Stand with Israel to the Bloody End

by Steve Huntley

October 11, 2023

You have to stick with your friends. Through thick and thin. For the long run. And especially when the going gets tough. All that comes to mind with the outbreak of the Gaza war. Immediate expressions of support from President Biden, members of Congress and other nations for Israel flowed in the aftermath of the sneak barbaric attack by the Iranian-backed  terrorists of Hamas last weekend.

The sudden, unprovoked, bestial assault that deliberately targeted and continues to target Israeli civilians for murder and hostage-taking — war crimes — was easy to denounce.

But it will take a long war to defeat and bring justice to these savages and crush their merciless Gaza Strip terrorist organization. And a long war will be an ugly war, one with all the death, injury, destruction and suffering characterized by warfare.

Hamas targeted civilians, aiming to kill and injure them, intended to capture grandmothers, mothers and children to use as hostages. The dead and hostages also include Americans.

Hamas massacred at least 250 civilians attending a rave concert. A family of five, the three children six years old or younger, were murdered. Chilling reports of babies beheaded, women raped.

Terrified Jews were marched to possible if not probable death paraded before a jeering crowd — an image we haven’t seen since the historical photos of antisemitic Nazi atrocities in Berlin in the 1930s.

Among the hostages may be an Evanston woman and her daughter, Judith and Natalie Raanan.

The mind recoils at the thought of the terror, fear and horror these two innocent human beings and the other hostages are suffering at this very moment.

At this writing, the Israeli death toll was more than 1,000, with most of them coming on the first day — the largest number of Jews murdered in one day since the Holocaust. At least 14 Americans are among the dead.

Israel won’t target civilians. Being a civilized state it will try to avoid civilian casualties. But the simple truth is that it can’t avoid civilian casualties, especially in the urban warfare of Gaza City. Hamas has a long, cruel history of using civilians as shields against Israeli military responses to its vicious outrages. That and the crowded streets, lanes and alleyways and the many buildings hiding killers guarantee a bloody struggle.

The death and destruction that will come to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip won’t be the fault of the Israelis.

It will be the responsibility of Hamas, just as the millions of deaths, injuries and misery of German and Japanese civilians were the responsibility of the Nazi and Tojo regimes in Berlin and Tokyo in World War II. We should regard Palestinian civilian casualties in this war in a similar manner to the civilian suffering in World War II–tragic and regrettable but unavoidable because of the Hamas crimes against humanity.

Still, as the war drags on and the body count mounts, expressions of support now will morph into calls for restraint — by Israel, of course. Or the justified Israeli response to an unprovoked attack will somehow be distorted into “cycle of violence” rhetoric that obscures the guilt of Hamas.

Already we’ve heard that from the fringe. Brother-marrying and antisemite Rep. Ilhan Omar, D., Minn. and the frivolous Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez D.,NY, have called for “cease-fire and de-escalation.” Palestinian apologist, antisemite and open-borders advocate Rep. Rashida Tlaib found a way to attack both Israel and America: “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.” The useless UN provided a forum for calls demanding Israel “not go too far.”

Demonstrations in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, and of course, Harvard mouthed Hamas propaganda. In New York, one of the demonstrators in the crowd of more than 1,000 held up a cell phone displaying an image of a swastika. Another carried a placard reading: “By any means necessary.”

But, as the grim toll of war mounts, others who characterize themselves as moderates, the nations that are always quick to condemn Israel and the self-proclaimed peace advocates will increasingly chime in with appeals for a cease-fire. That would only protect Hamas, and its Gaza ally Islamic Jihad, from the justice they so richly deserve.

Despite the president’s declaration of backing Israel’s war effort, the Biden administration has never warmly embraced Israel, mainly because American liberals loath right wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After a previous episode of Hamas rocket attacks, Biden was on the phone urging a cease-fire on Netanyahu, according to a new biography of the president.

