A Century of Middle Eastern Conflict
5/25/2021

Conflict has engulfed the Middle East for thousands of years. The Israel-Palestine conflict is nothing new and all too familiar.

Jews have a long history of being persecuted by Russia, Germany, and their neighbors in the Middle East. When the Jews were harshly targeted by totalitarian anti-semites in Russia and genocided by the Nazi Party, they fled back to their historical roots of Persia and Babylon (present-day Iraq and Iran).

The Middle East wasn't particularly friendly in welcoming back their Jewish neighbors. During WWII, al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, flew to Nazi Germany to meet with Adolf Hitler. The Grand Mufti and Fuhrer noticed they were united behind a common trait-- hatred of the Jews. By the time the war ended, al-Husseini was hiding in Egypt to prevent extradition for war crimes, conspiring with Hitler, and aiding and abetting the Nazi Party. The Grand Mufti spent the rest of his life stirring up conflict in the Middle East and obstructing peace deals.

Following WWII, as one would imagine, the Jewish people were thinly spread throughout the Middle East. Present-day Israel, however, was densely populated with Jews before the Israeli recognition in 1948. Anti-Israel advocates may argue that the Jews were a minority in present-day Israel, but in their manipulated statistics, they include the entire nation of Jordan.

One of the several misleading allegations against the existence of a Jewish State is the myth that Israel was the result of Zionist colonizers. Anyone that understands the Middle-East conflict knows that Jews were fleeing totalitarian, fascist and communist countries-- not colonizing for them.

The disinformation and anti-semitic propaganda of the nations surrounding Israel led to constant attacks on the Jewish state which have lasted over 70 years.

The Gaza Strip & The West Bank
As a result of the relentless attacks by their neighboring countries, Israel successfully occupied the largely uninhabitable Gaza Strip and the West Bank to create a buffer zone and decrease future conflict. Ever since, those who attack Israel use the occupation as a justification. There is no well-intentioned reason Palestine should want the West Bank or Gaza Strip, but Israel has offered both in exchange for peace on numerous occasions and was met with nothing but violence. Under the Clinton administration, a peace deal was proposed: Israel offered 94%-96% of the West Bank, all of the Gaza strip, and a section of Jerusalem in exchange for peace. The deal was highly lopsided in favor of the Palestinians. The Palestinians declined the offer because their goal is not land but the elimination of the only Jewish state.

In 2005, Israel decided to end the occupation of the Gaza Strip in the hope of rational peace. Instead, the retreat resulted in Iranian backed Hamas developing launch pads on the Gaza Strip and attacking an Israeli school bus. It is clear that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank only bring peace when they're controlled by Israel and used as a buffer zone.

Israeli Retaliation
When a neighboring country attacks Israel, there are not many options. The government of Israel's primary duty is to protect the nation against all threats to their liberty, and if they took no action when attacked, they would be failing at their sole objective. The most precise and safest way to attack a military is an airstrike. Israel keeps their military bases separate from civilian centers, as most countries do. Israel does not want innocent civilians dying in the crossfire. On the other side, Hamas keeps its troops and weapons in apartment buildings. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that uses children to plant bombs for a guaranteed pass to heaven, wants their civilians to die in the crossfire. Whenever Israel strikes Hamas, it is usually forced to hit civilians. Hamas uses the civilian deaths to justify further violence against Israel, which results in a positive feedback loop. The effective use of human shields makes for great propaganda, which has successfully infected the minds of Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and AOC.

The radicals in the United States are in favor of boycotting our closest ally. There is no reason to punish Israel with a boycott for defending their nation. Israel has killed fewer Palestinian civilians than the United States or Jordan, or Great Britain, yet nobody calls for a boycott of these countries. Israel is one of the few nations in the middle east that does not criminalize apostasy. Israel has an excellent human rights record and promotes American values in a region that needs them most.

Israel has denied answering whether or not they have nuclear weapons and have stated that they will not be the first in the middle east to reveal that they have nuclear weapons. A responsible nation like Israel that does not want to cause a nuclear holocaust is not a global concern, but Iran is. Iran's attempt to create nuclear weapons has gained the attention of the entire world.

The situation in the Middle East is eerily similar to what led to WWII. The majority of Muslim nations think the global community has oppressed them. Israel has the strong support of the united states and many European countries, while Iran and the Arab countries surrounding Israel have allies like Russia and China. Whether the surrounding nations are predominantly Sunni, Shia or Jewish is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that they're supporting western ideas, peace, and civil liberties.