Ignorance from Ivy League schools seems to be the norm today. Maybe it's the DEI hiring of professors, deans, and school presidents, or just low admission standards, or maybe it's all part of the plan. There is no doubt that student intelligence, or, should I say, student education, is well below par. These institutions of 'higher learning' seem to only advance socialist propaganda, and the birthing of Hitler youth, whether it be Marxist or Fascist.
The academic bubble is bursting. They no longer have the favor or aura they once had. Living in their cocoon, I would expect they're only now becoming aware that they can't hide it anymore.
Columbia students, like so many other students, regardless of their college ranking, are ignorant. They know little of what really goes on. Reality escapes their teachers, so it is not passed on.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is complicated, but we can simplify much of it.
Palestinians were nomadic. They never cared about or desired a state. Even the name Palestine was political. Rome bestowed the name upon Israel following its invasion in 70 AD. It was meant to give Israel's arch enemy, the Philistines, recognition. Palestine was neither a nation nor a people.
Before modern Israel, they had no government, no economy, and no currency. Even Mark Twain, who visited the Holy Land in the 19th century, said it was a desolate place with only a scattered remnant of Jews and Arabs. It was a depressed, forgotten land, except for being a small part of the Ottoman Empire.
When World War I ended, the Ottoman Empire was no more. Jews began returning to the land of their biblical forefathers, given to them by God, as foretold in Scripture. The British government promised to create a new Jewish state in 1917 (the Balfour Declaration).
International organizations like the UN intervened in drawing up boundary proposals for the new state. Jews agreed to all, Palestinian Arabs agreed to none. Unlike in Arab lands where Jews were being deported, the new Israel welcomed Palestinians and invited them to be part of a nation reborn. Anticipating a war, Palestinian leaders implored their people to leave their homes and fight alongside their Arab brothers. Many Arabs did, leaving their homes, hoping to come back when the new nation was aborted. Five Arab nations invaded, but lost. The Arabs that left their homes wanted back, but Israel said, 'Not so fast.' No nation with any sense would allow enemies to return and take root. Thus, Israel was born in 1948, taking up about 0.2% of the Middle East, the size of New Jersey. And yet, there are groups that want to further divide Israel.
No private property was ever confiscated from an Arab. Every piece of private property obtained from Palestinians was purchased.
Many of the statements made about Israel in print and on the streets are clever propaganda. The term genocide in relation to Israel is ludicrous. Of all people, accuse Jews of genocide? In this world, no state is a perfect state, but all Israel wants is to survive and live in peace. They, like any other country, will do what they have to do.
October 7, 2023, was a Holocaust-like event. Over twelve-hundred innocent men, women, and children were slaughtered, and over 240 taken hostage. Hamas raped and mutilated women without mercy. Among the bodies identified were found broken pelvises, bruises, cuts, and signs of sexual assault, with victims ranging from children, teenagers to the elderly.
Videos of eyewitnesses detailed bloodied naked women, gang rapes, mutilation, executions, and wombs ripped open with the fetus stabbed before killing the mother. Some Hamas killers even called their proud parents, keeping the line open, as they were killing Jews, asking for and receiving their blessing.
Journalists witnessed women raped and then shot in the head while still being assaulted. "One man we spoke to from the festival site said he heard the "noises and screams of people being murdered, raped, and decapitated" (BBC).
Of course, Hamas has denied any accusations that its men committed any rape.
The women that were carried away were either naked or partially clothed. The few women that survived the attack, whether by luck or by playing dead, are receiving intense psychiatric treatment. "Multiple photographs from the sites after the attack show the bodies of women naked from the waist down, or with their underwear ripped to one side, legs splayed, with signs of trauma to their genitals and legs" (BBC).
Israel's police chief, Yaacov Shabtai, said that many survivors of the attacks were finding it difficult to talk and that he thought some of them would never testify about what they saw or experienced. Many are now considered suicidal, with some having already taken their own lives.
Let's not play with fancy words or assume we understand. We don't. What we do understand is that Hamas declared war on Israel and war is what they are getting in return. But to a generation that does not understand war, their desire is for a sterile war where only the bad guys are identified and eliminated. It doesn't happen that way.
Mere hatred is not enough to explain the Islamic atrocities. It also requires a strong religious and political context. We can go back to when Islam was founded by Muhammad in the 7th century and was rejected by the Jews. But for another time.
Hamas was founded in 1987. They are an Islamic fundamentalist group, and by the very core of their being, they will never accept a Jewish state.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, giving the Palestinians their own land. Some will remember news broadcasts of Israeli soldiers, sometimes forcefully, moving fellow Israelis out of their homes around Gaza and the West Bank.
It is important to note that every time Israel gave Palestinians land, it became a base of operations to attack Israel. It would be like giving Michigan to terrorists, then ducking missiles from Dearborn.
In 2006, the Palestinians voted, giving Hamas much more power than they had, a clear plurality. The Fatah Party of Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, was losing its grip on the people. In 2007, Hamas launched a bloody campaign against Fatah and took complete control over Gaza. Since then, Palestinians haven't held an election.
Hamas began conducting terrorist attacks in Israel, killing 506 and wounding thousands.
Hamas was designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, the EU, Canada, Egypt, and Japan. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza, restricting travel and trade within and outside the Strip. After the blockade, the number of attacks plummeted.
Every Palestinian must or should have known that a vote for Hamas was a vote for war with Israel. Hamas is a sinister organization. Despite their propagandized whining about civilian deaths, the Palestinian people mean nothing to them. The deaths of the innocent are but a necessary story to be broadcast to the West far and wide, complete with crocodile tears.
The preamble of the first version of the Hamas charter in 1988 reads, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
The second version of their charter has a softer approach. When you say in the first version that we are going to kill Jews, you can't take that back and say, Well, maybe not. It doesn't work that way.
We've all heard the expression, War is Hell. War is neither fair nor just. It just is. In war, it's imperative to take action or face the consequences—kill or be killed. What is Israel to do? They have a determined enemy, consistently hiding behind women and children, in hospitals, schools, and nurseries, moving troops and weapons in ambulance vehicles and tunnels built for the same purpose, and playing to the nightly news about their dead that they could care less about. Top Hamas leader, Ismael Haniyeh, who lives in splendor in Qatar, after his three sons and several grandchildren were killed in an airstrike, said he "thanks God for the honor of their martyrdom."
And there goeth our student youth, risking a criminal record, suspension, and expulsion, making Hamas proud. All to defend an organization they know little or nothing about. All because their academic 'superiors' want them to feel rather than think, eliciting emotions instead of thinking critically. Is that what Rush Limbaugh meant when he spoke repeatedly of our youth—young brains filled with mush?
Our country and much of western civilization are headed for big trouble if we don't take command of this chaos and turn it around. We are not fighting stupidity. We are fighting ignorance. Israel is a reality. They are not going to pack up and move to Brooklyn. Don't expect Democrats to do anything. They are bottom feeders, feeding on the chaos they've worked so hard to create. Fully half of all Republicans are as worthless as the Democrat Party. Many of them perceive our country's disintegration and are simply taking what is left on the table. Then you get low-lifes like Soros, who is funding much of the college protesting.
We know the history of Germany in 1938. Think it can't happen here? It can, and it is. Eisenhower warned that this could happen. Turn around and observe what our political parties, globalists, bureaucrats, media, academics, distant parents, corporate scum, and unlimited government types have created. Then you will understand.
Ray DiLorenzo is a career pilot having retired after 22 years as a contract fire pilot with the California Department of Forestry (Cal-Fire). He is presently affiliated with Stand Up America US Foundation founded by Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely (Ret).
