On October 7th, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip.  The attack clearly involved extensive planning and coordination, and was extremely vicious.  It included deliberate mass killings of entire families and individuals of all ages, torture, rape, and the kidnapping of people who were taken back into the Gaza Strip as prisoners, where they were again subjected to ongoing abusive treatment; some were killed.

In most of the world, the reaction was properly one of shock, revulsion, and denouncement of the actions by Hamas, and sympathy and support for Israel and for the people of Israel.

However, in spite of the deliberately inhumane treatment of people by Hamas, many people in the U.S. and Europe made statements of support for Hamas, cheering them on.  Headlines listed a number of organizations on college campuses, as well as some professors – supposedly-educated people who should have known better – that published letters of support for Hamas, and by some twisted explanation blamed Israel for the vicious, inhuman attacks by Hamas.  

Those explanations focused on the perceived historical oppression of Palestinians by Israel.  

History paints a different picture

In the late 1800s, Jews began buying land in Palestine, the area south of Lebanon, north of Egypt, and west of Syria, along the Mediterranean Sea.  After World War I, the League of Nations assigned the British control of the area, in what was called the “British mandate”.  

After World War II, Jewish migration increased.  Many were survivors of the Holocaust – the execution of six million Jews in Europe and eastern Russia by Nazi Germany during the late 1930s and the 1940s, only ending with the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies in May, 1945.  

The Jewish influx and the British mandate itself heightened tension between Arabs and the Jews.  As a result, Britain turned over the governing of Palestine to the United Nations.

Attempting to reduce that tension, in 1948 the United Nations proposed a division of Palestine, with 56½ percent allocated to the Jews, and 44½ percent to the area’s Arabs (not yet called “Palestinians”).

The Arabs rejected the UN plan; the Jews accepted it, and established a government.  After more than 2,500 years of invasions and foreign occupations of Israel and the oppression and dispersals of the Jews around the world, the nation of Israel was reestablished.

The Arabs made it clear the reason for their rejection:  they were violently opposed to any presence of the Jews.  Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948. The next day, Egypt, Transjordan, and Syria attacked the new state of Israel, intent on its destruction.  The war ended just under 10 months later, with Israel the victor.  

Immigration of Jews to Israel from Arab countries and by more Holocaust survivors soon doubled Israel’s population from 700,000 to 1,400,000.  

While most of the non-Jewish population of Palestine migrated out of Israel, 150,000 remained.  The non-Jewish population of Palestine of 4.6 million is predominantly Muslim, but 50,000 are Christian.

The non-Israeli areas of Palestine, however, remained in limbo.  No attempts were made to establish a formal government in the non-Israeli sections of Palestine.  

Arabs in those areas – Gaza and the West Bank – were relegated to endless refugee status.  They were pawns, to be used as “basically useful idiots”:  not only was their status preserved to allow other Arab countries to continue to blame Israel for the “refugees”, but also to foster resentment among young, unemployed refugees, forming a breeding ground for an endless supply of new terrorists who could be trained to hate Israel.

In 1956, Egypt took over the Suez Canal, and blocked Israel’s access to shipping from its southern port on the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean.  Israel attacked Egypt (the “Suez Crisis”) and forced Egypt to guarantee safe shipping through the Red Sea for Israel.  

In 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed.  Its goal initially was to destroy Israel and supposedly form an Arab country in its place.  However, no efforts at planning for the formation of a future government structure was made.

In 1967, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq again attacked Israel, again intent on its destruction.  The Six-Day War ended with Israel’s victory and the annexation of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula.

Again in 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel.  The war ended with an Israeli victory, less than three weeks later.  

In 1979, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt, and Egypt became the first Arab nation to officially recognize Israel as a country.

In all that time, the Arabs in Palestine, now called “Palestinians”, have made no effort to form a standing government.  The PLO remains their “governing” junta.

In 1987, incidents between Palestinian militants and the Israeli military increased.  During that time Hamas was founded, influenced by the Egyptian terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Peace?  Economic development?

