Orit Ettinger's Inspiring Faith and Positivity Provide a Powerful Glimpse into Israel's Spiritual Strength

"Orit" means "light" in Hebrew. Orit Ettinger embodies light and positivity despite suffering many tragedies during her young life, and when she speaks about her experiences she uplifts others. Ettinger's father was killed in a terrorist attack, one of her brothers died in a motorcycle accident, her cousin was killed while rescuing people during Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel, and another one of her brothers was killed during the current war in Gaza, but she remains determined to be happy and to focus on the positive aspects of life. I must confess that the deep faith and unwavering positivity demonstrated by religiously observant Jews inspires me but also confounds me; I have not suffered a fraction of what Ettinger has suffered, but my reaction to suffering--both my own, and the suffering that I see inflicted on innocent people like Ettinger and her family--is to become angry and to question why such things happen. It is very difficult to remain positive in the face of pure evil, but I am inspired by those who are able to do that.

Ettinger notes that we all suffer hardships during our lives but that the world is still a beautiful place. She finds joy in that beauty, and every day she expresses a moment of gratitude. Her message is that we must find the ray of light in all situations:

I told my sisters that we don't have the privilege of sitting and crying in our house, because there is a war going on and people are worn out and emotionally broken. We understand this saga and know what helps and what doesn't, what comforts and what doesn't, and we can help people get back up. I went to comfort mourners and families of hostages, and I saw how, through my pain, I have the chance to comfort others.

We're all in a war. Some whole families were killed. We don't have the privilege of sitting at home and if I have the job of encouraging soldiers then I will do it and worry about the consequences afterwards.

I have told families of hostages, as well as the families of those whose loved ones were killed in action, and soldiers as well--there is something in realizing that not everything is under your control. Wives worry for their husbands, but does that help? No--so stop worrying. You can worry, but you can't let it take you over, because there is nothing we can do about it.

The love of life will triumph over the lust for death. There are nearly two billion Muslims in the world and there are less than 16 million Jews in the world. I don't know how many Muslims hate Jews and support Hamas, but the empirical evidence suggests that the number is large. However, Israel's strength and the Jewish people's strength derive not from population numbers or from military weapons but rather from a deep well of spiritual fortitude. A death-affirming culture can only bring death to itself and others, while a life-affirming culture brings life. Look at what the Jewish people have achieved in the Land of Israel in less than 100 years by driving out British colonists, defeating the armies of multiple Arab/Muslim nations in several wars, and then building world class agricultural, scientific, and technological infrastructures--and then contrast that life-affirming progress with how little the Arab/Muslim world has accomplished during the same period despite enjoying vast advantages in size and natural resources (most notably oil): in the Arab/Muslim world one searches in vain for democracy, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, women's rights, and other basic human rights. Israel is the only Mideast nation where basic human rights exist, because Israel is the only Mideast nation founded on life-affirming principles.

There will not be peace in the Mideast until the Arab/Muslim world adopts a life-affirming mindset that rejects political extremism and hatred; that truth does not fit into the preferred narratives promulgated by many media outlets, political organizations, and nations, but understanding and accepting that truth is the only path forward for the Mideast's dysfunctional nations. Clinging to the desire to transform the world into Dar-al-Islam will only lead to misery and death.

Professor Louis Rene Beres' Insights About Applying International Law Principles to Israel's War Against Hamas

Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel displayed the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam. Any attempt to assert a moral equivalency between Hamas' war crimes/crimes against humanity, and Israel's restrained, lawful, and justified military response is obscene and unfounded. Unfortunately, self-proclaimed "progressives" continue to prove their moral bankruptcy by asserting this false equivalency, in the process demonstrating that their true agenda is not "peace and love" but rather the overthrow of Western civilization.

Professor Louis Rene Beres often uses the apt phrase, "International law is not a suicide pact," which in this context means that Israel does not have to consent to being destroyed merely because other parties do not approve of her methods of dealing with Hamas' depravity and violence. More specifically, Professor Beres explains why Israel's response--including the recent targeted assassination of Hamas commander Marwan Issa--is fully justified under the principles of international law.

The entire article is well worth reading. Here are several of Professor Beres' key points, in his own words:

1) "Under international law which is binding upon all sovereign states, terrorism represents a crime that should be prevented and must be punished. As was learned originally from Roman law and Jewish law (Torah), a universal rule exists. This 'peremptory' rule affirms the core principle of 'No crime without a punishment,' or Nullum crimen sine poena. It can be discovered, among other sources, at the London Charter of August 8, 1945. This is the founding document of the post-war Nuremberg Tribunal."

2) "In formal jurisprudence, terrorists are known as hostes humani generis or 'common enemies of humankind.' While the world legal system allows or even encourages certain insurgencies in matters of 'self-determination,' there is nothing about these matters that can ever justify deliberate attacks on civilians. In this connection, it is important to remember that an integral part of all criminal law is the underlying presence of mens rea or 'criminal intent.'

On this point, there can be no reasonable comparison of Marwan Issa's deliberate mass murder of Israeli noncombatants and the unintended civilian harms now being suffered in Gaza. As a matter of law, responsibility for such ongoing harms falls entirely upon the 'perfidious' behavior (i.e., 'human shields') of Hamas and Iran, and not on Israeli forces acting on behalf of legitimate self-defense."

3) "Under the law of war, even where an insurgent use of force has supportable 'just cause,' it must still fight with 'just means.' Accordingly, the vapid phrase 'One man's terrorist is another’s freedom fighter' is never more than an empty witticism."

4) "The willfully indiscriminate nature of jihadist terrorist operations (not just Hamas) is well documented. Such intentional blurring of the lines between lawful and unlawful targets is rooted in certain generic principles of 'holy war.' Several years ago, an oft-repeated remark by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, then a prominent Muslim cleric in London, explained core doctrinal linkages between Islamic terror and 'holy war:'

Said the Sheikh, 'We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever (a Jew or Christian) has no value. It has no sanctity.'

