Israel is a situation not unlike my own story, beginning in Saigon, South Vietnam.  America had promised support but as public support turned, so did the tide of war.  South Vietnam fell on April 30th, 1975.  The Fall of Saigon marks a pivotal point in foreign policy.  It was the most public and blatant example of what happens when the United States abandons our allies.  Unfortunately, in 2023, I have had the opportunity to witness this happen six more times (Afghanistan, Ukraine, Belarus, Sudan, Haiti, and Niger), under the Biden Administration.

Israel is our ally, but above that, they simply have the right to exist.  To argue, first I’ll look at three claims made about Israel’s founding and whether or not Israel has an argument or reason for claiming the land it’s in.

First, Israel is being portrayed as only being a nation as it was a refuge for Jewish people escaping the Holocaust and has no tie to that actual land.  The people making this argument say Israel has had no tie to the land because it was founded in 1948 (the year it was officially recognized by the United States, though the Israelis have biblically and archaeologically been in the land for thousands of years, not just post Holocaust).  They make this argument saying that Israel not even being a nation until 1948 disqualifies it from having a say in the territory when ironically, the fact remains that Palestine still isn’t an identity in itself.

Second, there have been accusations of Israel being simply an American puppet and an American project in the middle east.  They assert Israel isn’t even necessarily real as it is the product of a “white man’s adventure to the Middle East.”  If so then we look back to 1947 when that land was a part of a British territory called the Mandate for Palestine.  If Israel is a white man’s project then Palestine was its first attempt at that project.

Third, the argument often associated with Palestine is that it was an entity first.  This narrative is also false.  Palestine was used in circa 5th century BC, to describe the entire area from Phoenicia to Egypt.  This was the first time the clear use of the term was used and this was by the Ancient greeks.  5th century BC for context, is the years 500-401 BC.  As for Israel, it was already a Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel in circa 900 BC, which is 400 years before Palestine is even a word.  Even before 900 BC, the Israelites were an ethnic identity, having been in the fertile crescent as a people in the land of Canaan in that area.  The Israelites were a people and later a national entity 400 years before the Palestinians are even documented as a word.  If there is any historical tie to the land which is now Israel, and even quite frankly Jordan and Lebanon, Israel is the only one with a dog in that fight.  One might write it off as “biblical Christian nonsense” but these are facts supported by historians of all backgrounds. 

Another argument (and I’ll be going after all of the one’s I’ve heard so far), is that Israel is heavy-handed and carrying out genocide.  For one, a genocide is an act of ethnic cleansing against a population.  In fact, the population of Gaza has jumped from ~70,000 to 2 million, since 1948, which demonstrates not a genocide, but a massive population boom.  Additionally, nowhere has the Israeli Government directed such acts to happen nor has even the mention been made in press releases.  The state of war is directed towards Hamas, a terrorist organization, who, contrastingly, has openly called for the genocide of Jewish people, and acted on such radical ideology on October 7th, when they started the war.  Contextually, to demonstrate the reality of where Israel is demographically, it is a nation of 6.8 million Jewish individuals, surrounded by about 315 million Muslim individuals.  As per the Country Reports on Terrorism published by the US State Department, some nations, particularly Iran, are state sponsors of terrorism.

The report found in the Middle East and nations sponsoring terrorism that, “Beyond Iraq and Syria, ISIS branches, networks, and supporters across the Middle East and North Africa remained active in 2019, including in Libya, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sinai Peninsula, Tunisia, and Yemen.”

Refraining from the use of the word Muslim, as this isn’t a holy war argument, the fact of the matter is that the population of Israel, and its Jewish people especially, are greatly outnumbered by its surrounding nations which have historically been hostile towards it.  If Israel is really heavy handed, why has it gone out of its way to make peace?  If the Palestinian Authority wanted peace, they’ve had numerous opportunities.  The Camp David Accords, Oslo Accords (which proposed the two state solution), Camp David Summit (2000), the Taba Peace Talks, Israel was open and Israel was reaching out with a reasonably cautious yet open contributor towards peace with Palestine.  Palestine rejected and Palestinian authority could not keep power.  Stability is what makes peace.  It is not Israel that is unstable and thus it is not Israel that denies peace.  The fact that Israel has the defense mechanisms such as the Iron Dome weapons system, the Mossad and its heck of a military, are not testaments of violence and not symbols of offensive use, but solely defensive.  Never has Israel been the invading force unprovoked (preemptively invaded Egypt in 1967 as Egypt had nationalized the Suez canal from Britain with Jordan and Syria amassing troops along Israel’s border), and never has the Israeli Government invaded a nation to conquer or gain it as land.  It has been solely in the defense of its people.  That is the primary purpose of what a government is supposed to do and Israel is justified in defending itself.

