Understanding the Israeli / Palestinian Crisis: A Comprehensive Historical Primer

The Backdrop

October 7, 2023, was a normal day for twenty-two-year-old Shani Louk. Shani, a tattoo artist from Germany was visiting a peace rally in Israel called the Supernova Festival which is a celebration of the end of Sukkot. As Shani danced with her friends, she failed to notice the thousands of Hamas militants who arrived without warning and began killing as many people as they could find. Shani was one of the victims. After killing Shani the Hamas militants stripped off her clothes and paraded her naked body through the streets of Gaza in the back of a pickup truck while cheering and shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

Shani was one of the victims of the Hamas assault that resulted in the death of over 1,200 people in Israel with several thousand more injuries. The massacre brought immeasurable grief around the world. Many supporters of Palestinians were shocked and grieved that their champion, Hamas, would engage in such a brutal slaughter. Others doubled down and adopted the mantra “Free Palestine by any Means” and “From the River to the Sea.” On the Jewish side of the conflict were the questions why did this happen? Why do they hate us so much? What did we do to deserve this? Ironically, the Supernova Festival was intended to be a peace rally to support peaceful relations between Israel and Palestine, yet Hamas attacked the festival anyway killing hundreds of attendees. The question is why.

Having closely observed the conflict between Israel and Palestine for decades it occurred to me that modern media provides very little information about the actual dispute between these people which results in widespread ignorance of the issues. For example, in listening to discussions about the conflict, it is apparent that few people are aware that the Palestinian Authority and its adversary Hamas, are branches of the militant groups of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammed Amin al-Huseini, who was the co-author, with Adolph Hitler, of the Nazi plan to concentrate and exterminate all Jews in Europe then in Palestine.

Prior to the October 7, attack, I had been assisting families in Palestine obtain food and medical care. During the course of our conversations, I had occasions to discuss their situation in depth. I learned that in one family the father was disabled due to an injury sustained in a military conflict with Israel. One of their sons was also disabled and the mother was the sole source of income. She sells fruits and vegetables from a fruit stand at the side of the road. The young woman explained that medical care is unavailable except to the wealthiest families and wealth is determined according to one’s rank within Hamas or within the sphere of Hamas’s influence.

The mother advised that their life is better than many but nearly everyone lives well below the poverty level. Food is difficult to obtain and is available only if one is willing to work very long hours. She said there is no hope for anyone in Palestine. Dying is easier than living under these circumstances which is the reason so many Palestinians are willing to die as a martyr, such as a suicide bomber. “Life is so bad they don’t care.”

She was taught from as far back as she can remember that Palestinians live for only one purpose, and that is to kill all Jews. When I asked her why, she said it is because Jews want to kill them.

Because we never knew how secure our communications were, these families were very careful not to discuss government or politics except to occasionally say, “Ours is not to ask why.” But without full information one mother did say that she blames Israel for the situation in Palestine. She said she was taught from as far back as she can remember that Palestinians live for only one purpose, and that is to kill all Jews. When I asked her why, she said it is because Jews want to kill them. As I began sharing with her that I was working with an Israeli organization called Seventy Nations, Jerusalem, to develop a medical clinic to provide free medical care to Palestinians, she could not understand why we would do such a thing. She could not understand why Jews would do anything to help them because this concept did not fit within her cognitive paradigm that Jews and Palestinians exist for the sole purpose of killing each other. She further stated that Hamas has taught them that the only reason Israel has not killed every Palestinian is because Hamas protects them. She admitted that this does not square completely with what she has learned on the internet, but she believes information on the internet is propaganda.

Many protest the actions of Israel as brutal in responding to aggressions by Hamas. For example, in the military activities since October 7, 2023, allegations of use of white phosphorus once again abound though Israel denies such use. Israel is also accused of targeting civilians in seeking to eradicate Hamas, but the reality is that Hamas uses humans as shields. This raises the question on the Israeli side, what should Israel do? Every sovereignty has the right and the obligation to defend itself and its citizens from aggressors. In this short essay we will look at a capsule history of the area today known as Israel to better understand the problems that exist in this region. In so doing, we may be able to achieve a better understanding and a path forward in seeking a resolution.