International law is not a suicide pact, especially when an adversary remains indifferent to its unassailable claims. As was learned yet again on October 7, 2023, jihadist attackers add gratuitously barbarous effects to their corrosive primal ideologies. At 'bottom line,' these are belief systems that gleefully embrace the sacrificial slaughter of 'unbelievers.' To wit, for Hamas and related terror groups, 'military objectives' have 'normally' included elementary schools, bomb shelters, ice-cream parlors, civilian bus stops and elderly pedestrians. In law, these perpetrators ought never to be called 'militants.' Whatever their alleged cause, they are criminals of the irredeemably worst sort."

Professor Beres concludes his analysis by pointing out that the nations of the world should be helping Israel instead of condemning her:

William Blackstone's 18th century Commentaries, the foundation of United States jurisprudence, explain that because international law is an integral part of each individual state's "common law," all states are "expected to aid and enforce the law of nations." This must be accomplished "by inflicting an adequate punishment upon the offenses against that universal law." Derivatively, by its precisely targeted removal of Hamas terrorist leader Marwan Issa, Israel acted not in violation of the law of nations, but in its indispensable enforcement. Presently, this neglected clarification of global justice should not be undervalued or overlooked.

Understanding the Full Dimensions of Hamas' October 7, 2023 Mass Casualty Attack in Israel

During Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel, Hamas not only committed rape and torture while killing over 1200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, but in the aftermath of the attack--and attacks launched by Hezbollah against northern Israeli communities--hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been displaced and dozens of children have become orphans. The tragic impact of Hamas' terrorism will be felt for generations. When you see pictures or descriptions of whatever is happening in Gaza, remember why it is happening: Israel is making sure that Hamas will never again have the capability of inflicting such suffering--and another reason that Israel is operating in Gaza is to find and hopefully rescue the 100 or so hostages still being held by Hamas.

A less publicized aspect of Hamas' attack, as Rebecca Sugar pointed out recently, is that Hamas also committed agricultural terrorism:

The human tragedy of Oct. 7 still grips the country and is compounded by another kind of devastation Hamas inflicted on Israel. Danielle Abraham, executive director of Volcani International Partnerships, a nongovernmental organization that addresses global hunger using Israeli technological innovation, calls it "agricultural terrorism."

Terrorists targeted farmland, livestock, plants and infrastructure as they made their way across the western Negev, which produces roughly 70% of the country's vegetables, 20% of its fruit and 6% of its milk. "The attack was designed to intentionally destroy agricultural production, but more than that, it was meant to destroy the identity of the region, to break the community," Ms. Abraham says.

Hamas terrorists damaged greenhouses and barns, many beyond repair. They slashed crop nets and flooded orchards. They burned irrigation pipes and shot at fertigation systems. They destroyed the filtration system for the local reservoir...

Known for producing some of the world's sweetest tomatoes, Israel is now importing them. Lettuce and onion shortages are expected, and up to 20% of strawberry fields were abandoned. Estimates of income losses and infrastructure damage total more than $500 million.

Israel's barbaric enemies have not only demonstrated an inability to build functional societies, but they are determined to destroy the beautiful society that the Jewish people have built in Israel. It is disturbing that so many organizations that claim to be concerned about human rights, global hunger, sustainability, and other issues are either silent about this or are even hostile toward Israel.

Hamas revealed and celebrated the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam, and Hamas' actions against Israel fit the legal definition of genocide, which consists of two elements:

1. A mental element: the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such"; and
2. A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:
   • Killing members of the group
   • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
   • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
   • Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
   • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element.

The facts documented above point to several important conclusions/action items:

1) In order to survive, Israel must destroy Hamas, because Hamas has demonstrated the ability and inclination to inflict mass destruction on Israel.

2) Any ceasefire in Gaza helps Hamas to regroup, and is therefore an existential threat to Israel.

3) In light of the significant support and collaboration that Hamas receives from the civilian population in Gaza, Israel must strongly consider what is the most humanitarian way to relocate most or all of that civilian population elsewhere; most wars involve population transfers to protect the innocent and minimize the likelihood of more warfare, and there is no reason that this war would be an exception. After World War II, population transfers of millions of people took place, and something similar happened in the Indian subcontinent after India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh became independent countries. Humanitarian population transfer is the best way to not only protect Israel but to also remove Gazans from the current war zone so that Israel can destroy Hamas with as few civilian casualties as possible.

In this context, it should also be remembered that--as I previously documented--after the creation of the modern State of Israel the Arab/Islamic countries expelled almost 1,000,000 Jews. Those Jews have never been compensated for their suffering or for their lost property. In essence, the Arab/Islamic countries already did an involuntary population transfer affecting Jews, and the population transfer process can now be completed--in an orderly, humane fashion--regarding Gaza (and this should be seriously considered for the hotbeds of Arab/Islamic terrorism in Judea/Samaria as well).

4) Israel faces a significant human and financial cost to rebuild everything that Hamas destroyed. Therefore, the Arab/Muslim world must foot the bill to pay whatever it costs to help Gaza's civilians now, and to relocate them to new homes out of Gaza at the earliest opportunity. The extensive sponsorship that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States provide for sports--including but not limited to auto racing, chess, and golf--demonstrate that those nations have more than sufficient funds to pay for this. Those states depend on American military muscle to survive, so it should not be difficult for America to persuade those states to do their part: the simple message is "Pay your share to fix a problem created by terrorists who you have funded and sheltered, or we will withdraw all military support and leave you to your own devices vis a vis Iran." By the way, delivery of that same message would provide sufficient incentive for Qatar--which sponsors Hamas and shelters many of Hamas' leaders--to pressure Hamas to unconditionally free all of the hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza.

Deplorable Criticism of Israel's "Deadly" Hostage Rescue Operation

Israel just accomplished something that no one else is willing or able to do: Israel went into the heart of Gaza's nest of terrorist compounds in Rafah, and rescued two of the hostages who have been held captive since Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel. Former hostages Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har are alive and free today because Israel did not surrender, did not give in to cruel international pressure, and instead stayed laser-focused on the dangerous but necessary task of rescuing hostages and destroying Hamas. I fervently hope that we will see many more videos like this of Israeli soldiers bravely rescuing hostages.

