Until the international community confronts this culture of celebrating violence and death, they will never understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The real question is why do so many Jews accept this state of affairs? Why does Israel accept that it is ok for "Palestinian" Muslims to murder them in the streets, in cafes, on sidewalks, at bus stops, on and on? The proper response is to send the troops into Ramallah, kill the PLO leadership, dismantle the PA, annex all of Judea and Samaria and lock down the "Palestinians" until they emigrate and ensure those that remain behave, without any voting rights in Israel. Then we would not have to worry about the immorality of the West because the Muslims could go on their killing sprees in Britain and Canada and Australia and France and Norway and Spain and Belgium and Germany, all of whom will recognize a dead Palestinian state.
The Israelis were seriously contemplating annexation of the West Bank, but UAE told them it would be the end of the Abraham Accords so Netanyahu said they were dropping the plan.
The Israelis can ignore the UAE. Their objections do not hold a candle to the safety of Israeli citizens. If the UAE cannot stomach Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria let them withdraw from the Abraham Accords if they wish. That will show the Accords are as worthless as the Oslo ones. If Israel shrinks from declaring sovereignty because the UAE objects that is tantamount to giving the Muslims the keys to the kingdom. It also indicates that Jewish trauma is still at work, refusing to sign on to the deal God proposed at Sinai whereby a law-based society will exist in the land of Israel; and the latter in turn means no idol worshippers in the land. Complaining about the world's misunderstanding is useless if we do not understand the situation either.
One solution is to allow all Israelis that have served in the IDF to carry firearms when out of uniform and when not on active or reserved duty. Armed civilians can more quickly neutralize such armed attacks by terrorists.
The Palestinian National Movement is and has always beena murder cult in which terrorists are exalted as the greatest heroes. Lately, under the rule of Hamas it has become a death cult as well, reminsicent of Jonestown. Until the rest of the world wakes up and recognizes that this unfortunate people cannot have and for that matter do not want a state this will never end. Any other murderous minority that behaved like the Palestinians do would have been disbursed decades ago.
👏👏👏 I wish I could say none of this true, Joshua but it is. You knocked its out of the park yet again with another thoughtful essay. Mainstream media would run this piece if they had any integrity. The problems you discuss here are why I’m glad Bari Weiss will be taking over at CBS News. Because among other things, the murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists will finally get coverage. Perhaps, the Palestinian culture that celebrates death will also finally get coverage. This is something people need to understand: the murder of Jews happens nearly every day in Israel. In the privileged West we would be a wreck if the kind of attacks Palestinians perpetrate on Israelis so frequently happened to us. The recent murder of several Israelis was just sadly, par for the course for Israelis. But there was no international outrage. The UN didn’t say a word. Britain, France and Germany aren’t talking about how the Palestinians need to show restraint and stop their terrorism.
Also, what is this headline? “Shooting in “occupied” East Jerusalem” no, East Jerusalem is part of Israel, period! Israel took it back fair and square in the Six-Day War. You know what’s in East Jerusalem? The Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Rachel’s Tomb, and the Old City of Jerusalem. As to the shooting itself, it’s absolutely horrific and the Israeli “occupation” doesn’t justify it. That’s not resistance! Resistance doesn’t involve slaughtering civilians. The 1972 Munich Massacre, the 1974 Ma’alot Massacre, the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, the two Intifadas, snd October 7th weren’t “resistance” either.
The world needs to wake up and see that in the Palestinian Territories they celebrate the murder of Israelis and the terrorist who did it is proclaimed “a martyr.” They’ll hand out sweets to people in the streets after the death of an Israeli soldier or civilian. A good percentage of Gaza’s population supports Hamas and celebrated October 7th as well as 9/11. Hamas and their civilian collaborators acted like it was Ramadan or something when they sent Oded Liftshitz and the Bibas family’s bodies back to Israel. The mainstream media doesn’t cover any of this because it’s inconvenient to the narrative they want to create that the big bad Jews are oppressing the poor, helpless Palestinians.
