The War for Love and Peace

The Universal Love of Everything Good and the Universal War Against Everything Bad

Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed said this during his victory speech in the early hours of Wednesday, November 4, 2026:

They try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers without being murdered by our tax dollars. If you believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination, that’s not hate, it’s love.

He also had something else to say:

They tried to confuse you, so let me just set the record straight. I love America.

So much love. So many words. And yet so little clarity.

Who are they? What exactly are these elusive equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination? And what does this all-encompassing love actually mean?

Let’s start with something we can all agree on.

Everyone loves America.

Trump loves America. Republicans love America. Democrats love America. I love America.

And everyone loves Palestine, too.

I certainly love Palestine. In fact, I love it because Palestine is Israel.

Now, here is where things get interesting.

The real question is not whether we love America and Palestine. Of course we do. The question is who loves them more.

And I have a claim to make.

I love America and Palestine more than Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and their kind.

Not only that. My love is pure. Their “love,” on the other hand, is something else entirely. It is a curious kind of love that seems to require hatred: hatred for America as it actually exists, and hatred for Palestine as it actually exists.

After all, Palestine is Israel; loving Palestine while hating Israel presents something of a logical difficulty.

But perhaps I am being too literal. Love is a complicated thing. Especially political love.

And so we arrive at the central question of our time: whose love is stronger?

This is no ordinary competition. It is an existential struggle. A battle for the hearts and minds of humanity. A war fought for the sake of love, and, naturally, for the sake of peace.

There is an old Soviet joke that captures the spirit of this noble undertaking:

— Will there be a Third World War?

— No. But there will be such a struggle for peace that not one stone will be left standing.

And, of course, we are all in favor of everything good and opposed to everything bad.

We love peace, dignity, freedom, justice, equality, and self-determination. We oppose war, oppression, hatred, injustice, inequality, and everything else that deserves to be opposed.

There can be no disagreement about that.

And we will fight for all these wonderful things.

We will fight for love. We will fight for peace. We will fight against hatred.

We will fight until everyone understands how much we love everything good.

And yes, if necessary, until not one stone is left standing.

Because nothing says love quite like a good war for peace.

The War for Love and Peace.