It is deplorable and disgusting that Israel's brave and heroic rescue mission is labeled as "deadly" by biased media outlets; these same biased media outlets also devote a lot of attention to what they term a "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. Few people are brave enough to speak the truth: what Hamas did and continues to do is "deadly," and the only humanitarian crisis in Gaza is that Hamas is holding over 100 hostages. Everything that is happening in Gaza is a direct consequence of Hamas' deadly actions.  

Israel is saving lives by rescuing hostages and dismantling Hamas. Hamas is responsible for every death in Gaza, and Hamas could end the war by surrendering unconditionally and releasing all hostages unconditionally. Gazans voted Hamas into power, Gazans cheered (and participated) on October 7, and now Gazans are paying the price for their decisions and their actions. As the saying goes, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Or, to put it more bluntly, "F-around and find out." The Gazans played their stupid games, and now they are receiving their "prizes" for killing at least 1200 people and kidnapping hundreds of others. Israel and the world community provided billions of dollars to Gaza to build a paradise, but the Gazans chose to build a hell--and after they chose to export that hell to Israel they should not be surprised or outraged by Israel's justified response.

People who speak about "proportionality" do not understand international law; in a war of self-defense, a country may legally use the necessary force to eliminate the threat. Hamas decided to use Gazans as human shields, and Israel may legally use whatever force is necessary to destroy Hamas' command centers, bases, and tunnels as long as Israel is not deliberately attacking civilian targets.

Israel must stay strong, and her supporters must stay strong as well. President Biden pretended to support Israel for a hot minute before looking at his cratering poll numbers and deciding to pander to the self-proclaimed "progressives." He cannot be trusted, and that is sadly true of the leaders of many other countries as well. It is better to be a living Jew who is criticized than a dead Jew who is mourned.

The international organizations that are supposed to protect the innocent are instead demonizing Israel. The United Nations is worse than useless; it has become an instrument of evil, and should be disbanded as soon as possible. The so-called Palestinians are the only group in the world that has an entire UN organization devoted exclusively to their particular concerns: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA collaborated with Hamas before, during, and after Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty attack in Israel; it is long overdue that UNRWA be shut down, and now that the full truth has been revealed about UNRWA's participation in war crimes the UNRWA officials who worked with Hamas should be prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. This is unfortunately not the first time that UNRWA collaborated with Hamas to attack Israel, but it must be the last time.

President Biden and others are pressuring Israel to accede to the creation of an Arab state in Gaza, but there must never be two states west of the Jordan River. Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and there is already an Arab state in the former Palestine Mandate territory: Jordan. Arab civilians from Gaza should relocate to Jordan as soon as possible, to secure their safety and as part of a long overdue permanent solution to decades of strife and war. This is no different than the population transfers that happened as a result of World War II, the wars in the Indian subcontinent, and just about every other war in human history. 

It should be noted and emphasized that the Arab/Muslim world and the international community as a whole prefers that Gazans die while serving as Hamas' human shields as opposed to peacefully relocating Gazans to Jordan (or to other Arab/Muslim countries). Israel has encouraged Gazans to flee the war zone, and Israel has provided safe passage to Gazans to do so; it is Hamas and Hamas' supporters in the international community that have forced Gazans to remain in Gaza as human shields. That decision is regrettable, but it is not Israel's fault, nor is it Israel's responsibility.

Understanding Today's Mideast Through the Lens of the Bravery of the Jews and the Brutality of the Arabs During Israel's War of Independence

There is a false, multi-layered narrative asserting that Israel was founded by white Jewish colonists who displaced native peoples of color and destroyed an Arab nation called "Palestine" (sic). I refuted those notions in Who Are the Invaders, and Who are the Invaded? An Analysis of Inversions of Truth:

In a world where so many dangerous delusions are presented as important facts, it is refreshing to catch a glimpse of truth emerging from the darkness. In How the true story of Mizrahi Jews defeats anti-Zionist mythology, James Sinkinson writes:

What most anti-Zionists miss is that despite the perception that resettling Israel was largely (though not completely) an Ashkenazi initiative, the majority of today's Israelis are ancestors of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. Most are brown-, black- or olive-skinned—not what anyone could describe as white—and as a group are called Mizrahi (Eastern) Jews...

While for millennia Jews lived with unbroken continuity in the land of Israel, many Jews also lived in neighboring countries, predating the birth of Islam and the Arab conquest, occupation and colonization of the region. While many think of the region today as "Arab," places like Morocco, Syria and Egypt were invaded 1,300 years ago by Muslims, and their indigenous populations killed or forced to convert and adopt the Arabic language and culture.

In Iraq, for example, Jews had lived for almost 2,500 years—since the destruction of Jewish sovereignty in the First Temple period—but all this ended just a couple of generations ago with an orgy of bloody pogroms and public hangings.

Few indigenous populations survived the centuries of onslaught on their authentic identity, and simply disappeared. Despite having second-class, dhimmi status imposed on them by Muslim rulers, Jews refused to relinquish their culture and tradition. They were made subservient to the majoritarian Muslims, who had arrived via invasion and colonization.

This history of conquest, occupation and colonization is one many anti-Zionists would like to hide, since it turns every popular Middle East narrative on its head. Today, strong forces and lobbies ensure that anything exposing Muslim colonial history is censored.

Far too few people know the real history, and far too many people refuse to read/listen/learn. In addition to the points that Sinkinson makes, it is worth thinking about why the United Nations created a separate organization (United Nations Relief and Works Agency--UNRWA) to deal with the "Palestinian" refugees but every single other refugee situation in the world--which includes the fates of tens of millions of refugees--falls under the domain of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is also worth thinking about why there is no UN agency to help the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who were expelled from Arab/Islamic countries in the late 1940s.

