25A042 Shalom? by Jim Davies, 10/21/2025

It's the Hebrew word for "peace", and after two bloody years of war a peace, of sorts, has been patched up in Gaza. Every war is begun and waged by governments, and therefore ended by governments, and the endings are not always much better than the waging.

This one is only a few days old at this writing, but it seems to be holding, maybe - which brings satisfaction to Mr Trump, who brokered it. The surviving leaders of the Jew-hating Nazi group Hamas, which had control of Gaza since 2006, were allowed to go free without prosecution - in contrast to the German Nazi leaders in 1946, ten of whom were hanged.

Prisoners and hostages were exchanged, and let's hope the peace continues. Gazans are to be governed by a "Palestinian authority" that excludes Hamas, but that name is false. It will not be "Palestinian" because it excludes Jews, even though "Palestine" was the name the Romans gave to the land between the Jordan and the Med at a time when almost all the inhabitants were Jewish. Today, the name properly applies to all who live there, of whom Jews are a majority.

Further, the group has no "authority." That's partly because the peace deal does not say Gazans are to elect its members, and partly because no government ever has any true authority because it exercises powers none of its electors possess and therefore cannot validly delegate by voting.

By far the biggest problem for Gazans' future is that the peace deal makes no mention of how the population will be de-programmed from their virtually 100% immersion in Jew-hatred. Even kindergartners are taught to hate Jews and to hope to kill them on sight. These people or their parents were corralled into Gaza because of the violence they persistently rained upon Israel, and until that poison is drawn I see no hope that the two communities can live alongside each other in peace, nor that Gazans can expect to rebuild and prosper.

There is plenty of opportunity to build up a good economy, once that hatred ends; Gaza has a favorable position on the shores of the Med, to become a resort to rival Monte Carlo, attracting tourists from Egypt, Arabia and elsewhere. And/or, it's possible it could become a major port city at one end of the Ben Gurion Canal, whose plans have been gathering dust for many years; once built, it would connect the Med to the Red Sea and compete with the Suez. But for as long as Gazans have the life purpose of killing Jews, none of that is likely to happen.

The hatred in question is unusual and comes from a form of religion; Muslims ever since the 1940s have resented the arrival of a Jewish State in their midst even though Jews were there more than 2,000 years before Mohammad was born. I say "form of" religion, because from its beginning Islam was really a political group that conquered its way to Middle East dominance using force, not persuasion; the religious veneer was cleverly embedded to give it the illusion of virtue. By rigid control of what each generation believes, its teachers have locked them in to the governing body and infused them with hatred for infidels. It's therefore a partcularly sinister, evil form of government.

Even so, the Muslim nations around Israel have, over the years, come to co-exist with it, to get along; and inside the country some 30% of the population is Muslim, who live and prosper and leave if they wish. Few do; for it's the most civilized and prosperous country in the region.

Suppose now that along with the US and others, in due course Israelis were to realize that government is a parasite best discarded, and abolish their State. How would their situation change, if that Islamic hatred remains?

First, I think that Muslim hostility would greatly decrease, for it's the presence of a State that most aggravates them. Evidence: Jews were individually immigrating to Palestine for half a century before the UN formed it, and suffered no great resentment from Muslim neighbors. Also, there are Jewish enclaves in other Muslim cities, even Tehran, and they are treated little worse than in European "Christian" ones.

That said, Jews there would still do well to prepare individual protection from possible violence - and the Porcupine defense is ready and waiting.