This time in a speech Tuesday, Biden expressed uncompromising support for Israel and promised immediate and continued military aid. There was no call for restraint.

Still, Biden is not a picture of strength thanks to his shameful troop pullout from Afghanistan and his administration’s ugly appeasement of Iran, most recently freeing up $6 billion to the mullahs in ransoming hostages.

Administration officials would have us believe that this $6 billion won’t aid Iran’s terrorist ambitions.

His Tuesday speech unconscionably failed to mention Iran even once. And Biden reported that he discussed with Netanyahu how democracies “are stronger and more secure when we act according to the rule of law.” A curious point. Was that a veiled warning to Israel about its conduct of the war going forward? An administration official insisted it was not.

As the war progresses and the casualty toll mounts, the White House will come under pressure from the Democrats’ far-left elements to push for restraint — by the Israelis — and for a cease-fire. It will be a test of Biden to hold the line of uncompromising support for Israel. Is he strong enough?

We’re going to see what Biden is made of.

On the second day of the Gaza war, as the battlefield successes of Israel tilted the war odds against Hamas, the terrorists issued a call for a cease-fire. At the same time, they threatened to start executing hostages.

Any call for Israel to back off will ignore the simple fact that, as outlined recently in JohnKassNews, the Palestinians have never been a partner for peace with the Israelis. Polling shows a majority of Palestinians, not just those in Gaza, favor violence against Jews. Time and again, the Palestinians walked away from generous peace proposals offered by Israeli prime ministers.

This war regrettably can be traced to one such peace offensive by Israel. In 2005, Israel closed down Jewish communities in Gaza, sometimes evicting their residents, and withdrew its military from the Gaza Strip.

The opportunity was clear. The Palestinians had the chance to build a civil society there that could live in peace with Israel, reciprocating the Jewish state’s goodwill.

But no. Soon Hamas goons won legislative elections in Gaza to establish a so-called unity government with another Palestinian faction, Fatah. The two sides were quickly at each other’s throat, violence erupted, Hamas shoved out Fatah and took over governing, if that’s the word, of Gaza.

As could have been predicted, Gaza became a terrorist statelet firing rockets and dispatching terrorist murderers into Israel. Now the Gaza regime has launched what Israelis understandably see as a combination of Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

No good deed goes unpunished.
Israel is the aggrieved party, the victim, the peaceful nation cruelly assaulted by a genocidal criminal terrorist gang.

And, by many accounts, Hamas had plenty of help in planning and organizing its attack from the genocidal terrorist-sponsoring Islamist regime in Iran.

No one knows how this war will unfold. Already the terrorists of Iranian-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon have fired a few rounds into Israel, threatening to open a northern front in the war. Unknown is if terrorists in the Palestinian Authority-run areas east of Israel will also join the fray.

What is now clear is that the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip is a cancer threatening Israeli lives and well-being. Israel must ensure that this war ends with that threat dead and buried.

And this war will hang like a death shroud over hopes for an independent Palestinian state.

Of course, Hamas isn’t interested in an independent Palestinian state. Its goal is a Palestinian state from the sea to the river built of a mountain of murdered Jews.

Little doubt exists that a big motive for this attack was the desire of Iran and Hamas to torpedo the growing rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Such an entente would be a death blow to Iran’s desires to dominate the Middle East and eclipse the Saudis as the key actors in the region. Whether those negotiations will continue will be to a large degree Riyadh’s choice.

But how the Israelis respond to this crisis is their choice.
The United States should provide the moral support and military aid needed to get the job done and for as long as it takes to get the job done. That includes the day when the on-the-ground war is resolved, and Israel turns its attention to Iran.

And the administration should never hesitate to defend the Israeli choices in the court of world opinion.

Again, it will be a long, bloody, ugly fight but above all a just, righteous fight. A fight that America should back to the end. Hamas started this war. Israel must end it.

