Judaism, Israel, Gaza, and the Protesters

Peter A. Hempel

I’m writing this to put together my views on the situation in Gaza and the protests It’s a pretty complicated topic, and especially so for me.

My Jewish background

Eva, my birth mother, came from a family that had been Jewish up to the time of my great-grandfather, Barthold. From what I can tell, he seems to have been very social and very successful, and to have made a good deal of money in banking.

He had a regular house in Berlin itself, but he also built a summerhouse in Wansee, a wealthy suburb of Berlin (in the spring, everything in the house, including the furniture, would be moved from one house to the other). I’ve seen the house a number of times, and it's way beyond anything I could ever dream of affording. He also became a cofounder of the Wansee Yacht Club, a sailing club on Lake Wansee that still exists today, and that I visited with my cousin and his family. My cousin and his (Christian) family (his son and daughters were both in the church choir) are members of the club, and the children began taking sailing lessons quite young.

(Note: Yes, the suburb of Wansee was also the site of the notorious Nazi conference on the final solution for the Jews.)

When my grandfather Eddi was still young, Barthold, converted the family to Christianity (I assume they became Lutherans – I know they did not become Catholic). I don’t know his reasoning for this, although I assume that many of his business colleagues were Christian, and also, of course, it was a chance to shield his children from antisemitism (ha!). After this conversion, Barthold would frequently hold parties at his house, renting party equipment for two nights – a party for his Jewish family and friends one night, a party for his Christian friends and colleagues the other.

Antisemitism was a time-honored trope in Germany, with towns proudly announcing themselves as Juden-Frei (Jew-free) since such and such a year. Eden, the community of vegetarian fruit-tree growers, where my father was born and spent his childhood, was founded as an Aryan community. (It was also communitarian, which is a different story.)

My great-grandfather’s hope that conversion to Christianity would buffer his children from antisemitism didn’t work at all. My grandfather was seen as Jewish and was discriminated against in school, in the military, and in the workplace, and ended up being thrown into a concentration camp. (Somehow, he got released on the condition that he leave the country; he went to England and spent two years or so in a camp for enemy aliens.)

One question that I don’t have an answer for is whether my grandfather’s first wife was Jewish. I’m sure he had no interest in marrying a Jewish woman, but I have no details about her other than the fact that she appeared to be quite attractive (in photos), and, after giving birth to two daughters (Eva and Lux), she ran off with another man and left my grandfather to deal with two young daughters on his own. (How’s that for a grandmother story?)

I know that my grandfather’s second wife was Christian. He mentioned that she was helpful buffering him against some of the antisemitism, and beyond that they seem to have had a very good marriage.

The question of whether my grandfather’s first wife (my grandmother) was Jewish is actually pretty significant (not so much to me, but in terms of Jewish identity).

Although Eva was raised as a Christian (I have no idea how much churchgoing was involved), she apparently never tried to disavow her Jewish heritage. (I’m sure she was an atheist, since I can’t see my father marrying anyone who wasn’t. I was also astonished to see her name on a family christening cup that was passed from family to family as new children were born to have their names added. I found it quite disturbing.)

When Eva and my father met at the University of Berlin, some of my father’s friends, including childhood friends, would come to him and say, “I can’t be seen with you anymore, as long as you’re dating someone Jewish.” My father was not one to hold grudges, but that is something he never forgave.

Both of them were doing well in Germany, and if it hadn’t been for Hitler and the Nazis, they would’ve had no reason not to stay. The decision to leave Germany must’ve been wrenching for both of them. My grandfather on my father’s side pleaded with my father not to leave, and Eva continued to correspond with her father even when she was in America.

Eva’s sister, Lux, married a Christian and continued living in Germany through the war, although obviously constantly in fear of being found out. (Her blue eyes and light brown hair certainly helped.) Ruth, Eva’s half-sister, moved to England and married an English philosopher. (I have no idea about her religious views, although my cousin on her side does not seem to be religious at all.)

Jewish identity

Interestingly, if I had been born in Germany, the Nazis would’ve sent me to the nearest concentration camp for being Jewish; on the other hand, if I were to go to Israel and demand the right of return, the conservative rabbis who run things these days would tell me to go away, that I was not Jewish (if my grandmother was not Jewish). In the end, at least in my situation, Judaism has less to do with religion per se, than with some idea of quasi-racial/cultural identity.

