Your turn: History doesn't begin when you want it to or when it's convenient
When does history start? Sadly for many, especially the young, history starts when they were born. Some people don’t seem to have any awareness of things that happened before they appeared.
For those of us who are fascinated by history, it’s hard to understand people who don’t know at least some of the basics. Non-historians often complain “history is just a bunch of dates” but obviously it’s so much more.
When considering an event, it’s necessary to ask, “when did this start?” With the turmoil in the Mideast, we need to establish a starting point.
Many protestors seem to think history started on October 8, the day after Hamas conducted its brutal, murderous attack on Israel. Demands for an immediate and unconditional cease fire ignore what was done to Israel to start this most recent fight.
More: Your turn: The US support for Israel must not waver
Of course, history also did not start in October with the atrocities committed on innocent men, women and children.
History didn’t start in 1967 but that was when Israel gained control of the areas now in flames after the Six Day War. People disagree about who started that war, but the end result was that Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights to secure its borders.
In the past fifty years Israelis have suffered many terrorist attacks, including the Munich Olympics, the hijacking of a plane at the Entebbe airport and the recurring riots, incursions and rocket attacks from all its neighbors.
Impossible as it may seem, the protests today appear to have forgotten (or chosen to ignore) the worst disaster in Jewish history, the Holocaust. When Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jewish people failed, the world created the state of Israel so that could never again happen.
Many don’t realize that the United Nation’s original plan was for a state of Palestine also to be created but that was opposed by the Arab states which did not want Israel to exist. Thus, no Arab country helped the Palestinians establish a country. Their hope was that a homeless Palestinian people would continue to fight with Israel. They were right.
History didn’t start in 1948, either. Scripture tells us of the Assyrian captivity in 732 B.C. and the Babylonian exile in 587 B.C. Jews had lived in Israel for centuries before the Roman government destroyed their country in 70 A.D. and scattered their people throughout the world.
After the Diaspora, the Romans used the word “Palestinian” to describe the people who were left in the area. The word was derived from “Philistines” who had been fighting with the Jews for a thousand years. Goliath (of David and Goliath) was a Philistine. Palestinians weren’t Philistines but that’s where they got their name.
When demonstrators chant “From the river to the sea” they are referring to establishing a country of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. In other words, where Israel is now.
Although claiming not to be supporting Hamas, those are the words used in Hamas’ charter with its stated goal the total destruction of Israel. The phrase is so inflammatory that Rashida Tlaib was censured by her Congressional colleagues for using it.
Antisemitism, hatred of Jews, was until the last few weeks as abhorrent to Americans as racism and misogyny. Suddenly it has spewed out of the ultraliberal academic community which professes to abhor oppression of minorities. The same people who tell us we must not equate the Palestinian people with Hamas are trying to oppress and harass innocent Jewish students and businesses. A Jewish congressman recent sewed a yellow Star of David to his coat to remind everyone of what Hitler did.
When coddled and clueless college students and their smug and self-righteous liberal allies call the Israelis “Nazis” they are exposing their abject ignorance of history. Likewise, anyone who would find anything redeeming in the rantings of Bin Laden should be forced to jump from the 90th floor or crash with a plane in Pennsylvania.
For people like that, the only history they recognize is that which supports their beliefs. Sadly, many of them claim to be educated. The execrable actions of these people reveal the sorry state of what passes for higher education today. For those that understand, this is another episode in history which continues in spite of people who chose to ignore or rewrite it.
History doesn’t begin when you want it to or when it’s convenient. Demonstrators that ignore history deserve to be ignored.
Harry Bulkeley is a retired Knox County judge and a local historian.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: History in Middle East can't be ignored amid attacks
