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Speaking with a friend who is Jewish—arguing, rather—I reminded him that protesting against the death of innocents is hardly anti-Semitic. He agreed. And yet the death of 37,000 Palestinian noncombatants that have produced nonstop protests in Europe and in the United States are described as anti-Semitic by mostly conservative commentators.

The argument with my friend flared up again until I came up with the following: Had Hamas managed to take hostages in Israel proper, say in Tel Aviv, would the IDF have taken the same steps it did in Gaza to protect its own civilians living or working in the vicinity? My friend called it an unfair argument, but what is undeniable is that Israel cares only about its own citizens and does not value the lives of Palestinians. This is sad but very true. The West has not overreacted throughout the years of anti-European outrages by Muslim terrorists, managing to punish only those who were responsible. And punish them lightly as the case may be. Not down south.

The numbers alone are shocking. Four Israelis rescued, one dead Israeli officer, and 277 Palestinian dead. 1,200 Israelis massacred in October, followed by 37,000 Palestinian dead. Added to those tragic numbers are the conditions 2 million Gaza residents have to live with: no power, no water, no shelter, no medical help, no food, no nothing. I suppose such dehumanizing conditions might breed anti-Semitism, but then, as my friend said, I’m prejudiced.

Actually, we in the West are used to double standards. The Japanese killed 2,403 American servicemen and 400 civilians at Pearl, and we nuked a couple hundred thousand noncombatants four years later, after having firebombed and killed close to 100,000 Tokyo women, old men, and children. Dresden, Hamburg, and Berlin saw the death of hundreds of thousands of noncombatants, but they were all dirty Nazi swine, they tell me. In Vietnam we bombed and bombed and poisoned a few million until we lost, but they were just gooks. Ditto in Iraq, or Eiraq, as that famous war hero George W. pronounced it. The Israeli army striking crowded streets and slaughtering scores of Palestinians is nothing new, just some more bloodlust we in the West demand when small-timers refuse to play ball.

I’ll get back to the bad guys who massacred innocent Israelis last October, but first I have to declare that it’s not exactly hot diggity dog living in Gaza nowadays. The Israeli military push in Gaza has scattered around one million people to other parts of that unhappy strip of land, where conditions are so bad that many pray and wish for death while searching for food like hungry dogs. The lucky ones near the beach can wash in saltwater. But finding space to put up a tent for the family is almost impossible, and then there’s the small matter of being strafed by Israeli jets, or mortared, or machine-gunned. As one man put it, “Only Allah can help us.” But Allah seems to have gone absent without leave, at least in Gaza.

And speaking of Islam’s god, his only trouble is he taught hate rather than love, the latter being what our God did. “Kill the infidel,” is Islam’s message, and yet Miss Europe continues to open herself wide to Muslims, and as of late so does Uncle Sam. And why do Muslims hate the West but risk their lives in order to live there? I’ve asked many Muslims that, even some of whom are close friends, and the answer is always Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. “Much too easy,” I tell them, “why don’t you do something about them?”

Their answer is always the same. Israel is protected by America, America is the most powerful country in the world, and the American government is influenced by the Israeli lobby and as likely to oppose it as the Saudis are to celebrate Pride Week. Ironically, it is almost impossible to argue with the fact that Israel knows it has Uncle Sam by the you-know-what and could not give a damn what a few Arab voices have to say in D.C. As a result, Biden’s weakness toward Netanyahu has been a moral, practical, and political failure. He championed rules-based international order where Ukraine is concerned, yet provides super bombs, weaponry, and diplomatic protection for Netanyahu. Yes, Uncle Sam is complicit in thousands of civilian deaths and the starvation of children. But not to worry, the Israeli lobby in Washington takes care of matters, with those of us who are opposed to the deliberate starvation of children and the rocketing of civilians exposed as anti-Semites so everything will be hunky-dory.

The good guys can’t win. When Hungarian president Orban built a wall and kept Muslim migrant hordes out, the scummy Times and other sleazy lefties on television called him a fascist. But when the hordes are inside the U.S. and the U.K. and in France and rioting for their Palestinian brothers, they’re anti-Semitic fascists. The irony is that most male protesters in New York are black and brown, whereas the women are white. And as war rages on over in Gaza, Israeli settlers expand their domain in the occupied West bank. Since October 7, Israeli settlers have taken over 37,000 acres of Palestinian land, driving out their owners and proclaiming the land grab as Israel proper. No wonder Netanyahu and his gangster cabinet are in no hurry to finish the war. This is the bad news, and there is no good news. But next time you see some masked men screaming against Israel’s occupation of Palestine, do not instantly call them anti-Semites.