Ancient Israel

The region of the world we now call Israel has been the subject of a disputed claim of entitlement for thousands of years. For the Jewish people, the land of Israel is the promised land given to Moses and the Israelites by G-d around 1450 BCE. Israel did not always remain under the exclusive control of the Jewish people though there has never been a time when Jews were not in Israel since the recorded first arrival. Proof of the Jews in Israel has been found in archaeological digs dating back to 900 BCE.

In 578 BCE Israel was invaded by the Babylonians and remained under occupation until the reign of Cyrus the Great, who returned Israel to the Jews and gave them passage throughout Persia and to Israel. Alexander the Great conquered Israel in 333 BCE which brought it under the government of the Greeks. In the year 165 BCE the Jews reclaimed Judea though within one hundred years the land had been conquered by the Romans. During this period the second temple was built in Jerusalem. In 70 CE the Jews revolted but were subdued and during this revolt the second temple was destroyed. In 133 CE during another revolt the Jews were taken into slavery. This was the beginning of the modern Jewish diaspora.

In the year 638 CE the Muslims conquered Jerusalem. Approximately 20 years later Omar, the second caliph of Islam, built the al-Aqsa mosque which is considered the third holiest place in all Islamdom. Other than in the years 1099-1187, the brief period when Jerusalem came under control of the Crusaders, the area we today call Israel remained under Muslim occupation until the 20th Century when it was reclaimed by the Jews. However, even during the period it was under Muslim control there were always Jews in Israel, and the Jews never surrendered their land even while under occupation.

Modern Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas:

In the late 1800's European antisemitism was on the increase. Jews were subjected to various forms of persecution and were often deprived of basic opportunities of life. As persecution became increasingly intense a decision was made that the time had come to reclaim the land believed to have been given to the Jews at the time of Moses. Impetus for this migration was largely a response to a book by Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl, written in 1896, called Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). In light of this desire to secure a Jewish state, Jews began migrating from Europe to Palestine (today known as Israel) and by the beginning of the 20th century there was an estimated 25,000 Jews living in Palestine. As 1915 approached, that number had increased to over 70,000. These early immigrants became known as the Zionists. In 1917 British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour sent a letter to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild which became known as the Balfour Declaration. In this letter, Balfour assured the Zionists that Britain would support the establishment of Palestine as the national home of the Jewish people.

By 1935 the number of Jews in Palestine had reached 300,000 which was nearly half the number of the native Palestinians living in the region. Some Palestinians welcomed the Jews and saw this as an opportunity to enrich their culture and commerce and to benefit from the Jewish connections to Europe. Others however, who did not wish to see the Jews moving into their homeland, sought to prevent them from immigrating to Palestine. Some believed for religious and others for ethnic reasons that the Jews were not entitled to live in the land that had been the home of Islam for over a thousand years. It is here that the seed of disharmony was planted hand in hand with ethnic discrimination in both the Arabs and the Jews.

From 1920 until 1947 Britain had governed Palestine. In an effort to remove itself from the enigma of governing such a tumultuous region, Britain surrendered its control to the United Nations in 1947. To address the conflict, the United Nations proposed two separate nations, Palestine and Israel. Under this plan 56.47% of Palestine was to be given to the Jews and 43.53% was to be given to the Arabs. Jerusalem was to be treated as international territory. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Jews were fleeing Europe to immigrate to Israel.

