward 18 months from 9/11. We chose to invade Iraq. I had serious misgivings as to whether that was an appropriate response to 9/11. I searched my heart and soul, and asked myself if I needed to turn myself into the authorities as a Conscientious Objector. In the end, I had no conclusive answer from either prayer nor from philosophy. I had my doubts, but I also had doubts of those doubts. And so I went to Iraq in 2004, not as a convert but as an ardent believer in Duty. I could not shirk my duty unless I was certain of a higher duty. And so I went, unsure and while not completely unwilling, and not entirely willing, either.
In Iraq, it was left to me to be the leader of the translators, or interpreters, or as you wish. The “mutarjem.” In that role, I interviewed many of them. In truth, it was more conversational than that, but I had questions that I asked them. What I found amongst these moderate Muslims, those who were so keen on progression in their society that they chose to work for the occupiers, was that they all hated the Jews. Shi’a and Sunni, they had a common front. They hated the Jews and wanted them dead. The moderates, in my sphere and at that time, despised the Jews.
My reading of history is not sympathetic to the Palestinians. I have compassion and empathy for them, but not much sympathy. Since the inception of Israel, that country has been attacked by multinational coalitions over and over again, all seeking to end their existence. This is their homeland going back thousands of years, and still they are willing to share it with the Arabs and Muslims in peace. They gave Gaza to Palestinian rule in 2006, and the Palestinians immediately elected a terrorist group seeking the death of all Jews as their leader. There has not been an election in Gaza again since then. Israel is a democratic state, and to wit, the only democratic state in the Middle East. Hamas is a terrorist organization which has sworn to kill every Jew in Israel and around the globe. All that is needed for peace in Gaza is for Hamas to surrender, and yet we heap burning ashes on Israel to coerce them to sign their own death warrants.
Israel has more right to that land than the Palestinians, who never in history owned it. They claim it only. They claim it under the Shariah Law and under the precepts of radical Jihadism, by which any land ever claimed by Muslims is always and forever sacred Muslim land. Salahudin conquered Jerusalem in the First Crusade. That is their claim, and nothing more. Israel’s claim to exist precedes that by 3000 years or more. And there have been more threats on the very existence of their race than any other race in the entirety of humanity.
If we were to cede Israel to the Palestinians, then there are other lands which will be sought after and we will have to cede. Spain, for instance. Spain was conquered by the Moroccan Muslims in 711AD. Spain wasn’t reclaimed until the legendary counter-conquest of El Cid in 1099, over 300 years later AD. Under the fundamentalist perspective, Spain is still Islamic land, ruled by colonizers and blasphemers. Shall we cede Spain after we cede Israel?
I stand with Israel. There is no “Palestine” to free. It never existed. There are Palestinians who should be treated humanely and with human dignity, and Israel is trying to do that, better than the US ever did in 2003, 2004, 2005, etc. But war is an ugly thing, and not everyone can be spared.
Free Palestine and reward the terrorists of October 7 with a state? That is a thousand times the wrong way to proceed.
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