One of the lessons that I take from the Holocaust is that the establishment of the state of Israel is essential for Jews (even for me). It is not negotiable on any level. Some people have suggested that instead of coming to Israel, Jews should’ve established a state someplace in Germany or perhaps elsewhere in Europe (where they came from). Given what had happened, only a total idiot would even begin to suggest that. Some people have suggested South America, although it’s unlikely they would have been well-received in an area that was a sanctuary for unrepentant Nazis.

The truth is, Israel always been a homeland for Jews, and there have been Jews living there all along. There was a prayer that ended, “Next year in Jerusalem.” The Jews have a multi-thousand-year history in Israel (far preceding the creation of Islam, were courts, Christianity). It is a place that is firmly entrenched in their identity.

After Eva’s death, my father ended up marrying Diane (effectively, the only mother I have known). She, like her own father, was an atheist (her primary theological position was that she was pissed at God for not existing, since there should be some kind of justice in the world), but she had a very strong sense of Jewish cultural identity, which was reinforced by the rampant and often violent anti-Semitism she experienced growing up in Philadelphia and then in New York. These were the days of Henry Ford (a notorious antisemite), Father Coughlin (a rabidly antisemitic Catholic radio preacher), Charles Lindberg, and the Klan.

When I was growing up, many of the friends and my parents circle were Jewish, many of them also refugees from Germany, so that sense of identity was quite familiar to me.

The result was that I grew up with a strong identification with Jewish culture and (secular) Jewish values. I had no interest in religion itself, and I still don’t. My mother would sometimes regret that she had not brought me up to get bar-mitzvahed, but obviously that was not in my DNA. I followed more in my father’s footsteps. He was born into a Lutheran family, and I believe went through some kind of confirmation something, but around the age of 10, he realized he didn’t believe any of this and gave up religion entirely. (My mother used to say that he was the only true atheist she knew – i.e. religion was an absolute nonissue for him.)

Although secular Judaism pretty much does away with God as a source of and enforcer of morality, religion persists as a unifying ethical force in the Jewish community, commanding people to do the right thing, a lesson reinforced by a rich tradition of quotes and sayings from the Torah and other writings of Jewish leaders and scholars. The ideal is to be a “mensch,” a stand-up guy (there may be a female equivalent), the guy who does the right thing. The guiding principle has been fairness and an obligation to actively pursue the ideal of justice for all people. It has been the inspiration for generations of Jews in medicine, in law, in education, in social justice. This is a tradition I respect and admire.

Interestingly, it was not religious Judaism that propelled Jews to the forefront of law, art and literature, business, entertainment, education, and medicine. It was the tradition of literacy and intellectual discipline (and endless intellectual disputation) that they brought to the entirely new and less insular world of enlightenment Europe. If they had simply stayed inside the religious community, they would have been as irrelevant as the vast hordes of otherwise promising young minds rotting away in the Islamic Madrassas.

The lessons of the Holocaust

The Holocaust presented a huge problem for Jews. Jews already had a long history of being cast out from one country after another, and being persecuted and suffering murderous pogroms led by Christians, Muslims, and pretty much everyone else. (Remember Tom Lehrer’s laugh line in “National Brotherhood Week,”

“Oh the protestants hate the Catholics and the Catholics hate the protestants and the Hindus hate the Muslims and everybody hates the Jews…”)

The Holocaust leveraged this hatred and used it to support the industrialized systematic extermination of six million Jews.

This mass extermination also reinforced the image of the “convenient” Jew, the Jew who gave up his paintings, his gold, his money, his property, and quietly got on to the cattle cars with his whole family to be sent to the concentration camps to be killed. “Good Jews” were convenient Jews, who knew where they belonged. (Part of the [final] solution, and thus no longer part of the problem.) So, paradoxically, Jews became both global masterminds and conspiracists and easy victims, easy to hate and to despise in equal measure.

There was a lesson in all this that Jews were finally forced to learn. Never Again. Hundreds of thousands emigrated to the ancient homeland of Israel determined to assert their identity and defend their land and themselves at all costs.