Over time Arab resistance to the immigration of Jews began to increase. Much of the Arab resistance was the result of the actions of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammed Amin al-Huseini. Al-Huseini was born in the 1890's. He was the son of the Mufti of Jerusalem who was a member of one of the most powerful families of Palestine. Muhammed Amin al-Huseini studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo and the Istanbul School of Administration. He quickly became known as an extremist. The Palestinian High Commissioner from Britain was heavily influenced by anti-Zionists in Britain and he appointed Muhammed Amin al-Huseini to serve as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in 1922, despite his known hatred and violence toward Jews. As time passed the Grand Mufti became extremely powerful. He issued an edict called "Izbah Al-Yahud" which means "Slaughter the Jews." But it was even worse for Arabs who would not support his plan. They were tortured and killed by the thousands until there was almost no one left who opposed the Mufti except those who remained silent for their own safety. With the support of Britain, Muhammed Amin al-Huseini was simply too powerful for anyone to oppose, and his murdering of the Jews grew increasingly difficult to prevent.

Muhammed Amin al-Huseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem meeting with Adolph Hitler on November 28, 1941, at the Reich Chancellory in Berlin. (Source: Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, Series D, Vol XIII, London, 1964.) Al-Huseini sought an agreement between the Arab nations and Germany to completely exterminate all Jews. After the Jews were eliminated in Europe, Germany would join forces with Arab nations in the Middle East to exterminate all Jews there. In January of 1942 Hitler announced the Final Solution which included a plan for the concentration and extermination of all Jews.

In April of 1936 six very powerful Arab men formed an organization called the "Arab Higher Committee." This organization was created to oppose the immigration of Jews into Palestine and to oppose those in Britain who had begun to turn their support toward the Zionists. In that year Arab revolts broke out all over Palestine and many Jews were killed along with Arabs who had befriended the Jews. The Grand Mufti joined forces with Adolph Hitler in 1937 appealing to Hitler's own hatred of Jews. According to information discovered during the Nuremberg Trials, the Grand Mufti was the person most influential in persuading Hitler to begin the concentration and extermination of the Jews in Europe in what we today call the "Holocaust." The plan was that if Hitler succeeded in Europe, he would take his armies to Palestine to kill all the Jews there. Eventually, the "Arab Higher Committee" was declared a terrorist organization by Britain after assassinating the British Inspector General of Palestine and killing scores of both Arabs and Jews.

The Grand Mufti Muhammed Amin al-Huseini was forced into exile in Syria then in 1941 he moved to Berlin where he worked closely with Adolph Hitler in the concentration and extermination the Jews. Muhammed Amin al-Huseini never returned to Palestine after his 1937 departure and he died in 1974 in exile from Palestine which by then had become known as Israel. During his life he was in strong opposition to the Hashemite family of Jordan and in 1951, he arranged the assassination of King Abdullah I of Jordan because he had given the title of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to another person. In 1969 the organization of Muhammed Amin al-Huseini, which became known in 1964 as the Palestine Liberation Organization, was taken over by his nephew Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat As Qudwa al-Hussaeini, better known as Yasser Arafat. Until his death Yasser Arafat still referred to his uncle as "our hero al-Huseini."

Jewish forces and Arab forces were in constant clash with the Israeli forces showing the greatest success. On May 14, 1948 Israel officially declared itself to be a nation and the Declaration became effective on May 15, 1948. On that same day, armies from five Arab nations, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq attacked Israel but were defeated. Subsequent to this confrontation, Egypt retained control of the Gaza Strip and Jordan retained control of the area today called the West Bank. Tension between Israel and the Arab nations continued to grow until June 5, 1967 at which time a major military conflict ensued which became known as the Six Day War because it only lasted six days. The attack was intended to be a secret attack by the Arab forces against Israel but Israel learned of the plan and issued a preemptive strike against Egypt disabling the Egyptian Air Force. By the end of the conflict Israel had seized control of Gaza and Sinai from Egypt and Golan Heights from Syria in the north. Jordanian forces had also been forced out of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As a result of the Six Day War, Israel's territory of control nearly doubled and the United Nations estimated that over 500,000 Arabs had been displaced from their homes.