-30-

Steve Huntley, a retired Chicago journalist now living in Austin, Texas, has contributed other pieces to johnkassnews, from an examination of the secret jail for Christopher Columnbus and other politically problematic public art to an essay on Americans suffering from Joe Biden gas pain.

For almost three decades Huntley spent most of his career in Chicago journalism at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he was a feature writer, metro reporter, night city editor, metropolitan editor, editorial page editor and a columnist for the opinion pages.

Before that he was a reporter and editor with United Press International (UPI) in the South and Chicago, and Chicago bureau chief and a senior editor in Washington with U.S. News & World Report. Northwestern University Press has issued soft cover and eBook editions of Knocking Down Barriers: My Fight for Black America by Truman K. Gibson Jr. with Steve Huntley, a memoir of a Chicagoan who was a member of President Roosevelt’s World War II Black Cabinet working to desegregate the military.

Comments 50

  1. From your pen and voice to God’s ears, I hope! Mr. Huntley, your cogent lesson to the world will be shouted down by the American and EU media and our war-mongering globalists.

    This is a Biblical moment. Existenial has been glom-ed by the by our Chief Eexecutive at the behest of Valerie Jarrett who pulls Obama’s strings.

  2. “Israel must end it.”

    When – and only when – someone takes out the terrorist master minds running Iran.
    They have been financing the Middle Eastern terrorists since the peanut farmer installed Khomeini over the Shah.

    The next meeting of the Nezam should be adjourned by the arrival of air mail packages delivered by the Israeli Air Corps.

  3. All spot on Mr. Huntley except for, “We’re going to see what Biden is made of.” We already know what Biden is made of. I pray that God will protect Israel because this president won’t.

    2. It’s not what Biden is made of. He’s just a potato in a wet diaper. It’s what his handlers are made of, and they’re the same Lame Brain Trust that controlled Obama’s policy of billions to Iran and the first lack of an American veto in the UN when it condemned Israel.

  4. Bingo Steve Huntley. Proud and honored to have you writing for johnkassnews.
    as you write here:
    “The death and destruction that will come to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip won’t be the fault of the Israelis.
    “It will be the responsibility of Hamas, just as the millions of deaths, injuries and misery of German and Japanese civilians were the responsibility of the Nazi and Tojo regimes in Berlin and Tokyo in World War II.”
    Thanks Steve

    1. Yes, Israel must eliminate Hamas and its enablers. And there will be suffering and death accruing to Palestinians, innocent or not. The real test will come when Israel wins. Will they treat the Palestinian survivors in the same way that the western Allies treated the defeated Germans and Japanese?

    2. Given the striking proximity of Gaza to Israel, the current residents of Gaza need to be relocated. Israel must annex Gaza and claim it as their own. The murderous atrocities and torturous violations of Gods law by Hamas provides the justification and mandates leveling their citadels of demonic evil whose foundation demands death to all not of their faith. I Pray to a Jewish Rabbi for my eternal salvation. His blood washes away all the Sin of the Christian faithful. The blessed people of Israel protect our Christian Holy sites from those intent on destroying them. May the Cross of Jesus proceed the Sons of Judea as they march to purge the nefarious.

    3. I am thrilled by the moral clarity of Steve Huntley. It is vanishingly rare. I am Israeli. It is difficult to be Israeli. We are constantly vilified for what we are not.

      Thank you John Kass for publishing this article on your website.

  5. Agree with all… but what of the Americans, my daughter and her family, and many other American Citizens, who find themselves stuck in the Gaza Strip through no fault of their own and abandoned by the US government/embassy. They are offering no assistance for an evacuation! According to a CNN report late yesterday, they confirmed, US Embassy communicated American Citizens are on their own! Unacceptable! HELP!

    1. You’re not going to like what I have to say.

      In Christian missionary circles there’s this ethos that there should be no ransom/rescue if they’re captured, or retribution if they’re killed. Such actions only encourage similar fates for other missionaries. Some principled missionaries even make ‘capture’ videos before going out, where they attempt to wave-off ransom/rescue actions that their capture may inspire.

