Re-Post from the Charleston Mercury November 16,2015

By Stuart Kaufman

As I tap out these words, I am livid with anger. Jews are being stalked in the streets of Israel by beasts with knives and the feckless occupant of the Oval Office, his unspeakable secretary of state, the execrable secretary general of the United Nations and the rest of their fellow travelers make statements equating those who are attacked with the animals who attack them.

I am sick of the prevalent practice of mincing words in the interest of “civility.” I am not interested in relieving the guilty of any measure of their guilt. The murders being perpetrated against the Jews in Israel can and must be laid directly at the feet of the president of the United States and those who continue to support his policies. I include his advisors who sacrifice any remaining drop of their honor by continuing in his service. I include members of Congress whose truckling cravenness is so apparent that they are perfect replicas of the slithery Nevada senator portrayed in the film “The Godfather.” I include Obama’s supporters, who are so blinded by their own invented image of Obama that they overlook his contempt for the country that he was elected to govern. I especially include my Jewish brethren who seem to be incapable of remembering that to be Jewish DOES NOT MEAN embracing a serpent who claims the tradition of long dead leftist gods with feet of clay (i.e. Franklin Delano Roosevelt). I reserve special contempt for those like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Penny Pritzker and other Jews, some less well known than others, who willingly serve the interests of the philistine in the Oval Office.

Obama and his suck-ups equate the murderers of innocent Jews with those who are their targets. It is as if they are claiming that the Jews are being aggressive for having the nerve to throw their backs on to the blades of the innocent Palestinians who are then mercilessly killed for no good reason. Obama’s moral imbecility strengthens the hand of those who hate Jews (and those who hate America). His perversion of truth provides sustenance for monsters throughout the world, especially those within the borders of the state of Israel, the only free country in the Middle East and the best ally of the United States in the world.

Let us get a few things straight: Kerry claims that the “hatred” is ascribable to continuing Israeli “settlement activity.” That is a bloody lie. The “hatred” existed long before 1969, long before 1948 — before there were any “settlements.” Arab massacres of Jews in that part of the world have a long history.

Obama claims that the violence will stop when the Palestinians are given their own state. That is a bloody lie. The Palestinians were offered their own state in 1948 and after the Oslo accords and they refused it.

The leftists claim that the problem relates to the abject poverty to which Israel has relegated the Palestinians. That is a bloody lie. When Israel voluntarily vacated Gaza in 2005, they left behind fully intact facilities for the growing of a healthy and vital economy and the first thing that the Palestinians did when they got their hands on them was blow them up. Palestinians in Judea and Samaria find their best employment at Israeli-owned companies — companies that are subject to the idiotic leftist BDS (“boycott, divest, sanction”) campaign that (if successful) would hurt the Palestinian employees more than Israelis. Furthermore, anyone who has actually driven through Judea and Samaria can see Arab town after Arab town filled with large villas, numerous elaborate mosques, satellite dishes and late model automobiles. The Palestinians are doing very well, thank you very much.

The Palestinians claim that the current violence began because the Israelis are attempting to change the “status quo” at al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That too is a bloody lie. The “status quo” is that the Temple Mount (the holiest place on earth for the Jews) is under the complete control of the Waqf, the Muslim religious authorities, who are bankrolled by the Jordanians. The “status quo” is that Palestinians have free access to the Temple Mount while Jews are only occasionally permitted to visit it and are forbidden from praying there. But Palestinians are seeking to change that “status quo.” On September 16, 2015, Mohammed Abbas, the leader of the Palestinians, described Jews on the Temple Mount as “filth” and said “they have no right to defile it [the Temple Mount] with their filthy feet.” And now, they want to have UNESCO declare the Western Wall (the small portion of the foundation of the Temple Mount that is available to Jews for prayer) declared part of al Aqsa mosque. As a demonstration of their piety, these poor misunderstood Palestinians just burned down the tomb of Joseph — yes, that Joseph, the one with the many colored coat.

Enough is enough. The miscreants who are engaging in the latest spate of murders are tools of their leaders, whose corrupt interests lie in stirring the pot. They are products of an educational system whose only mission is to plant the seed of hating Jews in the fertile soil of future generations. They are products of family traditions that make the Hatfields and the McCoys look like flower children. And they follow the traditions of an Islamic political system that uses religion as a pretext for keeping people subjugated.

Is there a solution? No. Not now. Sometimes there are no immediate solutions to intractable problems. At this point, it is the job of the Israeli government to keep their people safe and their enemies at bay. I am pleased to note that the Israeli government has just changed its policy concerning the use of deadly force against those who attack. Henceforth, if someone raises a hand to kill a Jew, he can be killed on sight. I am also pleased to note that the state of Israel has made it easier for innocent Israelis to obtain firearms. The old saw “an armed citizen is a force multiplier” is every bit as true in Israel as it is here in the U.S. The family homes of perpetrators are being destroyed; next, those families should be thrown out of the country. Finally, Judea and Samaria should be annexed into Israel once and for all. Stop the charade. Judea and Samaria belong to the Jewish State. Israel must be an intact state, under Israeli law alone, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

None of these things that I have suggested is a solution, but they are a potent response to the murderous rampages that the Israeli people are currently enduring. Obama will certainly be opposed to them. That’s too damned bad. Obama has proven himself to be a coward and a bully. There is only one way to deal with someone with those characteristics — slap him in the face and tell him to get lost. Putin has learned that. The Iranians have learned that. It is time for Israel (and for the American people) to learn that.

How many more Israelis will die between now and the time when this column is released? It makes me sick to even think about it. Hand wringing is no answer. Neither is complaining or begging. No more “civility” when it comes to the animals who would murder Jews. No more “civility” when it comes to those who enable the murder of Jews. It is time to take off the gloves.

Stuart Kaufman is a retired lawyer, investment banker and businessman. He relocated from New York to Mount Pleasant in 2012. A friend recently told him that he has been a South Carolinian all of his life … but he just didn’t know it.