Excellent piece. One might ask the same thing of Canadians who support Prime Minister Carney even though he gave $100 million to the Palestinian Authority because he said a Palestinian state is in Canada's national interest, and when Canada, along with Britain and France, recognized a non-existent Palestinian State in the form of the Palestinian Authority, conditional on the PA's holding elections, all he could offer when Abbas postponed elections for a 21st year was regret. But the money keeps flowing to a culture no different from the one you described in Gaza. This is what I have to say about Gaza and the western morons who falsely accuse Israel of genocide:
Islam has had its apostates for centuries; they were all murdered. There have been attempts at an Islamic Reformation several times. All were killed, so most of the names are unknown to us. Muslims killed their reformers and apostates, their Martin Luthers and Dietrich Bonhoeffers. Islam is by far the most violent religion in world history, with over 50,085 deadly terror attacks since 9/11 (see https://www.cspii.org/trop).
Hamas is an Islamic terror group, the sole purpose of which is to destroy Israel and kill Jews as a religious duty. It's not about the welfare of Palestinian people or even creating a nation-state for themselves. They have one purpose: to genocide Jew as they did on Oct 7th. It is an end in itself, a religious ritual they desire with all their hearts, being conditioned to give their lives to it from an early age, as seen in their war training of toddlers. The desire to murder Jews is part of the Islamic faith now. Robert Spencer and others argue it always has been, for 1400 years. They accept only Jews who are subordinate and pay the dhimmi tax. A powerful Jew, like a Zionist, is seen as a threat to their very identity. It's an irrational religious ideology.
Their group identity was manufactured in the 1960s for that single purpose. Yes, there were anti-Zionist Arabs before that, but Palestinianism was created for that purpose, co-opting the name from an old name for the region that previously never applied only to one small group of Arabs Muslims. [The old name, by the way, was given by the Romans as an insult to Jews, based on the Philistines, an old enemy of Judea and Israel, and later adopted by the British, but the land was always uderstood to be the land of Jews, for 3,000 years] Jews had Palestinian passports as well between the wars. The PLO took the name, added Marxist ideology, and got the USSR's backing to destroy Israel -- now supported by Communist China. The Communists had their own agenda: destroy the USA. If Palestinians wanted their own state, they had the chance in 1947, and many times since, but it was never really about that.
Of course, deep down there is also a human being that periodically surfaces in the form of an apostate, one who rejects the violence and the genocidal agenda and just wants to live. When this happens, such individuals are murdered. Maybe a few escape to the West and live normal lives, but they know better than to challenge Hamas, even abroad. Once in a while, an exceptional individual will speak out against Hamas and live to tell about it, from a safe distance, in another country, like Mosab Hassan Yousef. That's quite rare.
There was a public protest against Hamas in Gaza in March 2025. I saw it on the news and knew the people in it had sealed their fates and would be murdered. It was an act of extreme courage and desperation after losing everything in the war that Hamas started. Odai Nasser Al Rabay (Sadi) was the fearless 22-year-old leader. He was captured by the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, and beaten with clubs and metal rods for four hours, tortured to death, and his body was left on his family's doorstep as a warning to other dissenters. Following that protest, Hamas publicly executed at least six other individuals accused of leading protests or collaborating with external entities.
Someone named Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of an armed anti-Hamas Bedouin tribal militia based in Rafah, was shot in Dec. 2025. His group got backing from Israel to challenge Hamas's post-war governance. Who shot him is not certain, but Hamas had called for his head.
When Hamas came into power, they executed members of the rival party at the time. They also, of course, killed thousands of their own people by forcing them to be human shields,s martyrs for Islam in conflicts with the IDF.
If there are Bonheoffers, we never hear of them because they're killed. Also, with very few exceptions, Arabs tend not to be great thinkers or philosophers like Bonhoeffer. And there is no moral core to their religion that they can easily appeal to for universal peace or human decency, unlike Christianity. Islam is a religion based on hate and tribalism, not love. Their leader was a warlord, in stark contrast to Jesus' ethical teachings.
As for "free Palestine" -- Yes, free Palestinians from Hamas.
