A Rant for Liberals
A recent Facebook post by a relative kept me up last night.
As I write this, it is 12:25 am on Sunday, April 28, 2024. I am at home in the western Galilee, about 5 miles from the Lebanon border. I was not planning to publish anything this Tuesday as it is Passover and I was taking a holiday break. But a half-hour ago I was awakened by the distant sound of a missile warning siren and then a dozen or more loud booms that were either missiles being blown apart by the Iron Dome or Israeli artillery taking out the placements from which the missiles were shot. I know they were not impacts because the building didn’t vibrate, just the old windows.
Shortly before going to sleep I had read a Facebook post a relative reposted that distressed me. It repeated the Hamas propaganda that Israel is practicing genocide and apartheid. These accusations are not true—not at all. Unable to go back to sleep after being awakened by the sounds of war, I decided to put my thoughts and experiences on these issues down for my readers.
My Conversion from Liberalism
Raised in a liberal/progressive household, I considered myself a Democrat for the first 40+ years of my life. In 1991 I spent a week in Fairbanks, Alaska as storyteller-in-residence at the Jewish day camp. Outside of camp hours I had few social contacts and little to do, so I listened to the radio. The only station I could get broadcast the arch-conservative Rush Limbaugh. I was appalled at the things he reported. I even made a list of his outrageous claims. When I got back home, I researched his claims. This was before the Internet, so I used the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature to find media references for those claims, then found the articles in question in archived newspapers and read them myself.
Photos of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, Rush Limbaugh, and Nancy Pelosi
I was shocked to discover that the “outrageous” claims Limbaugh made were true. Even news sources that had used tens of column-inches reporting the twisted news had, if they bothered to issue corrections, published them in two or three lines buried on a back page of the newspaper.
I only listened to Limbaugh for a week and did not document every claim; but every one I wrote down was accurate, and every one showed that the truth was actually the opposite of what the news media had originally presented.
A couple of years later, President Bill Clinton made his famous “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” All the Democrat senators and representatives from my state supported him even though he was clearly weaseling if not lying outright about his adultery with a barely-adult woman. I was more upset at the way Democrats were willing to throw morality overboard to protect Clinton than that this one flawed man had behaved badly. I knew that I could not trust my elected officials to support issues that I believed in because I believe in honesty and fairness. I know that those traits, while impossible to be reached perfectly, are worth striving for, and at least some Democrats in the US Congress clearly disagreed.
I changed my voter registration.
Slanted Reporting
Here are three examples of slanted reporting that have contributed to anti-Israel sentiment.
In 1979 or 1980s the Boston Globe had a full-page article, mostly consisting of a picture of an Arab woman with her handbag being inspected by a soldier. The article said all Arabs were distrusted and had to be checked for weapons wherever they went—a grave example of prejudice. I remember this article because I had spent five weeks in Israel in 1979. EVERYONE entering a public building or a large shop such as a supermarket had to open all packages, including briefcases and handbags. Why? Because Arab terrorists were using small bombs to blow up innocent civilians. At that time, toys such as dolls and trucks were often put under shrubbery in parks with a bomb underneath so that small children would be blown up reaching for the toys. Sacks of groceries or loaves of bread left on park benches were likewise booby-trapped. Everyone—religious and secular Jews as well as Arabs—was checked because Arabs were bombing civilians. This fact was not reported.
News articles in the USA and Europe often report that a number of Palestinians have been killed by Israelis. They neglect to mention that at the time of their death they were involved in attacks where Israeli civilians were killed or wounded.
An AP article once discussed prejudice against Christians in Israel because the Israelis did not sell Christmas trees. The article suggested that discriminatory laws prevented this. The facts are these:
Christmas trees are a German custom that has become popular in many European countries and the USA. Most Christians in Israel are Arabs who never had this custom.
Israel’s forests were hand-planted in the early years of Jewish resettlement and statehood. They are considered practically sacred. Wood in general is extremely expensive and trees are not cut down just to be tossed aside a few weeks later.
