Remember Leon Uris!
By Pat Hickey
May 29th, 2026
I thought I was angry enough to write an angry screed after reading the garbage tossed in newsprint by Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times that pre-empted a genuine study of the Hamas savagery of October 7, 2023.
Kirstoff and The New York Times report of Hamas savagery with a Hamas-generated false equivalency yarn with a stretcher about Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) training dogs to rape Palestinians.
By publishing this antisemitic trash, the Gray Lady coronates herself as the left’s new queen of Jew hate. Dogs can not be trained to mount and rape Hamas terrorists or innocent Palestinians for that matter, except perhaps in the jagged hearts of the Ochs-Sulzberger family.
Have all editors at the paper been burned on the pyre of Kristoff’s hate filled ego?
In civilized western nations and communities, the Hamas Gaza border raid was an exercise in savagery that could have only been imagined by a doped-up basement dwelling creep, or a Hollywood director. Beautiful young people in Israel were gang-raped and butchered, families mutilated, infants decapitated and innocents abducted by person fueled with generations of Jew-hate and happy in the knowledge that Europe and some in America would apologize for any and egregious actions, because the myth that Israel is a neo-colonialist superpower fueled by the Rothschilds.
I know quite a few Palestinians and all of them hate Jews. My first encounter took place in 1971. For the purposes of this essay, let’s call him Qatil.
He was a handsome and athletic engineering student at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He was an elevator operator at Orchestra Hall. The problem was that Qatil smelled to the high heavens with long built-in body odor and his clothes needed to be burned before people could ride up to the seventh floor without vomiting.
The second chair violinist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was Mr. Phillip Scharf, a veteran of Glenn Miller’s Air Corps Band and one of the founding members of the Tel Aviv Symphony. Phil played ‘match quarters’ with janitors and engineers and learned of the plight of the young Palestinian. Phil took Qatil to Bonds Clothing on State Street and spent $300 outfitting the man with a suit, sport coat, sweats, shirts, and slacks. Three hundred dollars in 1971 would amount to almost $2,500 in 2026.
Qatil came into the locker room with his loot and proclaimed, “That fool Scharf! He thinks he owns me?”
Qatil lost me, but I found out how deeply Jew-hatred runs in Arabs who live in Israel. Funny. Why is it that hatred of the English, with all the blood and bondage in Irish history, does not drown me, nor most people of my DNA. Odd that.
Qatil was fired because of his total lack of personal hygiene; a Zionist tried to help him keep his job in building thick with Jewish staff.
At that time, I also was reading the novels of Leon Uris: Battle Cry, Armageddon, and Exodus. Uris is a master storyteller and his works praise people of heart in combat with evil. Evil is palpable, or it was. Today, goofy women clamor in support of a soulless back shooter in New York. I am still upset that people take the side of raping thugs over Jewish people in Israel. Jews were always kind and helpful to me and any person who wanted a little help in life.
My pal, at Little Flower Grammar School and High School, was Danny Levi. He was more Irish than the Irish and always helped families who were in trouble – Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or Muslim. Danny Levi’s profits from the Irish Temple Pub in Mount Greenwood went to grieving families and sick kids. Danny was almost broke when he passed away ten years ago.
Danny Levi and people like Sy and Shirley Blitstein hired Colleens, Tims, Terrys and Maeves at their clothing stores, (Mr. Lee’s) in Evergreen Plaza. The Blitzsteins were from the West Side (Polish/Russian Jews) who made it! They could move to Flossmoor with the German Jews from South Shore.
The Blitzsteins hired Catholic and Protestant kids from Englewood, Gresham. Chicago Lawn in Chicago, as well as Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn neighborhoods.
Sons and daughters of carpenters, engineers, pipefitters, cops, as well as doctors and lawyers, who were ‘not as well-off’ as they were to sell clothes in their stores.
Si and Shirley were better off than their Christian neighbors but tried to share the American Dream without prejudice – often at their disappointment and financial loss.
Jews are open-handed, visionary, and brave. Never met one that is not. Met many Palestinian Arabs and the people they call monsters do not match up in any way to my experience. Bitzsteins and Scharfs helped people.