This has not set well with others. Jews with guns? They’re not like that. It’s as unthinkable and wrong as black people with guns.

It certainly makes it harder for people on the left to accept Israel now that it is a country that is no longer willing to be marginalized.

The new Marxism

I read an article (unfortunately, I have lost track of where) that talked about the “new Marxism,” which shifts its focus from class struggles to struggles against colonialism. This provides a slightly different paradigm to apply to, or impose on, conflicts in other countries. Certainly, colonialism has had a huge impact on countries around the world, and the aftermath often seems to be authoritarian regimes that continue to exploit the people in their countries.

I had wondered why the protesters never appeared to protest Putin’s horrendous invasion of Ukraine, which has involved massive bombings of innocent civilians, and which was unprovoked by any actions on Ukraine’s part. On the other hand, I suppose, Ukrainians are white people, so not much to see here. (I still don’t understand this at all.)

In the situation in Israel and Gaza, it’s much easier to apply the colonialist mantra – the oppressor vs. the oppressed. Israel conveniently becomes white, and the oppressed are slightly darker (but not actually black since that would mean paying attention to ethnic cleansing in places like Rwanda). The fact that Israelis did not arrive on ships from a colonial superpower, but were refugees fleeing death camps and pogroms need not get in the way of the colonialist narrative. And the left, despite the large number of Jews who have been part of progressive movements against racism and sexism, has always harbored a festering vein of antisemitism.

This analysis may sound naïve and simplistic, but it’s a little hard for me to come up with any other explanation.

Some baseline notes

A couple of starting notes. I am, and have consistently been, a believer in a two-state solution. Partly, I think it’s the right and fair resolution, and, perhaps on a more cynical level, I feel that if the Palestinians have a state to lose, they will be less likely to want to wage war.

Given all the tensions and animosity between the two sides, even with the two-state solution, it will take a lot of time to normalize things, but in the long run, I believe that the interactions between the two groups, particularly on the trade and economic fronts, will be mutually beneficial.

The problem with the pro-Hamas protests is that they are emphatically not calling for a two-state solution. The protesters who happily chant, “From the river to the sea,” much like Trumpies like to chant, “Build that wall,” either don’t recognize that it calls for the destruction of Israel and genocide of the Jews – or if they do recognize that fact, then I have even less use for them than I do now.

There are also some extreme right-wing Jews – the settlers on the West Bank and elsewhere – who also believe in “the river to the sea,” but for them, it would be all Israel and all Jewish. I suspect they are akin to the white militias in this country in terms of extremism and being out of the Israeli mainstream.

Hamas vs. the Palestinians

Israel’s war is with Hamas, not with the Palestinians per se. The “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators are following the Hamas playbook in conflating the two. Hamas has done a remarkably deft job in orchestrating the protests and shaping the messaging, and the students involved in the protests are obviously doing nothing to unpack the issues.

The “G” word

When I was in college with my trusty manual typewriter, I always kept a dictionary on one side of my desk. I would use it to check spelling, although if I didn’t know how a word was spelled, it could be a cumbersome process. But equally importantly, I used it to make sure I had the precise meaning of different words.

So, let’s look at “genocide.” Jews have more experience with genocide than most other people, so when I see protesters using the term “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza, and talking about Biden as “Genocide Joe,” I find myself on high alert. So naturally, I looked it up just to make sure it hadn’t somehow changed meanings on me.

Genocide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. (Britannica)

Not all killing, even of large numbers of people, is genocide. For example, the firebombing of Dresden (which outraged Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five) killed an enormous number of innocent people, and the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed civilians on a nearly unprecedented scale, but neither was an act of genocide. The Israeli bombings are acts of war. They were not designed to kill people for who they were, but to destroy Hamas facilities and defeat the other side.

And contrary to the imaginings of the protesters, nobody I know is in favor of killing civilians in Gaza. That’s just intellectual laziness and self-righteousness on their part.