      Appeasing terrorist when they kidnap only encourages more kidnapping. Those who are stuck in Gaza didn’t know they would be forced into this situation. They are in it none the less. They and their loved ones need to follow this ethos. I really don’t have anything better to tell you.

      Israel realizes the the situation in Gaza is currently unsustainable. As such, they are going to change it, probably by relocating everyone there. They probably won’t allow hostage-considerations to enter their thinking. I’m waiting for Hamas to make good on their hostage-threats and for Israelis to completely ignore it: there will be no difference between Israeli activities before the threat and activities after the threat is carried out.

  6. I was in Lebanon a few years ago. The people in most of the country were wonderful, welcoming people who would go out of their way to be gracious hosts. I can say with all honesty that I felt safer there than in Chicago. But, when I was in Southern Lebanon, the hatred against Israel was overwhelming. The streetlights all had banners depicting Hezbollah fighters, “martyrs”, killed while killing Israelis. So much hatred has to be seen to be believed. They won’t stop until Israel eliminates them all.

    1. I agree and I would like to add that they should do a Sheridan and declare that the only good Palestinian is a dead one. I also see Putin in this as we help Israel we will have to cut back on aid to Ukraine and that helps him.

    1. @Lou B,
      Sad that we have to keep saying that.
      I remember a TV special in High School called “Remember Us”.
      Before that I had been completely ignorant of what happened in Eastern Europe.
      The Shoah has never really ended.

  8. Good morning John.

    These are truly Biblical times, and we must stand with Israel. The Democratic Party under Valerie Jarrett and Susan Rice and Eric Holder with their boss is out to destroy the American way of life and bring the Muslim Faith in the World and to extinct all Christians and Jews. Our top Universities like Harvard and Yale are full of young people taught to hate the Jews, they to to these Universities for free, they come to America so they can get the top jobs in Government so they can destroy America. Look at AOC and her buddies, they blame Israel, like the Government of the US no matter what Biden says. He is a puppet and is doing and saying what he is told to say and do. We allowed open Borders so Hammas and the Evil can come to our Country and destroy our young and allow the Evil to exist while we are not allowed Freedom of Speech anymore. Just came back from oversees and they are already talking about the downfall of the once great USA, and I for one do not believe in the shots, or Woke, or Bill Gates, along with Obama and Oprah and Sotos and of coarse the chief running the show Susan Rice. The downfall of America came in 1963 took over the Government and the Press, and that is the reason the Democrats are so United. It is about power and greed for them like the brainless AOC and her partners in crime. These people came to America to destroy it not to live the American dream like we did and make America free for all people. We went to school learned the language and Civics and became Citizens while keeping the Values and Morals our Parents taught us. We are paying taxes, and health care while people walk in with no love for America and get FREE HEALTH CARE AND BENEFITS and the Governor of Illinois wants us to take me in and support them. We have lost our minds and our Country. We that love the God of Abraham and Jesus Christ as our Savior know we will be fine but I feel so sad for the young and their parents that have allowed this destruction to happen to America. Praise God, and stay away from Evil it is everywhere and it is all written in Scripture. More will happen I am afraid while so call Christians go to Church and have no clue about Christianity or Christ’s coming. He is coming folks we just do not know when, only his Father does we must be ready like the thieve in the night as Scripture says. Tell the truth John, find writers to expose the Evil in our Government.

  9. Short term, I agree that Israel is aggrieved with this sneak attack.

    Long term, Israel will need to engage the people in the occupied territories and, at a minimum, reflect on the effects of their settlement policies to work towards a lasting peace.

    Neither side is working towards a lasting peace over there. Both are aggrieved. Sort of like politics in the US.

    1. There is no false equivalence here. Either you call out evil, or you don’t. The “Neither side toward a lasting peace” ignores Israel’s several attempts at a lasting peace.

