Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Full Disclosure: I intend to step on some toes today. I’ve been at this for years now. There are hundreds of these history columns in circulation. I read every word in the comments. The politically controversial topics always make for the most engaging discussions.
Table of contents
Bottom Line Up Front
Antisemitism seems to be the only flavor of racism that yet remains politically acceptable these days. Point out anything good about the Confederacy (the Civil War was about more than just slavery), Apartheid-era South Africa (modern liberated South Africa seems pretty horrible today), or Hitler (he seemed to genuinely love his dog Blondi), and expect ritual evisceration by the anonymous keyboard commandos relentlessly patrolling the Internet. However, publicly advocate for a Holocaust redux by chanting “From the River to the Sea” or “Globalize the Intifada,” and folks like George Soros and David Rockefeller Jr will purportedly give you money.
It’s curious. I have never really understood why so many folks hate the Jews so. I’ve spent some time in Israel. It’s a secular state these days, but the Israeli people seemed industrious, responsible, and friendly. They produce some simply gorgeous women. Every square meter of that country was cultivated or otherwise put to some useful purpose. It was clean. Folks clearly took pride in their space.
Why then does the modern Israeli state find itself standing essentially alone amongst the community of nations? Much of the world seems to inexplicably revile them. A shockingly large percentage of the human species wants to see them exterminated. It’s weird, but why is that?
Origin Story
Had it not been for the Holocaust, there never could have been a modern state of Israel. The Jews were effectively scattered nearly 2,000 years ago. It is legitimately miraculous that they could retain their independent national identity across the centuries despite not having a homeland. However, it took the egregious nature of the Holocaust to galvanize the world into allowing the Israelis to establish their state. The day after they declared their independence in 1948, the surrounding nations banded together to obliterate them. They’ve been fighting ever since.
Everything changed in 1967. Besieged on all sides, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) utterly spanked the combined armed forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. At the end of this 6-day conflict, Israel held the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, and the West Bank of the Jordan River. This brought the Israelis control of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Arabs understandably call this war “The Setback.”
I’m not Jewish. The claims that Palestinians aren’t real, or that the indigenous peoples of this area were nomads without true attachment to the land, aren’t mine to adjudicate. I’m also not rendering an opinion on the legitimacy of Jewish settlements. Not my circus, not my monkeys. However, it’s been 77 years. During that time, the entire map of Eastern Europe was redrawn. Countless international borders have been reimagined. North and South Korea fought a bloody war. Vietnam did, too. None of that was perfect, but it eventually found its level. Why then have we not seen things calm down in the Holy Land?
Ample blood has been spilled by both sides. Nobody is innocent. However, there is a palpable bias in the media and the larger world against Israel. This manifests in countless little ways.
October 7
7 October 2023 began with 4,300 rockets launched into Israeli territory. Hamas and sundry Palestinian terrorist organizations followed this up with 6,000 fighters who crossed into Israel, murdering as they came. At the end of that one day, 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals had been killed. 251 were taken hostage. Between 20 and 50 hostages purportedly remain alive as of August 2025.
One out of every 8,300 Israelis died on October 7. Scaled up for our population, that is the equivalent of having somebody murder 41,000 Americans…in a single day. In response, the Israelis attacked Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the terrorist theocracy of Iran. As in all wars, this spawned a great deal of collateral misery.
Gaza
I honestly don’t know what to believe. The media began screaming about famine and widespread starvation in Gaza before the end of 2023. That was nearly two years ago. Gaza has been leveled and looks hideous in the newsfeeds. However, the adults in the videos bear little similarity to Somali famine victims. They seem to retain a fair amount of meat on their bones. I’m not saying it’s great, but Google it for yourself if you’re curious.
Amidst widespread international outrage, such otherwise-reasonable nations as Australia, Canada, France, and the UK now stand poised to recognize Palestinian statehood in a collective snub against the state of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Donald Trump. It’s in the news every single day. American universities and major cities have been shut down due to the pro-Palestinian protests. Donning a keffiyeh and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans is cool in many circles. Meanwhile, in other news…
It All Depends on What Church You Go To
Nobody cares about Africans. Never have, never will. Bill Clinton tried back in 1993. That resulted in Blackhawk Down—a great movie, but a bit suckier for the folks who lived it. The world did indeed come together to rightfully crush Apartheid, but South Africa is ranked the 5th-most dangerous country on earth today.