Israel’s war is a response to horrendous (and clearly genocidal) attacks by Hamas, and its goal is to neutralize the threat (which I realize is a pretty unlikely outcome, although they can be set back). They did not set out to kill Palestinians, not even as revenge. But Hamas has hidden itself within Palestinian society by way of using the Palestinians as human shields. For example, when Israel bombed one of the hospitals in Gaza, protesters and lots of other people were appalled. This was the worst kind of violation of humanitarian values. But in the end, when the hospital was leveled, Hamas headquarters were discovered hidden underneath the hospital. If you want to defend yourself, you have to do what it takes.

If you’re looking for genocide, by the way, check out the founding charter of Hamas. It calls for Islamic Jihad against the Jews and the total destruction of Israel. (Not unlike the founding documents of the American Confederacy which explicitly talked about their primary goal being the preservation of slavery.)

As for “Genocide Joe,” I remember when John McCain was holding a rally and people were shouting lies about Obama, and McCain stopped and said, “Obama and I have differences of opinion on various issues, but he is a decent and honorable man.” Joe Biden is certainly not the candidate I was hoping for on the Democratic side, but neither is he a genocidal villain, or for that matter a villain of any sort that I can see. That kind of name-calling should remain the provenance of the Trumpies.

Similarly, people who decide they don’t want to vote for Biden because of his position on Israel might want to consider the alternative. Trump, the one who issued a ban on Muslim immigrants, will happily give Netanyahu anything he wants in terms of American policy. I suppose that people could vote for Kennedy (the way an earlier generation voted for Nader), who, apart from vaccines, appears not to take any positions at all.

Dissing the protesters

I know I may come off as the old guy in the ratty bathrobe yelling at the damn kids to “get off my lawn,” but what the hell. I’m old enough to have earned my spot on the lawn.

At first, I hoped I might come up with a charitable view of the protesters – essentially that they were “useful idiots” for Hamas’ propaganda campaign.

But the more I read and the more I think about it, my respect for the protesters has sunk to zero and below. I am offended by them in the most profound way.

“But they’re sincere,” I hear someone object. “Sincere” is not enough. Sincere and stupid is a dangerous combination. The Trumpies are incredibly sincere, but they are also incredibly stupid. I believe it’s fair to set a higher standard than that.

Some individual idiocies

Women for Palestine. I have one word. Clitorectomy. You already know that Muslim culture is wildly misogynistic. In Arab countries, women can’t drive, can’t own property, can’t leave the house without a male relative with them, must cover themselves head to toe, including a mask to hide their face. And morality police armed with clubs are provided to enforce the rules. Swimming? Have you ever seen a woman in a burqini? No records in the hundred-meter freestyle there. In Princeton last summer, I saw a woman in a black outfit from head to toe, with a facemask as I recall, pushing a stroller with two young children, while her husband walked along beside her in shorts and a polo shirt and sandals, free to do as he pleased. But hey, it’s their choice, right? That’s the way God wants it for them.

All of that, utterly disgusting as it is, pales in comparison to clitorectomy. When a girl is approaching puberty in the Muslim world, the most efficient way to keep her from experiencing sexual pleasure is to slice off her clitoris – the female nerve center that Western women merely have to worry about males not being able to find. In small villages in Africa and the Middle East, where no medical practitioners are available, the operation may be carried out by one of the village women wielding a rusty razor and operating with no anesthesia. The screams can be heard throughout the village, letting the other girls know what’s in store for them. Of course, many cases of infection and death result, but it’s a small price to pay – as long as women are the ones to pay it. (Circumcision, which some on the left like to refer to as “genital mutilation,” as if to equate that with clitorectomy, is nowhere near equal, and is decidedly not designed to ruin male pleasure. In fact, in sub-Sahara Africa these days, males have been lining up to get circumcised, which is the best single way to reduce the spread of AIDS.)

I have no idea if the women in the protests have a single clue about Islamic culture. To me, there are a lot more things to protest about than they seem to be aware of. Israeli women, even those growing up in the most ultra-Orthodox communities (the ones where men have a prayer, “Thank you God for not making me a woman”), don’t face that kind of barbarism.