On October 7, 2023, I pictured their grandchildren mutilated outside of a music venue, or in a kibbutz. I remain nauseated.
I thought I was angry about Nichlas Kristoff’s column. He is a two-time Pulitzer recipient who illustrates the value of American corporate legacy journalism.
Then I read, as a I do daily, the Irish newspapers. Love the homeland and detest its fascist government. I read this attack on President Trump and our ally Israel.
“. . . profound questions arise in relation to Trump’s dealings with the Netanyahu regime in Israel. It was American munitions which enabled genocide in Gaza and the US has failed abysmally to halt Israel’s de facto territorial expansions in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and southwestern Syria.
Trump dares not deploy ground forces in his conflict with Iran. But the military onslaught by air against Iranian targets carried out in tandem with Israel has triggered an emerging world economic crisis with serious internal political side effects in the US that threaten the Republican grip on both Houses of Congress:
“With plunging approval ratings, escalating inflation, and rising unemployment, Trump has let down middle America. The White House has also engaged in grotesque and divisive religious posturing which has led to conflict with Catholics, the pope, moderate Christian opinion and – strangest of all – extremist evangelical believers.” Michael McDowell of The Irish Times.
Well, Mick me lad, most Americans voted for President Trump and continue to support his policies, foreign and domestic, stacked polling sources notwithstanding. Witness the fact that in my home state of Indiana saw “rebel Republican Rinos” swept from office via midterm primary votes. Guess the pollsters missed us.
Likewise, other states of the Union also knocked off GOP never Trumpers from a life political; thus, clowns who betrayed Trump and the agenda voted for less than 500 days ago are now mewling the Trump hating media.
As far as Primaries go, Trump ran the table. The voters ran the ran table against creeps, haters, and ingrates,
Back to life in Paddyland. Remember all those trucks and tractors blocking Grafton Street, because of the excessive Irish fuel taxes? Like the American media, Radio Tielefis Eireann (RTE), the Irish Times and Irish Independent offer only procrustean racks of opinion instead of genuine reporting. The narrative comes first.
To paraphrase, “If news happened, they would do the best to smother it in a blanket.”
The Irish Media serves the global fascists who refused to help the United States stop Iran from blowing up western civilization.
Like the American corporate media who serve the very same masters, Irish media with an idiotic government controlled from Brussels have sunk the Emerald Isle into the slime of Jew-hatred, abortion on demand, gender murder, isolation in all aspects of life and identity suicide.
Self-loathing Irish and self-loathing Yanks are kin.
The Irish were once the keepers of the flame of civilization, preserving Aristotle, Pliny, and Plato as well as sacred texts in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Ancient texts were preserved by Irish monks living in the beehive-like stone cells on the wind-swept Skelligs on Kerry’s coast.
Moreso, Irish seanchaís retained history, laws, medicinal cures, folk legends, and gossip with their powerful memories. The past was once respected and retained.
It continues with individual families.
Today, the aboriginal Irish are limited to bigots like Michael McDowell of the Irish Times and fourth rate politicians (Cute Hoors) like Taoiseach Michael Martin and supremely limited Tainiste Catherine Connolly for news of the world, shaped to prove that Israelis are the Nazis and totalitarian life ‘am not all that bad.’ It is as if Nicholas Kristoff had an unblemished sense of the truth.
Kristoff took the word of Hamas veterans and Hamas Health Care workers to say that Israeli Defense Forces trained dogs to rape Hamas prisoner and other Palestinians. Uh, huh. I took biology, Nick.
Nichlas Kristoff was telling a story.
Leon Uris was a much better storyteller, because he rooted his yarns in universal truths: strong men protect women, children and the elderly; weak men side with evil men; all human beings must honor the past and remember the deeds of those who do constant battle with the weak and evil.
Leo Uris was a Jew from Baltimore, who joined the United States Marine Corps, immediately after Pearl Harbor. He was badly wounded at Tarawa, after serving on Guadalcanal. When he recovered, Uris began writing of proud service in the Pacific and published Battle Cry, a stirring saga of the Marine Corps and a lightning fast read.
