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Hamas hates both.

Its founding Covenant declares:

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realized.

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The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, “O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

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The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.

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Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people. “May the cowards never sleep.”

If there were any doubts of the antisemitic fervor of Hamas, the events of October 7 should dispel them. A movement that kills, burns, and mutilates women, the elderly, and babies does not intend merely to erase its opponent’s army and government. It intends to erase its people.

The deeds of Hamas are consistent with the language of its Covenant. Its goal is to eradicate Israel’s Jews in the same way the Nazis eradicated Europe’s Jews. But with one difference. The Nazis tried to keep their antisemitic murders secret. Hamas publicizes its antisemitic murders on social media.

We hear so much about attacks on Israel, and Israel counterattacks on its foes, that it is easy to imagine that if Israel somehow ceased to exist, peace would finally come to the Middle East.

But the end of Israel would not mark the end of war.

Right now, brutal civil wars are raging in Yemen, Syria, and Sudan. The bloodiest Middle Eastern war in modern times was the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 -1988, which claimed at least one million lives.  None of these wars have or had anything to do with Israel.

In fact, if Israel ceased to exist tomorrow, its disappearance would cause a new war to break out … in the land which had formerly been Israel! This war would be between Hamas and Fatah for control of the abandoned territory.  These two Palestinian factions have already fought one war in 2007 for control of Gaza. In that vicious fight, both sides committed war crimes.  If Israel ceased to exist, Hamas and Fatah would likely fight another bloody war for control of the rest of the land.

The sad truth is that the Middle East is a violent neighborhood. Some Israelis may regret that Providence or Fate or both located their country there. But Israel’s disappearance would not bring about an end to war. It would just bring about the end of Israel.

The “cycle of violence” theory rests on the notion that each side resorts to violence only in response to violent acts committed by its opponent. But the Hamas terrorist attack was not in response to violence by Israel. On the contrary, the October 7 attack was in response to peacemaking efforts by Israel. As President Biden stated, its purpose was to derail efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Sadly, it appears to have succeeded.

There is nothing new in this strategy. Israel’s fiercest enemies have used violence, not in response to something Israel did, but as a weapon of first resort. It is a surefire method of gaining support for the terrorists. Yasser Arafat launched the 2000 Intifada, not in response to any attacks by Israel, but in response to American and Israeli peacemaking efforts at Camp David.

If Israel holds back out of fear of contributing to a “cycle of violence,” it will not avoid violence. It will just allow its enemies the freedom to choose where and when to inflict that violence.

Many people incorrectly assume that proportionality is some kind of mathematical principle: if attackers kill a thousand of my people, I am entitled to respond by killing a thousand of theirs, but no more.

In fact, the principle of proportionality in international law holds that the use of force must be proportionate to the threat faced and must be limited to what is necessary to deal with the threat. In other words, it’s not a matter of numbers. It’s a matter of sufficiency.

Has Israel’s use of force exceeded “what is necessary to deal with the threat”? Recent events demonstrate the opposite. Israel’s use of force has been less, not more, than necessary to deal with the terrorist threat.

For years before October 7, Israel has suffered periodic missile attacks emanating from Gaza. Its entire southern population lives in a state of constant dread. Schools and bus stops must be hardened from attack, and every home must include a bomb-proof safe room.

Israel has taken a variety of forceful measures to deal with these threats, but the measures have clearly failed to eliminate them. If they had been sufficient, we would not have just witnessed the largest loss of Jewish lives in a single day since the Holocaust.

It remains to be seen how it will respond to the October 7 attack. But when Israel does respond, we as Americans should remember that we responded to the events of 9/11 by commencing two wars and toppling two governments. Israel is a much smaller country. As President Biden noted, the October 7 massacre in Israel was the demographic equivalent of 15 9/11s in the United States.

When Israel responds, it is unlikely that Israel’s use of force will be disproportionate; i.e., more than what is necessary to deal with the threat. The danger is that Israel will not respond forcefully enough to deal with the threat.

The main reason Israel’s enemies accuse it of using disproportionate force is to distract attention from Hamas’s blatant violations of international law. These violations include firing rockets indiscriminately at Israel’s civilian population centers; embedding rocket launchers and other military assets in or near mosques, schools, and hospitals to provoke Israel into retaliating by hitting those facilities; and taking civilian hostages.