This culture of celebrating death, for example hoping their children will die in service to their country makes Palestinian parents happy. Remember that Hamas terrorist who on October 7th took a dead Israeli’s cellphone, called his parents and started bragging about how many Jews he killed? That’s a great example right there. His parents were overjoyed at his “accomplishment.” Had they been normal parents they would’ve been disgusted, hung up on him and disowned him. Instead they acted like he had just won the Nobel Prize or something. Or how about when Hamas use children in school or cancer patients in hospitals as human shields? How about when family’s assist Hamas in luring IDF soldiers to their deaths? This kind of stuff is what the West needs to understand is common place with the Palestinians. Ireland, Spain and Norway wouldn’t be so eager to back a Palestinian state if they knew what happens every day in Judea and Samaria and Gaza.
For my money their "culture" resembles that of the Thuggees of 1800's British India. Glorifying "martyrdom" and killing ARE the predominant features of this so-called "Palestinian culture."
If Israel was smart they would totally eliminate Palestine. After they defeat Hamas, they need to expell all Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank and integrate them into Israel. No more Arabs anywhere near Israel. And more importantly, no more Palestine, ever.
What we are seeing now is the same infatuation by the chattering class with Hamas and it’s glorifying death as was present in the whitewashing of Communism and Nazism by the pre WW2 chattering classes
Last week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, explicitly forbids us to cut down our enemies’ fruit trees (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). We know this is not the first time Israelis have done so. I am not completely sure myself of all of the reasons why this bothers me so much, but it does. Care to comment?
This Catholic understands your concern after the Shoah but as a former mathematics teacher the reality is that for every problem there HAS to be a solution/answer.
Life is not mathematics because numbers do not behave irrationally or illogically and people do. This is the error we make over and over again. Palestinians are fundamentally irrational. So there is no reaching a solution with them.
Well perhaps you should hurry up with the answer to this problem because it’s been going on for decades and people are suffering and dying needlessly.
You are right that there “HAS” to be an answer. What you fail to realize is that people do not want the answer which is evident: cleanse Israel’s borders of its enemies. You don’t want THAT answer but it’s THE answer.
Review the entire history of the worksheet to the problem. Go back to biblical times then to the Ottoman Turks onward through the British Mandate for Palestine, through the countless massacres of Jews, to the actual history of the so-called Palestinians (Muslim Arab immigrants into the Levant), and you’ll see the answer.
HAMAS is an Arabic acronym that translates to Islamic Resistance Movement. Islamism and Palestinianism are the problem.
Perhaps you need to upgrade your skills with some new math.
"Palestinian" terror started only in 1964 when the PLO was established. Arab terror against the Jews started with the inception of Islam in 622 CE.
Arab terror against the Jews began with the conquest of the Holy Land in 638 CE.
Below are some records from the time of the Ottoman Occupation:
"The Grossteinbecks and other settlers had faced Arab Muslim harassment but what happened in 1858 had international repercussions and brought American military power to bear in Israel.
90 years before Israel, as a Jewish country, had even been reborn.
In January 1858, five Arab Muslim men came to the farmstead under the pretext of looking for a lost cow, convinced Frederick Grossteinbeck, the brother of John’s grandfather, to parley and then fatally wounded him.
Frederick retreated to the farmhouse where he prayed, “Oh ! Father forgive all my sins and help me to bear this dreadful pain” while his wife Mary tried to stop the bleeding from his stomach.
Mary Steinbeck, John’s great-aunt, then only 24 years old, was dragged away and raped by each of the Arab Muslim invaders in turn. “He violated me. Before I had time to rise, another one came ; he violated me and bit my cheek. Then a third one violated me. They then went into the house, and I got up and followed them. I went to Frederick ; I could not feel his pulse,” she testified.
The Muslim colonists also sexually assaulted Frederick’s mother-in-law and robbed the farm."
Aaron Hershler (1850 – 5 January 1873) was a Hungarian-born Jew considered the first national Jewish martyr in the Jewish–Arab conflict. While attempting to intervene in a robbery at his family's home in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, Hershler was shot 12 times, dying 5 days later.
The real question is why do so many Jews accept this state of affairs? Why does Israel accept that it is ok for "Palestinian" Muslims to murder them in the streets, in cafes, on sidewalks, at bus stops, on and on? The proper response is to send the troops into Ramallah, kill the PLO leadership, dismantle the PA, annex all of Judea and Samaria and lock down the "Palestinians" until they emigrate and ensure those that remain behave, without any voting rights in Israel. Then we would not have to worry about the immorality of the West because the Muslims could go on their killing sprees in Britain and Canada and Australia and France and Norway and Spain and Belgium and Germany, all of whom will recognize a dead Palestinian state.
