Anti-Semitic Hate Is Palestine Suicide

BY DARRYL L. FORTSON, M.D. 

Hate is its own destroyer. It consumes itself. The hater points a gun at the hated, who is his neighbor. What the hater rarely realizes is that when he or she points the gun at his or her neighbor, they are pointing the gun at their own head. When they pull the trigger of their hate, they shoot their neighbor, but the bullet travels through their own brain. The hater often wounds the hated this way, but he always wounds himself. The system of hate is configured in such a way that the only way to kill someone you hate is to shoot them through your own head. 

Hamas’ hatred for the Jewish people is well established, and in fact it is documented and enshrined in the founding documents of the organization. Hamas is not “mad” or “upset” or “in disagreement with” the Jewish people. Hamas hates the Jews as Hamas founding documents indicate, and they hate them with a passion. They don’t just want what they possess; they want them not to be. 

People disagree all the time. So do nations. Usually, nations talk it out. They impose tariffs. They spy to get an edge. They close borders. They criticize opposing leaders in the public square. These are all legitimate actions of statecraft, and they are legitimate regardless of one’s national perspective. 

Hate, on the other hand, is not legitimate. “Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement,” says The Hamas Covenant 1988. This covenant seeks to obliterate the State of Israel, which means it seeks to obliterate the Jewish people. 

Hate is an unslakable thirst. Like its brothers Lust and Greed, it cannot be satisfied. It cannot be bargained with or placated because it does not seek co-existence – not even subjugated co-existence – but non-existence. Whatever legitimate issues the Palestinian people have with the nation of Israel (and they, in the course of their history with the Jewish people have them) become subsumed in the agenda of hatred, which is an agenda not to reason or correct, but to destroy. 

Hamas, and the people and organizations who have spoken, marched, and financially supported Hamas’s despicable conduct in this matter, seem to have concluded that the ends of freedom for the Palestinian people justify hatred for the Jews. What they don’t realize is that hate does not lead just to murder, but always to “murder/suicide.” 

Black Americans’ duration of suffering at the hands of American racism exceeds that of the Palestinians by many centuries. Blacks are understandably angry and frustrated about this. We have had protests and we have had fits of rioting rage. But there is no broad, pervasive hatred of White people by Blacks in America. Black folks can’t survive or overcome with hatred. Neither can the Palestinians. 

End Hamas to drop the hatred. And let’s pray that Israel, in its pain, doesn’t pick it up. 

Darryl L. Fortson, MD practices at Park Hill Family Medicine in Las Vegas (702-444-7796). He is also Executive Director of AASRT, Inc. (www.theaasrt.org).