JIHAD

It's almost impossible to not see the increasingly passionate demonstrations in our country and around the world pitting Palestinians and their sympathizers on one side and Israel, Jews everywhere and their sympathizers on the other side.  Only it's not that simple.  It's not really Palestinians.  It's really Islamic Jihadists and the useful idiots who buy their sick dogma that is coming after western society.  We've seen it many times.  A small, vocal minority can stir up an amazing number of sympathetic supporters.  It seems like with every passing day the zealots get more passionate, more demanding, more entrenched, and more dangerous.  I can't help but think the whole thing is playing out based on a plan and a strategy.  Oct 7 wasn't something that was spontaneous.  It was a classic surprise attack using definitive tactics and had operational support from the larger organization.  They had to know that it would cause an epic response by the Israelis.  Had to.  And in turn it's not a real stretch to figure out that there are Jihadis embedded in key cities around the world who can take the Israel response and generate an enormous popular response in the streets.  These demonstrations have proven to be a great opportunity for them to intimidate, bully and sometimes harm (there have been deaths) the citizens going about their daily business.  They are also stressing the local law enforcement capabilities and the patience of community leaders.

The demonstrations have evolved from a focus on Palestinian liberation and elimination of Israel ("From the River to the Sea") to calling for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.  But they know that won't happen.  They only raise that cry to gain sympathy and recruit more bodies for marches.  It wouldn't have happened after Dec 7, 1941, or after Sept 11, 2001, or after the Battle of Britain, or any other war.  After the rubicon of war has been crossed, it's very difficult to effect a ceasefire short of one side or the other capitulating.  Israel has allowed humanitarian pauses, but they aren't going to give up.  They have said return the hostages and we'll talk.  The fact that the Hamas cowards hide behind children and hospitals garners sympathy from those sitting in their armchairs in the West, but Israel isn't buying it.  Nor should they.  They are being as careful and targeting as best they can, but they will not stop!  They see this, I think properly, as a war for survival.  

I'm not sure that demonstrators realized that at the same time they took to the streets they could uncover the amazing amount of antisemitism that has reared its ugly head.  And ugly is too gentle of a word.  Disgusting and unforgivable is more like it.  I guess it's just never going to go away.  The Jihadists have been relentless for a long time and continue to show their true colors.  They aren't interested in peaceful coexistence.  They want all Jews and infidels (any other religion) dead.  They are akin to other hate groups we know.  Jihadists = Hamas = Hezbollah = Houthis = ISIS = Taliban = Nazis = KKK.   They are all the same.  Think about this.  If Hamas and the Palestinians were to put down their arms and ask for peace they would be met with open arms by the world community and with cautious listening by Israel.  After Oct 7, it would take quite a lot to forgive their actions.  But it would happen.  But if Israel put down their arms....well, you know what would happen.

This is not to say that the Muslim down the street, living in the community, attending religious services and going about their day is a Jihadist.  There are 1.9 billion Muslims in the world.  Estimates of how many Jihadists there are in the world are all over the map.  They range from 400,000 to 20 million.  I tend to think it's closer to the low end, but there are a lot of Muslims in poor countries that are susceptible to radicalization.  Clearly, the solution lies with the Muslims who are just living their life standing up to them.   But we've been dealing with this issue since before Sept 11, 2001 and have not come close to resolving it.  All this to say I don't think a solution resides in the Western world.  The Muslim world has to fix it or it will remain and increase.  So if we have a problem that doesn't have a realistic solution and it's one that threatens our way of life, we better be able to protect ourselves from it.  It requires smart defense, real intelligence and deliberate offense.  It's got a technological, cyber and human dimension.  It requires clear eyes and strong hearts.  It requires leaders with vision, realism, competence, transparency and stamina.  It requires our engagement.  Do we have all that?  Sadly, today we don't.  There is time, but the clock is ticking.