Thomas Wictor

Disclaimer: I’m a hugely biased observer. I support Israel wholeheartedly. Does that mean I agree with everything she does? No. But I don’t agree 100 percent with what any nation—including my own—does. Still, objectively speaking, Israel is not the problem. I’m going to try and convince you of that.

The reason I admire the Israelis is because they’re like Rod Taylor, one of my favorite actors.

He’s a unique combination of intelligence, sensitivity, and jaw-droppingly destructive physical power. There’s nobody like him, and there’s no country like Israel.

So: Everything you’ve been told about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a lie. I’ll tell you the truth.

Gaza is not a prison camp. This is Gaza City.

Here’s the Arcmed Al Mashtal Hotel, a five-star haven of opulence and peace.

The Gazans open luxury restaurants.

They also have equestrian clubs.

According to the World Bank, life expectancy and gross national income are going up.

Trade between Israel and the Palestinian territories is $20 billion a year. The Israeli and Palestinian national committees of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) recently signed an agreement to establish the Jerusalem Arbitration Center (JAC), which is expected to double Israeli-Palestinian commerce within five years.

So what’s the problem? According to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance, the problem is fear of instability.

The uncertainty of the financial sustainability of the [Palestinian Authority] and the uncertainty of the political outlook caused a reduction in the spending behavior of consumers. These factors combined with the persistence of Israeli restrictions imposed on private sector economic activity contributed to the slowdown in economic growth.

Doing research for this post, I kept reading that the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza is hurting the Gazans economically. The Israelis began blockading Gaza in 2007, after the terrorist organization Hamas staged a coup and began murdering Palestinian members of the Fatah party. If you have the stomach, check out what they did to Fatah bigwig Samih al-Madhoun. Palestinians like to smash peoples’ heads flat, so be warned. Israel opened its borders to let Fatah terrorists flee from Gaza to the West Bank.

Now, let’s look at Gaza’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The Gazan economy grew like a mother— (shut your mouth) until 2011, four years after the Israelis imposed the blockade. The economy took a dump only after the Palestinian Authority began losing international donors due to its incompetence and thievery. By the way, the United Nations determined that the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza is legal.

The Panel therefore concludes that Israel’s naval blockade was legal… In addition, the Panel notes that the Human Rights Council fact-finding mission did not receive any information from Israel and did not have the opportunity to consider the Israeli report or the additional material that has been made available to the Panel.

—Page 44, paragraph 81, Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2023 Flotilla Incident, aka the Palmer Report

Do you know why the Human Rights Council didn’t receive any information from Israel? The reason is that Israel won’t work with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). In 2006 the UNHRC replaced the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which allowed massive violators of human rights to be members. However, the UNHRC is really no different from the previous corrupt institution. In 2009 China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba were members, for example.

Since 2006, 45 percent of the UNHRC condemnations have been of Israel; in the first year of its existence, the UNHRC condemned only Israel.

The Palmer Report came to the opposite conclusion as that of the UNHRC: The Israeli naval blockade of Gaza is legal. Why? Because of Hamas, the real problem in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Article Seven of the Hamas charter contains this statement.

Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim).

It doesn’t say “We’ll fight until the Israelis end the occupation of Palestinian territories.” It says, “We will fight until all Jews are dead.”

What, exactly, is Israel supposed to negotiate with these guys? When somebody says, “I’m going to kill every single one of you because you belong to a certain group,” would you tell yourself that he’s just kidding?

Hamas doesn’t kid. Look at those photos of how all of Gaza could be. In contrast, here’s what Hamas does.

You can tell they’re Hamas because they’re making the Salafist finger gesture of one God and their willingness to die and kill for him. Also, they chastely covered the dead man’s genitals. Hamas is deeply troubled by genitals.

In 2009, Hamas banned girls from riding behind men on motor scooters and forbade women from dancing… Crazy Water Park, one of the Gaza Strip’s most popular entertainment sites, was closed down by Hamas for allowing mixed bathing. Two weeks later, the site was set on fire by a group of unknown gunmen… The government’s “Islamic Endowment Ministry” has deployed Virtue Committee members to warn citizens of the “dangers” of immodest dress, card playing, and dating.

Tell me truthfully: If a man thinks that murdering someone and dragging his body through the streets is moral but mixed bathing and “immodest dress” is immoral, does he deserve to be treated with respect? Does he deserve to be alive?

Hamas has dug miles and miles of tunnels in Gaza. These are extremely complex affairs lined with concrete.

The terrorists use them to smuggle in weapons and contraband, to store weapons, and to infiltrate into Israel to either kidnap Israeli soldiers or kill civilians. You can tell when a tunnel was full of weapons because it produces what’s called a “secondary explosion” after it’s bombed. These tunnels were weapons caches.

This is the cross section of a typical tunnel.

Currently Israel is carrying out Operation Protective Edge, an air, ground, and sea assault on Gaza. This is because Hamas has fired more than 2500 rockets, missiles, and mortar shells into Israel since 2012, and because on July 17, thirteen Hamas terrorists tried to infiltrate into a kibbutz and kill as many civilians as possible. Things generally end badly for Hamas infiltrators.

Operation Protective Edge is an attempt to destroy the tunnels as well as Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. This time Israel is likely to win. The world has jihadi-fatigue. Also, Egypt has turned against Hamas, flooding their tunnels with raw sewage, and Shi’ite Iran is no longer financing, arming, or training them due to disagreements over the Syrian civil war.

Civilians will be killed. On D-Day—June 6, 1944—the Allies killed as many as 20,000 French civilians. These people died in an effort to liberate millions. Would it have been more moral to let the Nazis keep control over Europe? Life is full of ugly realities. One of them is that Hamas tries to increase the number of Palestinian civilians killed. They also lie about whether or not the dead were terrorists.

Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. Don’t forget to always add ‘innocent civilian’ or ‘innocent citizen’ in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza…

Avoid publishing pictures of rockets fired into Israel from [Gaza] city centers. This [would] provide a pretext for attacking residential areas in the Gaza Strip. Do not publish or share photos or video clips showing rocket launching sites or the movement of resistance [forces] in Gaza.

What kind of people hide in populated areas to shoot rockets at civilians? The kind of people who steal aid from those who need it.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said today it has halted all aid shipments into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas government seized thousands of tonnes of food and other provisions.

The UN Relief and Works agency said it made the decision after Hamas personnel intercepted an aid shipment for the second time this week.

In a statement, the agency said 10 truckloads of flour and rice delivered into Gaza yesterday were taken away by trucks affiliated with the Hamas-run social affairs ministry. Earlier this week, Hamas police took away thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.

Like all Wahabbist dictatorships, Hamas is corrupt. Its leaders are obese multimillionaires. There’s no reason in the world—I think—to oppose the Israeli attempt to cripple this monstrously evil, violent, fanatical, hypocritical, genocidal, racist terrorist organization. It doesn’t matter if you hate war. Sometimes war is the only answer.

Hamas itself could stop the endless cycle of wars. All they have to do is one thing.