The Israelis were seriously contemplating annexation of the West Bank, but UAE told them it would be the end of the Abraham Accords so Netanyahu said they were dropping the plan.
The Israelis can ignore the UAE. Their objections do not hold a candle to the safety of Israeli citizens. If the UAE cannot stomach Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria let them withdraw from the Abraham Accords if they wish. That will show the Accords are as worthless as the Oslo ones. If Israel shrinks from declaring sovereignty because the UAE objects that is tantamount to giving the Muslims the keys to the kingdom. It also indicates that Jewish trauma is still at work, refusing to sign on to the deal God proposed at Sinai whereby a law-based society will exist in the land of Israel; and the latter in turn means no idol worshippers in the land. Complaining about the world's misunderstanding is useless if we do not understand the situation either.
Yesterday's attack on the bus underscores it.
I believe that Israel should have sovereignty. It is in the best interest of Israel.
One solution is to allow all Israelis that have served in the IDF to carry firearms when out of uniform and when not on active or reserved duty. Armed civilians can more quickly neutralize such armed attacks by terrorists.
They usually do. But after the attack.
Brilliant article. Best summing up of the Gazan death cult i have read. Thank you
The Palestinian National Movement is and has always beena murder cult in which terrorists are exalted as the greatest heroes. Lately, under the rule of Hamas it has become a death cult as well, reminsicent of Jonestown. Until the rest of the world wakes up and recognizes that this unfortunate people cannot have and for that matter do not want a state this will never end. Any other murderous minority that behaved like the Palestinians do would have been disbursed decades ago.
👏👏👏 I wish I could say none of this true, Joshua but it is. You knocked its out of the park yet again with another thoughtful essay. Mainstream media would run this piece if they had any integrity. The problems you discuss here are why I’m glad Bari Weiss will be taking over at CBS News. Because among other things, the murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists will finally get coverage. Perhaps, the Palestinian culture that celebrates death will also finally get coverage. This is something people need to understand: the murder of Jews happens nearly every day in Israel. In the privileged West we would be a wreck if the kind of attacks Palestinians perpetrate on Israelis so frequently happened to us. The recent murder of several Israelis was just sadly, par for the course for Israelis. But there was no international outrage. The UN didn’t say a word. Britain, France and Germany aren’t talking about how the Palestinians need to show restraint and stop their terrorism.
Also, what is this headline? “Shooting in “occupied” East Jerusalem” no, East Jerusalem is part of Israel, period! Israel took it back fair and square in the Six-Day War. You know what’s in East Jerusalem? The Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Rachel’s Tomb, and the Old City of Jerusalem. As to the shooting itself, it’s absolutely horrific and the Israeli “occupation” doesn’t justify it. That’s not resistance! Resistance doesn’t involve slaughtering civilians. The 1972 Munich Massacre, the 1974 Ma’alot Massacre, the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, the two Intifadas, snd October 7th weren’t “resistance” either.
The world needs to wake up and see that in the Palestinian Territories they celebrate the murder of Israelis and the terrorist who did it is proclaimed “a martyr.” They’ll hand out sweets to people in the streets after the death of an Israeli soldier or civilian. A good percentage of Gaza’s population supports Hamas and celebrated October 7th as well as 9/11. Hamas and their civilian collaborators acted like it was Ramadan or something when they sent Oded Liftshitz and the Bibas family’s bodies back to Israel. The mainstream media doesn’t cover any of this because it’s inconvenient to the narrative they want to create that the big bad Jews are oppressing the poor, helpless Palestinians.
This culture of celebrating death, for example hoping their children will die in service to their country makes Palestinian parents happy. Remember that Hamas terrorist who on October 7th took a dead Israeli’s cellphone, called his parents and started bragging about how many Jews he killed? That’s a great example right there. His parents were overjoyed at his “accomplishment.” Had they been normal parents they would’ve been disgusted, hung up on him and disowned him. Instead they acted like he had just won the Nobel Prize or something. Or how about when Hamas use children in school or cancer patients in hospitals as human shields? How about when family’s assist Hamas in luring IDF soldiers to their deaths? This kind of stuff is what the West needs to understand is common place with the Palestinians. Ireland, Spain and Norway wouldn’t be so eager to back a Palestinian state if they knew what happens every day in Judea and Samaria and Gaza.