Much has been said and written about the "Palestinian" nation and about "Palestinian " rights. I agree with anyone who fights for the basic human rights of every single human being, but I have some questions about Palestine as a nation. When did a sovereign country named "Palestine" exist? What was its capital, and what were its borders? What distinct, unique language was spoken there? Such questions arouse outrage and venom from some people, but I have yet to hear or see any answers--and there is a simple reason for that: it is a demonstrable historical fact that no such sovereign country ever existed.

The Jewish people's successful struggle for independence against British colonists and the armies of multiple Arab/Muslim nations is the greatest story that is never (or at least rarely) told accurately in its full glory. What other nation has preserved its identity, language, and culture despite suffering a two millennia exile? When nationalism emerged in the 1800s, the Land of Israel was largely barren and sparsely inhabited. The native Jewish community--bolstered by their Jewish brethren fleeing persecution in various countries--lovingly made the desert bloom, and displayed remarkable tenacity despite facing overwhelming military and political opposition. 

No one gave the Jewish people a state: the Jewish people built a state, and for more than 75 years the Jewish people have tenaciously fought to keep that state.

"A Bravery Fiercer Than Death: The 35 Heroes of Gush Etzion" provides eyewitness accounts of the 35 Jewish soldiers massacred by Arabs while trying to provide supplies to the besieged Etzion Bloc communities during Israel's War of Independence:

 

There are several striking aspects of the Gush Etzion story, beyond the bravery of the young Jewish soldiers:

1) The descriptions of the barbarities committed to the Jewish bodies by the Arabs (which can be heard at around the 13 minute mark of the video) should not be surprising to anyone who has studied history, and they underline the reality that what Hamas did during the October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack is neither isolated from Arab/Muslim history nor in any way a response to anything that Israel ever did; rather, it reflects the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam. The sad reality is that radical Islam enjoys wide support in the Arab/Muslim world; as one of the veterans of Israel's War of Independence stated during the movie, "We understood the reality of our situation. We understood what we could expect, if they were to defeat us." What they could expect was torture, murder, and desecration of murdered bodies, which is what Hamas did on October 7, 2023 and has publicly pledged to do "again and again and again."

2) As noted early in the movie, Jewish individuals and organizations legally purchased the land. There was no colonization, no depopulation, and no deportation. The only thing more stunning and disheartening than the Arab attitude that the entire Mideast from Morocco to Pakistan should be free of any Jews is the world willfully ignoring this grotesque antisemitism. Why did the Arabs seek to massacre Jews living peacefully in Gush Etzion (and the rest of the Land of Israel)? Regardless of who would ultimately have sovereignty over the area, why did the Arabs feel compelled to try to kill every Jew there? That same antisemitic attitude persists today; the Arabs not only demand that Israel give up land, but that Israel render that land Judenrein. How can one make peace with an enemy who is not willing to live side by side together?

If it is that important for the Arabs/Muslims west of the Jordan River to live in Judenrein lands, then they have over 20 Arab/Muslim countries from which to choose, but they have no legal or moral right to demand that a single Jew leave the ancestral Jewish homeland. That is (or should be) a non-negotiable principle.

3) The deep love of the Jewish people for the Land of Israel is very moving. The Jewish people dreamed of Zion for 2000 years, fought so hard to keep Gush Etzion in 1947-48, and spent 19 more years longing for Gush Etzion until finally liberating the area during the Six Day War. 

4) I have thought a lot about Zionism and the Mideast for a long time, and one thought has increasingly become prominent: what Israel's enemies misunderstand the most is at the heart of their false narrative about colonization, namely their assertion that Israeli Jews are European outsiders who should "go back home." The Jewish people in Israel are home. The Jewish people in Israel are not the Romans, the Turks, the British, or any other foreign colonizers of the Land of Israel.

I don't know how much Israel's enemies believe the lies that they tell, but if they believe that violence will drive Jews out of Israel then they are gravely mistaken. Within the Jewish community, it is understood that the Zionist response to terrorism is to plant another tree and to build (or rebuild) a community. Jewish kindness should not be mistaken for weakness: the Jewish people's enemies may love death more than the Jewish people love life, but the Jewish people's strength is love of life and love of the Land of Israel, and it is that love that will triumph over the lust for death.

Menachem Begin Understood How to Respond to Calls for a "Two State Solution"

Proponents of the so-called "two state solution" overlook the fact that a two state solution was implemented in Palestine decades ago: Jordan was formed by slicing off nearly 80% of the Palestine Mandate's territory, controverting the League of Nations plan that Palestine would be the location of the reborn Jewish State after the Jewish people had suffered in exile for nearly two millennia. 

Menachem Begin, Israel's Prime Minister from 1977-83, understood that a "two state solution" is based on a lie that Palestine has not already been divided into two states, and is proposed as a means for destroying Israel. In 1981, when West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stated that Germans have a moral obligation to facilitate the creation of another Palestinian state in addition to Jordan by carving territory out of Israel, Begin did not mince words:

From a moral point of view, Schmidt's statements certainly rank as the most callous ever heard. It seems that the Holocaust had conveniently slipped his memory and he did not make mention of a million and a half small children murdered, of entire families wiped out.

The German debt to the Jewish people can never end, not in this generation and not in any other. The entire nation cheered on the murderers as long as they were victorious. But what do we hear? We hear of a commitment to those who strove to complete what the Germans had started in Europe.

Begin declared that Schmidt "must have concluded some very lucrative business deals with Saudi Arabia."

Begin's conclusion about Schmidt's motivations is the same conclusion that I have reached about both President Trump and President Biden. President Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century" envisions a two state solution and thus puts Israel's survival at risk. President Biden's funding of the PLO's "Pay for Slay" program compensates terrorists for murdering Jews, and President Biden's impotent response to Iran's nuclear program and sponsorship of terrorism has emboldened the Iranians to attack U.S. and Israeli targets in the Mideast. I believe that President Trump, President Biden, and many other leaders are well compensated for their advocacy of the "two state solution" and other policies that clearly do not represent the best interests of the United States (or anyone else other than Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others who stand to make money from brokering such deals).

