The World has witnessed the abhorrent, barbarous attack on Israel by Hamas, the kidnapping of its citizens, and the tactically planned retreat to tunnels constructed under Palestinian Hospitals. It is cognizant that the same was thus planned so that by empirical necessity, the predictable retribution could only be exacted against its intended “shield” of innocent Gazans; thereby incurring the enmity of Israel by its supporting nations. Nonetheless, we have expressed our empathic opposition to the extent of the disproportionate suffering, thus wreaked upon innocent Gazan civilians by the retaliatory action of the right-wing, Netanyahu government.
We have previously observed the significant number of loudly protesting students at our Nation’s Universities, responsive to America’s financial support of the Israeli retaliation and desire to articulate certain relevant and contextual facts.
We fully support the constitutional right of citizens to peacefully protest, yet, we have often observed in university student demonstrations, a measure of elemental sophomoric and reductive motivation, innately catalyzed by a quixotic, youthful, and myopic impatience for resolution. To be especially abhorred, contextually, is the possible element of prejudicial expression; in this case, anti-Semitism. Admittedly, there are meritorious reasons to protest the present contextual events on a humanistic and empathic basis, but little merit in reductive, sophomoric, and, most especially, prejudicial motivation. The following facts may be deemed worthy of useful and temperate consideration.
Hamas is universally known to be a political and military Islamic movement, governing, by strict authoritarian force, parts of the Gaza Strip since 2007. It has long dedicated itself to the elimination of the State of Israel and thereby rule “from Sea to Sea.” Its extensive history of suicide and rocket attacks against Israel has caused it to be officially categorized by several Nations as a “terroristic organization.” We have shockingly observed some misguided students holding hand-held signage, declaring blatant support for Hamas, identified as the alleged, “wronged party;” notwithstanding its unjustified act of aggression and cruel and barbaric acts against the State of Israel. The same is an obvious empirical distortion of objectively verified reality. Hamas is to be especially, detested for its pathologically inhuman tactics in causing innocent Palestinians, to serve as human “Shields,” absorbing the predictable retaliation.
The international incident has provided a measure of tactical fodder (in addition to bigots of innately systemic ideation), for inadequately uninformed anti-Semites to publicly criticize and attack Jewish Americans. The media has reported on the covert phenomenon of motivated “agitators” catalyzing hatred among the ranks of enthusiastic student protestors. This sad phenomenon demonstrates the very zenith of reductive prejudice; American Jews, like their Italian, French and Irish neighbors are American citizens, and likewise, not citizens of Italy, France and Ireland. Generally, they are supportive of the State of Israel and yet a great many oppose the Netanyahu government’s overreaction.
We have disturbingly noted that public outrage and student demonstrations are discernably selective. By illustration, where was the public outcry or loud university student demonstrations at the egregious events of the Dresden carpet bombing during the Second World War (with the exception of the Kurt Vonnegut novel, “Breakfast of Champions”)? In this context, we do not recall any such responses perforce, to our Nation’s horrendous acts of nightmarish nuclear cremations of the heavily populated Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Truman Administration
The constitutional right to peacefully petition is democratically appropriate and useful when exercised in the right context and with requisite understanding.
-p.
plinyblogdotcom 