The recent civil war in Sudan has claimed between 20,000 and 150,000 lives. Nobody is really sure, because nobody cares enough to figure it out. Regardless, those numbers certainly put the carnage in the same bracket as that of Gaza. And then there is Boko Haram.
The Devil Walks Among Us
Boko Haram translates to “Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad.” This merry mob of psychopaths hung out a shingle in 2002, and they have been bathing in blood ever since. Their stated mission is to establish an African caliphate by force. The resulting relentless conflict has displaced 2.3 million people. Their primary stomping ground is Nigeria.
Nigeria is a West African nation of some 230 million people. It is the most populous country in Africa, and the sixth-most populous country in the world. A true polyglot nation, there are some 525 languages in use there among dozens of different people groups. 50% of the population is Muslim, living mostly in the north. Between 46 and 48% of Nigerians are Christian, most commonly found in the south. And therein lies the problem. Christians want to be left alone to worship as they please. Radical Muslims want to exterminate all Christians.
A Typical Example
In July of 2014, members of Boko Haram captured a Nigerian Air Force officer named Umar Abubakar and aggressively interrogated him, asking why he served the state rather than Allah.
They displayed his ID card and chanted, “Allah has given us an unbeliever today!” Abubakar claimed to be a Muslim himself. Regardless, Boko Haram members shouted “Allah is Great!” and decapitated the poor guy before parading about town brandishing his freshly severed head.
This wasn’t an outlier. These maniacs cut folks’ heads off all the freaking time. Their real forte is churches. They hit places of Christian worship while services are being held and systematically slaughter the parishioners. That’s kind of their thing.
In the first half of 2022, these lunatics murdered more than 6,000 people. Unlike the carnage in Gaza, this is not collateral damage from formal military operations. This is maniacal mobs of goons with Kalashnikovs and machetes descending upon villages to murder the men, rape the women, and drag off any female captives young enough to seem interesting–all because their dark god told them to do so. Nobody is completely sure of the body count these days, but Wikipedia claims they have thus far killed 300,000 children. And the Israelis are the problem?
Will’s Solution
Nigerian Christians have grown justifiably weary of this. They are screaming for their government to provide security. I’m not convinced that’s a reasonable ask. Nigeria has 356,669 square miles of territory. The Nigerian Army can’t be everywhere at once, and Boko Haram is crafty.
I’m a committed evangelical Christian myself. I try to live my life according to Biblical precepts. Matthew 5:38-40 says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”
I read that to apply to the individual believer. To me, the passage is not a command to stand idly by while 300,000 kids are murdered. I am armed every time I darken the door at my church (and anywhere else, for that matter). I think the solution to the Nigerian conundrum is guns, lots and lots of guns.
Somebody needs to pony up about 20,000 AK rifles and distribute them among the Nigerian Christian population. Then a bunch of Special Forces types could sweep through the place to teach them the rudiments of weapons handling and basic security. If they ask nicely, Donald Trump might foot the bill. That might not stop the Boko Haram attacks, but it would sure make these monsters work a little harder for it.
READ MORE HERE: Alejo Garza Tamez: Always Respect an Old Man with a Gun
Ruminations
Screaming about Gaza is the very pinnacle of hypocrisy. The Israelis attacked Gaza after Hamas murdered 1,197 Israelis in a day. The IDF has been trying to get out of that godforsaken place ever since. Hamas could disband and release those last hostages, and the war would be over tomorrow. However, they won’t. The Hamas playbook is to kick the Israelis in the shins until they finally feel compelled to fight back, and then rush out to play the victim card for the international press. It is beyond my comprehension that the world cannot appreciate that. I don’t have a dog in that fight, but it just seems so blatantly obvious.
The Nigerians do not need foreign peacekeepers or gobs of international aid. They need a 2nd amendment. Nigeria currently has some ridiculously draconian gun laws. Hunting weapons are allowed but only to individuals who endure a suffocating licensing scheme. Handguns and military weapons are illegal. Despite this fact, the place is nonetheless awash in contraband guns. That’s where Boko Haram gets theirs. The Nigerian police force has misplaced 178,479 military-grade weapons, yet law-abiding civilians face a mandatory minimum 10 years in prison if they are caught with an illegal firearm. As is always the case, those stupid rules only apply to the good folks who choose to respect them. The terrorists couldn’t care less. See Newark or Chicago for some similar examples, a bit closer to home.