Expecting to find a profitable market for real cut trees for Christmas in Israel is as realistic as finding a profitable kosher restaurant in Hobbs, New Mexico.
By the way, today artifical trees and other decorations have become common in Christian communities. Both my optometrist and dentist are Arab Christians and both decorate their workplaces for Christmas with decorated artificial trees.
The anti-Israel media has been doing a hatchet job on Israel for more years than many of my readers have been alive.
Samir
Samir was a 27-year-old Palestinian ESL student I taught in 2007 at Richland College in Richardson, Texas, a community adjacent to Dallas. He was learning English so he could study electrical engineering in the USA. His dream was to return to Gaza, his birthplace. But he had left Gaza after Hamas came to power. Before that he had worked as a waiter at a hotel in Ashkelon. Ashkelon is a seaside resort city along the southwest coast of Israel, and the hotel had many Israeli as well as foreign guests. Samir told me that everyone got along and he was treated well at the hotel by guests as well as other employees and management. However, after Hamas came to power and began terrorizing Israel, the border was closed and he, along with thousands of other Palestinians, lost their Israeli jobs. He told me that he missed his family but was afraid to return home for a visit because Hamas considered those who had left Gaza and then returned to be traitors and sometimes killed them.
Casualty Totals
The published number of casualties in Gaza is 34,000, of which the majority are women and children. One Gaza source is reported to have said one Gaza child is killed every 10 minutes. This is a staggering number of children, so large that it is patently false. These numbers come from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. As such it is highly suspect; Hamas lies. Israel says the IDF has killed about 8,500 terrorists and few civilians. A woman in Arab garb who attempts to stab soldiers is not a civilian. She is a terrorist.
Israel reports—a fact that has been documented many times by non-Israelis—that Hamas uses civilians as shields. This is why they plant their military equipment in private homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals—so that when these targets are struck, civilians, especially children, will be killed. To avoid these deaths is why Israel has insisted Gazans evacuate: they cannot be killed if they are not present. But in many places, Hamas has prevented civilians from leaving.
What is not reported is the number of Israelis who are not killed by missiles because God is protecting the Jewish nation. There was no human way that 300 missiles, rockets, and suicide drones launched from Iran two weeks ago could cause only one death and virtually no property damage: it must have been because of God’s protection. The mullahs in Iran are too smart to have authorized the attack if they had not had confidence in their weaponry, confidence that with God’s assistance proved unfounded.
Judaism teaches that we need to do our “hishtadlut,” our effort, for the result we want, and pray for God to complete it. The Ethics of the Fathers (Pirke Avot 2:16) says, “He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it…” The IDF does its best. At the same time, almost everyone in Israel is praying for God’s protection, including a vast number of secular Jews as well as non-Jewish citizens. Many friends overseas, Jewish and nonJewish, are also praying.
Without this help Israel would have huge casualties. See the first paragraph of this essay: if those dozen or more missiles sent near midnight last night had struck, at least twelve families would likely have been killed or maimed. Barrages like that are every-day occurrances, just not usually where I can hear them so clearly.
Families here tend to be large. Let’s say 5 people per family, twelve families, 60 people one night. Multiply that by 210 nights (seven months of approximately 30 days each) and you have 12,600 casualties avoided because God is giving the Iron Dome and related equipment almost 100% accuracy. And these would, G-d forbid, have truly been civilians, people at home in their beds or at their work desks.
Why I Trust Israeli Soldiers
I trust what Israeli soldiers say about their military experiences because I know so many, or their close relatives, personally. When the war broke out, I contacted the small group of “Anglos” (English-speaking people) from my community asking for the names of relatives and close friends in the army reserves who were called up to active duty. The list would be sent back to the community members as a list of people for whose safety we would pray. Within 2 hours I had a list of over 60 names.
A few things you probably don’t know. Israel is about the size of New Jersey. It has never begun a war: it is called the Israel Defense Forces because it is a defensive, not offensive, army. Soldiers on active duty, except during a war, get every second weekend off. Now that there is excellent rail service through much of the country, soldiers often go home for Shabbat on their off-weeks.
