Israel Is Not the Oppressor

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                The civilized world is still horrified and in shock over the vicious attack on Israel by Hamas, a terrorist organization sponsored and financed by Iran, that governs Gaza and is dedicated to the destruction of Jews and Israel. The ghastly crimes committed against innocent civilians including babies, some of whom were decapitated, pregnant women, the elderly and the sick, reveal a frightening degree of hatred for an entire race of people who are guilty of nothing but the desire to raise their families in peace and live in harmony with their neighbors.

                The depraved monsters that crossed the border from Gaza into southern Israel to murder Israelis in their beds committed these crimes in God’s name. How dare they? Who gave these animals the authority to speak for God? And what is to be done about it?

                As a Catholic, I am instructed by my religion to love my enemy and forgive his trespasses. Hate the sin but love the sinner. Vengeance is the Lord’s, I’m reminded. Very well then. May God have mercy on their souls but meanwhile the living must be protected against these ghouls. As long as they are allowed to live they will be a danger to Jews and Christians.

                Almost immediately the timid voices urging restraint or a “proportionate” response are heard. What, then, would be “proportionate” to decapitating a helpless infant? What would be “proportionate”, say, to raping a pregnant woman and dragging her naked boy through the streets to be held for ransom? Israelis were granted a few days to vent and bury some of the dead but now they are urged to take care to spare civilians. But Hamas didn’t. How is that proportionate? Yes, I know. We’re better than that. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear talk of resuming the peace process and two-state solution soon. Oh, wait; Biden already has. Of, course, there never was a “process”; just talk. How can two nations exist side by side when one side wishes to kill you? If Hamas is allowed to survive and goes unpunished for these hideous crimes against mankind, its next victims will blame us and they will be right to do so.

                The pro-Palestine demonstrations in many American and foreign cities and especially on U.S. college campuses seemed to catch many Americans by surprise. Having observed growing anti-Semitic sentiment on campuses for years and writing about it I am not surprised; only alarmed and curious as to why Israel is seen as the oppressor, responsible for the Hamas attack. Israelis are, of course, an easy target, unlikely to react by observing a day or two of rage or engaging in suicide bombings. They seem resigned to being blamed for all the many problems in the Arab world. The United Nations devotes much of its agenda to criticizing Israel.

                Why the obvious bias? What has Israel done to deserve it? Well, for one thing, it has succeeded against the odds. Nothing rankles one’s enemies more than one’s success. Nine million Jews from all over the world gathered on 8000 square miles of mostly barren land and built the world’s 31^st largest economy, twice defending it against unprovoked attacks of war and periotic suicide attacks. Pampered and protected university students and faculty, looking for a cause to support, simply can’t accept the fact that Israel’s success was based on merit and the capitalist system and did not come on the backs of the Palestinians. Israelis are not colonizers and Israel is not an apartheid state. It was created out of a British colony, like ours was, on lands their ancestors occupied. Arabs who wished to remain in what is now Israel or the West Bank with full rights of citizenship were free to do so. About twenty percent of the population did.

                The Gaza Strip was ceded to the Palestine Authority in 2005. A coastal strip, it could have become a prosperous city/state but instead became a base for Hamas to launch terrorist attacks against Israel. What could have been part of a two-state “solution” is now in ruins. Palestinians are clearly not ready for statehood and never will be as long as a core objective is to destroy Israel and kill Jews.

                How did academia get this so wrong? I understand why the students did. Most are gullible and will accept almost anything their professors tell them if only to get the grades. One group of pro-Palestinian protestors were photographed displaying rainbow flags. Really. Do they have a clue as to how homosexuals are treated in some Arab countries? But the grown-ups with the graduate degrees should know better. So what’s going on here? We need an investigation to determine who or what is responsible for the corruption on our campuses. If only we could find an investigative agency qualified and objective enough to conduct such an investigation.

                Meanwhile, before you write that next check to a university that may be indoctrinating your child to become an anti-Semite, think of a better use of those funds such as help for Jewish victims of Hamas atrocities.

October 27, 2023

Time to End Anti-Semitism Forever

                A commentary

                By J.F. Kelly, Jr.

                Seventy-six years ago, after WW-II and the horrors of the Holocaust, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 to divide Great Britain’s expiring Palestinian Mandate into separate Arab and Jewish states. The independent state of Israel was created the following year and the Jewish people, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, finally had a homeland.

 The war’s two emerging superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union were the first two countries to recognize the new country. The General Assembly voted 38 to 13 in favor with 10 nations abstaining. The idea was to create a homeland for the Jewish diaspora who wanted to return to their biblical lands after the displacements of WWII. 

The original plan was that Trans-Jordan east of the Jordan River would be Arab land and territory west of the river (West Bank) would be Israeli Arabs who lived in Israel or the West Bank could continue to live there with full rights of citizenship. As one can plainly see by glancing at a map, most of the Middle East is Arab Land. The Jewish homeland is a tiny, dagger-shaped peace of stubby desert less than half the size of New Jersey but Jews everywhere rejoiced at being able to settle in part of the biblical lands where they were welcomed if they wished to.