Under the influence of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization ruled Palestine with an Iron Fist. In 1987 an organization was formed called Hamas whose sole objective was to kill all Jews and eradicate all traces of the nation of Israel. Hamas grew more powerful and in time became a rival organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization. While the PLO was known to be ruthless in its actions, Hamas was known to be worse. The rival organizations continued to clash throughout the 1990s and well into the 21^st century. During this time members of the PLO and Hamas would kill Jews every opportunity that arose. When Israel would retaliate to an attack with military force Hamas and the PLO would immediately accuse Israel of war crimes. Because Hamas and the PLO strategically placed their military assets in civilian areas such as hospitals, mosques, and private homes, the casualties among Palestinian citizens were always very high, but given that those numbers come from Hamas, who has shown itself to be untruthful, they cannot be trusted for accuracy.

In the year 2000 Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein joined efforts and began offering rewards of $25,000 to any Palestinian family who was willing to sacrifice a family member as a suicide bomber in Israel. Many families would gladly offer up a family member for the benefit of the rest of the family and sometimes the sacrificed individual was just a toddler or a baby with a bomb wrapped in its blanket. The number of Israeli deaths skyrocketed immediately and remained high until Israel completed its border wall in 2006. The death of Yasser Arafat from a subdural hematoma in 2004 and the completion of the border wall in 2006, resulted in a time of hope for both Israelis and Palestinians though it was short lived. Mahmoud Abbas soon took control of PLO, the Palestinian Authority, and Fatah. Abbas was criticized for not condemning Israel’s retaliation against Hamas assaults into Israel. In time, Abbas began to seek a non-violent resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine while Hamas continued the mantra of the Grand Mufti “Izbah Al-Yahud” or “Slaughter the Jews.”

Hamas took over 56% of the seats of Parliament and as soon as they took power in 2007, began executing everyone who opposed them including party opponents such as members of the PLO, PA and Fatah.

In 2006 Hamas sought to participate in the elections in Gaza. Both Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas opposed participation by Hamas. US President GW Bush strongly believed that given a chance for democracy people would naturally elect the best option. His strategists calculated that Hamas would receive no more than 20% of the seats in the Parliament and he threatened to cut aid to Palestine if Hamas was not permitted to participate in the elections. Much to everyone’s dismay Hamas took over 56% of the seats of Parliament and as soon as they took power in 2007, began executing everyone who opposed them including party opponents such as members of the PLO, PA and Fatah.

While the border wall between Israel and Palestine was effective in reducing the number of terrorists crossing the border to assassinate civilians and the number of Israeli deaths dropped drastically, Hamas would frequently engage in rocket launches into Israel often resulting in the deaths of civilians. It is commonly said that Israel occupied Palestine during the period from 2006 through the present date, but this is a matter of dispute. After Palestine was taken over by Hamas, Israel ceased all activities within Palestine except in response to rocket attacks from Hamas. Unfortunately, because Hamas hides their military installations in public facilities the death toll among civilians is often very high when Israel retaliates in response to assaults. This again plays well into the propaganda campaign of Hamas. So the reality is that in terms of traditional occupation Israel does not occupy Palestine. However, Israel does control the land, air, and sea in around and above Gaza and all ports of entry. Some argue that this is a form of occupation. Israel says it has no choice because Hamas wants to kill all Jews and if they open their borders to Palestinians there would be massive terrorist activity again.

The Propaganda Campaign:

As noted previously, after seizing power in 1922, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammed Amin al-Huseini, launched an anti-Jew propaganda campaign called "Izbah Al-Yahud" or “Slaughter the Jews.” This campaign was designed to portray Jews as violent invaders of Palestine and the Palestinians as victims of their aggression. Hence, the only solution, in the view of the Grand Mufti, was to slaughter all Jews. Initially many Muslims in the region opposed al-Huseini and asserted that the Fifth Sura of the Quran provides that Israel belongs to Jews and that Arabs are the guests in the land. Al-Huseini quickly turned his wrath against this group whom he identified as traitors and heretics, resulting in the execution of thousands of Arabs who had welcomed the Jews. Eventually, the only Arabs left in Palestine were those who supported al-Huseini or who remained silent in their opposition out of fear of reprisal.