Pro-Palestinian influencers and supporters have recently made fuss about the unverified claims of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) about the Shifa Hospital which the IDF claimed to be a Hamas command center, reinforcing the verified claim that Hamas uses civilians as shields.  Here’s my thought: wrong or right about the Shifa Hospital it makes no difference.  No civilians were killed by the IDF in the hospital.  The controversy surrounding the explosion at the hospital was proven to be a missile launch that fell short, launched by Hamas itself.

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The reason I say that the hospital being a command center or not is this: in war, you are called to make the best judgments necessary in order to win and ultimately protect your people.  The Shifa Hospital, being the largest hospital in Gaza, is ideal.  It has the technology, the space, and the position advantages to be considered a reasonable command center.  Israeli intelligence has to make the best possible decisions and the IDF has to act on them quickly in order to hinder Hamas’ activities.  If it’s not Shifa, then it could be in the city of Khan Yunis.  Either way, in war, you act on intelligence.  It is better to be wrong about intelligence but investigate anyway, than wait for an attack until something is 100% verified, which in a war where the terrorist is hiding among the civilians, is unlikely.  Even if the IDF is wrong, it is not a terrorist organization.  I’d much rather trust the IDF than Hamas.  Hamas is releasing statements, these statements are filtered into mainstream media, and then impressed on youth and regurgitated as fact.  Imagine if our military were as ludicrous?  Imagine how we would have hunted Osama bin Laden if we believed everything Al Qaeda had said. 

Another recent development gaining notoriety is the assertion that Israel has banned Palestinians from getting rain water.  This is partially true however what really has been banned is the Palestinians getting rainwater cisterns, that is to say, a Gazan can put a bucket out and collect water, just not the purification cisterns.  I’ve seen it said that the amount of hate Israel must have to ban people from access to water is insane.  This has nothing to do with hate.  The great Union general from Ohio, William T. Sherman once said “War is cruelty.  There is no use trying to reform it.  The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”  He would also later say that those who wage war deserve all that a people can raise against it.  Israel is in a war they did not start.  They have the means and the resources to win and they will.  Their ability to turn off the water and the electricity to Gaza means they control those utility plants and if they control them, then they built them.  Why then would they allow these resources into Gaza, an area full of hostile insurgents whom they are at war with.  That Israel is allowing anything in Gaza, instead of strangling the terrorists out, should be praised.  It is not Israel who kept civilians in Gaza, it is Hamas who has held their own people hostage there.  Israel is not naïve and it will use whatever means necessary to win.

Lastly, the claim that the pro-Palestinian stance is not an anti-Semitic one is a claim I refuse to entertain. The big umbrella idea is this: if someone opposes tragedy, then their opposition cannot be limited to solely the Israelis.  One cannot tell me senseless killing is bad while ignoring the published photos of Israeli and foreign festival goers who were killed brutally by Hamas terrorists.  Some say they oppose war; where then was the condemnation by the now Pro-Palestinian protestors towards Hamas.  If the Pro-Palestine side really isn’t anti-Semitic, then I have yet to see anyone condemn the attack on October 7th, carried out by Hamas, killing 1,200+ Israelis.  I’m waiting.  See the fact of the matter is they’re not against killing, they’re against the killing of Palestinians, willing to turn a blind eye to the brutality and purposeful targeting of Israeli civilians by Hamas.  Condemning Hamas is the only Pro-Palestinian stance.  One cannot shout ceasefire; there was a ceasefire on October 6th, Hamas broke that.  Shouting ‘ceasefire’ is the politically correct form of rooting for Hamas victory.  Shouting ‘ceasefire’ is rooting for the prevalence of terrorism against the justified retaliation of a capable Israel.

I conclude with this: where there is injustice, I condemn it.  Where there is senseless tragedy, I condemn those who partake in it.  Where there are un-involved civilian casualties, my heart shatters for both Palestinian and Israeli families who will grieve the loss of their loved ones.  The fact of the matter is that the pro-Palestinian stance is one that condemns and unites around fighting Hamas.  The Palestinian Authority has even condemned Hamas, and they’re the elected leaders for the Palestinian people.  One cannot be against injustice, senseless tragedy, and civilian victims of war, only partially.  Not only are there Israeli and American hostages that need to be freed, but the Palestinian people are hostages of a brutal military regime that claims to recognize them.  If the freedom of Palestine was really in one’s interest, they too would pray for the swift and total annihilation of Hamas, of Hezbollah, and of those at war with Israel.