President Biden is not as overtly hostile to Israel as his predecessors Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter, but Biden--like most U.S. Presidents--has an agenda that is at best indifferent to Israel's survival, and Begin understood this when he confronted then-Senator Biden in 1982 regarding the possibility of U.S. aid to Israel being reduced if Israel dared to allow Jewish people to live in Judea and Samaria (often erroneously called "The West Bank," a name which makes no sense geographically or politically, as the territory in question is part of the Palestine Mandate and does not constitute the entire western bank of the Jordan River):

Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.

The notion that any place in the world should be "Judenrein"--let alone places within the Land of Israel such as Judea and Samaria--is despicable. Even if yet another Arab state is carved out of the territory of the former Palestine Mandate, why wouldn't Jews be allowed to live there? For that matter, why are Jews not welcome to live in Gaza, and in many Arab/Muslim countries? 

Instead of blaming Israel for problems that Israel did not cause and cannot unilaterally solve, it should be noted that Jews are not welcome throughout most of the Arab/Muslim world: after Israel's rebirth in 1948, more than 800,000 Jews were expelled (or fled to avoid being killed) from Arab/Muslim countries. It also should be noted that the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan--accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab leaders--further divided what little remained of the Palestine Mandate. What should have happened in 1948 is a population exchange, which is what typically happens after a war: the expelled Jews should have found homes in Israel (which most of them did, though some went to other countries), and the Arabs living in the western 20% of Palestine that became Israel should have either accepted Israeli citizenship (which many did) or else moved to Jordan or other countries to become full citizens. The world's cynical manufacturing, manipulation, and perpetuation of a "Palestinian refugee crisis"--including but not limited to the creation of a corrupt UN agency (UNRWA) separate from the UN agency that deals with every other refugee crisis around the world--has resulted in much misery for both Arabs and Jews.

The reality is that a two state solution has already been implemented, and it has failed because (1) creating two states in Palestine has not brought peace, (2) the "Palestinian refugees" have not been resettled in Jordan (or any other Arab country), and (3) Jordan is a non-democratic state that is barely functional. It does not make sense to assert that carving a third state out of the Palestine Mandate's territory would lead to peace, or solve the "Palestinian refugee crisis" (which should have been solved decades ago, and could be solved tomorrow if Arab nations were willing to take care of their brethren instead of exploiting them for public relations purposes). It is delusional to think that carving a third state out of the Palestine Mandate's territory would even result in the creation of a stable, functioning nation: the Gazans spent the past two decades using billions of dollars of foreign aid to build a terrorist stronghold, not a functioning state. It cannot be said that Hamas does not represent ordinary Gazans when the evidence shows otherwise: Gazans voted Hamas into power, polls have repeatedly shown that most Gazans support Hamas, and Gazan civilians were active, enthusiastic participants in Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack (and UNRWA personnel actively collaborated with Hamas before, during, and after the attack).

For several decades, outside forces have coerced Israel into failing to achieve decisive victory each time she has been attacked by her Arab/Muslim neighbors, but Israel must not permit that to happen now. Israel's war against Hamas must continue until all of these events happen:

1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.

2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.

3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.

Israel is under no legal or moral obligation to waste more money funding terrorist organizations in Gaza. Hamas attempted to use Gaza as a launching pad to destroy Israel, Hamas failed, and now Hamas and the Gazans who voted Hamas into power will have to live with the consequences of their bad choices and their military defeat. Name one other terrorist entity in world history that launched a failed war of extermination (Hamas' stated goal regarding Israel) and then was rewarded by being granted statehood in the very territory from which it launched the failed war of extermination? That is not how the world works.

"Two state solution" is just the polite way of saying "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." As I noted in the immediate aftermath of Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel, "When Israel's Arab neighbors and their self-proclaimed 'progressive' supporters chant 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' those words must be understood for their literal meaning and intention: every Jew from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is to be killed, Israel is to be destroyed, and yet another authoritarian Arab/Muslim state is to be established. The Arabs don't want 'land for peace'; they want to kill Jews and take control of all of the land from the 'river to the sea.' They mean exactly what they say. This is a sad and scary reality, but denying that reality will not change it. Israel's policies--and America's policies--must be grounded in reality and must be directed toward making sure that 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is a slogan consigned to history's dustbin."

The Arabs/Muslims control most of the territory spanning from Morocco to Pakistan, and they will have to be satisfied with not controlling an area barely twice the size of Los Angeles County that is the historic homeland of the Jewish people. What many Arabs/Muslims and others fail to understand is that the Jewish people did not colonize the Land of Israel. The Romans, Turks, British, and others were the colonizers. The Jewish people returned home, and triumphed over the colonizers. The Jewish people have as much right as any other nation to live peacefully in their homeland.

October 7, 2023 is a defining historical moment. Anyone who still advocates for the "two state solution" after October 7 is either clueless, paid off, or trying to destroy Israel. Zionism is a just cause and a successful movement, regardless of the slanders and lies promulgated about the Jewish people. There is fear and shame at the heart of antisemitism and anti-Zionism because of how much the Jewish people have accomplished in Israel: triumphing over the British colonists and sending them packing back home, repeatedly defeating Arab aggressors despite being vastly outnumbered, and building a thriving democracy with a modern economy.

Israel is a role model for what post-colonialist nations can accomplish with hard work and the right mindset; her enemies provide examples of the depravity to which humanity can sink with an entitlement mentality and an ideology based on "loving death more than you love life," which is the opposite of the Jewish worldview.

The United Nations is Antisemitic, Worse Than Useless, and Should Be Disbanded

The United Nations spends much of its time passing anti-Israel resolutions. The UN is an antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Western, and anti-democratic organization that outlived its usefulness decades ago. It should be disbanded, and the United States should lead the charge in defunding the UN until the UN is disbanded.