It is often debated whether al-Huseini, who was conferred the title, “Honorary Aryan” by the Nazis, actually persuaded Hitler to concentrate and exterminate the Jews or whether Hitler simply had the same idea as al-Huseini and they agreed on an extermination plan. Hitler’s view of Arabs was complicated. At times he praised them and at other times he stated that he wanted nothing to do with them. More likely, he viewed al-Huseini as a “useful idiot” who shared his views about Jews. But regardless, they jointly laid the foundation for the Final Solution which consisted of the concentration and extermination of all Jews everywhere in the world.

In 1964, the Arab League formed the Palestine Liberation Organization, which heightened the public relations campaign designed to portray Israelis as violent aggressors and Palestinians as victims. This was nothing more than the blood libels and disparagement of Jews utilized throughout history and by Hitler during the rise of Nazism in extreme identity politics to foster hatred toward the Jews. It was this propaganda machine that allowed the Nazis to convince Germans to discriminate, concentrate, and eventually exterminate the Jews in Europe. The purpose of the Palestine Liberation Organization was to exterminate all Jews and establish a Jew-free Palestinian state and they used the same propaganda techniques as Hitler. This includes glorifying the martyr who dies while killing Jews and portraying Jews as violent aggressors abusing Palestinians.

One of the talking points of the PLO is that Israel is occupying Palestine, but they fail to disclose that whenever Israel releases its containment of Gaza, the Palestinian militants institute a massive number of attacks on Israel as was seen in the October 7, massacre. Thus, Israel is forced to keep Palestinians separate because if they don’t, thousands of Israelis would be killed. Then Israel is blamed for the occupation and the so-called apartheid. Israel’s limitation on travel by Palestinians is necessary to protect the Jews from attacks by terrorists. Nonetheless, the antisemites accuse Israel of being an occupier though it is impossible for Israel to open its borders and allow Palestinians to freely travel in Israel.

In the 1980s as oil production brought billions of dollars into Arab nations an enhanced anti-Israel campaign was launched throughout the world. The objective was again to portray Israel as the aggressor while downplaying the abuses by the PLO and Hamas. Part of the campaign included filming Israel’s retaliation to assaults by the PLO and Hamas without revealing the acts to which Israel was responding. Simultaneously, the anti-Israel nations began to acquire positions of authority within the United Nations resulting in a massive number of resolutions against Israel while the abuses of other nations were ignored. As a result of this PR campaign, much of the Western world developed an image of Israel as the aggressor with Palestinians as innocent victims. In 2007, Reuters photographer, Adnan Hajj, was discovered to be digitally altering photos to give the impression that Israel was engaged in war crimes. Hajj was terminated by Reuters, but he was only one of many journalists who participated in the anti-Israel campaign with fabricated evidence.

Those who carefully studied the footage of bombing victims in Gaza, over the past three decades, have noticed that many of the scenes of assault were staged. For example, videos of the same actor dying multiple times in different locations began to surface and other videos of footage of the aftermath of bombings were discovered to be staged when third persons taking videos of the filming revealed persons supposedly dead, getting up and walking away after the staged filming terminated. Lack of honesty in reporting events causes the integrity of the proponent of the claim to be in doubt. An example of this on the Israeli side makes the damage apparent. After the assault on October 7, 2023, many pro-Israel news outlets reported that 40 infants and toddlers were found beheaded in a kibbutz. While there were 40 slaughtered infants and toddlers found in one kibbutz, some of which were beheaded, they were not all beheaded. This simple misreporting was seized upon by pro-Palestinians to allege that the Jews were dishonest in reporting abuses by Hamas. This is the reason it is so important for everyone, on both sides of the issue, to speak honestly and truthfully. It is the only way we will be able to find a resolution to this dispute. Without honesty there is no sincerity, and without sincerity, there will never be peace.

