The basis of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests is faulty and wrong

May 14, 2024

The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests on college and university campuses continue, complete with law-breaking and violence. The protesters attempt to defend their illegal and violent behavior by claiming their actions are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But like so much else that these confused young people believe, while the First Amendment protects free speech, free speech does not include vandalism, trespassing, violence, and illegal harassment of individuals and groups. Actions such as blocking people from entering campus buildings, or taking control of school facilities, or interfering with school activities are not speech. 

They are crimes. And those crimes turn what could and should have been peaceful protests into riots.

Such activities are what finally moved the administrations of some institutions to say, “enough is enough,” and bring in police to break up the protests, and even to arrest some of the protesters. Whether those charged with improper behavior will actually suffer the consequences of their behavior remains to be seen.

Once the authorities became involved, moving people out of the encampments and arresting them, what so often was suspected was proven to be true: many of the protesters/rioters are not students or in any way connected with the school where they gathered.

They quite frequently were members of activist groups that sponsored the encampments, and even in some cases were being paid to condemn Israel.

While they may have earned monetary fines, suspension or expulsion from school, notations in their school records, or even jail time, with the soft-on -crime attitude of so many incompetent prosecutors, they may only get a slap on the wrist.

Much of the emotion behind this criminal behavior results from ignorance and misinformation about Israel’s history and the action it took following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that took some 1,200 innocent lives.

An authoritative look into this situation by Victor Davis Hanson, who is an historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and was published by The Daily Signal, focuses on “10 Most Common Pro-Hamas Lies About Israel.”

One lie is the claim by the protesters that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists.” Jewish students are even sometimes told to “go back to Poland.”

But it is no secret to anyone wanting to know the truth that the general region that is now the state of Israel has been occupied by the Jewish people for more than 3,000 years.

Of the charge that the Gaza Strip was occupied by Israel, Hanson wrote, “The Gaza Strip, adjacent Israel, was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

“So on Oct. 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

“After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas canceled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians.”

Israel is also accused of targeting civilians. But Hanson points out that after the October 7 attack the Hamas terrorists ran back to Gaza and “hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques,” using Palestinians as screens against Israel’s counter-attacks, insuring that some of them would be killed.

“Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere,” Hanson wrote, “and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.”

On the charge that Israel produced a response that was “disproportionate” to the Hamas slaughter, Hanson provides some numbers.

“Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the Israel Defense Forces responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn [Palestinian] citizens.”

The only disproportionate aspect of this is the much higher effectiveness of Israel’s response to the Hamas terrorism.

The clearly incorrect suggestion that Israel is attempting genocide, to wipe out the Palestinian people, like the other lies Hanson lists, falls with a loud thump when faced with reality and the history of the Jewish people with Palestinians.

Hanson: “Before Oct. 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel — on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

“If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israel Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the Oct. 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

“According to Hamas’ questionable ‘genocide’ figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli military response to Oct. 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.”

If the lies and distortions of Israel’s obligatory response to Hamas’ terrorism isn’t bad enough, President Joe Biden gross failure to fully support Israel in its time of need is unforgiveable. This decision is one more item added to Biden’s long list of sometimes deadly catastrophes and failures of leadership.

Our government spends too much, and taxes the people too much

April 7, 2024

Several weeks ago, as the April tax filing deadline neared, Facebook featured some comments about how Americans feel about taxes.

Among those comments were these: 

** The biggest scam in life: Paying taxes on money you make; taxes on money you spend; and taxes on things you own that you already paid taxes on with already taxed money.

** Paying taxes in the USA is like having a never-ending car payment on a car that won't run.

** If your country has enough money to give to illegals, your taxes are too high.

** If they can pay all these student loans, they can stop taxes on seniors!

Clearly, taxes are not popular with the American people, despite the need for the government to collect taxes to pay its bills.

Founder Benjamin Franklin in the very early days of the republic said the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. But he wasn't talking about income taxes, because they did not exist then.

In order to help pay for the Civil War, the United States government imposed its first personal income tax, on August 5, 1861, as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. Tax rates were 3 percent on income exceeding $600 and less than $10,000, and 5 percent on income exceeding $10,000. But this tax didn’t last very long. There were other income taxes of short duration.

The income tax we pay today came into existence in 1913 when the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system. It was a tax on incomes of both individuals and corporations. 

As much as people dislike the taxes they must pay, they generally understand that taxes are necessary for governments at the federal, state, and local levels to operate. And here in America, with our commitment to personal freedom, those governments are expected to be lean, efficient, not overbearing, and not overly expensive.

On the federal level, those characteristics are not being followed as our Founders expected.

USA Facts tells us that the “federal government collected nearly $4.5 trillion in revenue in fiscal year 2023 (FY2023). About half was collected through individual income taxes, while 37 percent was through payroll taxes. Other revenue sources included corporate income taxes, customs duties, and sales taxes.”

However, the report continues, the “federal government spent almost $6.2 trillion in FY 2023, including funds distributed to states, Medicare, Social Security, defense and veterans, transfers to states, interest on the debt, and aid to individuals such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and refundable tax credits accounted for 90 percent of spending.”

Worldometer online said that “the current population of the United States of America is 341,531,428 as of Sunday, May 5, 2024.” That’s about $13,000 in federal income collected per person. Spending, however, ran up to more than $18,000 per person.

Today, the National Debt stands at roughly $34 trillion. In 2006 the National Debt was around $8 trillion. A steady increase put it at about $23 trillion in 2020. And then the government stepped on the gas and the National Debt soared by $11 trillion in just 4 years to today’s $34 trillion. As a result, the per person amount to clear the National Debt today is more than $99,500.

