Conflict Thrives on Ignorance

In the past few weeks we had the Ahed Tamimi trial, the Palestinian “protest” (read: riot) at the Israeli border, and Yom Hashoah, a day of remembrance for the six million Jews who lost their lives in the holocaust.

Let me break each of these down for those of you who may have missed it.

1) Ahem Tamimi, a 17 year old from the West Bank, was caught on video slapping and assaulting an Israeli officer, possibly in retaliation for her cousin’s death, and probably trying to get a reaction so she can blame the soldier for hurting her and gain sympathy from the entire world. Turns out she didn’t need to get a physical reaction from the soldier — she gained the world’s sympathy anyway. The Israeli soldier showed a ridiculous amount of restraint and did not do anything to her, but she was arrested and sentenced to eight months in prison. During this entire incident, Ahed became the symbol of the Palestinian resistance (although we all know they should be resisting their leaders, not Israel). People all over the world defended her actions and bashed Israel for sentencing a “child” to prison — really, a 17 year old is a child? She’s not a 6 year old who hit a soldier, she’s a grown woman who assaulted a soldier and got caught. All of the major news outlets reported this story and almost every comment I saw was anti-Semitic, not just anti-Israel.

2) The six week long Palestinian protests at the Israeli-Gaza border were announced on March 30, 2018. They named the protest “The Great March of Return.” When you and I protest, we bring signs. When Palestinians “protest,” they riot. They brought stones and molotov cocktails, they set Israeli flags on fire, and they burnt tires to create shields, severely damaging the environment. 7 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded by Israeli soldiers. No one is happy that people were killed. But let me ask you this — if 30,000 Mexicans showed up the Texas border, what would the American army do? Welcome them in? Think about what the world is condemning here. The world is saying Israel does not have the right to protect its border. Would any other country in the world warrant such a response for protecting their own border? Again, all of the major news outlets reported this story and almost every comment I saw was anti-Semitic, not just anti-Israel.

3) Yom Hashoah is one of the most important days in the Jewish calendar because almost every single Jew has been effected by the Holocaust. Everyone lost someone. On Yom Hashoah, Israel holds a moment of silence in which every person walking and every car driving comes to a full stop and the entire country mourns together. It is one of the most beautiful moments I have ever witnessed. Many of the major news outlets shared videos of this moment. After the past few weeks we’ve had, I was scared to read the comments, rightfully so. You’d think people would have some respect for millions of people, not just Jews, who were murdered. Instead comments like, “And now look at what the Jews are doing to the Palestinians,” “Now the Israeli’s are making their own Holocaust #FreePalestine,” “So what? Who cares about the Holocaust when the Israeli’s have murdered over 6 million Palestinians?! #Occupation”

That’s when I lost it. Depending on who you ask, there are not even six million Palestinians in the world! How can Israel kill people that don’t exist? I know the people leaving these comments are ignorant but I can’t help but wonder why people feel so strongly about this particular issue, as opposed to the Syrian conflict, the Venezuelan conflict, the Yemen conflict, etc.

So this leads me to here: How the hell is the world, and particularly Americans, so oblivious? How do people not see what’s right in front of them? That Hamas is ruining the Palestinians, not Israel. That the Palestinians use their own children as human shields. That most of the Palestinians were never from Israel but from Jordan and other countries. That none of the 22 other Arab countries in the world reach out to help Palestinians because then they’d have no reason to hate Israel. That Palestinians living in Israel are the happiest Palestinians in the world. How do people so easily forget that Israel has offered many peace plans which were all rejected by Palestinian leaders (because the leaders are the ones screwing over their people)? How do people forget about facts in this conflict and jump to blame Israel? How do Americans not realize that it’s not just Israeli flags they’re burning, but American flags as well? How does an entire conflict thrive on ignorance? How does the UN vote on 21 resolutions against Israel but only 6 on the entire rest of the world? How do people so easily jump on the bandwagon of defending terrorists and murderers?

I’ll tell you how. Because they’re not just anti-Israel, they’re anti-Semitic.

Which means that we must continue to fight for Israel at all costs because when being anti-Semitic becomes cool again (think 1939), we’re going to need a place to run to.