The effort to exterminate the Jews consists of two primary components of propaganda. The first component, which is as ancient as the history of Jews, is to use identity politics to distinguish the Jewish people from other people by portraying them negatively with stereotypes so that eventually the public accepts the belief that discrimination against the Jews is justified. This occurred throughout history but became an overwhelming movement with the rise of Nazism in Germany. Now we are seeing this play out again throughout the world as Israel is demonized and portrayed as the sole aggressor in the current conflict with Palestine. Much of this misinformation about Israel has spread in universities that have received billions of dollars in financial support from anti-Israel people and nations. Why would the anti-Israel groups focus on college students to spew their hatred toward Jews? Because, many have said, university students are naïve and gullible people who cling to ideas based on popularity rather than morality, and because they will be the next generation of world leaders.

Even before Israel had provided any response to the massacre, protests against Israel began to take place all over the world.

The second component in the effort to exterminate the Jews is to expand the justification for discrimination against the Jews to various forms of mistreatment then eventually to justify their extermination. On October 7, 2023, even before Israel had provided any response to the massacre, protests against Israel began to take place all over the world. Undoubtedly, many of these groups were aware of the event before it occurred which allowed their rapid mobilization. But even more troubling is that these groups were portraying Israel as the aggressor who deserved this assault and Hamas as freedom fighters. Now, the propaganda campaign has acquired enormous momentum. All over the world, millions of people have come forward not only supporting Palestine but supporting Hamas and calling Hamas freedom fighters. The circle is now complete, the objective is to now expand the circle until there is sufficient support worldwide to completely annihilate the Jews and destroy Israel. Many who are aware of the campaign ask why an organization like Hamas, that is trying to portray itself as freedom fighters, would engage in a massacre of the form that occurred on October 7, 2023. The answer is quite simple. This was to condition and desensitize the world to the notion that Jews deserve to be exterminated because they are inherently evil and are abusing Palestinians. This is fulfilled Nazism, and it thrives worldwide today.

The False Equivalence

Within the propaganda against Israel is the effort to show Israel as the evil party engaged in human rights abuses. Most recently, this has taken the form of calling Israel’s military actions in Gaza genocide. Hence, it was stated by Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan, in an interview with CNN on October 25, 2023, that Israel’s bombing in Gaza is no different than Hamas attacking Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023. This comparison by the Queen is a false equivalence. We should first recognize the tremendous efforts of Queen Rania and her husband King Abdullah to fight against Islamic extremism in the Middle East, however, on this issue she is simply wrong.

In criminal law we have an element of crimes called mens rea. Mens rea is a criminal state of mind required for certain crimes such as murder. That mens rea for murder existed when the Hamas terrorists killed 1200 Israeli citizens in cold blood. To take a knife and cut off the limb of a little baby, and to set a group of children on fire, and to laugh and cheer as they burn, is the worst level of depravity known to human beings. The intent to cause injury to humans is the mens rea revealing the evil of these people. It meets the element of premeditated murder.

In contrast to the mens rea of the murderers on October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces are not intentionally targeting civilians. Rather, Israel is targeting Hamas who uses humans as shields and who places their military installations in mosques, hospitals, schools, and residential areas in Gaza. In contrast to Hamas, the IDF is warning Palestinians in advance before bombing the areas where they are located. Usually, the warnings come in the form of leaflets, dropped from planes, four to twenty-four hours before the bombing begins. When these warnings occur, instead of assisting the civilians in evacuating, Hamas warns the civilians not to leave and kills them if they are caught trying to evacuate. Even when Israeli soldiers secured certain streets and stood guard to provide avenues of safe passage for Palestinians, Hamas would shoot at the Palestinians walking on the avenues of safe passage.

It is impossible to normalize relations with someone who exists for the sole purpose of murdering you.