There wasn’t much time for rejoicing, however. The nascent nation was promptly attacked by the combined Arab Armies who were expected to make short work of the intruders who they would not welcome as neighbors. But against all odds, the Jewish settlers fought valiantly to defend their homes and inflicted a humiliating defeat upon the heavily-favored oppressors. It was the first of two unprovoked wars designed to drive them into the sea punctuated by random acts of terrorism. Both failed and illustrated how difficult it can be to defeat people who are fighting to save their lands.

The land that they so loved was hardly a garden of Eden. It was mostly barren desert except for attractive Mediterranean coastline. But hard work turned it into a prosperous nation, the world’s 31st largest economy and our closest ally in the area.

Throughout this period, the so-called peace process sought stubbornly to create a two-state solution. The efforts, predictably, failed utterly because the Palestine Authority always demanded more and then more again. It could have long ago had the independent state it demanded except for the greed of Yasar Arafat and Mahmud Abbas but a two- state solution is off the table forever now because of the latest acts of terrorism by Hamas, the Iran -sponsored terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip that resulted in the murder of women and children, the elderly, decapitation of babies and the taking of hostages.

This may be the death of the peace process. It never really was a process at all. How you have a peace process when one side hates the other and refuses to acknowledge the other’s right to even live. It was an exercise in futility and an embarrassment for the United States to have brokered it.

Israel must now do whatever it takes to eliminate, not just punish or defeat Hamas and Hezbollah, the terrorist organizations sponsored by Iran, dedicated to the death of Americans and Jews. For too long we have tolerated thinly-veiled anti-Semitism on our college campuses and in the United Nations that amounts to hate speech. Celebrations of the Hamas “victories” in many of our cities were another international embarrassment. In a desperate search for a cause they have picked the least deserving one. They need to be told that they are condoning evil.

 A nation’s leaders have one responsibility above all others which is the safety of their people. That safety cannot be assured so long as terrorist organization are allowed to operate.

October 20, 2023

The Great Power Competition

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

All is not well in the People’s Republic of China these days. Its economy is stalling. Unemployment, especially among the young, is creeping up. The housing industry, which accounts for about one quarter of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) is in danger of collapsing with a huge oversupply of inventory as a result of overbuilding. Yet, liquidity problems prevent delivery of partially-finished but already paid for homes and businesses. This does not help leader Xi Jinping convince developing nations that the communist system is superior to America’s capitalist system.

The sudden disappearance of key government officials without explanation doesn’t help, either. Foreign Minister Qin Gang was striped of his duties in July without explanation. It was finally disclosed that he was fired over an extramarital affair after health reasons were first cited. More recently Defense Minister Li Shangfu disappeared from public view, leading to speculation that it was part of Xi’s effort to purge corruption in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) which reportedly is interfering with Mr. Xi’s agenda including, perhaps, what to do about Taiwan and when to do it.

Meanwhile, our Indo-Pacific allies are strengthening their relationship with us and each other, increasing defense spending and voicing their opposition to any action by the PRC against Taiwan that would change the status quo.

The situation is even worse for China’s ally, Russia. Having survived a mutiny by the leader of the mercenary group Wagner, who then conveniently perished when his airplane blew up and crashed, Vladimir Putin is now locked into what is sure to be a lengthy and costly war of attrition in Ukraine which will almost certainly require full Russian mobilization for a war gone very bad for Vladimir Putin and one that he cannot afford to lose and hope to stay in power.

You may think that things are going well for our side in the current phase of the great power competition. That seems to be President Joe Biden’s view of things and that of his advisors. They should think again. When autocratic leaders face domestic discontent they typically turn to military action to distract the people and give them something to cheer about. That could increase the risk that the PRC could move on Taiwan earlier rather than later. In Russia, mobilization for a lengthy war that was supposed to be a cakewalk may not play well with the Russian people making victory imperative whatever the cost or methods used.

We are late enough in taking the danger of war, perhaps on two or more fronts, seriously. We are pre-occupied with domestic issues and the theatrics of another election. We may already be too late to prepare to deter or win a war and yet there has been little discussion by the candidates of what needs to be done. Our Navy and Air Force are obviously too small in size to deter or win a conventional war. Economic challenges have not prevented the PRC from expanding its Navy to the world’s largest but our fleet is still shrinking. We are de-commissioning more ships than we are building and re-building the defense infrastructure to the level necessary to build and support what we need is still largely in the talking stage.                                                                                                                                                                             America is behind in hypersonic weapons and is reportedly struggling to keep up with China in artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other technologies. Hypersonic missiles, which China and Russia have, could evade detection systems and strike our ships at sea and in bases through the Western Pacific and beyond. They can fly at 20 times the speed of sound and could reach anywhere on earth in less than an hour. In March, according to a Wall Street Journal article, the Air Force cancelled its most advanced hypersonic program after several test failures. The program, developed by Lockheed Martin was scrapped in favor of Raytheon’s version which isn’t expected to be ready until 2027 at the earliest.

America’s remaining shipyards are reportedly dealing with shortages of space, shipwrights, welders and other technicians. In the process of trying to build a heavy ice breaker for the Coast Guard, our shipyard workers had to re-learn how to bend and shape thick, hardened steel hull plating since we hadn’t done any of that kind of work since the armored ships of the last century. The Chinese and Russians don’t seem to have problems building ice breakers. Russia has 36. China has 4 and China isn’t even an Arctic power. We have 2, both out of service, and we are an Arctic power. Perhaps the Russians or Chinese could teach us how to build ships again.

October 1, 2023