As just the most recent example of the evil that has infected the UN, in the wake of Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel the UN is not condemning Hamas and seeking the immediate unconditional release of the hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza and using as human shields, nor is the UN actively speaking out about Hamas' brutality toward Israeli women.

No, instead the UN--via the International Court of Justice, one of its main operational units--is putting Israel on trial for genocide. This would be a laughable farce were it not just the latest outgrowth of the malignant and vile evil that poisons the UN beyond any hope of redemption. Israel, the tiny (less than twice the size of L.A. County) homeland of the Jewish people--the victims of Nazi genocide--is not being supported in her fight against Iran and the Islamists who seek to destroy Israel but rather is being slandered while antisemitism is soaring around the world. It is not an exaggeration to say that the UN is putting Jewish lives at risk by leveling false and inflammatory charges against the Jewish State.

Contrary to what is often asserted, Israel never turned Gaza into an "open air prison," nor is Israel committing war crimes by fighting against the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group Hamas that uses Gazan civilians as human shields.

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true, then here are 4000 words on behalf of just four of the over 130 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza (these are screenshots of Instagram posts by the Israel on Campus Coalition and Tanya Zuckerbrot):

I declared nearly three years ago that "Never Again" must be a rallying cry, not a slogan:

Holocaust denial often consists not only of denying that the Nazis murdered six million Jews, but also falsely accusing Israel of committing genocide. This breathtaking and perverse act of double historical revisionism during the living memory of the Holocaust is an outrage that defies description. The truth is that not only is the Holocaust the most well-documented genocide in history, but Adolf Hitler announced his murderous plans in advance, and the world was well aware of what the Nazis were doing; the information was available, but many media outlets downplayed what was known, and many governments--including the U.S. government--closed their borders to the few Jews who were fortunate enough to escape the Nazis; the sad saga of the S.S. St. Louis--a ship full of more than 900 Jewish refugees who were refused entry to the United States and sent back to Europe to meet their fate at the hands of the Nazis--is just one example of how the world turned its back on the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Hamas members proudly recorded their genocidal crimes against Israel just three months ago, yet the UN ignores those genocidal crimes while falsely accusing Israel of genocide. The world will not become a better place unless and until we fight every day to make it a better place. What the UN is doing harms not only Israel and the Jewish people, but also other victims of genocide whose plight is being ignored while the UN targets Israel and the Jewish people. The UN is giving aid and comfort to China--whose ongoing persecution of Uighur Muslims arouses no sympathy among self-proclaimed "progressives"--and many other countries (including but not limited to Russia and Iran) that are inflicting suffering on defenseless people. 

Even if you don't give a damn about Israel and the Jewish people, you should understand with crystal clarity that the evils of commission and omission committed by the UN are a direct threat to your freedom; the Jewish people have always been the proverbial canary in the coal mine, and it does not take long for those who target the Jews to target everyone else (Adolf Hitler is the classic example of this truth).

Speak out against evil.

Silence is complicity, and I will never be silent.

Anti-Zionism is Indistinguishable From Antisemitism Because Israel is the Jewish Homeland

China belongs to the Chinese people.

France belongs to the French people.

Germany belongs to the German people.

The above statements are self-evidently true. Regardless of whether or not you like the policies or the cultures of those countries, their right to exist is undisputed. It would make no sense to call for the destruction of China but claim to not be anti-Chinese, and the same is true for any other sovereign nation. I disagree with the ideology and policies of China's government, but I do not call for the destruction of China.

Israel belongs to the Jewish people. 

This is self-evidently true. It is not complicated, nor should it be controversial. It is made complicated and controversial by people who hate Jews and who want to kill Jews. The Jewish people are the only people in the world who are demanded to prove their right to exist in their own homeland. It is by definition antisemitic to call for the destruction of Israel, because to do so demonstrates "hostility toward, or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group" (the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of antisemitism). The fact that some Jews hold antisemitic views about Israel--just as some Americans hold anti-American views--does not validate those views or make those views not antisemitic. People who chant "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free" are chanting an antisemitic slogan; they are not disagreeing with an Israeli policy: they are stating that Israel should be destroyed and replaced by another national entity, and by definition that means exiling or killing millions of Jews. That offensive slogan is a call for genocide.

It is not coincidental that antisemitism (hatred of Jews as individuals) and anti-Zionism (hatred of the Jewish national movement) are connected to anti-American sentiments. As I explained in The Fear and Shame at the Heart of Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism, "[T]hose who who hate America are often jealous of America in much the same fashion that those who hate Jews and/or Israel are jealous of Jews and/or Israel." In that article, I quoted Ralph Peters, who was interviewed by Fredric Smoler ("The Shah Always Falls," February/March 2003 issue of American Heritage): "Jealousy is a powerful human emotion. Hatred is a tremendous emotional release. Blame is cathartic. At this time in history, the United States is humane, free, and powerful. The Arab Islamic world is just the opposite. Our success is infuriating to people who value their own culture, who love their traditions even though they no longer work, and who look at our enormous success with inchoate envy...In the future, we'll get around to recognizing the neuroses, if not psychoses, that are far too prevalent within the Arabian heartland of the Islamic world...The transition from women as property to women as full participants in society has been the greatest revolution in human history, and its reverberations will be felt for centuries. Repressive cultures are horrified by it because it calls into question their most fundamental biological, sociological, and religious ideas. However, the oppression of women anywhere is not only a human rights violation, it's a suicide pact with the future." Hamas' brutality toward Israeli women during Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack is just the latest example of the "neuroses, if not psychoses" of the Arab/Islamic world.

The 20th century saw the collapse of many colonial empires as the colonizers left the lands that they had occupied and returned home. The Jewish people survived occupation by many colonizers--including the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire--before regaining independence in the Land of Israel in 1948. The Jewish people will never leave the Land of Israel because the Land of Israel is the Jewish homeland, just like China is the Chinese homeland, France is the French homeland, and Germany is the German homeland. Those who assert that Hamas is a legitimate anti-colonialist movement betray their ignorance of historical facts and contemporary reality; unlike the Romans, the Ottomans, and the British, the Jews are deeply connected to the Land of Israel, as all nations are deeply connected to their homelands.