Israel is engaged in the task of eliminating Hamas from Gaza. It is clear that civilized individuals cannot co-exist with people of the level of depravity of Hamas. After trying for 70 years to normalize relations with Palestinians, it is apparent that it is impossible to normalize relations with someone who exists for the sole purpose of murdering you. But Israel is not intentionally targeting civilians. They are doing everything possible to minimize loss of civilian life. Targeting civilians is dropping a bomb on Hiroshima that results in the death of 140,000 people. Targeting civilians is bombing Dresden in a two-day assault that resulted in an estimated 250,000 civilian deaths. This is not what Israel is doing yet, historically, these acts of targeting citizens were considered acceptable warfare whereas Israel’s efforts to minimize loss of civilian life is considered a war crime. More recently, we saw 350,000 people killed in Syria in civil war and 150,000 killed in Yemin in a different war. We have seen hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Russian conflict with Ukraine and although these conflicts involved intentional targeting of civilians hardly a word is spoken. Yet, when Israel sets out on a legitimate and necessary task of eradicating Hamas and takes extraordinary steps to limit the loss of life, we see millions of people protesting all over the world and world leaders accusing Israel of war crimes. Why the difference? There is only one difference, the age-old problem of antisemitism.

Why the Hatred between Palestinians and Jews

The Western World struggles to understand the root of the conflict between Palestinians and the Israelis more commonly characterized as the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. The failure to understand the root of the conflict causes a failure to understand the reason for its occurrence today. To understand the basis for the conflict it is necessary to recognize that even in the modern world, the root of the conflict between Arabs and Jews is religious disagreement. Among moderate and rational Jews, Christians, and Muslims there is no issue. They understand and accept that there are many issues on which reasonable minds can differ, including religion. There are two million Muslim Arabs living in Israel, working in hospitals, businesses, and holding high positions in government. They are a testament to the wonderful people of Islam and their happy co-existence with Jews. Unfortunately, while other religions and people of the world have moved on from ancient religious hatred and prejudices, radicalized Muslims have not. Their hatred of Jews is based on a birthright they believe was taken from them unjustly in the dispute between Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Abraham, four thousand years ago. They have created a belief structure that is centered around this premise and deeply rooted in their brand of Islam, which many moderate Muslims say is heretical.

Many people will find it implausible that religious beliefs can be so strong that they would continue to perpetuate this hatred for the Jews. This lack of understanding has caused the Western World to repeatedly fail as it attempts to negotiate with terrorist entities such as the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Western World does not comprehend the religious fanaticism and extremism inherent in the belief structure of this fanatical group. Principles of morality universally accepted in the free world are rejected by these radical religious extremists. But when one realizes that until the last century the Jews were persecuted throughout Europe by various Christian groups who believed that Jews executed their Messiah, but who have now accepted the Jewish people as their equal, it becomes easy to understand that radical Islam has not come forward with the rest of humanity. While most Christians and Muslims have moved beyond this distrust of Jews, radicalized Muslims have not. Unless and until they do, they cannot live among civilized nations of the world.

Anti-Semitism at The United Nations

On October 5, 1945, at the conclusion of World War II the United Nations was formed. At its inception the United Nations was a beacon of light in a world filled with violence and hostility. Originally, consisting of 51 members, the organization served as the greatest invention of mankind for the global preservation of human rights. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created in 1948, has been translated into 500 languages and serves as a model for many nations in treating their residents and citizens. The United Nations has now expanded to include 193 nations and because its decisions are based on votes, antisemitic nations have acquired tremendous strength within the organization. So despite the fact that other nations have engaged in massive human rights abuses such as Syria, who caused the death of 360,000 Syrians, or Yemin whose abuses have caused the death of 150,000 Yemenites, or the Islamic Republic of Iran, who funds terrorism throughout the Middle East, Israel has received more nation specific resolutions by the United Nations Human Rights Council than any other nation. For example, in 2022, the United Nations General Assembly passed 15 nation specific resolutions against Israel and 13 against all other nations combined, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This pattern has occurred consistently for the past three decades. The question is why.