Like many people, I have a strong opinion on the matter, but unlike anti-Zionists, my opinions are grounded in real history and an understanding of Islam, not Marxist histories, which are one-sided and wrong. I did not always use to think this way. In university, I joined Leftist rallies against Israel, mindlessly, like many people who are unfamiliar with the issue and just get drawn into a group cause they know nothing about. Then I actually studied it and learned the truth. I then went to Israel for several months and was convinced of the rightness of defending that nation. I heard both sides, from Israelis and Palestinians, and it became obvious that Israel was in the right. The Palestinian cause is largely focused on the Temple Mount. It is a religious cause. How many Leftists know this? They have no idea. Israel essentially gave them the Temple Mount anyway and kept Jews out to appease the Islamists, but it's never enough. For over a century, the false rumour that Israel would tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque has animated Arabs to jihad. Now Tucker Carlson repeats these rumours. Isreal defends itself with greater moderation than I would have. I would not be so restrained; the Palestinian population, in my view, should be deported to Africa since they will never reform. As long as they are in close proximity to Israel, they will resort to terrorism. Terrorism is all they know. Also, it's not their land; it is Israel proper. The 2 million Arab Israelis get this, but the Palestinians do not. Not even the Arab countries want them because of their history of violence. I feel bad for those few who do not want to be part of it but are caught up in it. My research into this was well before Oct 7th. What's happened since only confirms these convictions. Melanie Phillips' books and articles are good. So is Robert Spencer's book The Palestinian Delusion. The Future of Jewish on Substack has great articles on the topic.
Pal society is rotten to the core. Yes, some of them are perfectly sane, normal people, but unfortunately those don't hold any political power to change their culture. I saw lots of Pals celebrating 10/7/23, but not 1 condemning the massacre as a moral outrage. Even Gazans who later cursed Hamas did so because of what Hamas did to Gaza, not because of what Gaza did to Israel. Why so many in the West kiss their jihadist ass is a question future psychologists will devote entire chapters in textbooks studying.
Great analysis. Bottom line is that Islam must be reformed from within, by its own adherents or else I think there will be a WW3 between the west and Islam because the chaos, violence, hatred that exists in many Islamic countries has been imported now to the west.
Paul, you are on a roll today this article and the piece regarding our voluntary dhimmitude are excellent! I rarely share with my daughter but your brilliance as a wordsmith explains these serious matters so clearly, hours of further misunderstandings avoided as I'd continue to make a hash of it. Thank you!
Excellent piece. One might ask the same thing of Canadians who support Prime Minister Carney even though he gave $100 million to the Palestinian Authority because he said a Palestinian state is in Canada's national interest, and when Canada, along with Britain and France, recognized a non-existent Palestinian State in the form of the Palestinian Authority, conditional on the PA's holding elections, all he could offer when Abbas postponed elections for a 21st year was regret. But the money keeps flowing to a culture no different from the one you described in Gaza. This is what I have to say about Gaza and the western morons who falsely accuse Israel of genocide:
https://schecter.substack.com/p/genocide-in-gaza-a-poem
Islam has had its apostates for centuries; they were all murdered. There have been attempts at an Islamic Reformation several times. All were killed, so most of the names are unknown to us. Muslims killed their reformers and apostates, their Martin Luthers and Dietrich Bonhoeffers. Islam is by far the most violent religion in world history, with over 50,085 deadly terror attacks since 9/11 (see https://www.cspii.org/trop).
Hamas is an Islamic terror group, the sole purpose of which is to destroy Israel and kill Jews as a religious duty. It's not about the welfare of Palestinian people or even creating a nation-state for themselves. They have one purpose: to genocide Jew as they did on Oct 7th. It is an end in itself, a religious ritual they desire with all their hearts, being conditioned to give their lives to it from an early age, as seen in their war training of toddlers. The desire to murder Jews is part of the Islamic faith now. Robert Spencer and others argue it always has been, for 1400 years. They accept only Jews who are subordinate and pay the dhimmi tax. A powerful Jew, like a Zionist, is seen as a threat to their very identity. It's an irrational religious ideology.
Their group identity was manufactured in the 1960s for that single purpose. Yes, there were anti-Zionist Arabs before that, but Palestinianism was created for that purpose, co-opting the name from an old name for the region that previously never applied only to one small group of Arabs Muslims. [The old name, by the way, was given by the Romans as an insult to Jews, based on the Philistines, an old enemy of Judea and Israel, and later adopted by the British, but the land was always uderstood to be the land of Jews, for 3,000 years] Jews had Palestinian passports as well between the wars. The PLO took the name, added Marxist ideology, and got the USSR's backing to destroy Israel -- now supported by Communist China. The Communists had their own agenda: destroy the USA. If Palestinians wanted their own state, they had the chance in 1947, and many times since, but it was never really about that.
