Each Ramadan the “Military of the Holy War” proudly attack Jews all over the world. They do this with explicit mention of wanting to kill Jews, to establish their version of Islam as ruling law. Tragically, there is a 400% increase in attacks on Israel during this holy period, as well as spikes in attacks on Jews abroad by self-professed martyrs. Of course, the vast majority of Muslims do not preach martyrdom, and treat Ramadan as a sacred holiday for reflection. But that does not excuse real extremists, wanting to kill ‘infidels’ as their way of celebrating. So to no surprise, last Ramadan (May 2021), Islamists attacked Jews. Again. Hamas called to behead Jews all over the world. Again. And the media outrage was solely against Israel. Again.

The outrage was not about “who started it.” To the average racist, Jews have been their struggle for millenia. Of course, we (Jews like myself) started it. Meaning, if radicals attack first, and take credit for the attack, it is still the Jews’ fault for killing Jesus or some insidious blood libel claim. So the debate is moot — racists believe Jews started “it” [every war, disease and problem], and no statistics, quotations or primary docs will tell them otherwise. Today’s outrage has been turned instead to an undeniable lack of “parity.” This parity prob has been emphasized by showing difference in deaths and military strength. Today, the racist take is that an equality in number of deaths is more important than total number of deaths. It’s an “eye for an eye,” with a lot more blinded people than necessary. We’re all blinded or should be.

There is no parity in death.

If a goon kills John Wick’s dog, and he murders hundreds of their closest friends, things are not even.
If your partner is killed, and the murderer receives the death penalty, you are not avenged.
If a terrorist tries to kill you, and you defend yourself, you are not suddenly the terrorist.

Minimizing death should always be the goal for ethicists. But when it comes to Jews, this is overlooked. To the over privileged, racist celebrities like John Oliver, Dua Lipa, AOC and the Squad, it is easy to complain that there are less Israelis dead than Palestinians, than to praise a total reduction in deaths. Their goal is parity, even though it is impossible, and thus they want more death.

And it’s not just me admitting ‘more deaths’ is the goal of racists and extremists. Hamas’ spokespeople regularly say things like, “We are leading our people to death.” “We must attack every Jew on the face of the Earth. To slaughter and kill them, with the help of A****.” ““The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.” and the often quoted Hamas line, “We desire death like you (Jews) desire life.” Sadly, people will call me Islamphobic for saying Hamas wants death, though I’m actually listening to them and repeating their words. The Israel critics are not listening.

You have to ask yourself: when the Israel side is clear about not wanting death, Israel does not offer the death penality even for repeated terrorists, goes at length to de-escalate war and prevent fire fighting, and their enemies, including liberal celebrities, are demanding more parity in deaths… what the hell is going on?

I have little faith that the racists who stand against Jews living in Judea, Samaria, Gaza etc. were convinced the multiple Hamas and Fatah quotes I referenced are evidence they want death. These ‘antizionists” are simply not honest, often going from praising martyrdom (religious based fighting) to claims there is no religious aspects to a so-called holy war. They have had access to information on Arab leaders forever. But they depend on the narrative that Israel is purposefully killing Arabs, and Palestinian leaders are saints. These claims almost always descend straight into classic blood libel, insisting that Jews want others dead, in spite of all the evidence that we don’t, and extremist groups do.

So I can spend many pages writing about the ways Israel prevents Palestinian death, from supplying financial aid and free utilities to people who explicitly hate Jews, covert missions, disarming radicals, calls for diplomacy, focusing on organized groups over civilians, letter/leaflet dropping, military intelligence, prisoner swaps, direct calls to building inhabitants, micro-targeted missile attacks, Iron Dome (which protects indiscriminately) …. the list goes on. But this is already a long post, so I will leave it to one anecdote.

Many IDF friends have told me stories of de-escalating conflict in the neo-Palestinian territories. One story comes from a friend stationed next to Gaza during a major conflict. The young troops sat on the Israel end of a Hamas tunnel, listening to Arab voices walking towards them. They got ready for a fight. As the voices approached to 100 meters away, the young IDF troops heard their own fight chant, “Green in the eyes!” (translated from Hebrew) and loud gunshots. The young IDF troops were confused, unsure who was speaking and shooting. By the time they found loudspeakers, covered up in an abandoned, adjacent tower, left decades prior, the Hamas militants had retreated. Israel had set up speakers and trip wire to prevent a fire fight (likely in the 90s) and either forgot, or intentionally didn’t let the soldiers know. Statistically speaking, this action more likely saved more neo-Palestinian lives than IDF soldiers. Yet it is not to be praised by a people who are outwardly calling for more death, even of their own.

It is commonly accepted that the powerful are responsible for the less powerful. Israel has conceded that it is more powerful than their neo-Palestinian neighbors. They currently rely on Qatar and Irani funding for poor rockets that regularly explode within Gaza (and West Bank (and Lebanon (and Syria (and Jordan))). They are thus “more responsible” for preventing war. And while Russia and China might never be asked, “How many deaths did you prevent, while you were being attacked?” the US and Israel are asked this important question.

