Monsters

Jewish people have experience with monsters; it is one of the things for which they are “famous.” Hamas, tight on Israel’s border and committing horrifying atrocities that stun hardened reporters, fits right into the rogue’s gallery of monsters.

Today, Israel’s enemies are not coy about declaring goals to destroy the Jews once again. For Palestinians, it seems the destruction of Israel, not statehood, is their primary goal. Unlike other adversaries who hid their crimes, we watch the monster’s ecstatic Go-Pro/selfie/dashcam recordings of the October 7 massacre. We note acculturated martyr’s mentality with pay for slay pensions, and we read about dead Jews arithmetic in grade school texts. We know Iranian uranium refining centrifuges spin towards Holocaust-capability.  Israel’s monsters are all around.

An African proverb wisely warns that “Not to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse.” The former “not to know” is the sad triumph of ignorance and sloth, and the latter “not to wish to know” is the sin of irresponsibility and cowardice. It’s like the four sons in the Passover Haggadah, the “simple son” is the one who did not know, and the “wicked son” who did not wish to know.

Outside of Israel, we see the hyperbolic pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, Jew-hating mobs cruise streets, school hallways, municipal buildings, and colleges campuses. Colorful placards scream out epithets and claims: rivers to seas, boycotts, colonizers, two-state, freeing Gaza, freeing Palestine, apartheid, and the ultimate irony of genocide. When the strident mobs march, the monsters are ultimately emboldened.

We can guess the protestors have little knowledge of the complex underlying history. Can they identify the river or the sea in the land dispute?  Can they recall any of the complex Middle East events of the past one hundred years, can they recall the agreements signed into international law … what did happen on November 29, 1947? What is the etymology of the term Palestinian? Can they contrast Israel’s to South Africa’s governance, can they explain the presence of Arab minorities in Israeli government and economy, or can they compare her minority rights to neighboring Islamic nations? Do these masked, peripatetic advocates have any idea what hate is embedded is in the Koran or what is the human rights record just across Israel’s borders? Not to know is bad.

Responsibility for the ignorance can be laid at the feet of our school systems, and we can ponder the influence of woke curricula, and Arab money funneled into our universities. Entertainment and media’s support of intersectional narratives have poisoned minds and hastened animus towards the Jewish State. It is also fair to also ask if Jewish institutions had empowered their wards with knowledge about the modern State of Israel’s history, it would be strengthening abilities to respond to the haters, and to be proud Jews. Shining the light of truth might hobble the monsters.

Be especially aware of those with heads-in-the-sand not wishing to know. Reaching the dogmatic, derangement syndrome prone narcissists need special handling. Maybe someone who has opined on the Arab-Israel conundrum might now be awakened by Hamas’s atrocities and the resultant Gaza war.  Maybe those who have doggedly sought the dream of two-state solutions will now respect offers and tradeoffs Israel has had to make. They can sift through what the woke media presents and adjust for the political biases. They can come to grips with terms like beheaded, serially raped, unrecognizably burned, hostages, tunnels, and babies. They can rethink the veracity of reported Palestinian collateral damage, UN honest broker trustworthiness and the bookkeeping of the billions invested in Gaza. Maybe now they will wish to know andwill finally stop abetting the monsters.

When we hear Congresspeople call for conditioning military aid, we should fear that they do not wish to know the history of Israel’s bloodthirsty and deceitful adversaries. We must remind them about the many attempts at rapprochement, the intifadas, and the failed “second state Gaza.” The Abraham Accords expansion warrants support as the practical pathway to a regional peace. Israel must maintain a qualitative military edge. The Iranian nuclear threat must be addressed with a resolute American partner, no JCPOA, and no sanctions relief.

Anti-Israel, Jew-hating protests hover dangerously between violence and First Amendment protections. It is not Macbeth’s Act 5, Scene 5 “…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” While it is repeated by idiots, it originated from clever operatives with evil intent. It signifies the failure to think rationally. We should fear the fury of under-informed hysterical masses fueled by social media. We should regret missed opportunities to educate, and we can ponder why the tales told are bereft of facts and context.

We don’t have to slay the monsters ourselves, but we must work to outflank their advocates by dispelling misinformation, supporting alliances, and encouraging all to know the whole truth.