Editor:
How does one make sense of the senseless? How does one explain to our children the depths of
man’s depravity and the sheer evil behind what transpired in Israel on Oct. 7?
Some pundits and individuals who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause are either ignorant or
blinded by hate. Either way the rest of us in the civilized world can not sit idly by complicit in
silence. I stand with Israel. Our voices of condemnation against Hamas must be heard loud and
clear.
Opinion
Facts are stubborn things. It is a fact that the current hostilities were initiated by Hamas terrorists
slaughtering young Israelis at a music festival. It is a fact that families living on several Kibbutz
in Southern Israel were massacred or violated in the worst possible way. It is a fact that babies,
young families and the elderly on medication were snatched away and taken hostage by these
terrorists.
Some Palestinians fault the state of Israel for responding to the attack by going into Gaza.
Would anyone question the right for the United States to defend its population should missiles be
launched into Texas from Mexico? Would anyone seriously question the right of the U.S. to
track down foreign terrorists who shot up a music festival in Texas no matter where the terrorists
were based?
There are some so called historians who are trying to rewrite history. They claim Israel is the
bully occupying Gaza. In fact, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the
Palestinians elected Hamas to power as the de facto governing authority in Gaza in 2007. By
that moment in time, Hamas had already been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.
had violently overthrown and expelled the Palestinian Authority, had launched countless rockets
and mortars at Israel, and in its 1988 charter called for the annihilation of Israel.
Rather than Hamas using the last two decades in power to improve the standard of living of the
Palestinians, they chose to direct their financial resources to threatening Israel. Who is the bully?
There is no moral equivalency between Hamas terrorists engaged in brutality out of hatred for
Jews and the absolute right of lsrael as a sovereign nation to defend its own people. Absolutely
no moral equivalency! None!
As reflected in the words of Israel’s National Anthem Hatikvah, Israel will look to the future
with hope-a 2000 year-old hope in its collective soul. Yet real peace cannot become a reality
until the Palestinians have a change of heart and recognize the hatred of Hamas for what it is. As
the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who led Israel through the Yorn Kippur war, aptly
remarked “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing
us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children
more than they hate us.” The words ring just as true today.
Nathan M. Jolles
Augusta, GA 30909