Then there are the Blacks who are protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians, including the condemnations from South Africa through its black government. When I was in Dubai many years ago, I noticed that although Dubai depended on foreign labor at all levels (only about 10% of the population are natives/citizens), and Dubai is in very close proximity to an ample supply of workers from East Africa, I did not see a single black person. Laborers came from India and Pakistan, domestic workers came from the Philippines (and were often sexually abused by their employers), Arabs from countries like Lebanon and Egypt worked in administrative positions in government and business, and ex-pats, primarily from the UK and Australia were there working for big oil companies. (There were also some white South Africans who came there to avoid the chaos in their home country.)

During my focus group research project, I was working with a very nice guy from Egypt who had also traveled extensively in Europe and the US, and I asked him why I didn’t see any black people; he told me, “Arabs hate black people.” Apparently, the Arabic term for black people translates roughly to “slave.” So, if I were black, I would be a little more hesitant about joining the protests.

And then, not to be left out, the LGBTQ protesters in their stylish rainbow outfits. I can only suppose that they are unaware of the cure that Arab countries have for homosexuality – throw them off the top of a very high building. But hey, why should that get in the way of a good protest?

Any questions about why I regard the protesters as a bunch of clueless idiots?

Privilege and entitlement

Beyond their very fundamental lack of awareness and understanding of the issues, protesters fail on the most fundamental level that should be expected of students at elite institutions – or pretty much any institution of higher learning. It’s one thing when miserably educated Trumpies believe lie after lie, from the stolen election to Jewish space lasers. But students at elite educational institutions have no such excuse whatsoever.

When I was teaching freshman comp at the University of Texas at Austin, I taught logic and intellectual rigor and regarded that as a basic expectation. Apparently not so with the protesters. Aside from their intellectual vacuity and their failure to examine the other side of the issues, they also demonstrate an extraordinary level of personal immaturity.

They expect the entire campus to halt business as usual for their protests, and they demand to “negotiate” with the administration as a reward for their behavior.

The protesters are not only privileged in terms of the institutions that they attend, but they seem to have an utterly bizarre sense of personal entitlement as well. On one campus, demonstrators occupied one building, then discovered that they didn’t have enough food or water and demanded that the administration supply them with food and water for their occupation. I doubt very much that when Fidel Castro was working on this revolution in Cuba, he ever demanded that Batista supply food and water for him and his troops.

There are numerous impacts from the protests. One is the encouragement of a level of anti-Semitism on campuses that my generation has not seen in our lifetime. Yes, I know that many of the protesters claim that there is a difference between protesting against Israel and being antisemitic. But somehow, that distinction doesn’t seem to make any difference at all. Jewish students have felt very intimidated, and rightly so. I’m sure that Harvard and possibly Columbia have seen a distinct drop in applications from Jewish students, I can’t say I would blame them. And I certainly don’t blame Jewish donors for withholding support. They have as much right to their views as the protesters do to their own mishigas.

Beyond the antisemitism, there is the disruption of the academic mission of the campus. On at least one campus (I don’t remember which one), concerns about student safety (I’m assuming Jewish student safety) led to courses being switched to online instruction. I am not a fan of Zoom classes, and they are certainly not what students came to these schools for. It’s most frequently the tool of for-profit schools with no regard for quality.

Another issue for me is the cancellation of graduation ceremonies at some schools. I’m sure many protesters were high-fiving one another over sticking it to the man that way. I am not someone who has a gene for appreciating ritual, but when it comes to something I have earned, it matters to me. When I was at Rice and had been dropped from the PhD track and told to pick up a Masters instead, obviously there was no one at the University who had any interest in having me show up for graduation, nor did I have any particularly warm feelings for the school, but I went to my graduation because I fucking earned that degree. Many of the protesters, probably a majority of them, come from privileged backgrounds and view graduation as a routine rite of passage, and would consider the lack of graduation ceremonies as a very minor matter.

Elite schools, however, have recently been placing increased emphasis on enrolling students who will be the first in their family to attend college. Graduation means a hell of a lot to those students, and to their families. I read about a commencement at one of the HBCU schools where there wasn’t enough room in the auditorium for all the parents who wanted to attend, and the parents were breaking windows and pounding on the door is trying to get in. It wasn’t a minor matter to them. So I find myself quite disgusted by the idea that schools would cancel graduation because of protests by over-privileged and over-entitled students. I would rather call in the National Guard.