Clearly, the hallmarks of civilized behavior:  freedom, peace, and economic development for mutual benefit, are absent in the Mideast, outside of Israel.  Savagery, rule by despots, oppression, and poverty remain the norm in the Mideast.

Israel, of course, has made mistakes; nobody can expect otherwise.  In an eternally hostile environment, constant vigilance is a necessity of survival.  Ongoing threats of hostility naturally generate instantaneous reactions that later prove to be inappropriate.  

Such reactions could be and routinely are instigated by the opposing forces, in hopes of generating condemnation from others, as well as sympathy for the “innocent” victims.  

In 1993, the PLO finally recognized Israel as a legitimate nation and Israel recognized the PLO as representatives of the Palestinians, through the Oslo Accords.  The Accords do not create a Palestinian state, and are opposed by many Palestinians.

In 2005, after 38 years of occupation of the Gaza Strip, Israel withdrew.

In 2007, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip.

October 7th, 2023 – Hamas invaded Israel.  Hezbollah in Lebanon also made minor incursions into Israel.

Israel’s response was appropriate:  “There is no mercy to terror.”

American Students Support for Hamas

Proving that the teaching of history has effectively disappeared from American schools, resulting in students ignorant of that history, college protests sympathetic to Hamas have proliferated.  

Ivy League colleges, supposedly America’s elite institutions of higher education, proved to have declined to be among the lowest.  

Students at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and other schools held massive on-campus pro-Hamas protests, which university officials did nothing to stop, disavow, or oppose by taking a stand for Israel.

A bigoted Cornell University professor described the Hamas attack as “exhilarating and exciting.”

Similarly, a racist professor at University of California at Berkeley admonished his students not to hire Jews.

The response from people who knew better was swift.   

Investor billionaire Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Holdings, led the way.  Ackman, a Harvard  graduate and MBA graduate withdrew all financial support for his alma mater.

The Wexner Foundation swiftly followed suit.

Harvard protesters who had already received job offers from various law firms were informed that those offers had been withdrawn.  Students who complained were reminded that what a person says and does has consequences, and that what they say and do would reflect on their employers, and in the eyes of the firms’ customers.

A University of Pennsylvania donor likewise withdrew his financial support, “until the university changes course in rooting out antisemitism on campus and supporting freedom of expression.”

Venture Capitalist David Magerman also withdrew his support for the school, saying “regardless of the economic and social value of a Penn or Wharton degree, there is no place for self-respecting Jewish people at an institution that supports evil.”

It seems that not only students but college administrations have forgotten that actions have consequences – and seem to have forgotten their history, and the meaning of “good” and “evil”, as well.  

Not all Muslims approve of Hamas - By no means do all Muslims support Hamas.

The Global Iman Council, which includes 1500 Muslim religious leaders worldwide, condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel, and issued a “Fatwa” – a religious ruling on a point of Islamic (divine) law – against Hamas.

Similarly, the Islamic Fatwa Council also condemned Hamas, as well as the "extremist and violent rhetoric" heard from pro-Hamas protesters in Europe and the U.S.  The Council’s Fatwa included the statement that the Council stands with "the Jewish people in their struggle against ISIS-like Islamist terrorism carried out by Hamas."

Lebanon also took action against the terrorists:  the Lebanese military destroyed twenty Hezbollah rocket-launching sites.  

Like Hamas, Hezbollah is also supported financially and with weapons by Iran.  Ironically, private individuals in Iran have publicly expressed a massive show of support for Israel, in contrast to the actions of their government.

In a blow for Hamas closer to home, the Palestinian President stated that Hamas does not represent Palestinians.  Mistreatment of other Palestinians by Hamas has been widely reported, but the official rejection of Hamas destroys any remaining façade of legitimacy for Hamas.  

Hamas has been exposed as the depraved and destructive sub-human animals – Iran’s “pets”; nothing more – that they are.■