Israel has a self-proclaimed responsibility to deescelate wars, even when Arab leaders start them. And it is easy for me to argue they do, with numbers to back it. The expansion of Israel, often referred to as “illegal settlements” has saved countless lives. So I will skip past the tragedy that Jews, and only Jews, are referred to as “illegal settlers” in neo-Palestinian territories. Because checkpoints have saved countless lives. Random searches, hated by many internationally, have saved countless lives. The only thing that hasnt saved lives is intifada and shooting rockets at Israel. Or the meme accounts and martyr-apoligists calling for parity. These anti-Israel actions regularly hinder the living conditions of Arabs, most of which want mobility and rights within Israel, and not under neo-Palestinian rule.

From 1987, the first intifada, to today, almost 15,000 have died in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The intifada, or call to uprise against Israel and Jews, has been the primary source of deaths in this conflict. The first intifada led many in the West Bank to lose Jordanian citizenship, and thus movement into Jordan. This was downplayed because Israel also built security checkpoints. The anti-Jew narrative was that Israel’s checkpoints were evil, and Israel must not restrict travel, but let’s forget about Jordan’s necessary check points and reducing refugee rights. Who cares about walls along Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, states that encouraged the Israeli Independence War, when all the focus needs to be on Israel?

I would love to write that the second intifada led to ~500 checkpoints, and that after they were reduced to ~15. But I have no clue the exact number of checkpoints then and now. I know the numbers were drastically reduced, but have seen conflicting reports on exactly how many. Again, in 2022, even Gaza’s wall with Egypt is blamed on Israel and the Jews…. so who cares?

As you can see in the graph below, each conflict is marked by a call to action for loyal martyrs to attack Israel (and Jews worldwide). There are heavy spikes in fatalities. And then the actions of IDF, not the martyrs praised by JVP and INN, reduce deaths. That is, until the martyrs are rested and ready to start the war back up. The Gaza border brought neo-Palestinian and Israeli deaths down drastically. Prior to that border, Jews could take busses into Gaza. Today, Jews are not allowed into Gaza, by penalty of death under Hamas rule, and Israel is criticized as apartheid in spite of a dozen countries ethnically cleansing 100% of their Jews and Christians.

One recent oped pointed this out clearly, "Over the last two decades, terrorist-related fatalities have fallen dramatically, from 457 killed in terrorist attacks in 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada, to three such deaths in 2020." I say this with clear irony, having written a long rant, but that one sentence could have been the whole oped. Say less! But the sad reality is that Jew hating racists will never, ever care about 457 Israelis dying. Again, they support dead Jews. And so an end to walls and basic security measures means more dead Jews, and thus a double win.

To the overt Jew haters ~1500 deaths in 2002 is preferable to 2021's ~300 deaths [based on 457 Israelis + 1000 neo-Palestinians from IDF soldiers + another 37 neo-Palestinians from Intrafada VS 3 Israeli + 12 non-IL and non-PA civilians + 0 intrafada + 256 Gazans + 28 West Bank]. As such, you heard more about the conflict when there are less deaths! This is why the conflict will never end. The fact we went from >1500 deaths to <300 overall in the conflict, and from >1000 to <300 total Palestinian deaths, is ignroed point blank, to focus on 256 Gazans killed vs 3 Jews. The fact, most of the 256 Gazans killed were the fault of errant Hamas rockets, does not matter.

Which comes to my conclusion. This week there was tragic news of a Palestinian American who died of a heart attack. He was 80 years old, had known heart issues, and was found out at night. I am not downplaying that his death is/was tragic. After all, I’m a Jew, and we Jews desire life like…. you know. But it’s very hard to ignore that the story made international news solely because the man was arrested by IDF forces in Ramallah.

Yes, it is very important for Israelis and Palestinians to want an investigation into this. Could it have been prevented? Were the soldiers responsible? Any rational personal would want answers. Especially us Jews, who love life. That said, no, it is not important for Jew hating politicians half way across the world to investigate it. At all. It doesnt even make sense.

The Squad’s Rashida Tliab was quick to distort the story, in typical fashion. She falsely claimed the man was beaten til death, a claim not even the most Israel hating Arab outlets went with. The rest of the squad joined in with calls for the US to get involved.

Could you imagine Israel demanding investigation into the death of George Floyd? First off, there’s more serious international issues, such as a yearly death toll of Igbo and other African groups greatly surpassing the entirety of the Israel-Palestine conflict over decades. Second, there is no connection. The US is not the IDF. Israel is not the Minnesota police force. Minnesota was ironically represented by Jew hating racist, and Squad leader, Ilhan Omar, who has spent more time demanding justice for an 80 year old in Ramallah than working on police reform in her own neighborhoods.

The sad reality is that the “Free Palestine” Squad is a mix of genuinely well intentioned people in a much, much larger pool of antisemetism. Worse, the well intentioned, non racists willfully ignore the racists they group themselves with. These haters are not focused on this man’s death in an attempt to prevent further death. They are focused on this man’s death because it insights hate for Israel, and Jews, and they desire more death. The ones who suffer most are the families of the victims, spoken over by people filled with rage. Antizionism is simply a symptom of antisemetism, not the disease itself. It’s a pandemic.