It’s the old story of “He Said, She Said,” nothing more. One side argues that Palestine should be freed from Israeli occupation. The other absolves Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ruling Israeli government of any wrongdoing. 

It’s been going on since 1948, with its roots all the way back to 1917 and the Balfour Declaration. I’ve written a couple hundred or so columns on the topic and might enlighten readers further, but what’s the use? I’ve covered a couple of wars as a foreign correspondent down in that unhappy land and seen the horror of the refugee camps up close. The only solution I can come up with for the current version of this old mess is to condemn both Hamas and Netanyahu.

And now, suddenly and out of the blue, American students are involved. We all know the reasons, so let’s get down to the brutal facts. Keffiyeh-clad protesters are not my cup of tea. When these idiots spout the slogan “From the river to the sea,” they don’t even know which river—Jordan? Nile? Euphrates?—or which sea.They are ignorant of history, repeat fake news fed to them on TikTok, wave rainbow flags, claim to hate nation-states and to believe in open borders. They are the most spoiled generation in history, with no positive vision or anything useful to contribute. They are narcissists who think society owes them and that the world revolves around them. They disparage the Western civilization that makes their existence possible as evil, racist, sexist, and the product of looting and colonialism. They reject hard work, but claim victimhood and entitlement.

But let’s face it, Israel cannot be a true democracy, as it claims, while it oppresses millions of Palestinians. How to put this unkind thing in the kindest possible way? I’ll just say it simply: Israel is an occupying power and all the pro-Israeli propaganda in the world cannot change that basic fact.

The biggest problem of all, in my opinion, is not the terrorist organization that is Hamas, but Bibi Netanyahu, a gangster surrounded by fellow gangsters in his cabinet, people who have hindered aid to the starving and innocent population of Gaza, and who would drive every Palestinian into the sea if they could.

Here are some grim numbers: The First and Second Intifadas that erupted in 1987 and 2000, respectively, were caused by what Palestinians deemed the Israelis’ cruel and aggressive methods of occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. The First Intifada resulted in the deaths of 160 Israelis and 1,087 Palestinians. The Second Intifada for similar reasons caused the deaths of about 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians. The death estimates of the current war in Gaza are much higher, with perhaps 1,200 Israeli civilians and 400 Israel Defense Force soldiers killed, while more than 35,000 Palestinians have lost their lives, many of them women and children, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, Jewish settlers and Israeli forces have killed more than 400 innocent Palestinian villagers since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to the United Nations, but their deaths have been reported with as much import as if flies had been swatted.Jewish lives matter to Jews, and to all civilized people—but so should Palestinian ones.

The New York Times’ “conservative” columnist Bret Stephens wrote that he’s a Zionist because he supports Israel’s right to exist. By that definition, so I am I. But then Stephens goes on to say that only in Israel can Jews be safe, because they can’t depend on their safety in other countries they live in, including America. What bullshit, what rot—but so typical of a columnist for that paper.

This man should go down to Palestine and write about the brainwashed, apocalyptic, and messianic fanatics called settlers. These feral know-nothings believe that the Messiah will arrive as soon as they complete the ethnic cleansing of all non-Jews from Israel’s historic lands. These primitives pay no taxes, do not serve in the army, and are subsidized by the state. Their only duty is to read religious books. They have five times the number of children of the average Israeli. They are a law unto themselves while terrorizing their Palestinian neighbors. They are Netanyahu’s ardent supporters.

Blood-soaked decades have been wasted on the Israeli extremists’ obscene dream of annexing the West Bank and expelling the Palestinian population. The best opportunity for peace was the Saudi proposal at the 2002 Arab League Summit, which was unanimously endorsed by the League’s members. For once, the Palestinians were smart and accepted it. The right-wing Israeli governments of Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu rejected it. The latter went on to fund Hamas, via Qatar, as a way to undermine the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu finally saw what his underhand dealings brought forth: Oct. 7, and now Gaza. A gangster, indeed.  ◆