When the terrorist organization Hamas murders, tortures, rapes and abducts Jews in Israel, do not be surprised that the Jews of today will respond with the righteous might of a nation that will never allow such crimes against humanity to be left unanswered. Pictured: A screenshot from Hamas bodycam footage showing two Palestinian terrorists from Gaza about to attack a home in southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. (Image source: Hamas)

Within every Jew’s DNA is the experience of when our lineage stepped out of the cattle-cars at Auschwitz and were selected for immediate death in the gas chambers or assigned to slave labor, kept just barely alive until we were no longer of use to the Third Reich.

Industrialized murder at its most efficient was found there, along with places with names such as Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and others now known to few but historians. And to Jews.

For the Nazis’ “Final Solution to the Jewish question” has left a permanent imprint on generations of Jews who will neither forgive, nor forget, carrying that experience forward as long as the sun shines on this planet. Nor will Jews forget the world’s response to the Holocaust when it became apparent to all that Jews who had fallen under Nazi rule were being methodically exterminated. The world simply looked away with indifference as the smoke from the crematoria filled the air.

So when the terrorist organization Hamas murders, tortures, rapes and abducts Jews in Israel, do not be surprised that the Jews of today will respond with the righteous might of a nation that will never allow such crimes against humanity to be left unanswered. Further, in lighting the fuse of open warfare, Hamas has proven itself cynically indifferent to the lives of its own “constituents” in Gaza. Hamas terrorists have repeatedly shown that they are more than willing to sacrifice their neighbors in an effort to destroy Israel.

So it is beyond stunning that U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer would take to the floor of the Senate and demand that Israelis remove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who now leads a united war cabinet in confronting and destroying Hamas, which has been compared to al-Qaeda and ISIS.

What could possibly motivate Schumer to turn on one of America’s most important international allies? Does he have a domestic political agenda that he believes is far more important than confronting Hamas terrorism? Could it be that his remarks have little to do with Israel’s response to savagery and everything to do with appealing to voters here in the United States?

Perhaps Schumer needs a history refresher on the reality of the Middle East. Since Israel declared its independence in 1948, it has fought for its very existence. It has faced existential conflict more than a dozen times since its formation. Ironically for Schumer and his Democrat colleagues, it was a Republican president, Richard Nixon, who saved Israel in 1973 when Arab armies launched a surprise attack during the holiest holiday for Jews, Yom Kippur. Nixon directed vital war supplies to be immediately airlifted into Israel, thereby allowing the Jewish state to successfully defend itself, even if at a terrible cost.

Why is Schumer not instead demanding a change of leadership for those who committed these atrocities on October 7: Hamas and Iran?

Urban warfare is deadly, ugly and dreadful. The United States knows this full well, as it, too, has been forced to engage in this kind of combat. But on October 7^th, Israelis came face to face with the same vicious evil that met the death trains at Auschwitz. However, unlike 1944, this time, precisely because Jews, like Schumer, finally have a democratic State of Israel, they could respond. It would be wise for Schumer to recognize that he, and all those who embrace humanity, connect to a shared past.

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