Uris became a war correspondent covering communist atrocities and Greek heroism during the Greek Civil War. The Angry Hills, like Battle Cry, burnished the author’s reputation as a master storyteller and gave Uris the germ that would become his greatest novel, Exodus.
On island of Cyprus, Leon Uris learned of Greek owned ship that was smuggling European Jews, survivors of Hitler’s Final Solution, to British Occupied Palestine. This venture by Greek ship owners to bring suffering people to historical and theological homeland despite British Petroleum and White Hall agreements oil fat Arab nations and the disgustingly malignant Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who seeded Hitler’s Waffen SS with Palestinians, ignited Uris’s pen.
Exodus was a sensational best seller and told the story of people again facing extinction and implacable bigotry and tribal hatred. The ship breaks the British blockade, and once on the soil of what will become Israel, liberated Jews of all ages and nationalities find themselves pitted against Great Britain and blood-thirsty Arabs. A universal jihad is called against the Jews and Hitler’s Final Solution lives again.
The story of the birth of Israel is soul stirring enough. Crooner Frank Sinatra sent millions of dollars to help Jews survive and Irish Republican Army members like Sean Macstiofain teamed up with future Israeli PM Menachim Begin bringing guns and tactics to defeat enemies universal.
Leon Uris wrote two novels, Trinity and Redemption, as well as Ireland: A Terrible Beauty, that sparked universal interest in Ireland and its struggle to re-unite and its people. I believe that Leon Uris did more for Irish tourism than Bord Failte could ever dream up. Leon Uris is forgotten.
Today, Irish quislings like Michael McDowell side with the butchers and call them ‘a few brave lads.’ Irish celebrities join the weapons grade stupid Greta Thunberg aboard the Gaza Flotillas.
What happened? We no longer read Leon Uris. We no longer remember.
- Not the man’s real name.
Some sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/israel-palestinians-sexual-violence.html
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/inside/mac.html
https://www.irishamerica.com/2025/06/leons-redemption/
-30-
Born November 8, 1952 in Englewood Hospital, Chicago Illinois, Pat Hickey attended Chicago Catholic grammar and high schools, received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Loyola University in 1974, began teaching English and coaching sports at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL in 1975, married Mary Cleary in 1983, received a Master of Arts in English Literature from Loyola in 1987, taught at La Lumiere School in Indiana from 1988-1994, took a position as Director of Development with Bishop Noll.
Institute in Hammond, IN and then Leo High School in Chicago in 1996. His wife Mary died in 1998 and Hickey returned with his three children to Chicago’s south side. From 1998 until 2019, it became obvious that Illinois and Chicago turned like Stilton cheese on a humid countertop. In that time, he wrote a couple of books and many columns for Irish American News. When the kids became independent and vital adults, he moved to Michigan City, Indiana, Hickey substitute teaches K-12 for several Indiana schools and works as a tour guide/deckhand on the Emita II tour boat. He walks to the Michigan City Lighthouse every chance he gets.
Comments 14
Pat,
Thanks for the nod to the late Danny Levi. Dan was a truly “nice guy” and good friend to all who would receive him. When I think of him a smile crosses my face every time.
At the Irish Temple (called that as Dan’s partner was an Irish Catholic, also from the Little Flower neighborhood) all were welcomed and not judged by appearance or ethnicity.
Thanks for mentioning. a decent, open minded fixture from the Mt Greenwood area.
Jim Stedman
Thank you Pat Hickey! And thanks for pointing out how Ireland has been destroyed by EU fakers like Micheal Martin, supreme phony and idiot.
Houli
God bless the “real Irish”. Want to learn why the Irish abhor the British? Read Leon Uris’ TRINITY. My pal Frank had 23, yes 23 brothers and sisters, no multiple births, one mother, all born in 25 years in Ireland. Half came to America, worked hard, achieved the American Dream. Nicholas Kristol couldn’t/wouldn’t understand.
Louis
1. Irish tend to be ‘overachievers’ in regards to having families. My Irish wife is one of 8. And that was the smallest family on the block!
2. On the Groucho Marx TV show, You Betch Your Life, Groucho interviewed a woman who had something like over 30 children. In disbelief, Groucho kept saying over and over: ‘You have 30 children?’ Finally, the woman in exasperation said: ‘Whats the matter, don’t you like kids’? Groucho responded: ‘ I like my cigar too, but I put it down once in a while.’