Along with that, I would also remind commencement speakers that this is not the place to air their personal views. You were not chosen to impose your own views on others. Graduates are a captive audience – they shouldn’t be treated like prisoners.

Netanyahu

I saw an interview with Netanyahu. I was prepared to see him as some sort of Dick Cheney character. Instead, he seemed quite reasonable during the portion that I watched. So I am less inclined to dismiss him than I was previously. Whatever else, he has a genuine war record that is lacking in the majority of American hawks. Netanyahu has a long record of experience with the visceral hatred that Israel’s enemies harbor towards it and towards Judaism, and knows how little their promises mean. And Israel’s position is always existential. Even though the Arab states have attack after attack and have been beaten back time after time, Israel only needs to lose once.

What’s next?

Other countries recognizing Palestinian independence (as part of the two-state solution) is fine by me, although I doubt Hamas is entirely pleased, since that is precisely not their goal. Intervention of some sort by countries other than the US and Iran might help unblock the logjam. On the other hand, Norway’s declaration seems to come with more baggage than I expected, and I think the normal news media are unaware of these complications. (See link at the end)

The Saudis apparently have also proposed an arrangement that would involve some sorts of recognition (the details are important, so I would need to know more) and having them play a peacekeeper role in Gaza. Given that the Saudis are not particularly friendly towards Hamas (particularly given their backing by Iran), but would presumably offer a friendlier face to the Palestinian people than members of the Israeli military, there might be some potential there.

As far as calling for a cease-fire, this sounds like an innocuous no-brainer. And if it includes a release of the hostages, it’s worth considering. The problem is, that a cease-fire is also an opportunity for Hamas to regroup to continue its attacks on Israel. So it’s not a neutral thing, even if people like to think that it is. As always, the details matter – a lot.

Arabs, Islam, and culture

Islam is the most misogynistic and intolerant religion/culture I am aware of. Not only Jews but Christians and any other non-Muslim group have been being forced out of Muslim countries for decades – and, of course, they murder each other for not being Sunni or Shia or whatever. The Kurds, who are Sunni Muslim, but also have their own shading on the religion, are similarly unwelcome, and the fact that their territory is split among several countries makes things even worse. (I definitely think they deserve their own country.)

Many Muslims love to proclaim that theirs is a religion of peace, but this is the same hypocritical claim that Christians have made throughout their long and bloody history.

Hamas, like Isis, is very much part of this tradition. Among the protesters, there seems to be a total lack of understanding of Hamas – Hamas serves Jihadism and itself, not the Palestinians (who serve largely as a source of siphoned funding and as convenient human shields for them). The leaders enjoy a safe – and luxurious – haven in Qatar, and the movement receives extensive funding from both Qatar and Iran. People who want “Justice for Palestine” should understand that genuine justice for the Palestinians also means getting rid of Hamas. (Again, check the links at the end)

There was a golden age of Islamic culture and learning several centuries ago. I don’t know what happened, but it sure as hell isn’t there anymore. When the Christians were busy burning heretics and witches, the Islamic world was the center of science and medicine and scientific curiosity. Now it is a center of deliberate ignorance and intolerance (not unlike the American right). Even in the oil-rich countries, which could afford to expand their horizons, culture consists of how many Ferraris you can own and how big a yacht you can buy. They have bought golf, and now they are buying up soccer teams, but on no front are they offering intellectual or cultural leadership. Jared Kushner (who himself is a conservative Jew) is a pretty appropriate poster boy for the movement.

Here in the US, we face both overwhelming numbers and racial biases related to immigrants from Latin and South America. I have great sympathy for the would-be immigrants. Conditions at home have to be absolutely devastating to make you leave family and friends and everything you know. There are certainly cultural differences, but they are far less than the cultural differences between immigrants from Muslim countries settling in European countries, and the resulting failures of assimilation. Because of the influx of immigrants, Sweden now has one of the highest levels of gang violence of any country in Europe. Far-right parties are in the ascendant in the Netherlands because of the enormous and largely intractable clash between traditional Dutch tolerance and the values and culture of the Muslim immigrant communities. (Muslim immigrants are a primary driver of far-right support throughout Europe.)