Of course, deep down there is also a human being that periodically surfaces in the form of an apostate, one who rejects the violence and the genocidal agenda and just wants to live. When this happens, such individuals are murdered. Maybe a few escape to the West and live normal lives, but they know better than to challenge Hamas, even abroad. Once in a while, an exceptional individual will speak out against Hamas and live to tell about it, from a safe distance, in another country, like Mosab Hassan Yousef. That's quite rare.
There was a public protest against Hamas in Gaza in March 2025. I saw it on the news and knew the people in it had sealed their fates and would be murdered. It was an act of extreme courage and desperation after losing everything in the war that Hamas started. Odai Nasser Al Rabay (Sadi) was the fearless 22-year-old leader. He was captured by the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, and beaten with clubs and metal rods for four hours, tortured to death, and his body was left on his family's doorstep as a warning to other dissenters. Following that protest, Hamas publicly executed at least six other individuals accused of leading protests or collaborating with external entities.
Someone named Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of an armed anti-Hamas Bedouin tribal militia based in Rafah, was shot in Dec. 2025. His group got backing from Israel to challenge Hamas's post-war governance. Who shot him is not certain, but Hamas had called for his head.
When Hamas came into power, they executed members of the rival party at the time. They also, of course, killed thousands of their own people by forcing them to be human shields,s martyrs for Islam in conflicts with the IDF.
If there are Bonheoffers, we never hear of them because they're killed. Also, with very few exceptions, Arabs tend not to be great thinkers or philosophers like Bonhoeffer. And there is no moral core to their religion that they can easily appeal to for universal peace or human decency, unlike Christianity. Islam is a religion based on hate and tribalism, not love. Their leader was a warlord, in stark contrast to Jesus' ethical teachings.
As for "free Palestine" -- Yes, free Palestinians from Hamas.
But you answered my question very intelligently. Thank you.
Like many people, I have a strong opinion on the matter, but unlike anti-Zionists, my opinions are grounded in real history and an understanding of Islam, not Marxist histories, which are one-sided and wrong. I did not always use to think this way. In university, I joined Leftist rallies against Israel, mindlessly, like many people who are unfamiliar with the issue and just get drawn into a group cause they know nothing about. Then I actually studied it and learned the truth. I then went to Israel for several months and was convinced of the rightness of defending that nation. I heard both sides, from Israelis and Palestinians, and it became obvious that Israel was in the right. The Palestinian cause is largely focused on the Temple Mount. It is a religious cause. How many Leftists know this? They have no idea. Israel essentially gave them the Temple Mount anyway and kept Jews out to appease the Islamists, but it's never enough. For over a century, the false rumour that Israel would tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque has animated Arabs to jihad. Now Tucker Carlson repeats these rumours. Isreal defends itself with greater moderation than I would have. I would not be so restrained; the Palestinian population, in my view, should be deported to Africa since they will never reform. As long as they are in close proximity to Israel, they will resort to terrorism. Terrorism is all they know. Also, it's not their land; it is Israel proper. The 2 million Arab Israelis get this, but the Palestinians do not. Not even the Arab countries want them because of their history of violence. I feel bad for those few who do not want to be part of it but are caught up in it. My research into this was well before Oct 7th. What's happened since only confirms these convictions. Melanie Phillips' books and articles are good. So is Robert Spencer's book The Palestinian Delusion. The Future of Jewish on Substack has great articles on the topic.
And wherever you see the Palestinian flag violence and destruction are close by.
I just posted a piece on Islamic violence and our voluntary dhimmitude.
Pal society is rotten to the core. Yes, some of them are perfectly sane, normal people, but unfortunately those don't hold any political power to change their culture. I saw lots of Pals celebrating 10/7/23, but not 1 condemning the massacre as a moral outrage. Even Gazans who later cursed Hamas did so because of what Hamas did to Gaza, not because of what Gaza did to Israel. Why so many in the West kiss their jihadist ass is a question future psychologists will devote entire chapters in textbooks studying.
Great analysis. Bottom line is that Islam must be reformed from within, by its own adherents or else I think there will be a WW3 between the west and Islam because the chaos, violence, hatred that exists in many Islamic countries has been imported now to the west.
The problem is that reforming means going back to the original and that represents the most violent period of all
Paul, you are on a roll today this article and the piece regarding our voluntary dhimmitude are excellent! I rarely share with my daughter but your brilliance as a wordsmith explains these serious matters so clearly, hours of further misunderstandings avoided as I'd continue to make a hash of it. Thank you!