November 9 – There’s an old quote that’s been altered over the years that essentially says: those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.
It likely came from writer and philosopher George Santayana, but has been changed enough over the years that the initial words aren’t the same.
But it certainly still holds true.
War is awful – and when we as a human race fail to remember that, we are destined to repeat it.
And the war in the Middle East is beyond awful. The stories coming out daily contain horrors the likes of which would send most people to their knees.
And yet, in this country, there is an incredible groundswell of support for Palestine.
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “The young people have their faces buried in these phones. What is it going to take? You’ve got people that are championing pro-Palestinians. The Palestinians that support Hamas, that’s the same group that you’re going to get up at a Congressional hearing of some sort and start bitching and moaning about what’s happening on the Gaza Strip. What do you need to see? Do you need to see a mother who is being forced to sit down and watch her baby being thrown in an oven and burned to death? Is that the kind of visual you need? If you’re so stupid to go down this path in supporting Hamas, is this what you need between the eyes?”
PA Representative Rob Kauffman said, “The thing is, that is that the visuals are out and what they’re doing is they’re discounting it like it’s justified. The kind of visuals that we’re seeing almost take you back to Nazi Germany, where folks were justifying what was happening somehow in their mind. No matter if you have empathy for innocent folks in Gaza, you can’t justify what the terrorists are doing to Israelis. But the problem is that we are in that era where they’re justifying it like the Nazis did in Germany back in the day.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM added, “I wish people would realize that same attitude towards the occupier, colonizers of Israel, is the same attitude towards the Western white culture and if young people are getting that in their heads and justifying you can do anything to the occupier or the privileged, that’s always been my problem with this whole white privilege ideology is you are going to start throwing people into groups that can be dehumanized by others who will feel angry or resentful or feel like they’re hurting their lives and that’s where we are with young people.”
Ryan noted, “But I also have an extended family that does not want to pick up a gun, that will be happy to oh, well that’s just the way it is. I am angry about these things. I’ve got liberal, Democrat, Jewish extended family members who will not pick up a gun, who will not defend themselves and I can’t do anything more for you. If you’re not going to defend yourself and you’re not going to push back on these social justice warriors and the far-left libs, you’re on your own.”
Kauffman said, “There’s something else at play here. It’s important that we know what is out there. It’s important that these voices are heard. There seems to be an attempt to silence this alternative viewpoint. I don’t want them to be silenced because we need to know what’s in our midst. We need to know that these really radicalized folks are right here in our universities, in our communities. We need to know what’s here because if they’re silenced, they just fly under the radar and we don’t know what we’re up against.”
Jansen said, “It’s been a huge revelation I think to a lot of people to see this. I think they’re shocked that these young people are coming out and it’s okay to express themselves in these hideously stupid ways that they are. However, it’s not okay to throw a megaphone at a man’s head, have him fall to the ground and die and we do not call that out as what that is. That is hate directed violence. I want people to be able to express themselves, but at the same time you have to decry it when it causes violence.
Kauffman agreed, “Speech is one thing. Violence is another.”
Jansen added, “Including defacing statues and doing violence to the Capitol and buildings. That’s also illegal.”
Kauffman said, “If they want to talk about insurrection, there you go.”
