Over the last 2 months I’ve watched, often in disgust, at ‘some’ of our youth, mostly on campuses, proclaiming support for both the Palestinian cause and the Hamas attacks. Some students even going on camera proclaiming the October Hamas attacks were “fake news”. I would strongly recommend those parents grab their kids during the holidays and park them in front of history that they have not been getting in schools, to really understand how inaccurate their words are.
Let’s take a step back and look at history in the Middle East. I am no scholar, nor profess to be one. But just to refresh and/or inform for the first time for many of us… what has this region looked like over the millennia?
Around 2500 BC this region formed the first documented complex society, under the Sumerians. From 1500-300 BC the Phoenicians in this region formed the first trading network across the Med. The Jewish people dominated much of the area known as present day Israel during this time, and that land was in a constant state of battle over several centuries (Canaanites, Philistines, etc.).
The Roman Empire (roughly 750 BC to 450 AD) conquered and controlled much of the region from 70 BC until around 280 AD. During this time Judaism spread across the region and Europe, as did Christianity, with the latter becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire along the way. Rome began to collapse and diverge a bit and the Byzantine Empire (former Eastern Roman Empire) controlled much of the region until around 650 AD, when followers of the Prophet Mohammed (founder of the Muslim religion) formed an empire and that empire quickly conquered and controlled most of the Middle East. Around 1300 AD the Ottoman Empire took over and controlled the region for most of the next 500 years. Following World War I the entire region fell under European control. The Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain and France (1916) established much of the present day boundaries in the Middle East (including most of the modern-day countries), and in 1947 (following WWII) the United Nations created a partition plan that allowed for Jewish lands and Palestinian lands in what is now Israel (and Arab states all over the Middle East and North Africa deported somewhere near 2 million Jews from their lands). And then in 1948 Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq invaded the Jewish lands. Israel fought back and gained more lands and declared their independence and national borders in those lands gained in the war. In 1967 the Israeli-Arab war broke out and Israel again won more lands (Sinai, Golan Heights, etc.), which they gave back the Sinai under the agreement negotiated by Jimmy Carter.
What does this all mean? Well, first – calling the Israelis “occupiers” is nowhere near accurate. They have been in these lands for thousands of years, and have fought wars endlessly to defend them, often unsuccessfully. There has not formally been a country called Palestine until the PLO self-declared itself as a state in Algiers in 1988. The ancient region of Canaan was often referred to as Palestine, however, after Herodotus. It’s also noteworthy that the Israelis have been under constant threats of attacks (and frequently attacked) for the last 75 years. And when offered a 2-state solution that most Arab countries appear to support, the Palestinian leadership (today, Hamas) won’t even come to the table. The predominant thought, whether spoken or not, appears to be to eliminate Israel and the Jews altogether.
So, let’s get right to it: I have had the privilege of having many friends that are Palestinian, Israeli, Iranian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian, Turkish, Lebanese, Saudi, and others around the region. I believe they are still my friends today, even though some are not allowed to speak to me unless we are in Europe in a more “neutral” environment. That is unfortunate. But the attacks that happened by Hamas in October? Under no circumstances whatsoever should those actions be supported by anyone, from any region, any ethnic background, or any religion. None. Period. And do I support the elimination of that threat? Absolutely. And will I stand with any of my friends, Jewish or Muslim, in the face of persecution? Every day of the week. We do not advance globally and as humanity when these types of threats persist and are allowed to attack, brutalize, and kill, especially the way Hamas did in October.
One parting thought: As I strolled through my grocery store yesterday I paid attention to what I saw as I was thinking about this post. I saw light skin, dark skin, and in-between skin. I saw blonde, brown, auburn, and black hair. I saw slender people, not-so-slender people, and everyone else in between. I heard accents I recognized, and maybe a couple I didn’t. I saw couples of different genders and the same genders. I saw younger people and older people. But I also saw courtesy, respect, acceptance, and decency. It made me recall one thing I learned a long time ago as a little boy: We all bleed red. We all owe each other the opportunity to exist without fear of persecution or annihilation. None of us – not one of us – has been granted the right to judge another people.
