I am sitting on a flight from London to NY crying my eyes out. I just watched a movie called The Covenant, which tells the fictional story of a US soldier who goes back into Afghanistan alone to save the interpreter who had saved his life in combat. At the end, as their ammunition runs out and the Taliban is closing in, the good guys from the US military come roaring over the horizon in a gunship and blow all the Taliban away. I am crying because the story is only half true. The bad guys are closing in, but the good guys are not coming to the rescue.
One would think that the difference between darkness and light is so obvious, so stark, that one would never need to point it out. Alas, we find ourselves in the midst of a worldwide struggle that in many ways has the highest stakes in history, because in this conflict, distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys is not as easy it used to be. In the post-Cold War world, the forces of darkness are not always in uniform, do not always represent a government, and are not necessarily coming from overseas.
In 1983, 40 years ago, Bob Dylan wrote Neighborhood Bully about Israel. How right he was.
Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He's the neighborhood bully.
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He's the neighborhood bully.
What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed
He's the neighborhood bully.
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully.
There is so much to unravel in the Hamas massacre that most of what I want do is ask questions. I am truly at a loss, witnessing these acts and the world’s response to them.
Why do Obama and Biden give so much succor and support to Iran, the only state sponsor of terrorism in the world?
How can any human being justify the atrocities committed by Hamas in any context?
How have Woke-ism, Intersectionality, Critical Theory and the rest managed to completely undermine the most basic notions of the rights, responsibilities and value of the individual that are the underpinning of civilization?
How do we bring back balance, ethics, morality and substance to our academic institutions?
If Hamas had not broadcast their crimes and Israel had uncovered them later, would anyone in the world have believed Israel’s story?
Does the LGBTQ person who sponsored the atrocious Cornell Student Assembly motion realize that she could not be outwardly L, G, B, T or Q in any Fundamentalist Muslim society?
Do any of the protesters in the West appreciate that they could not publicly question their government in any fundamentalist Muslim society?
Would any of the protesters and social media posters vote for Hamas to govern their city, state or country?
Can a person be a freedom fighter if the end result of their victory is that nobody is free?
Would Hamas and the other Islamic terror groups disappear if Israel disappeared?
Why would anyone believe, after seeing these atrocities, that Iran would not do what they say they would do with a nuclear weapon, which is eliminate Israel?
Can Israel actually eliminate Hamas or does killing their current members accomplish nothing as long as Iran is around to rebuild and replenish the ranks?
Must I now scour the social media accounts of every person with whom I consider working to make sure they do not harbor deeply disturbing views?
What is the United States willing to do if the combined forces coming at Israel from all sides start winning?
As Dennis Prager pointed out this week, there has never been a war between two free states. In free states, everyday life is good enough that people would prefer to continue their productive pursuits over engaging in war. In every conflict, there is at least one authoritarian. In this one, that is Hamas. As Bob Dylan said above, these people took “the crumbs of the world and turned them into wealth, took sickness and disease and turned them into health.” Israel’s transformation over the past 75 years is nothing short of a miracle. Unless you are simply a racist, there is no way to arrive at the conclusion that Israel would prefer to have conflict with their neighbors as opposed to peace. It is simply rational that people who are building an amazing life, would rather be left alone to keep building. Only when despots need to distract their subjects from their own failures do they scapegoat villains outside their borders and mobilize nationalist fervor.
Almost a week after the attacks, I shudder at the thought of what is happening to the captives. I am so heartbroken for the horrendous loss we continue to suffer. And I am without hope because I now understand how deeply rotten our society has become. As Bari Weiss so aptly pointed out a few days ago, the Nazis thought that hiding their crimes was their only option. Little did they know that broadcasting them would have been a better one.