Unlike American soldiers, who are usually stationed far from home and easily become emotionally isolated, Israeli soldiers generally spend more time with their families than most American college students do. Even on active duty during this war, by far the longest since the War for Independence in 1947-48, they are given leave whenever feasible. Soldiers serving in Gaza are often too remote to travel or are in situations where leave is impossible. Generally, soldiers are neither in an environment, nor isolated from loved ones enough, to become heartless killers of civilians.
Last week, at lunch on the first day of Passover, I met the brother of an acquaintance who is a special education teacher. He works with boys of all races and religions who come from severely dysfunctional homes. He had just returned from five months of fighting in Gaza. He shared that his men would go into homes to find weapons, and usually found sofa cushions and mattresses (including crib mattresses) that were filled with mortars and other weaponry.
Until the war began, Israel had strict gun control laws and most Jews were unable to qualify to own firearms. Following the October 7 massacre the government relaxed the laws because it was obvious men and women needed to be able to protect their homes and families. Training course, required to obtain gun permits, were made available. Note that the linked article was published the day after the Hamas massacre at a time when only 600 were known to have died. The total was raised to 1200 civilian deaths after another 600 bodies were found. Some totals are listed as 400; this includes the 200 soldiers killed when their army base was overrun.
I have read that many Nazi butchers were family men. But they were trained by participating in years of riots like today’s BLM/George Floyd/Hamas sponsored by the Nazi Youth program. If Israelis were so hate-filled toward Palestinians, wouldn’t you expect to see a lot of hate crimes within Israel? (The very small amount of so-called “settler violence” is in response to Arab attacks, a little fact that the mainstream media neglects to mention.)
For Israelis, the Holocaust is personal. With family stories about finding refuge, Israelis support helping others. Ask the Viet Namese boat people who were saved in 1969 or the African refugees from Sudan, Somalia, and other countries (not counting the Ethiopians, who are Jewish) who have entered illegally but still received medical care and some social services, and who are repatriated when the situation in their country settles down.
Israelis are not the kinds of people who massacre women and children. Israelis don’t even kill terrorists unless to halt an on-going terror activity. That’s why there are hundreds if not thousands in Israeli jails.
Israeli men and women, soldiers and civilians, are teachers, cooks, shopkeepers, computer engineers, musicians, and writers who want the shelling of Jewish communities to end, who want to ensure that no other Israelis awaken to find their children being beheaded in their cribs or shoved into ovens with the heat turned up to high, and their 13-year-old daughters being gang-raped, as happened on October 7.
They want to live in peace, but peace does not mean Hamas. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” means the eradication of Israel and the death of the Jews—and anyone else—living here. Hamas proved this; during the massacre they did not differentiate between Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, agnostics or atheists. Israeli soldiers fight for our survival and that of our children and grandchildren, not for the eradication of civilians.
Message to Liberals
To my relative who reposted the letter and to all other liberals and progressives for whom justice is important, I ask these questions:
Are Muslim massacres of Christians in Nigeria because of the Israeli occupation? What about Muslim massacres in Sudan? What about “lone wolf” attacks as reported in India? Or is there a pattern here that has nothing to do with Israel, colonization, or occupation?
Are you aware that UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) works in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank, and UNHRC (UN Refugee Agency) works in all the rest of the world? The UNHRC is tasked with resettling refugees in new homes whereas UNRWA is tasked with maintaining Palestinians as refugees until they can be returned to their “homeland.”
Why are Palestinians treated differently from all other refugees from all the rest of the world? Is this logical? Is it practical? How do you imagine this fact may have contributed to the ongoing unrest in the Middle East?
When you read of stabbings in the USA, are Jews more likely to be the perpetrators or victims?
How often have you heard about Jews in the USA killing family members in “honor killings?” How often have you heard about Muslims in the USA killing family members in “honor killings?” Does this suggest anything to you about culture or religion, or do you attribute it to oppressor/oppressed status?
How many Jews have blown up buses? How many Jews have left bombs in public areas such as the finish line of a major marathon? How many Jews have been suicide bombers?