Arabs are from the Arabian peninsula, and they not only have created multiple countries in the Arabian peninsula, but they have created countries spanning most of the area from Morocco to Pakistan. A strong argument could be made that the Arabs colonized North Africa, much of the Mideast, and portions of the Indian subcontinent, and that a true anti-colonialist would oppose Arab rule outside of the Arabian peninsula the same way that anti-colonialists opposed British rule outside of Great Britain. 

Jews are not welcome to live in most of these Arab countries, and in fact hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from those countries in the wake of Israel's modern rebirth; in contrast, Arabs are welcome to live in Israel, where they have full civil and political rights. Many of the Arab countries openly call for Israel's destruction, but Israel does not seek the destruction of the Arab countries. 

Israel's current war against Hamas must culminate in the total defeat of Hamas, and the transformation of Gaza from a terrorist stronghold where civilians are used as human shields to a functioning, modern society. The only realistic way for that to happen is for Gaza to be under Israeli administration for the foreseeable future. Such an outcome does not represent oppression or colonization; Gaza's Arabs are free to choose to live in peace alongside Israel, or to live in peace in the Arab country of their choice, but they should no longer be given the option/opportunity to attack Israel, which is what Gaza's Arabs have done ever since Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It is normal and natural for a war to end with redrawn borders and population transfers; that is what happened throughout Europe in the wake of World War II, to cite just one example.

This is what I prophetically wrote less than two weeks before October 7, 2023:

The core unresolved issue is not "land for peace" nor is it autonomy; it is the unrelenting quest to destroy Israel that is fomented by various Arab/Islamic states and the terrorist groups (including the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and others) that they sponsor. There is zero chance that Israel giving up land will resolve that issue, and the Oslo Accords are just one example of the folly of assuming otherwise.

Many leftists falsely accuse Israel of war crimes and of intentionally harming Arab civilians, but the real war crime--or, to be precise, the real treason--committed by Israel's government in the past three decades is signing the Oslo Accords, which directly led to the slaughter of more than 1300 Israeli civilians. As long as that treason goes unrecognized and unpunished, there will be no justice and no peace in the Land of Israel, because justice and peace cannot be built on a foundation of falsehood and terror. The PLO has publicly stated "Our war is with the Jews," and Arab/Muslim terrorists often chant, "We love death more than you love life." Such a war conducted by people who fervently embrace a death-loving culture will not be resolved by Israel giving up land; indeed, if Israel disappeared, the war against the Jews--and against Western, democratic civilization--would not only continue: it would intensify, fueled by the "triumph" of destroying the "Little Satan" (Israel) and giddy about the possibility of destroying the "Great Satan" (America).

The Left's Deafening Silence About Hamas' Brutality Toward Israeli Women

I recently wrote that October 7 Taught a Brutal Lesson to the Israeli Left: 

Hamas's October 7 mass casualty terrorist attack demonstrated the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam, and as more details about the attack are confirmed--including the enthusiastic participation of Gazan civilians in the brutality--the Israeli Left is being forced to learn a painful lesson: a large number, if not a majority, of Israel's Arab neighbors not only don't want peace with Israel but they want to kill as many Jews as possible. This lesson means that all of the hopes of the Israeli Left are doomed to failure: the concept of "land for peace" leading to a "two state solution" is the Israeli Left's dream that has turned into a nightmare of rocket attacks and "pay for slay" terrorist attacks sponsored and encouraged by the Palestinian Authority culminating in the October 7 atrocity that wreaked destruction on the Jewish people not seen in a single day since the Holocaust.

In The Rape of the Israeli Women, Peggy Noonan explains why the Left in general has been silent about Hamas' brutality (I have emphasized certain passages by putting them in bold font):

The rape, torture and mutilation of women looks as if it was part of the battle plan. Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon.

Why has the progressive left in the West, for two months now, been disbelieving, silent or equivocal about what Hamas did to women? One answer is that the progressive left hates Israel and feels whatever is done to Israel is justified. Another is that the sick brutality of Hamas's actions undercuts its position in the world, undercutting too the cause they falsely claim to represent, that of the Palestinian people. Why have women's groups of the progressive left been silent? Because at bottom they aren't for women; they are for the team.

All of this makes more remarkable the exchange between Dana Bash of CNN and Democratic Rep. Pamila Jayapal of Seattle. Ms. Bash pressed Ms. Jayapal on why she wasn't condemning what had been done to women on 10/7. Ms. Jayapal was evasive, tried to redirect, said rape is "horrific" but "happens in war situations." 

"However," she said, "I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians."

Balanced? How do you balance a story like the horrors of Oct. 7? You don't, you just find and tell the truth. Some stories don't have two sides. This is one of them.

Why is it important? Because it happened. Because it reveals something about the essential nature of Hamas and reflects its ultimate political goals. Progressives admiringly quote Maya Angelou's advice that when people show you who they are, believe them. Oct. 7 was Hamas showing you who they are. Believe them.

BLM, MeToo, and the various queer rights groups that openly support Hamas and that promote genocide against Israel specifically and Jews in general have not only showed us who they are by demonstrating their complete lack of moral clarity and moral courage; they have also forfeited their credibility to speak about the issues that are allegedly their raison d'etre: you cannot applaud Hamas' war crimes against Jews in general and Jewish women in particular--two of the smallest and most vulnerable minority groups in the world--and then claim to be a legitimate, authoritative voice speaking on behalf of Black people, women, or queer people. I am not saying that discrimination against Black people, women, or queer people does not exist or should not be confronted--but I am insisting that the prominent groups that openly support Hamas and promote genocide against Israel and the Jewish people have no standing to speak out about anything.