So, Israel invades Gaza in response to one of the most egregious terrorist attacks in modern history, and the world had a conniption over it. Putin has snuffed as many as 400,000 lives in his ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine, and activist college students aren’t making a peep about that. Boko Haram regularly empties Christian churches to behead the men, rape the women, and enslave the children, and the world literally cannot be bothered. There are lots of different ways to quantify insanity these days, but that seems like a pretty good one to me.
Addendum: I obviously wrote this a while ago. Since then, peace does seem to have sort-of broken out in Gaza. We have Donald Trump to thank for that. Those few hostages remaining alive have been repatriated, most of the IDF has gone home, and Hamas now occupies itself murdering any other Palestinians with whom they might have had a philosophical disagreement. Time will tell if the world allows this sordid cycle to continue…
*** Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica! ***
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
www.word-monkey.com
Experience:
-Professional Writer-thousands of publishing credits for dozens of titles
-Mechanical Engineer/Practicing Physician
-Instrument-rated Commercial Pilot
-Sunday School Teacher
I can’t disagree with anything you wrote. I just enjoy your articles.
Thanks for the content.
I’m not going to fall into the trap of explaining/ debating Dr Dabbs article. Why? It’s all been done,is being done and will continue to be done. Just this: Why has every generation of America’s best breeding stock been sent off to foreign lands to be butchered, maimed, and psychological F’d up? For what end? Is America better off for it? Now the dumbass Europeans are itching to pick a fight with Russia- over pissant Ukraine. Which means somehow, some way American kids will be sucked into it. Euros can’t fight. Don’t give me your shit. I’ve been on Reforger probably more than most-8 times. They can’t fight. So your kids/ grandkids will do the bleeding. For what? I’m looking in my pocket Constiution. Nowhere in it says it’s constitutional. That is all.
Mike, you do make a valid point, though I fear we will have to agree to disagree. Thinking globally/historically, had we sat WW2 out as you suggest and stayed home in 1941/42, would the Germans and Japanese ultimately have been satisfied with everything on Planet Earth except North and South America? Perhaps, but it would have been a way suckier world for everybody today. I don’t advocate that US troops become the world’s policemen. However, we waste money on some of the most ridiculous stuff. It seems to me that sending weapons we already have but will never use to Ukraine so they can fight and kill the Russians in a place far away from us makes good geopolitical sense. I also fully agree with you that aid to these places should always be contingent upon the affected nations ponying up both meat and money to do the heavy lifting. The Ukrainians are dying by the tens of thousands. They’re doing their part. I think the Poles would do that as well if called upon. Not so sure about the British/French/Germans nowadays, but that’s where deft/aggressive/skilled leadership is required on our part. Some US presidents I obviously like way more than others, but, tragically, our system does not select for the best, most competent practitioners of this art.
Yeah, pull down the shades and hope that the US is passed by (passed over??) doesn’t strike me as a working strategy.
On the other hand, getting involved in every petty conflict doesn’t seem to work, either.
The US needs to chose their involvements as the world’s policeman © carefully.
The Gaza article is well written and informative. It is a crime that it’s not mainstream as it answers those who question why we need the Second Amendment. This also discounts the lies and misdirection that the media is promulgating. I have been following the mess that is Africa, off and on, since I was in grade school in the early 60s. America has become so civilized that we cannot see or admit that such evil exists in other areas of the world. Great work, Doc. Keep it up and hopefully the word will get out.
dr Dabbs the world needs your common sense please live forever
well Dr Dabbs I hope you live forever the world needs your common sense I think you would make the best friend thats the best thing that can be said of anyone good life to you sir
Dr. Dabbs:
As always, another well written story. Always enjoy your point of view and suggested reading materials.
FWIW: I’m not so sure that Adolph loved his dog, Blondi. I believe he gave her cyanide to test that it would work on himself when he decided to check out.
Dr. Dabbs:
As always, another well written story. Always enjoy your point of view and suggested reading materials.
FWIW: I’m not so sure that Adolph loved his dog, Blondi. I believe he gave her cyanide to test that it would work on himself when he decided to check out.
It’s a spiritual answer to your logical question. The Jews are Gods chosen people and Satan will always oppose them. None of the other “similar” people groups you mention share this dynamic. Watch Jonathan Chan videos – his books walk through it pretty convincingly.
You are welcome to your interpretations of the Good Book. I’m sure your intentions are rooted in nobility. But to claim the Jews of today are the Chosen People of ancient times is not even close to reality. We owe Israel NOTHING. Anyone that thinks Israel is our “friend” is delusional. They are simply an “ally” of convenience for the moment. So was Stalin. That could change in seconds. FYI… Being anti Zionist is not being anti Semitic. So no need to drag out that old tired canard.