Christianity has the largest number of members, but Islam is a close and growing second (while Christianity seems to be losing membership to secularism). Christianity, at least in the US and Europe, has gone through the Reformation and has left the Inquisition behind. Islam seems to be breeding its own Inquisition – radical jihadism, with Isis as a leading icon of jihadist fervor.

We face a lot of global clashes these days – between authoritarianism and democracy, between communism and democracy, and between fundamentalism and secularism. None of them present any easy resolutions.

China

On the more traditional political front, Russia is no longer “the other superpower” and it drives Putin crazy – he wants to be Stalin.

Xi Jinping wants to be the new Mao. China under his rule is hardly just a “competitor.” It is relentlessly seeking hegemony globally (Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe (and Russia), and South America) through the road and belt initiative (accompanied by onerous loans) – using tactics that the US would be pilloried for by the left.

Hong Kong was once touted as part of “One nation, two systems,” but Xi couldn’t tolerate any differences. Taiwan is next in line, but given its role in the manufacture of supercomputer chips, it is definitely a national security issue for the US. I have no idea how this will play out.

History

I am not a student of history. My Ph.D. is in English literature. I tend to draw my ideas more from literature and from the study of evolution and animal and human behavior, but I feel I have read enough to have some understanding of the issues here. There is much to argue about in all this, and many people know far more about the details than I do. History is not a singular voice or even a singular set of facts, it is a random pile that people sort through to bolster their own arguments.

This is longer than I had intended, and more disjointed. But at least I, unlike the protesters, have done my homework.

Of course I would love to see the bombing and devastation in Gaza stop. I want a peaceful two-state solution. That’s an obvious and simple answer. But what will Hamas offer in exchange? Will they reverse their intransigence and genocidal ambitions? I certainly don’t trust them in any way.

I would bet that almost all of the protesters (who never mention Oct. 7 or the hostages) think that it is Israel that has been blocking a two-state solution. The reality is exactly the opposite. Palestinian leadership has rejected offer after offer that even most of the protesters would have been happy with.

Do the protesters understand that Iran is funding Hamas (and supporting the protests) as their own proxy war against Israel? Do they support Iran and its morality police? Things are way more complicated than the simplistic genocidal chants of “from the river to the sea.” (I imagine at least some of the protesters think that that slogan is just about an independent Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution and have never dug into its real meaning. If the chant was “Death to Israel – Kill all the Jews,” which is what it really means, they might feel a little less comfortable [“I’m not anti-Semitic, I just want the Jews to go back to where they came from”], and why would we want to make the entitled little snowflakes uncomfortable?)

Given the grim history of this conflict and the potential consequences for Israel’s security, I have no intention of giving a group of self-righteous and ill-informed students hegemony over my independent thinking. The stakes are too high for that kind of stupidity.

Relevant Links

https://flip.it/dSc4nQ - The Palestinians Broke Oslo

My Fellow Palestinians: Stop Blaming the Jews—Hamas Is Starving Our Brothers and Sisters in Gaza | Opinion (newsweek.com)

Why progressives hate Israel - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

Antisemitism is occurring when Jews cannot defend themselves - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com) - Taking Jews’ agency away by denying them the right of self-defense is antisemitism

Opinion | Why the Campus Protests Are So Troubling - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Elite University Raked In Almost $700 Million From Qatar | The Daily Caller (Northwestern)

PS – 05/27/24

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard the story about a bombing that was targeted to get some senior Hamas officials but also ended up killing a bunch of other people in refugee camps. And this was after some UN or other “international” agency had told Israel to stop bombing.

So, I was concerned about this and wondered if my views in my letter had been too harsh. I decided to do some more research on YouTube, looking at videos on the history of the Palestinian conflict and some other videos related to the topic.

One video I saw was a cleric explaining the treatment of gays. If a couple is caught having sex outside of marriage, and they are both unmarried, they will be flogged (which as you may be aware is pretty severe). If one or both are married to other people, the punishment is death. If a person is gay, it doesn’t matter whether they are married or not. They are stuck. Even if they repent, even if they cry, even if they try to change, they are stuck. And the punishment is death.

