More of the same

To paraphrase Walt Kelly and Pogo, they have met the enemy and he is us.*

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar recently made it clear that she doesn't want to eradicate all the Jews. In fact she cares about them, honestly she really cares, no matter if they are pro-genocide or not.

"We should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide."

I love her equanimity here. She is dividing them up into two distinct classes but graciously extending her love towards all.

Still, I am a little confused. I admit that I live in a rather sheltered and distant backwater but I have yet to meet a Jew who was "pro-genocide."

I have, however, seen evidence that many of the Gaza supporters and citizenry believe that killing baby Zionists before they become adult Zionists is an admirable act.  

The military on Tuesday published a recording of a Hamas terrorist who took part in the October 7 onslaught in southern Israel bragging to his parents of slaughtering Jews, as Israel continues to put out further details from the murderous assault earlier this month.

In the call, the man can be heard excitedly telling his parents that he is in Mefalsim, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, and that he alone killed 10 Jews.

“Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!” he says, according to an English translation.

“Mom, your son is a hero,” he later adds.

His parents are heard praising him during the call. Identified by his father as Mahmoud, the terrorist says he is calling his family from the phone of a Jewish woman he’s just murdered, and implores them to check his WhatsApp messages for further documentation.

“I wish I was with you,” the mother says.

Khymani James

And echoed by people like Columbia protest leader Khymani James.

“Zionists — they are Nazis. They’re Nazis. They’re fascists. They’re supporters of genocide. Why would we want people who are supporters of genocide to live? I’m confused. “Zionists along with all white supremacists need to not exist because they actively kill and harm vulnerable people. They stop the world from progressing. And so be glad, be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists,” he said. “I’ve never murdered anyone in my life and I hope to keep it that way. I genuinely hope to keep it that way.“But when you have a whole bunch of Zionists and white supremacists and Nazis and fascists threatening your physical safety, one feels the need to remind them that one is not afraid two reach that point. And we know what that point is.”

Well thank you for that Khymani. Zionists and White Supremacists need to not exist. 

Okay, then.

Hamas has, of course, long called for the eradication of Jews. 

Hamas official, Hamad Al-Regeb in an April 2023 sermon: He prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews whom he described as filthy animals: “[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about.” Al-Regeb also prayed for the ability to “get to the necks of the Jews.” 

I could go on and on citing similar statements but will spare you. Clear words of genocide are written into the Hamas Charter. I suggest that you believe them.

The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews. (Hamas Charter, Article 7). 

When I hear people like Representative Sara Jacobs equivocate and defend anti-semitic speech I get very angry. 

"I do not believe that anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitism. I support Israel’s right to exist, but I also know many people who question whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state who are deeply connected to their Judaism." Rep. Sarah Jacobs

She is cutting a little too fine a line here, if you ask me. Jacobs voted in the minority against just such a bill yesterday, on Wednesday, May 1, that is called the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023.  She said the measure “would stifle and restrict free speech in an effort to combat the rise of antisemitism.” The measure passed the House by a vote 320-91.

She is not alone of course. Many young and some older Jews that I know are donning kaffiyehs and trumpeting slogans about the right of Gazans to violently resist the Zionist occupation. They rightfully anguish about innocent deaths in Gaza but totally forget about the initial atrocity in the Negev. Because those people obviously have it coming.

I have long noted my antipathy for Netanyahu and for Israel's failure to enter into a good faith two state solution. His lack of empathy for the killing of innocent Palestinians and aid workers in Gaza in order to achieve his "victory" is horrific and lamentable.

But anyone, and especially any Jewish person who fails to see that Israel's right to exist and to defend itself is in jeopardy here is deluding themselves and has been completely co-opted. The birth of Israel did not occur in a vacuum, it occurred while the stench of the ovens at Auschwitz still rose thick into the air. The Jews of Europe and those who faced the Mufti's persecution in the Middle East had nowhere else to go.

My grandfather fled Poland in the early 1920's and came to Palestine, the land of my father's birth. My grandfather was a founding member of the Histadrut and built the first electrical grid in what was to become Israel. The great majority of my father's family in Wyszkow were not so lucky and perished in 1945. I am lucky to be alive.

Partitions and two state solutions were rejected on numerous occasions by an Arab population who preferred on at least three occasions to try to annihilate Israel by force.

And now, mere months after launching a cowardly attack on unarmed kids at a rock concert in the Negev that killed over 1200 innocent victims, they are asking to be rewarded for the vile behavior promulgated by the Hamas leaders they duly elected in Gaza.

The Palestinians actually get paid to kill jews. Even jews as young as 14.

On April 12, less than a month ago, 14-year-old Binyamin Achimeir was brutally murdered and his body mutilated by a Palestinian terrorist in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem. Achimeir was a shepherd, and was set upon and killed while out with his flock. 

Ten days later, Ahmed Dawabsha, 21, was arrested and admitted to slaying the Jewish youth. Dawabsha will likely face life in prison (though who knows if he’ll one day be released in a Western-compelled “goodwill gesture” by Israel), but he’ll be paid handsomely for his trouble.

According to a calculation by Palestinian Media Watch, which has extensively documented the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” policy, Dawabsha stands to receive over 5.6 million shekels ($1.5 million) by the time he’s 75 as a prize for killing Achimeir.

Jailed Palestinian terrorists are paid on a weighted scale based on the duration of their incarceration.

Over the first 15 years of his prison sentence, Dawabsha will receive nearly 700,000 shekels ($187,000).

The next 15 years will net him a cool 1.5 million shekels ($400,000).

At that point he reaches the highest tier in the pay-for-slay scheme, which is a monthly salary of 12,000 shekels ($3,200). That’s about an average monthly salary in Israel, and an absolute fortune in the Palestinian Authority.

This is all paid by Foreign Aid. Ain't it beautiful? Where is the censure from the progressives about pay to kill?

Such useful idiots on the left, especially the Jewish progressives at J Street or Voice of Peace who know little of the history of the region and don't understand that they would not even be alive if the opposition had their way and the roles were reversed, can protest at the colleges and wear their kaffiyehs like fashion statements de jour. 

They can blindly parrot the hate speech of Tlaib and Omar and Khymani James. 

Discuss the fine line between hating Jews and Israelis. 

Make a list of the good jews and bad jews for future reference. Hey, it's been done before, right?

Later they can plead ignorance for their stupidity and willingness to join the ranks of Islamic Jihad. But by then it will probably be too late.

And if you are the sort of Jewish kapo that believes in the right of violent resistance against young Israeli children as a way to further Palestinian aims, well, we will remember that too.

Pick your friends wisely.

* 

A play on words, Steve, not verbatim...