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 news feeds. 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 Black hawk 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.
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…