Radical Muslims are a whole different animal. The Catholic Church had the right idea in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, few today see the wisdom of the Great Crusades. We may all live to regret it.
I am not the original poster in this instance, hence the additional descriptor preceding my name. I have been posting simply as “Frank” for nearly a decade on various GOA platforms.
Regarding your assertion that the Jews are no longer God’s Chosen People flies in the face of God’s Own Word. HE does not change, His Word does not change, His promises do not change. He remains ever Faithful even when His Church and/or His Chosen People do not. Read the book of Zechariah. God restates His promise to deliver a remnant of His Chosen People. Fully two-thirds of the Israelis will perish during the great tribulation and on the Day of the Lord, when Christ returns bodily to the earth. The remaining third will finally acknowledge Christ as their long awaited Messiah.
God has both judged and delivered His People since He first called Abram out of the land of Ur. He will continue to do so until the New Heaven and New Earth arrive. HIS Faithfulness doesn’t depend on ours… Praise Him for that!!
Jesus was a Jew and loves his people the most, the Jews. If there were no Jews there would be no Jesus, therefore no Christians. God said “my chosen people will be the light unto the world”, he included every person not just Jews to enjoy his creations. Jesus taught Judaism to the people and he also celebrated all the holy days. Yes, there are some really terrible Jews out there who lost their way, G-D will deal with them. There are also many terrible so called Christians out there, G-D will deal with them too; not to mention the Muslims which really is a Satanic cult. So I’m going to stick with the Creator, the All Mighty, and try to bring a little light unto our troubled world, thank you.
Correction: “A light unto the nations”.
Once again a excellent article. You are spot on with no one cares about Africa. At the same time Africa like the Mideast is a mess. No real solutions that are humane.
I am not Jewish, I have a cross around my neck, but I stand with Israeli .
Thanks for a good article. Nothing controversial as far as I am concerned. Sometimes I think your articles should be mandatory reading for those who are not comatose.
I can sum up the hatred of Jews in two words,
INSTITUTIONAL JEALOUSY.
I’m not a religious man, I’m going to leave it at that because that’s a different circus for a different day with different monkeys.
I do agree with you about how an armed population prevents genocide. And, I’ve always felt that the quickest way Mexico could put an end to all of the violence that drugs and drug cartels have brought forth would be for the government of Mexico to give every woman 18 and older an M-4 and 1,500 rounds of ammunition along with eight weeks of basic training.
The current leftist worldview states that violence can be committed only by those of European ancestry and only against those who are not. Regardless of their actual skin color, all Jews are considered white. Therefore, in this view Hamas executing Gaza’s and all the current troubles in Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria aren’t really violence and are not worthy of notice, whereas Israel engaging in armed conflict is a genocide.
In a similar vein, when someone tells you that the US is the world leader in school shootings, ask to see where they get that statistic. Most organizations that track such things will count the police shooting a suspect on school grounds with no students present as a school shooting. They will exclude Boko Harum massacring students because it is terrorism or an act of war. There’s lies, damned lies and statistics.
Boko haram translates (loosely) to “western knowledge forbidden”.
Go back and look at Arafat and his merry band of grifters to get a better idea of why things are as they are today in the area.
Dear Dr. Dabbs,
The reason that people around the world hate us Jews with such vitriol is because the world has never forgiven us for introducing a judging god, the first religion to do so. Everybody LOVES to judge others but almost NOBODY likes to BE judged. Judaism introduced a total of 613 commandments for Jews to follow, an unheard-of amount then and now.
What we call in English the “Ten Commandents” are actually NOT part of those 613; rather they are the “Ten Statements” in the original Hebrew. Speaking of the original Hebrew, “thou shall not kill” is actually “murder” in the original; bit of a moral difference, no??
The first of those ten com…..errrr, ummm, STATEMENTS deals with God’s relationship with man and the second five deal with man’s relationship to his fellow man. I’m not a religious Jew but I am an EDUCATED Jew and it’s amazing how a bit of education will open your eyes to the amount of misinformation still circulating. Some common examples are:
1) Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain. Doesn’t mean what you think it means.
2) Money is the root of all evil. Amazing how deleting just two little words “THE LOVE of money…” will make! (This is actually a New Testament quote but is often mistaken for a Torah quotation….
3) An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Again, doesn’t EVEN mean what you think it does. Taking one sentence out of an entire paragraph leads to gross ignorance.