      Bari Weiss said that people who don’t call out evil are the same that would send us all to cattle cars

    3. “Short term”, my ass.
      Go back a read what Steve wrote.
      It is a primer on the mindless hatred of the muslim terrorists for the Jews.
      People who equivocate the sub-humans with the Israelites are exactly the reason this terror has been going on for 75 years.
      Unless and until they start paying the price for their slaughter of innocents, the murder will continue.

  10. I am 75 and we’ve been “sticking with our friends” for as long as I’ve been alive. It hasn’t worked. Treating each other as “savages” has only promoted murderous endless wars. Perhaps, it’s time to try some hard negotiations and stop wasting billions of dollars and rivers of blood. So, no I don’t agree with Mr. Huntley’s one-sided solution that “Israel must end it”…because the “it” has been wars for the last 75 years and there’s no reason to believe that more war will solve the problem.

    1. You are aware that negotiations with Hamas have been tried over and over again. How is Israel supposed to negotiate with a group whose precondition to negotiation is the elimination of Israel?

  11. This terror atrocity is hard just to read about, and is certainly hard to write about with the accuracy Mr. Huntley provides. Admiration to him.

    Comparisons to 20th century German Nazis are usually problematic, but in this case an unfavorable comparison actually exists. Those Nazis tried to keep as remote and unacknowledged as possible their concentration camps murdering Jews — and gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, handicapped people, and non-Jewish Poles. Toward the end of WWII, the Nazis tried to destroy records and official culpability.

    Hamas is doing everything it can to publicize their barbarity. If it’s possible to take human morality to an even more sub-human level than the Nazis, they’re doing it now.

  12. Excellent writing Mr. Huntley!
    The true face of Hamas is that clip showing the so called freedom fighters driving around Gaza City with a dead naked Israeli woman in back of their pick up truck. That also is the face of our elected officials and universities like Harvard, Columbia, USC and Northwestern who call this atrocity Palestinian struggle. 30 years ago these so-called bastions of higher learning would be appalled at the carnage. Today its just another reason to celebrate. So much for DEI and the “love trumps hate” slogans. These walking piles of pig crap from Hamas are nothing more than perverted thugs. Those that support Hamas are no better.

  13. “Immediate expressions of support from President Biden” – WRONG – the 1st expression from the POTUS/WH was for Israel to refrain from responding. Quickly retracted when the scope of the attack was revealed to the public and poll numbers went big behind support for Israel – again the Barry wing of the DNC and the BLM crowd drove the initial response – https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/biden-administration-deletes-post-calling-on-israelis-not-to-respond-to-hamas-assault/

  14. I’m glad there’s no suggestion that unequivocal “whatever it takes” U.S. support for Israel is somehow being drummed up by “the Washington War Party.” I’m never clear why John uses that mindless slogan to oppose U.S. support for Ukraine when Russia assails that independent country and kidnaps and butchers its civilians. Iran is likely the mastermind and financier behind Hamas and is also helping to arm Russia. The isolationists think we need to be done with the Middle East, but Israel’s and our enemies there aren’t done with either of us. That was the largely forgotten lesson of 9/11 brought home to the horror of the civilized world in these recent days.

  15. My concerns are that I don’t trust this administration to make the right decisions. I don’t trust the military commanders who have failed miserably in the past. If the US decides to enter the fight and nation-build, we have a horrible track record to show in the past for it.

    I would not attack Iran like little Lindsay Graham and Nikki Haley say, but I am no military strategist.

  16. At the instant I watched live coverage of the second jet slamming onto the WTC on September 11th, I realized we were just attacked intentionally. My first thought was that I pray our nation responds as forcefully and effectively as what Israel can always be expected to. I pray now God guide and steel them until they have fully peeled the evil from their midst. And grant this nation to continue standing with them, as we are hated by the same murderers only less than they themselves.