Don't applaud the slaughter of Jewish women and children and then ask me to be an "ally." Universities, corporations, and politicians that use logos/slogans from BLM, MeToo, or queer rights groups that support Hamas should be called out. I support fighting for equality, but that fight cannot be fought under the banners of hate-filled organizations and movements.

American Jews must use this historical turning point moment to take stock. The vast majority of American Jews have reliably voted for the Democrats for decades, but reflexive support of any Democratic Party candidate is just not tenable moving forward in the wake of the Democratic Party's demonstrable embrace of so-called "progressive" ideas that are antisemitic to the core; each candidate must be evaluated on individual merit regardless of party affiliation. As I wrote in May 2022 in Well-Meaning but Misguided Jewish Support for Noble-Sounding Ideas Has Empowered Antisemitism, "Well-meaning but misguided Jewish support for so-called 'progressive' ideas has helped fuel the rise of antisemitic members of Congress who are working hard to destroy Israel." I quoted this prophetic warning from Benjamin Kerstein:

American Jews may be in sympathy with the ideology of "The Squad," but they must understand that these people hate you. And however progressive, compassionate, empathetic and idealistic they may seem, when the chips are down, they will eat you alive.

So, remember their names: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Betty McCollum, Marie Newman, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. They are not finished. They will be back. And you must be ready for them.

The people Kerstein called out by name have been some of the most vocal supporters of Hamas in the wake of 10/7 and some of the harshest critics of Israel's self-defense war in Gaza--and those people have the support of a large segment of the young demographic, which consequentially means that they have significant influence on the Democratic Party. This is not meant in any way to diminish or minimize the danger of antisemitism on the Right--but I have not seen people on the Right publicly cheering 10/7, calling for Israel's destruction, attacking Jews on the street, and turning college campuses into Marxist reeducation camps. In the 1920s, you could argue that antisemitism--particularly in the U.S.--predominantly emanated from the Right; in the 2020s, it is obvious that antisemitism is predominantly emanating from the Left, and is publicly embraced by mainstream people on the Left: even in the 1920s, KKK members wore hoods in public. In the 2020s, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and their fellow travelers are proud to publicly articulate their hatred of Jews and Israel.

October 7 Taught a Brutal Lesson to the Israeli Left

Hamas's October 7 mass casualty terrorist attack demonstrated the barbarism at the heart of radical Islam, and as more details about the attack are confirmed--including the enthusiastic participation of Gazan civilians in the brutality--the Israeli Left is being forced to learn a painful lesson: a large number, if not a majority, of Israel's Arab neighbors not only don't want peace with Israel but they want to kill as many Jews as possible. This lesson means that all of the hopes of the Israeli Left are doomed to failure: the concept of "land for peace" leading to a "two state solution" is the Israeli Left's dream that has turned into a nightmare of rocket attacks and "pay for slay" terrorist attacks sponsored and encouraged by the Palestinian Authority culminating in the October 7 atrocity that wreaked destruction on the Jewish people not seen in a single day since the Holocaust. 

Less than two weeks before October 7, I prophetically wrote about Israel's Ongoing Oslo Accords Folly:

The core unresolved issue is not "land for peace" nor is it autonomy; it is the unrelenting quest to destroy Israel that is fomented by various Arab/Islamic states and the terrorist groups (including the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and others) that they sponsor. There is zero chance that Israel giving up land will resolve that issue, and the Oslo Accords are just one example of the folly of assuming otherwise.

Many leftists falsely accuse Israel of war crimes and of intentionally harming Arab civilians, but the real war crime--or, to be precise, the real treason--committed by Israel's government in the past three decades is signing the Oslo Accords, which directly led to the slaughter of more than 1300 Israeli civilians. As long as that treason goes unrecognized and unpunished, there will be no justice and no peace in the Land of Israel, because justice and peace cannot be built on a foundation of falsehood and terror. The PLO has publicly stated "Our war is with the Jews," and Arab/Muslim terrorists often chant, "We love death more than you love life." Such a war conducted by people who fervently embrace a death-loving culture will not be resolved by Israel giving up land; indeed, if Israel disappeared, the war against the Jews--and against Western, democratic civilization--would not only continue: it would intensify, fueled by the "triumph" of destroying the "Little Satan" (Israel) and giddy about the possibility of destroying the "Great Satan" (America).

Many Israeli Leftists would have fervently disagreed with that article when I wrote it, but the October 7 attack and the ongoing aftermath--including a hostage crisis that much of the world cares very little about--is forcing Israeli Leftists to see their Arab neighbors as they are, not as they want them to be: Irit Lahav, an Israeli peace activist who participated in peace demonstrations and drove Gazan children to Israeli hospitals, described her disillusionment at the participation of Gazan civilians in the atrocity, declaring, "Basically it was sort of an invasion of a community. That's why for me, I cannot say this was a Hamas action. No, for me, this was a Palestinian action. A whole community had come to our kibbutz, took our things, stole stuff, killed people, and kidnapped others...Am I thinking about myself being foolish until now? Maybe. But more is that I'm disappointed in them, that they're so cruel, have no values, really lost their human values." Her interview can be seen by clicking the above link, and it provides a great tutorial for how Israeli Leftists--and self-proclaimed "progressives" around the world--must abandon disproven dreams in the face of harsh realities. She noted with disgust that the billions of dollars sent to Gaza have not been used to improve people's lives but to purchase weapons. It is no secret that Hamas' leaders are billionaires who are profiting off of not just Jewish suffering but Arab suffering.

When Israel's Arab neighbors and their self-proclaimed "progressive" supporters chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" those words must be understood for their literal meaning and intention: every Jew from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is to be killed, Israel is to be destroyed, and yet another authoritarian Arab/Muslim state is to be established. The Arabs don't want "land for peace"; they want to kill Jews and take control of all of the land from the "river to the sea." They mean exactly what they say. This is a sad and scary reality, but denying that reality will not change it. Israel's policies--and America's policies--must be grounded in reality and must be directed toward making sure that "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is a slogan consigned to history's dustbin.