4) A mitzvah is a good deed. No, a “mitzvah” is a COMMANDMENT but through the centuries and the formation of new countries and languages has been corrupted and watered-down.
Here is the part which I hate the most, having to admit that me and Israel fall short of almost all of the 613 commandments and a portion of the Ten Statements. On a national scale, Israeli politics have traditionally been corrupt but this is balanced by knowing that Israel is the only functioning democracy (parliamentarian, for better or for worse) in the entire Middle East and is still an “ohr leh goyim”, a “light unto the nations” despite all our shortcomings as a people and a nation.
Thank you, Dr. Dabbs for being a friend of Israel and for presenting our nation and our fight in a positive light in the pages of Firearms News and other fine publications.
Im a firm believer that the commandment of though shall not kill means to not kill for the sake of killing. For example, if you had a gun and could prevent someone else from being murdered but did nothing. Would you not be as guilty? I believe we are permitted to defend ourselves and others.
Great article! No toes hurt here…I’m in 100% agreement!
I was on the last Navy ship to stay in the Med during the War of ’73. We apparently stopped an air invasion of Israel single handedly. I have nothing against Jews and really don’t understand anti-semitism. Does anybody really? Please illuminate me. Oh, and good work Dr. Dabbs. Thanks for all the articles.
Thomas Sowel was once asked by a Rabbi how to make people stop hating the Jews.
TS: “Fail!”
Why we do we not learn from history? Why is not every single Jew not armed to the teeth, trained and practiced? I am all of that, I’m American, I’m a Jew, it’s my birthright, and I learned from history. I will not be easy to kill.
I’ve been puzzled by everything you mentioned, particularly the prejudice against Jews. I have several close friends, in fact most of them, and they’re some of the most freedom loving and generous people I know.
I always look forward to your columns. Keep turning over the stones and stepping on toes.
A couple of perspectives from a Jewish fan of yours.
1) My understanding of “turn the other cheek” is literal. A slap is no biggie. OTOH, before Jesus sent his apostles out to proselytize, he asked if they had a sword and, if not, to sell their cloak and buy one. Clearly armed self-defense is OK.
2) I went to a program on historical antisemitism some years ago. Some of the images with which we are familiar (e.g., Jews portrayed as rats or as an octopus grasping the Earth) have been around for centuries. Apparently, it has been historically easier to blame a more successful group of people for your problems instead of looking in the mirror.
3) “Palestine” was a derogatory term for Israel by the Romans when they ruled there.
The British Mandate of the 1920s included Trans Jordan (i.e. across the Jordan River). How about making Jordan the Arab/Palestinian state and leave all of Israel, including Samaria and Judaea (why Hebrews are called “Jews”, doncha know) for the Jews?
Just kidding. 🤣 Too logical. Also, the mosque the defiles the [Jewish!] Temple Mount would have to be moved and that would be difficult.
Keep writing!
Say what you will about Boko Haram but I’ve been a fan of theirs ever since they recorded A Whiter Shade of Pale.
Thanks for the good chuckle, Joe! For those who are either too young or too old to understand the joke; it’s a play on words with the name of the British “progressive” rock group “Procol Harum” sounding a lot like the Islamofascist Nigerian terrorist group: “Boko Haram”….
I got that reference! HA!
Thanks for having the courage to step on people’s toes and foment a little chaos from your comfy chair. You are right on the money with the hypocrisy of the outraged class. Thanks for pointing it out. I think it is good that the U.S. partners with countries like Israel and Ukraine. They’re not perfect, but they share our values much more closely than those they’re fighting against. I believe proper partnerships help keep US involvement to a minimum. People who champion isolationism are mistaken, it would be nice if we could just hide out and nobody would bother us, but that’s not reality. World war two is a good example, after trying to placate Hitler, we ended up fighting him anyway. A Winston Churchill quote comes to mind:
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed;
if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may
come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Also Socrates is credited with: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Those are some powerful quotes, and insightful comments.
One observation from mein kamphy chair: the only thing I disagree with the article is the observation that Hitler loved Goldy. Hitler murdered Goldy, and the only explanation I have heard is that he wanted to check the efficacy of the poison. Plus, he was a vegetarian.
I do agree with the assertion that history does not allow anything like a fair assessment of the man, whose paintings all appeal to me more than a banana duct taped to a wall, for example.
And I stand firmly with Israel. The worst thing I can say about God’s chosen people is that I cannot understand why they continually vote for politicians who seem intent on wiping them out.