  18. There were over 20,000 French civilians killed on D-Day. At the time, and history knows it now, this operation was necessary. History probably won’t be kind to the Jews, seldom is, but civilization will be the beneficiary.

  19. We live in the times of a Soft Generation. These millennials have been indoctrinated by leftist policies taught to them in public schools and reinforced by the mass media. Resist! A few weeks ago it was reported that Jewish teens were refusing to serve mandatory military service because they were dissatisfied with Israeli politics. Many chose to “rave” at the peace festival that was attacked by Hamas. You can’t make peace with those that want to kill you. They danced as their murderers approached. Hamas recognized the softness amongst their own people and decided to inspire
    a new generation of children to kill Israelis. As peace and civility set in their society they needed to motivate a new generation of soldiers to continue fighting the centuries old battle. Their children will not be members of the “Soft Generation” anymore. The street celebrations are now reduced to rubble. No more celebrating in Gaza streets. Time for the children to put the cellphones down and pick up guns. A new generation of Palestinians will take up arms against the Jews. More death. More destruction. It’s been that way for centuries. Why stop it now?

  20. I believe we paid Iran 6 billion dollars for some of our hostages. That money is being used to pay for the Arab Nazi terrorists. I don’t like Lindsay Graham, but he’s right: start taking out Iran’s oil rigs DAILY, every day, day in, day out, until Iran tells the thugs to stop.

  21. Thank you Steve for this excellent column. Thank you John for sharing your space with this young man.
    So, now we have Biden getting up to speak and his final tone is, “Don’t, don’t”….Standing with Israel were his words and now we hold our breath to see his actions. Of course we can’t hold our breath that long and his speech had no wisdom as to “OR ELSE”. He failed to mention Iran and their continued efforts to kill Israel and our USA.
    Biden’s failure at Kabul and Afghanistan in general has come back to bite Israel with the ordinance being used that Biden left behind in Afghanistan. Yes, Biden is feckless….totally weak. His “support” also lacks any kind of a backbone.
    Yes, Hamas has control of the West Bank and Palestine in general. They “won” elections for this control and have pushed Fatah out. It would seem essential that the remaining “citizens” of West Bank leave to where ever but West Bank immediately. Why, because they will save their lives as being human shields for Hamas when Israel comes to get Hamas.
    Yes, Israel should flatten that West Bank and take it back as belonging to Israel….Why? Because Israel has shown leadership in giving Palestinians freedom in their lives as citizens of Israel now.
    Is the world ready for something like this? Hell no. Is it a total change and have a future? Hell yes. This land was given to the Palestinians from Israel some years ago and it is time to return it to Israel….
    I see where Biden is asking for some more funding of Israel, but including funding for Ukraine in the same request. I hope that the House, with their new speaker, will give Biden those funds ONLY FOR ISRAEL……not for Ukraine.
    After Biden sent all those $$billions$$ to the WTO for passing on to several agencies to rebuild Ukraine, he has done enough for Ukraine as to losing money, our tax monies, to get his 10%.
    Now I am getting too long and my hair is really getting curled with a tad of anger. May God continue to bless you John and Steve. Keep on keeping on.
    God bless us all, especially Israel.
    Tom

  22. The half-life on Biden’s latest ‘committment’ to Israel will probably be measured in weeks if not days.

    Let us hope we do not find out the hard way that Iran’s nuclear project is much further along than the intelligence community says it is!

  24. Biden is an idiot but the bigger fools are at the UN. This was a great piece outlining what is at stake for Israel’s existence. There should be no calls for ceasefire, for there is no concessions toward terrorists.

    I too wrote a piece about this conflict, Israel’s history, and how to proceed at commonfolk365.substack.com.

  25. Mr. Huntley,
    Thank you for this. As someone who lived in Israel from ’75-’80 and who has many connections to the country I appreciate greatly what you have written.
    My daughter has also been there on Birth Right and made friends with some of the Israelis she met. One of them is in the army and we hope he is OK.
    Am Yisroel Chai.