A short while later I came upon a video where the reporter was interviewing some protesters. One of them was LBGTQ and the interviewer explained how these were seen and treated in Muslim countries, and he immediately said, “This interview is over,” and walked off. He had no interest in hearing facts about what a moron he was.

In that same video recorder, he was asking other people questions about “from the river to the sea,” and asked what river and what sea, and of course they had no idea. Etc. It was exactly like watching reporters interviewing people at Trump rallies. So I didn’t feel any need to change my view of the general idiocy of the protesters.

The UN’s role is a little more complicated than you might think, especially when you hear about UN workers being killed in Gaza. Approximately 10% of the UN workers in Gaza are also members of Hamas, and the materials provided for schools by the UN include maps without Israel. Not sure how much I’m going to be interested in donating to or supporting the UN these days.

Another video I saw played out the history of offers of a two-state solution and how the Arabs had rejected them every single time, regardless of the details. Basically the Arabs harbor a totally pathological level of Jew-hatred. In one case, the Israelis withdrew from some portion of Gaza, but left behind various buildings, including a fully operational flower factory of some sort which could give the Palestinians a chance to take it over and use it to get a fresh start. They burned the building down.

A massive amount of the aid money sent to Gaza by the UN, the US, and other countries to help them rebuild their schools and infrastructure gets siphoned off by Hamas to buy weapons and build tunnels. (One of the links earlier talks about this sort of thing) While Israel, starting with far less, has gone on to create advanced saltwater treatment facilities for agriculture, and has become a world-class tech, Gaza is still basically a shit-hole whose only hope of digging out is to get rid of Hamas and stop obsessing about their hatred of the Jews. The Jews did not cause their problems. And although the other Arab countries may be willing to give them money, they do not volunteer to admit Palestinian refugees. (And these are fellow Muslims.)

I don’t remember protesters appearing on the campuses following October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel and massacred innocent Jewish men, women and children. Protesters, and international organizations like the UN are not calling for Hamas to release hostages, they only seem to want to blame Israel for anything it does. And by now I’m totally sick of it.

I’m not going to bother to leave a bunch of links, it’s easy to find this information without any deep digging, so long as you are ready to look at the Israeli side of the issues.

I didn’t believe I could get any more disgusted with the situation and with the protesters, but it was surprisingly easy. It’s too bad, but that’s the way it is, at least for me. I still believe in and want a two-state solution, but with Hamas and with the pathological Palestinian leadership generally, I just don’t see it happening.

PPS – 05/28/24

When I heard about the bombing of the refugee camp yesterday, I knew Israel would get another round of shit in the media. But when I thought about it, I realized this is just part of the perpetual double standard for Israel.

Hamas invades Israel and massacres innocent men, women and children, and takes hostages – all deliberately. International outrage? I don’t recall any, certainly no student protests. Wonder why.

But when Israel sends troops into Gaza to try to find the murders and save the hostages, and tries to bomb Hamas headquarters and infrastructure, well, instantly protesters are everywhere complaining about Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and proclaiming solidarity with a group of pathological Jew-haters, all while claiming not to be antisemitic at all.

(I know there are Jews among the protesters. There are also Blacks for Trump.)

Yes, civilians have died in the bombing. But unlike Hamas, the Israelis are not out to deliberately kill civilians – but they are out to kill members of Hamas – which I regard as a good thing.

There is a continuing double standard at work. Arab groups do something horrific, well, they’re Arabs. It’s in their DNA, like Isis. But if Israelis fight back and defend themselves, it’s all, “Oh my God, those Jews are terrible oppressors of the noble native people. Why are they doing this?”

Iran and other Arab countries continue to provide arms to Hamas, but the protesters freak out about the US providing arms to Israel.

They also complain about the Jewish lobby and its money and its power in Congress. Do I see the usual antisemitic stereotypes at work here? Is there some reason why Jews shouldn’t be allowed to use the same tactics as every other group?

Believe me, there’s plenty of Arab money floating around. (Does the name Jared Kushner and billions in sovereign wealth ring a bell?)

As far as I’m concerned, we should double our arms shipment to Israel – and Ukraine.

I’ve had it with the double standard and the bullshit. I’m done.

Peter A. Hempel © 2024