Are you aware that Israel has been forced by Western powers to return land that it conquered in defensive wars many times, including Suez in 1956-57, Sinai in 1979, and Gaza in 2005?
Do you know that Israel has offered Palestinian leadership land for peace five times and the offers have been rejected each time because the Palestinians demand all the land or none?
Israel has been accused of "being unwilling to negotiate” when the truth is that the only position Arabs will accept is that Israel become part of a one-state solution run by Islamist Arabs. Since this means death to the Jews—as has been proclaimed countless times—this is a non-negotiable point.
Are you aware that Arabs—Muslim, Christian, Druze—are equal citizens in Israel? As I have said, my optometrist and dentyist are Arabs. I have had Muslim doctors in Israel, and when I was hospitalized, many nurses, lab techs, and orderlies were Muslim. Muslims in Israel serve in the Knesset, are commentators on radio and TV, and have high positions in banks, high-tech, and other businesses. There is no apartheid in Israel.
Are you aware that the number of Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank has increased dramatically in the years since the 6-Day War, when the “Occupation” began? If Israel is practicing genocide, how can the population be growing so quickly?
Why is it easier for you to believe that Israelis are deliberately killing Palestinian women and children than that Hamas is using its own people as human shields?
What makes you believe that Israeli Jews have lost respect for human life while Jews in other places have not?
Outside of mainstream media including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, CNN, and MSNBC, where do you get your news? Has it ever occurred to you that you might be hearing only one perspective, and that perspective could be based on lies?
I’ve linked to an example from 2016 that epitomizes biased news. If you only scan the headline, “Palestinian wounded in Jerusalem bus bombing dies, Hamas claims him,” you would believe that one innocent person, an Arab, was killed and that Hamas, trying to look important, said they were responsible. Reading the article, you learn two important things: First, the article suggests, but does not say, the Arab was a suicide bomber. Second, that although he had blown up a bus filled with Israeli civilians, the bomber was treated in an Israeli hospital, where he died in spite of medical care. In a genocidal state, would the government provide medical care for a criminal of the group they are trying to eradicate? The article also gives a death count for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces but not a death, injury, or property damage count for Israelis affected by Palestinian attacks.
The mainstream media is full of anti-Netanyahu information. First, before you accuse Israeli politicians of corruption, you should take a good look at the Biden, Clinton, and Pelosi families and at the billionaire leaders of Hamas living in luxury in Qatar. Second, contrary to what your mainstream media says, Netanyahu is very, very popular among Israelis. In the not-quite-seven years I have lived in Israel, I have voted for new governments five times. Each time, Netanyahu’s party has won, with the percentages growing with each election. He is not a far-right extremist. He is a strong centrist leader who understands that a two-state solution where one side vocally calls for the destruction of the other is not a solution. And he knows that Israelis are sick of being accustomed to missile attacks. We want them to stop. And we want our hostages returned. Want the war to end? Easy: Pressure Hamas to throw down its weapons and return the hostages.
Most Israelis support the way the war is being conducted—which is not the way the war is portrayed by Hamas, the major source for US news and the only source used by the mainstream media for a Palestinian casualty count. The same progressive organizations that funded the Black Lives Matter movement and are funding the pro-Hamas demonstrations are funding the anti-government protests in Israel; the protesters represent only a very, very small portion of the population.
If the Hamas demonstrations are not being funded and are, indeed, grass-roots, why do photos of the encampments all show the same kind of (expensive) pop-up tents being used? Mere coincidence?
Photo by Jewish Telegraphic Agency If you search via Google, please be aware that Google algorithms bury pro-Israel and anti-Muslim information, along with information from conservative sources. The first many links on a search page may be about the same event, with each individual news story receiving its own listing. One item I searched gave me 12 almost-identical articles on one incident, an incident where a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child was killed. If you are searching for outrages against Jews, you may have to search hard in order to find just a few articles. Scroll deeply down to reach different information.
Hanna, you wrote an excellent well thought out accurate article. Thank you. These have been my experiences too.