Historically, the United Nations has sided with radical Islam against the Israelis by allowing its facilities to be used to house terrorists and allowing its equipment to be used to for military actions by Hamas and the PLO. When Israel was still operating in Gaza prior to 2005 there were numerous reports of the UN allowing its equipment to be used by the PLO for military purposes and in one instance to use a UN ambulance to display the body of a dead Israeli soldier through the streets of Gaza. The abysmal failure of the United Nations becomes apparent when one realizes that through the notion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the state sponsor of terror throughout the Middle East, who executes its own citizens for being gay or for protesting against government abuses, was appointed to serve as the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Counsel Forum. While the appointment rotates among nations, certain nations who engage in such abuses should be excluded from participating in such positions until they fully adopt the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Because of these failures, the UN has lost its greatness as the model and standard of behavior for the world. It remains to be seen whether the United Nations will ever be a great institution again.

Resolution:

This standoff between Israel and Palestine creates an untenable situation that needs to be resolved. But with a government immediately next door whose sole objective is to annihilate Israel and kill every Jew, assimilation with Palestine is difficult for the Jews to achieve. So the question for all of us to consider is what is the best course of action in the conflict between Israel and Palestine?

The reality is that Hamas is an organization that carries the same genocidal objective as Adolph Hitler which is to murder all Jews. Indeed, the predecessor of Hamas developed the framework for the Final Solution with Adolph Hitler when they entered into an agreement on November 28, 1941. Hamas uses human shields and places its military installations in civilian locations so the death toll is high when Israel retaliates. Hamas not only targets innocent civilians but causes as much pain and misery as possible to the victim in the process. Hamas is evil hatred of the worst and most unmitigated kind. Israel cannot live next to a nation ruled by Hamas. Quite simply, as long as Hamas and other terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah, ISIS, the Taliban, and the IRI exist, there can be no peace in the world and especially in the Middle East. If Israel relaxes its guard and opens the border crossings, then Israel would be faced with rampant acts of terrorism. Yet, if Israel keeps the border crossings limited then Israel is accused of human rights abuses and occupation. In short, Israel has no viable course of action other than the complete destruction and annihilation of Hamas. The world needs to stand up to the terrorists once and for all. If we do not, they will become even more powerful and the lives of our children and grandchildren will be meaningless.

Notwithstanding Israel’s right and obligation to defend its citizens, utilization of methods to destroy Hamas should include the least intrusive means available to minimize the collateral damage to civilians.

The critical point is to remember that Israel is at war with Hamas, not the Palestinian people. Efforts taken to destroy Hamas, should be as surgically precise as possible to minimize collateral damage and the loss of civilian life. Before bombing in a particular area Israel typically notifies the local Palestinians in advance. Although Hamas often prohibits people from leaving, this at least saves some Palestinian lives. However, the loss of property is clearly devastating. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and other property from the bombings. Given that property insurance is unavailable in these war-torn countries, these families simply lose everything they own. And the number of Palestinian deaths is unknown because reports given by Hamas are unreliable, but we know the number of deaths is high because of Hamas’s practices, in violation of international law, of placing its military installations among civilians.

Notwithstanding Israel’s right and obligation to defend its citizens, utilization of methods to destroy Hamas should include the least intrusive means available to minimize the collateral damage to civilians. As Hamas becomes weaker more and more Palestinians are stepping forward to condemn Hamas. They are posting their videos on the internet and pleading for Israel and the US to destroy Hamas. This would be a timely moment to begin offering monetary rewards to citizens of Palestine who are willing to provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of members of Hamas. $10,000 or $20,000 would be an enormous amount of money to a Palestinian family and would enhance the desire to be free of Hamas. Israel could also offer medical care and scholarships to Israeli universities to those who assist in the overthrow of Hamas.

Once Israel finishes its current objective of eliminating Hamas, the next critical step is to help restore the Palestinian people to a reasonable standard of living. This will be the first time in history when Israel has had a real opportunity to provide a greater society for Palestinians. Indeed, with cooperation and effort, the Gaza Strip should become a world class coastal resort. It will not be easy, but peace between Palestine and Israel can be achieved within our lifetimes. That should be the goal of Israelis and Palestinians. Sometime in the near future, after seeing the wonderful life Israelis live, Palestinians might even petition to acquire formal annexation by the nation of Israel.