Israel-Hamas War Comes To Great Falls
Over the past few months I have received quite a few emails in my city commission mailbox from local constituents with the subject line, ‘Reaffirm your commitment to America’s closest ally, Israel.‘
The content of the email is the same but from many different local folks concerned about the ongoing war in Israel. You can read it in its entirety here.
Here is a paragraph from the email:
“Israel is under constant threat, both from terrorists such as Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, and from those who undermine Israel’s right to exist. The attacks of October 7 destroyed any assumptions that Hamas’ had a pragmatic interest in governing Gaza – its sole goal is the elimination of Israel and the Jewish people. As such, calling for a ceasefire gives Hamas credit and authority it no longer deserves. Calls for a ceasefire are not reasonable or realistic, nor is it the only way to guarantee that Palestinian civilians will be protected. Existing efforts to allow for food, water, medicine, and other essential assistance to flow into Gaza and to the people who need them must be bolstered.”
I agree with the sentiments expressed here – especially the point that a ceasefire is not “reasonable or realistic” given the circumstances.
So yes, I reaffirm my personal commitment to Israel and to our Jewish community in Great Falls. But I also recognize the horror of war and its hellish impact on all of the civilians caught in the crossfire.
And certainly I recognize that there are others in Great Falls who hold a different viewpoint from my own concerning calls for a ceasefire. One of them is Eamon Ormseth, who was invited by the Great Falls Public Library to give a presentation on Palestine. You can view the entire one hour talk, given on January 4th, here.
Ormseth is an activist with a group called “Montanans for Palestine” and he organized a rally in Great Falls the day after his talk at the library. The rally was covered by Joe Taylor at the Fairfield Sun Times and here is an excerpt from that reporting:
“I have friends whose friends have been killed in the Israeli airstrike on the church, the orthodox church in Gaza. Another friends’ relatives are sheltering in the catholic church in which Israeli snipers killed two of them, two people in that church recently. And a friend of a friend was just murdered by the Israeli army very close to where I live. So, it’s very personal. I have friends in Palestine and I just don’t see how the United States continues to support such a brutal occupation,” said Ormseth.
Around 8-10 people were at the rally at the Civic Center and chanted along side Ormseth, “Free Palestine” “Stop the Bombing” and “Cease Fire” were among the chants.
We live in a such a time that even far-flung controversies and wars can reach across the distance and touch us right here in Great Falls, Montana. Interesting times indeed.
May I just interject a common sense observation here, without getting into an entire historical discussion about the socioreligious and geopolitical garbage that will surely leave a few of these ‘social justice’ warriors butthurt with their ignorance.
There wouldn’t be a war in Gaza today had Hamas not committed the atrocities on Oct 7th. There wouldn’t be people displaced or these moronic knuckleheads that claim to be protesting in favor of these “victim” Palestinians if the “religion of peace” fanatics didn’t launch rockets, use suicide bombers at bus stops or synagogues. There wouldn’t be this hell unleashed if Israeli children weren’t forced to play in bomb shelters because a rocket attack from “peaceful Gaza” is less than 3 minutes away. Now, I get Israel is kicking the ever living dog doo do out of these Iranian extremist puppets practicing an extremist perversion of Islam. But you better understand this, and you better understand it well. There was a time when Jews tried the go along peacefully garbage. They were branded. They were loaded on trains and hauled off to be gassed. They were raped and beaten. They were made to wear badges as a sign of humiliation. On October 7th, 1200 iSraeli’s were sleeping in their beds. Not a single one of them launched a rocket, fired a shot, planted a bomb, or committed no other offense other than living in Israel. Mind you, Judaism is the oldest monotheistic religion and the foundation of all other monotheistic religions to include Islam. They are all called “Abrahamic” Faiths. And in fact, Judaism was established well over 800 years before Islam. There was no “Palestine” before there was Israel, Cannan. If one were so inclined to discover the truth for themselves, and you don’t need to be religious here, but the story of how the Jews established Israel can be found in the book of Exodus in the Tanak, the Christian Bible, and even in the Quaran.
So to sum up, these “palestian sympathizers” are ignorant to history. They desire a cause to identify with to exercise a right they don’t respect or appreciate. If they gave a single iota of care to ‘justice’ they wouldn’t side with a group of people that would slit their infidel throat just as soon as they would a Jew. And honestly, why should Israel show mercy to a group that calls for the eradication of a people that have never invaded a country over spreading their faith, espoused the indiscriminate killing of a people based on their faith, or have engaged in a war where martyrdom’s reward is 72 virgins. Which by the way should tell you plenty on how they view women.