  26. Yes, Israel must eliminate Hamas and its enablers. And there will be suffering and death accruing to Palestinians, innocent or not. The real test will come when Israel wins. Will they treat the Palestinian survivors in the same way that the western Allies treated the defeated Germans and Japanese?

  27. I disagree. The real test will come when Israel starts to lose (the are potentially three fronts here and nasty ole Iran maybe ready to jump in as well). What will the US and Mr. Biden do then? That’s the real test.

  28. My thanks to Steve Huntley for his eloquent words and to John Kass for providing the platform. John’s podcast with Charles Lipson was also excellent. I have cousins who have among them 4 sons who have been called up for reserves, 3 sons-in-law and one future son-in-law as one daughter became engaged a few weeks ago. I have several close friends who have been called up for reserve duty. Unfortunately, I already know people who have lost loved ones. The coming fight will be ugly. It is unfortunate that HAMAS literally hides behind women and children. They are not allowing civilians to leave areas that Israel has announced they will bomb and HAMAS is launching missiles from those areas. It will get very bloody and images will be gruesome but there should be no pressure on Israel to stop until this evil is eradicated.

  29. Good morning John,

    This is happening because we gave up on America. We worked so hard for the American Dream and now they all want it without working for it. The enemy is here, 911 will happen again and soon, our Universities are full of Hamas and Isis, they get paid to infiltrate our Country and our Schools, there is no more CIA, or FBI to support America and keep her safe it is all about Hamas and destroying America and Biden gave them 6 Billion dollars to do just that. Our Country is not for the people by the people. The White House if full of Foreign people that want to destroy America and it will happen and soon. What happened to the truth and look who is supporting Hamas on our Streets and our Congress. SHAMEFUL AND SHAME TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR NOT CARING ENOUGH TO SAVE AMERICA AND THE CHILDREN.

  30. This situation is unique in history as far as I am concerned. There was no need for the us firebomb Dresden, or Tokyo – or to drop the atomic bombs. We should have listened to Patton and drove straight to Berlin in 1943 and ended the war militarily and early, rather than listened to a political “solution” which I believe came largely from Roosevelt to let the peoples conquered by the Nazis have their revenge. In a war that brutal – you listen to your (to use American Indian parlance) “war chiefs”. You end it. Same here.

    Islamist terrorists are unique in history and I believe you have better leverage, or at least more comprehensive leverage if you do NOT compare or imply that warfare against civilians is ever proper – or is EVER a valid precedent. It wasn’t in the American Civil War, it wasn’t (under Sherman) when seven Federal soldiers tied a mother to a chair and forced her to watch them gang rape her 15 yr old daughter to death in South Carolina. IT NEVER is.

    But this deal in Israel is singular in nature – “de-escalate” is politics. It is time here to listen to the War Chiefs.

    1. Those 2 bombs ending WWII, saved millions of lives, ours and theirs! You should know that. It was the right thing to do. Ever Jap was ready to fight to the death for their emperor! America preferred they live along with our troops.

  31. The Israelilis are clearly the aggrieved party. The terrorists and the terrorists alone are to blame for this and other atrocities against the Israeli people and yes, the Israeli government needs to take whatever steps it needs to take to make sure this doesn’t happen again. That includes making sure that its people have the means to defend themselves. Having a (mostly) disarmed populace through stringent gun control created a situation where the people of Israel were vulnerable to invasion; unable to defend themselves from terrorists and others intent on kidnapping, raping and killing them. One would have thought that of all people, the Jewish people would have learned that lesson from less than a century ago. Alas, like most governments in the world the Israeli government feared its own people more than those around them and disarmed them in the name of “safety.” Now that the horses have left the barn, those restrictions are being “loosened.” Too little too late for the dead and suffering populace. Speaking of invasions and gun control…

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