You Don’t Protest That

Being back in America is strange. I returned to Boston on June 28^th after staying up all night to catch a taxi to the airport, followed by an early flight to London, bumming around Heathrow for a few hours and then flying back to Boston. As I’ve been told by my father, he’s glad I got home “before the fighting started.” I never felt unsafe in Israel since, unlike what Hamas does to the citizens in Gaza whom they are supposed to be protecting, the Israeli government has the Israel Defense Forces who stood in front of me instead of the other way around. Netanya had been safe from rocket fire while I lived there for ten months, although I always paused to remember the bombings that used to take place daily in the early 2000’s at the hands of Palestinian suicide bombers since I passed them on my way to work or when I would go for a run. I’m not oblivious to the fact that in America, I’m not getting pounded by rockets every day from an organization that not only wants to wipe Israel off the map, but hates Western ideals. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen the arguments from people on Facebook and from online and television news in regards to Operation Protective Edge. My father and I have talked a lot about how Americans have interpreted this conflict and I have come to one conclusion…

And that is that Americans are a bunch of hypocritical nitwits.

It’s true that more Palestinians—both the Hamas terrorists and civilians—have been injured or killed than Israeli ones. As an educator, it pains me to see children of any ethnicity be hurt or killed. But war creates unpleasant situations. I think back to some of the ads I’ve seen that ask what America would be doing if they were getting attacked by terrorists every day. I can tell you what they did.

It’s been almost thirteen years since September 11^th, 2011. The day that over three-thousand people were murdered via airplanes. They day the airline industry plummeted. And the day that started a war. It took just under ten years to catch Osama bin Laden and Americans supported catching a terrorist. They cheered in the streets when he was killed. Terrorists are bad people. Of course, catching a terrorist is never easy. There were massive deaths of American soldiers and Afghan and Iraqi citizens. This country is in debt from a war that began with weapons of mass destruction that never even existed. Even still, Americans rejoiced in trying to get evil out of the world. So why can’t Israel get the same pass? The IDF drops leaflets, calls civilians and fires “knock on the roof” shots in order to get civilians out while Hamas tells them to stay so that they can become martyrs. Hamas fires rockets from hospitals and schools and uses their civilians as human shields. Hamas has received foreign aid that has been used to build their underground tunnel network instead of going to health, electricity, food or education for their citizens. These tunnels harbor the terrorists and are used to smuggle weapons into Israel. Hamas would rather put the civilians on roofs instead of keeping them safe. This leads to a fundamental difference between Hamas and Israel—Hamas uses its civilians to protect its missiles while Israel uses its missiles to protect its civilians. But Americans don’t protest Hamas. It’s okay for Americans to catch terrorists but Israel can’t do the same. I am sick of these double standards in regards to Israel.

Harry Truman didn’t care if dropping Little Boy and Fat Man on innocent Japanese civilians would continue to cause health effects to this day for the Japanese if it meant their surrender. But Americans don’t protest that.

Syria has killed more Palestinians than Israel and continues to do so. But Americans don’t protest that.

Entire communities have been slaughtered in South Sudan. But Americans don’t protest that.

Pakistanis continue to be killed in attacks committed by jihadists. But Americans don’t protest that.

Nigeria continues to set off bombs, drive out Christians and is still kidnapping little girls. But Americans don’t protest that.

Thousands of protesters have been killed in Egypt, Libya and Turkey. But Americans don’t protest that.

Iran wants to wipe out not only Israel, but America with nuclear weapons. But Americans don’t protest that.

Israel built a fence to protect her citizens from constant bombings at the hands of Palestinian suicide bombers. America built a fence in the southwest when the worst thing Mexico ever did was convince a bunch of inebriated girls to take their tops off during Spring Break. America has treated the children of the undocumented immigrants who snuck through like they’re cattle. Other countries also have these fences. But Americans don’t protest that.

An airplane full of civilians was shot down in midair in Ukraine. But Americans don’t protest that.

ISIS has told Christians to convert to Islam, pay a fee or be killed. But Americans don’t protest that.

Israel gets called racist for being a Jewish state. Hindus have four states. Christians have twenty. Roman Catholics have forty-nine. Muslims have over fifty. But Americans don’t protest that.

So not only are Americans hypocritical nitwits, but they are also anti-Semitic. They say that criticisms of Israel aren’t. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing Israel. I had issues with the Rabbinate controlling civil affairs (like marriage) and with smoking bans not enforced. But when you DON’T criticize other countries for doing things that are much worse, or rather, you have done the same thing that you say you hate Israel for doing, then yes, that is anti-Semitic. If your problem is only with Israel and not the Jews themselves as you say, why is there no outcry over the synagogues that have been attacked in Paris? What do they have to do with Operation Protective Edge? What does screaming “Death to the Jews!” or “Jesus killer!” have to do with the current war? Jewish businesses are being burned down. Odd; I thought Kristallnacht was in 1938. Lord knows if this was happening in America to Christians, there would be a civil war. But since the Jews are involved and it’s trendy to hate Israel and the Jews, Americans don’t protest that.

I’m not about to say Israel is a perfect country. It isn’t. America isn’t, either. America still thinks it’s the center of the universe (see my post “America’s Ambassador”), yet will never admit to how it’s been involved in every major war over the last century to some degree or how it keeps pointing fingers when its own hands aren’t clean.

So for now, as I prepare to spend a weekend in Connecticut with Masa alumni talking about Israel and actually knowing what goes on there (unlike the asinine reporters and Americans who have never been there), I will try to bask in nature and scoff at the ignorant twits who continue to spew their anti-Jewish garbage from their laptops, which has internal securities made by Israel, along from their iPhones which came from China, hardly the model of human rights.

But Americans don’t protest that.