For my money their "culture" resembles that of the Thuggees of 1800's British India. Glorifying "martyrdom" and killing ARE the predominant features of this so-called "Palestinian culture."
If Israel was smart they would totally eliminate Palestine. After they defeat Hamas, they need to expell all Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank and integrate them into Israel. No more Arabs anywhere near Israel. And more importantly, no more Palestine, ever.
What we are seeing now is the same infatuation by the chattering class with Hamas and it’s glorifying death as was present in the whitewashing of Communism and Nazism by the pre WW2 chattering classes
Joshua, I understood that the PA recently stood down from their position of endowing families of terrorists. Is that not the case?
You already know that I agree with almost everything you write, but, could you address the recent destruction of an olive grove in al-Mughayyir by the IDF? https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-said-to-uproot-thousands-of-west-bank-olive-trees-after-palestinian-shooting-attack/
Last week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, explicitly forbids us to cut down our enemies’ fruit trees (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). We know this is not the first time Israelis have done so. I am not completely sure myself of all of the reasons why this bothers me so much, but it does. Care to comment?
There is only one solution to this problem.
Could we please avoid using the noun “solution”? It makes my blood run cold.
This Catholic understands your concern after the Shoah but as a former mathematics teacher the reality is that for every problem there HAS to be a solution/answer.
Life is not mathematics because numbers do not behave irrationally or illogically and people do. This is the error we make over and over again. Palestinians are fundamentally irrational. So there is no reaching a solution with them.
Well perhaps you should hurry up with the answer to this problem because it’s been going on for decades and people are suffering and dying needlessly.
You are right that there “HAS” to be an answer. What you fail to realize is that people do not want the answer which is evident: cleanse Israel’s borders of its enemies. You don’t want THAT answer but it’s THE answer.
Review the entire history of the worksheet to the problem. Go back to biblical times then to the Ottoman Turks onward through the British Mandate for Palestine, through the countless massacres of Jews, to the actual history of the so-called Palestinians (Muslim Arab immigrants into the Levant), and you’ll see the answer.
HAMAS is an Arabic acronym that translates to Islamic Resistance Movement. Islamism and Palestinianism are the problem.
Perhaps you need to upgrade your skills with some new math.
Life is not math.
"Palestinian" terror started only in 1964 when the PLO was established. Arab terror against the Jews started with the inception of Islam in 622 CE.
Arab terror against the Jews began with the conquest of the Holy Land in 638 CE.
Below are some records from the time of the Ottoman Occupation:
"The Grossteinbecks and other settlers had faced Arab Muslim harassment but what happened in 1858 had international repercussions and brought American military power to bear in Israel.
90 years before Israel, as a Jewish country, had even been reborn.
In January 1858, five Arab Muslim men came to the farmstead under the pretext of looking for a lost cow, convinced Frederick Grossteinbeck, the brother of John’s grandfather, to parley and then fatally wounded him.
Frederick retreated to the farmhouse where he prayed, “Oh ! Father forgive all my sins and help me to bear this dreadful pain” while his wife Mary tried to stop the bleeding from his stomach.
Mary Steinbeck, John’s great-aunt, then only 24 years old, was dragged away and raped by each of the Arab Muslim invaders in turn. “He violated me. Before I had time to rise, another one came ; he violated me and bit my cheek. Then a third one violated me. They then went into the house, and I got up and followed them. I went to Frederick ; I could not feel his pulse,” she testified.
The Muslim colonists also sexually assaulted Frederick’s mother-in-law and robbed the farm."
http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2023/09/john-steinbeck-and-fall-and-rise-of.html?utm_source
Aaron Hershler (1850 – 5 January 1873) was a Hungarian-born Jew considered the first national Jewish martyr in the Jewish–Arab conflict. While attempting to intervene in a robbery at his family's home in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, Hershler was shot 12 times, dying 5 days later.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hershler
Arab Aggression published by global media since 19th C
https://david-collier.com/anti-israel-narrative/
You are stealing their lands. No longer even hiding it.
The American Indians did a lot of terrorism, for the same reason.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/world/middleeast/west-bank-israel-settler-attacks.html
The murderers in Gaza have a Ministry of Culture? Like its Ministry of Health?