I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland, to see the homeland of so much great literature and life insight. Now it seems the Irish left has made that experience more difficult, but I still feel lucky just to pick up some traditional Irish wisdom through the grand intellect and emotion of Pat Hickey columns.
“Self-loathing Irish and self-loathing Yanks are kin” is golden. And the sustained trials of Jewish civilization noted from this Irish perspective are deep as a fine ballad.
Nice little blessing to have Comments restored today and be able to thank Pat.
Thank you Patrick Hickey for your astute examination of “our” people’s participation and collaboration in the present day Jew hating whose virulent anti-Semitic strain can be traced throughout “our” history, from the 1904 Limerick Jewish boycott and pogrom (defended by Irish patriot and founder of the IRA Arthur Griffith to James Joyce’s “Ulysses” Jew hating character Mr. Deasy who declared “Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the Jews…and do you know why? She never let them in.”
It is not just the Irish leaders but “our” people, just as it was not just Hamas but the Palestinian civilians who collaberate.
I really enjoyed reading your post(s) Pat and all the other contributors to John Kass. And very glad to see the comments back.
Being old enough to remember being taught about the holocaust in grade school, I have to pinch myself that rampant antisemitism is infecting the world, including this country again. It can’t be real, right? But alas, it is.
Pat very thoughtful. In regard to your “… self-loathing Yanks are kin” did you consider the same for the typical liberal Jew? I read that approximately 33% of NYC Jews voted for Mayor Mamdani. Talk about “self loathing.”
No one in the elite/ antisemite complex can bring themselves to confront that ugliness the way Lear did with his Archie Bunker parody of prejudice
It has metastasized into a dogma that must not be challenged.
Pat,
Your column triggered a host of childhood memories. I first heard the term “anti-Semitism” spoken by Dave Garroway, the host of the Today show back when it was worth watching. In my elementary school student innocence, I had no idea that it existed, and didn’t even know what it was.
I have read several of Uris’ novels. Exodus was where I first read of the Holocaust; I still remember how horrified and sickened I was when I read of it. And many years later, I would still put Armaggedon on my list of favorite books.
Thank you for a timely and meaningful column. It was thought-provoking, and your characterization of Uris is spot-on.
EXCELLENT column! Well written and on the money. And, thanks for reminding me of Leon Uris. Read him years ago, starting with Battle Cry – time to reread his books!
Excellent Mr. Hickey.
Never understand living here in Chicago why these young people on college campuses hate the Jewish People. It’s just gotten worse in my lifetime, and what negative interactions have these kids been exposed to by any Jewish person?
Ireland we have to write the country off, never should have went into the European Union. Was there before Covid hit, not the country my parents left for a better life.
Liberal Politicians have destroyed the culture, and the schools. Mosques are being built all over the south of Ireland, for the new migrants. The average Irish family has two children, the new arrivals produce six children.
Old Irish people are not getting their full retirement benefit from the country because it’s needed for the social services to help the new arrivals..in one generation it will become an Islamic country.
This is the Crusades all over again.
We won’t live to see it, the Irish, and the culture will just become a footnote in history.
Pat, I too read Exodus, Trinity, and Irleand: a Terrible Beauty in college. (For that matter, I also read Uris’ disgraceful post-Exodus novel, Mila 18, about the Jewish ghetto revolt in Warsaw in 1943, in which he portrays Polish Catholics as co-responsible for the Holocaust, and the insurgent wartime Polish Home Army as Nazi sympathizers.)
Anyway, what struck me about Trinity and Ireland: a Terrible Beauty, is that Uris not only damns the British and the Ulster Protestants, he also damns the Catholic Church in Ireland, and suggests that the “aboriginal” Irish would be the world’s most perfect people if they would only abandon Catholicism and embrace neopaganism–complete with legalized abortion on demand.
Well, half a century later, it seems the Irish have given Uris his wish–except now, all of a sudden, most of them apparently hate Jews and Israel, and love Hamas! It would be priceless to see Uris’ reaction to that!