#BringBackOurChildren

Israel and the IDF must be unshackled by the chains of propaganda that binds them. It happens through each of us.

(screenshot)

The savage acts of violence conducted by Hamas On 8/7, a holy day for the Jewish people – the indiscriminate execution of young men and women at a music festival, – the murder of elderly men and women, – the ripping of children from the hands of their parents, – the mutilation of women’s bodies and parading them around like hunted game, – the murder of children in front of their family members.- Is not and never will be part of some tragic “cycle of violence”. It is NOT a response to “occupation”. It is NOT as the Washington Post reports: “hundreds killed on both sides as Israel declares war” It is NOT a response to a “desecration” of Al Aqsa. It is NOT because of the lack of Peace Negotiations. Do not let the media or anyone distract you from this basic truth.

Massacring innocent unarmed civilians is not resistance. Creating a police state that indoctrinates children from cradle to grave to hate Jews and blame Israel for all their problems is not resistance. Refusing to even recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel as a basis for coexistence is not resistance. Chanting “From the river to the sea” is not resistance. Repeating the lie that Israel is an apartheid state is not resistance. Firing rockets at civilians and then hiding behind children and in schools is not “resistance.”

None of that is Resistance. It is a strategy.

That strategy is to get Israel to kill as many of the people in Gaza as possible so that sycophants in the media and in western cities from Paris to Chicago will stomp their feet, raise their flags, and pressure their governments to restrain Israel from doing what it needs to do to defend its people, maintain stability, and live with security.

And for the last 20 years, this strategy has been largely successful. Bit by bit, it preys mercilessly on our collective desire for empathy. Most people do not want to see innocent people suffer. Most of us want to get along. It’s hard sometimes to internalize the Israeli -Palestinian conflict because we want peace. And now Israel will conduct even more killing of Innocents.

But this time, Instead of calls for “both sides to show restraint” or “End to Occupation,” I compel you to echo the call of “ReleaseTheHostages” and “End to Hamas.”

Do we not remember the campaign to #BringBackOurGirls? That which quickly became a Global movement in response to 276 girls kidnapped in Nigeria by an Islamic terrorist group. Yet how many girls were murdered, raped, and kidnapped in southern Israel yesterday? How many mothers and fathers are crying out from Israel today the same cries that were heard so loudly from Nigeria? Will the hashtags “BringBackOurGirls” or “BringBackOurChildren” trend once again? Where are you western world, defenders of decency and democracy?

I ask you all to simply support their cries, support Israel, do not let the Hamas sympathizers around the world put pressure on governments to intervene on their behalf. There will only be peace when Hamas knows they can no longer play this game. Only then will the violence and hatred begin to thaw and perhaps one day come to an end.

As I watch people in the streets of my hometown Chicago and other American cities celebrating Hamas and the mass murder of Jews I condemn this despicable behavior and call on all decent people, Jewish or otherwise, to support the state of Israel in its hour of need no matter what is to come. Do not be ashamed of Israel, be proud. More importantly, show it. I have been to nearly all the other democracies in the world; Israel is just as diverse, just as democratic, just as important to human progress. Israelis are just as kind and welcoming. Israel has 2 million Israeli Arabs, she protects the holy sites for all to pray peacefully. She provides untold cleantech to the world. She has her problems, and the Palestinian Issue is complicated and in many ways tragic, but Israel is also a beautiful diverse multicultural democracy. She is a beacon of light in the world.

And remember – this isn’t about Arabs versus Jews, or even Israel and Palestine. This is a Jewish democracy, with all its faults, just like America and the rest of the Western democracies, having to exist next to Hamas, a Jihadist cult whose major export is Terror, and who’s goal will never be peace. With Peace they would cease to serve any function. The vast majority of Arabs inside Israel themselves would choose Israeli democracy over Hamas autocracy.

Don’t be distracted by those marching in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza as they display their pride as if they were fighting an “oppressor”. How brave of them to chant their support for war crimes from the safety of Paris or New York. They don’t bear the consequences of Hamas’s actions like ordinary Palestinians in Khan Younis and Gaza City do. Their rights and free speech are far greater than the Palestinians under Hamas will ever have. If they want Palestinians to be free from suffering, I call on them too to march with us under the united banner of Ending Hamas.