Israel does not just fight Hamas, it fights terrorism, a threat to us all
I have now lived in Israel since the first decade of this century — the days of the second intifada, when over 1,000 people lost their lives to terrorists. I lived here on October 7, 2023 when Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis, raped numerous Israeli women (before murdering them); burned countless people, including babies, alive in their homes; and took 241 hostages. Almost nightly, I hear missiles being shot at me in Israel by the Houthis in Yemen, an Iranian proxy. The IDF failed to intercept one of those missiles, which exploded not far from my home making a huge explosion when it landed. I was shaken.
I was all too familiar with terrorism even before I moved to Israel from the United States. The truth is that terrorism is a worldwide problem and has been for years.
In the last few weeks, two acts of terrorism have caught the world’s attention. The first took place at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC (I used to live there, too). The second took place in Boulder, Colorado, approximately 30 miles from where I lived for over three decades.
Much of the media’s attention, appropriately, has focused on the fact that the victims of the terrorist crimes in Boulder, Colorado and Washington DC were Jewish, and that both terrorists shouted, “Free Palestine or “From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be free”, when committing their terrorist acts. In doing so, the media have missed a major point: that while the victims of these terrorist at attacks were Jewish, the reality is that terrorists are terrorist, many of whose victims have NOT been Jewish. The destruction of the World Trade Center in New York by terrorists in New York on 9/11 2001 demonstrates that.
Today, Iran, usually acting either through its proxies, Hezbollah, Palestinians Jihad, and the Houthis, as well Hamas, which receives millions of dollars annually and advanced missile technology from Iran, is the largest perpetrator of terrorism in the world.
Iran is Israel’s arch enemy. Israel has already bombed Tehran once successfully and appears ready to do so again soon. It has virtually driven Hezbollah out of Lebanon, killing most of its leaders in doing so. It is presently fighting to keep Hezbollah from rearming from Iran. The war in Gaza, which has now lasted far too long thanks to Iran’s support for Hamas, is NOT just a war against Hamas, it is a war on the entire what Iran terms “the axis of resistance”.
Nor is this new. Usually acting through its proxy, Hezbollah, Iran has committed (or been caught in the planning ) acts of terrorism in the following countries: Thailand, Turkey, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. Hezbollah now appears to be attempting to infiltrate a number of countries in sub-Sahara Africa, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Recently, Iran’s leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, has stated publicly that Iran’s intent in reshaping the world does not stop with Israel; it is against the entire Western world, especially the United States.
More and more people, including political leaders Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, France’s Emanual Macron, as well as the United States’ Joe Biden and Donald Trump, have treated Israeli’s fight against Hamas in Gaza as though it was a distinct war. It is not: Israel’s fight in Gaza is just the first round in a fight against terrorism — terrorism which threatens the entire Western world. If the war in Gaza ended tomorrow, the war on terrorism would not. The sooner that Western politicians and the Western media understand that, the sooner we will all be safer and Israel will not be viewed as a villain, as it is, too often now.