The federal government is not as designed: small and limited in function. Today, it is too big, too expensive, not very efficient, and often quite over-bearing.

There are 15 executive departments and hundreds of federal agencies and commissions, employing approximately 1,427,700 federal employees, not including the military. Given the limited government philosophy of the Founders, many/most of these are not appropriate.

Which ones are needed? Here are a few of those executive branch departments that are sensible and needed: Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of the Treasury. While others may function well and sometimes provide positive guidance, are they really appropriate under the founding principles?

Why do we need a federal Department of Education to tell states how to educate the young? Why do we need the Environmental Protection Agency to tell private land owners what they can and cannot do with their own property? Why do we need a Department of Labor to tell businesses how they must operate? Under our system of federalism, these and other functions should be under control of the states, not the federal government.

In many of these departments, agencies or commissions unelected bureaucrats set rules in place with the force of law, complete with penalties. However, they are not approved by Congress, the law-making body. These bureaucrats tell the people that they work for, and who pay their salaries, what they can and cannot do, and can render punishment for them if they do not comply.

Over the decades the limited government philosophy of the Founders has fattened up and grown far beyond what it was designed to be, and what is needed and appropriate.

With every such step, the freedom of Americans becomes a little bit more limited. And if this concept continues much longer, America will no longer be the Land of the Free.

Anti-Israel protests are out of control and badly misguided

April 30, 2024

What is going on in this country regarding Israel’s response to the terrorist attack last October is truly disgraceful. The fanatical protests on several American college and university campuses, which have been virtually ignored and allowed to continue by the administrations of those institutions, are fueled by misinformation and ignorance. 

The protesters chant “death to Israel” and threaten the safety of their fellow students who are Jewish, although they are not often Israelis. And in response to the pro-Israel sentiments expressed in the country, the protesters also now chant “death to America.”

In taking the anti-Israel position, the protesters claim to be pro-Palestine, but that increasingly has meant pro-Hamas, the terrorists who unleashed that horrible attack on innocent Israelis and others in October. Hamas is an Islamic terrorist organization that the Palestinians voted into power some years ago.

Israel has been and is the target of many of its Middle East neighbors where Islam is the religion. Islamic countries have tried over and over to eliminate Israel and its people, and have been soundly defeated each time.

Leaving behind for the moment the hatred of Israel held by these protesters and Muslims, not everyone is so blind to reality.

Israel is a special place for reasons other than just its role as a target of its neighbors. It is a beacon of democracy in an area where democracies are in short supply.

It is a country that despite its history of being targeted has demonstrated religious tolerance, and has made technological and other valuable innovations. It has made important contributions in mathematics, science, medicine, computing, defense, aviation and energy, to name just some areas to which it has contributed. 

And, it is home to those of other religions. The U.S. government estimates the total population of Israel in 2022 at 8.9 million. And according to the Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2021 approximately 73.8 percent of the population was Jewish, 18 percent Muslim, 1.9 percent Christian, and 1.6 percent Druze. So, if Israel is such a terrible nation, why do so many non-Jewish people willingly live and work there?

The anti-Israel protesters want people to believe, and perhaps themselves believe, that Israel started all of this. It did not. Hamas started it with a violent raid killing more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including at least 35 U.S. citizens who were in Israel.

Among the slaughtered were elderly people. Children were killed in front of their parents, parents were killed in front of their children, babies were beheaded and burned to death in ovens, and other atrocities also committed. Hostages were taken. Some have been released, some have died or been killed, and more than 100 remain in captivity.

So, the military actions of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are not unwarranted attacks on innocent Palestinians. They are appropriate and justified responses to yet another attempt by an Iranian terrorist proxy group to eliminate completely the nation of Israel and every Jewish citizen in Israel. And the innocent Palestinian people voluntarily chose Hamas to lead them. 

The IDF works very hard to avoid injuring or killing non-combatants. However, the Israeli military killed seven aid workers, including three British veterans, of World Central Kitchen when it bombed a clearly marked vehicle belonging to the food charity, as reported by the Daily Mail.

“Israel Defence Forces chief Herzi Halevi … called the killings a 'grave mistake,' which he blamed on night-time ‘misidentification,’ and launched an independent investigation into the attack,” the Daily Mail reported.

The story continued, saying, “Israel is expected to pay compensation to the families of the aid workers killed in the airstrike on a food convoy in Gaza, military sources have claimed.”

In war, things do not always go as intended, as exemplified by this incident. The Israeli forces made a serious mistake, and innocent people died. However, had Hamas not unleashed that appalling, vicious attack last October, this mistake would not have occurred, and other Palestinians would also not have died.

Reuters reported that “protests against Israel filled streets in Brooklyn and escalated at universities across the United States.” These protests have recently grown to encampments, or tent cities, filled with tents that look alike, leading to the idea that these protests are sponsored and coordinated.

“Jewish Left-leaning billionaire and philanthropist George Soros and associations funded by him are reportedly funding the anti-Israel protests at college campuses across the US,” Business Today reported. “The protests, which started at Columbia University last week, have spread to universities and colleges across over 8 states in the US, The New York Post reported.” 

“A large Brooklyn street protest reached a standoff on Tuesday when New York police began to arrest people over disorderly conduct, restraining those who refused to move with zip ties,” the Reuters story added.

Protesters and others are calling for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. The innocent hostages must be released. But a ceasefire by Israel will only delay the effort to destroy Israel, and kill all the Jews.

These institutions and law enforcement need to get moving and apply appropriate punishment to these students who are over-stepping the free speech boundaries and threatening innocent Jewish students.