Page 13 The Sun Bay Paper June 7, 2024 Never Again! “Never again, simply translated for me means never forget……not 75 years later, but just seven-and-a-half months later, and people are already forgetting……that Hamas unleashed this terror. I have not forgotten…...” – President Biden’s comments at the May 7, 2024, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Days of Remembrance Ceremony. Israel’s Knesset established Yom HaShoah in 1951 as Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Never Again” represents the pledge by citizens of the world to watch for signs of genocide so that The Holocaust’s mass killing of 6,000,000 Jews would never be repeated. The October 7 th mass killing of 1,200 Jews by the terrorist Hamas organization was one such warning. Hamas, officially a terrorist surrogate of Iran, came into control of Gaza during 2006 and 2007 through a combination of politics and violence. Innocent Palestinian Arabs have suffered greatly in many ways, including enforced poverty and being used as human shields against enemy attack. To prevent the flow of arms into Gaza, Israel and Egypt have had to maintain a blockade almost continuously ever since. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel during the last two decades. Creating two states, with separate Jewish and Palestinian nations, is a popular suggested solution. However, radical Hamas leadership won’t agree to any solution that includes recognizing Israel. It’s happened five times: 1) 1936 - The British offered to distribute 80% of the disputed territory to the Arabs, 20% to the Jews. Arab leadership rejected it. 2) 1947 - The UN planned to divide the land. The Jews agreed and Arab leaders responded with all-out war by the combined forces of Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Israel was victorious. 3) 1967 - Israel was attacked by, and defeated, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the Six Day War. Israel offered to return much “won” territories – the West Bank to Jordan, Gaza to Egypt, and part to the region’s Arabs, now referred to as Palestinians. The Arab League refused, declaring there would be “no recognition of Israel.” 4) 2000 - After the Camp David Accords, Palestinian leader Arafat turned down Israel’s offer of Gaza and most of the West Bank for developing a Palestinian nation. Terrorist attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians was their answer, killing over 1000. 5) 2008 - Israel tried again by increasing the 2000 offer to include additional land. Palestinian leader Abbas turned it down. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad quickly followed the October 7 attack with: “……we will do this again and again……” Attacks will continue. The world is left debating the legitimacy of Israel’s military action. I must ask, what level of terrorist killing on October 7 would justify Israel’s action? Israel responded to an act of war with a declaration of war without proportionate response constraints. That’s a reality of war. War has winners. Israel is fighting for survival. This fight will have unintended consequences, but so would inaction. America didn’t follow September 11 with proportionate response constraints, nor after the Pearl Harbor attack. That limitation didn’t govern America’s WW2 bombing of Dresden, nor when deciding to drop atomic bombs on Japan, ending WW2. All-out war is usually carried out to prevent even worse future tragedies. Let’s evaluate Israel’s actions in the context of a similar attack on America. Imagine that we share a border with an enemy that, for decades, has expressed repeatedly the intention to eliminate the U.S. Imagine a recent history of tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks across our border. Imagine also an attack proportionate to that on October 7. Based on relative population, almost 45,000 Americans would be killed, and 10,000 hostages taken. In that situation America must choose to fully engage and destroy the enemy. There are many humanitarian concerns involving innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, making it easy to insist that Israel “tread carefully” in their survival battle. And the political implications obviously weigh heavily on the President and his administration, causing concerns of equivocation regarding America’s support of Israel. Nevertheless, The Holocaust represents one of history’s all-time worst examples of “man’s inhumanity to man.” History and justice demand that America respect the spirit of Yom HaShoah regarding Israeli’s war of self-preservation. Our response should echo Israel’s own: “Never Again!” Steve Bakke Visit my website at myslantonthings.com Last issue’s puzzle solution to ‘Got Rhythm’
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA2ODE3