Hamas terrorists do not murder Israelis because Israel blockades Gaza. Israel blockades Gaza because Hamas terrorists murder Israelis.

Israel first occupied Gaza following the Six Day War in 1967. In 1978, under the Camp David Accords, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt in return for peace. Israel tried to include Gaza in the exchange, but the Egyptians refused to accept it. So Israel remained an involuntary occupier until 2005, when it unilaterally pulled out.

Israel hoped that Gaza, situated on a beautiful Mediterranean shoreline, could become economically vibrant, and that its people would become more interested in living well than in killing Israelis. When Israel disengaged, it left behind 3,000 state-of-the-art greenhouses, which had generated hundreds of millions of dollars in flowers and agricultural products.  They hoped that their transfer to Palestinian control would help jump-start the local economy. 

The Gazans demolished them within hours of the departure of the Israelis.

After Hamas gained control over Gaza, it began a periodic campaign of firing rockets into Israel.  Hamas boasted that it fired more than 11,000 rockets at Israel between 2000 and 2011, killing more than 1,360 Israelis and injuring more than 6,400 others. It also built tunnels into Israel.

The blockade was a direct result of these unprovoked attacks on Israeli civilians. To reduce the missile fire and terror tunnels, Israel has tried to block the importation of “dual-use” materials, such as metal and cement, which should be used for construction, but which Hamas diverts and uses to make rockets and tunnels. Hamas uses child labor to build these tunnels.  According to a 2012 article published by the Institute for Palestine Studies, Hamas officials have admitted that more than 160 children were killed in construction accidents.

Israel has tried to ensure that humanitarian supplies intended for civilians are not stolen and used by Hamas for its military. This appears to have happened just last week, when the UN agency in charge of refugee affairs disclosed that Hamas had stolen 24,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies meant for refugees. The UN agency later withdrew this statement, almost certainly out of fear of Hamas reprisals.

It is noteworthy that Egypt, which also shares a border with Gaza, also imposes a blockade.

Even after years of rocket fire, Israel held to the hope that a prosperous Gaza would be a peaceful neighbor. Up until the October 7 terrorist attack, Israel was issuing 20,000 work permits allowing Gazans to work at high-paying jobs in Israel.

Unfortunately, these hopes have been dashed, perhaps permanently, by the October 7 terrorist rampage. Hamas has forced Israel to continue to blockade Gaza. No doubt Hamas will continue to blame Israel for restrictive measures which its own terrorist activities have necessitated.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

The Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 4.

By the time you read this post, the impeachment proceedings against President Trump may have wound down to their inevitable conclusion. This was only the third such trial in our nation’s 230-year history, which renders such occasions as rare as Halley’s Comet. Like the Comet, they are worth careful observation.

Much of the debate has centered on the nature of impeachable offenses. Are such offenses limited to criminal conduct?  Or may non-criminal conduct – such as abuse of power – qualify? Both sides have recognized that this issue affects not only President Trump but also future presidents.

Very little has been written or said, however, about another group of public officials affected by this question: federal judges.

We have all heard repeatedly that Article II, Section 4 provides for removal from office only after “Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” But we rarely hear the words preceding it: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States.” Federal judges are civil officers of the United States, so whatever precedents may be created by the trial of President Trump, they will apply to judges as well. Continue reading →

“The day I had my colonoscopy was the best day of my life,” Everett Staley told me. Staley liked to shock. But he tended to tell the truth.

“I hated the prep of course. But the colonoscopy itself lingers in my memory like a comforting dream.” Even now, the thought evoked a sigh from Staley.

I should explain something. Everett Staley’s colonoscopy occurred toward the end of what he called his “Year of Pain.” He was in pain, more or less constantly, for more than twelve months. It had nothing to do with his colonoscopy. The colonoscopy was merely a foil to make the Year of Pain more understandable.

“Whenever I go in for a colonoscopy, I always ask them to go easy on the anesthetic so I can watch,” Staley said. “The inside of your intestines are up on a monitor, you know. If you’re not fully knocked out, you can watch the doctor’s progress.  I like to watch and pose questions and offer advice. At least I think that’s what I’m doing. Maybe I’m just dreaming.” Staley paused and reconsidered. “The truth is, I asked them to go easy on the anesthetic this time so I’d be conscious enough to enjoy it.”

“Enjoy what?” I asked.

“The absence of pain.”

Continue reading →