Why I can no longer empathize with 'Palestinians'

It began when Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles rained down into Israel in 1991 and we went into our sealed room and put gas masks on our children. The next day I watched the news of Palestinians dancing and cheering on their rooftops as the missiles flew over their heads into Israel.

Then came the suicide bombing in the 2001 Sbarro Pizza Parlor in Jerusalem, murdering men, women and children. Afterwards, I watched the interviews with the Arabs who proudly celebrated the bravery of their 'martyrs'. And then the same as dozens were blown apart at the Dolphinarium and in a disco, and a hotel Passover meal, and a string of horrific and bloody bus bombings of innocent civilians, including a school bus full of children, all gleefully celebrated by the 'Palestinians.'

We all watched hopefully for years as Israel negotiated peace based on territorial compromise, every offer refused by the Arabs, who only responded with increased terror attacks. Even the unilateral withdrawal in 2005 of every Jew from Gaza in a hoped-for peace experiment led only  to.further terrorism, and to rockets from Gaza raining down on Israeli civilian towns.  In their Hamas Charter they openly stated their intention, which declared no peace with Israel, but the destruction thereof.

For those who have bought into the narrative that it is "the occupation" and settlements that are the cause of all the problems, I need to remind them that before the Arab armies attacked Israel in June of 1967 there were no settlements whatsoever in the West Bank or Gaza, and the Old City of Jerusalem was entirely in Muslim hands, Jews forbidden to enter. Others who have swallowed the myth that Arabs and Jews dwelt happily together until the State of Israel was declared in 1948, I will recall for them the massacre of the Jewish community in Hebron in 1929, and the Mufti of Jerusalem's offer to Hitler to aid in his vision by eradicating the Jews of Palestine.

Of course, there are some good peace-loving people out there, especially Christians, but who do not dare to raise their voices lest they find their daughter terminated in an "honor killing" by the True Believers, as Islamic society is run on the machinery of fear and intimidation. And these observations are not merely theoretical, but from my fifteen years of annual reserve duty in the West Bank (Judah and Samaria).

When I saw the footage of the of the hordes of Palestinians of Gaza barbarically slaughtering 1,200 Israelis in a day, burning, raping and dismembering with glee whole families in the October 7 massacre, and dragging off hundreds of innocent hostages, whatever remaining empathy I may have had died. Even more shocking was watching the international media narrative twist the facts to make Israel the villain rather than the victim, and the aggressor as it did what any nation would do, which is to respond with force in defense of its citizens. The continual propaganda-fed media reports of a false 'genocide' have led to the fanning of the flames of virulent antisemitism around the world.

As we listen to the Iranian mullahs and their proxies constantly chanting "Death to Israel," the response of Israel is, remembering the Holocaust - Never Again.