Of All Days. . .

(Of All Days. . .)

What was it ? The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. On November 11th, 1918, the First World War was won. The consequences of that war because while the Central Powers of Imperial Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Ottoman Turkey. Russia in the wake of the Boldehevik Revolution and had been out of the War since 1917. That being said, while the Triple Powers lost the war, the Triple Entente of Britian, France and in 1917, the United States, lost the Peace. The terms dictated to the defeated enemy at Versailles were harsh and did nothing to alleviate what had caused the war in the first place. The conditions forced on Germany specifically, between forced dis-armament, reparations and war guilt, made a rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party all but inevitable. In 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor by then President, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler took the title Fürher (leader) on Hindenburg's death.

What followed of course was German re-armament, a repudiation of Versailles terms, passing of the so-called Nuremburg Laws that placed restrictions on Jews, culminating in the "Final Solution" which was the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jewish race where six million of that number perished: the Holocaust. When the Allies won the Second World War and the death toll of the Holocaust became known, the Allies, under the auspices of the United Nations in 1948, partitioned what was then the British Mandate of Palestine. The Jewish émigrés from Europe, Holocaust survivors, became the Jewish residents to make a return to the Holy Land in centuries.

While Jews accepted the terms of Partition, Palestinian Arabs did not. So began a struggle that has been ongoing ever since, with a new war. But what has also emerged is much larger than the front line in Gaza. As Israeli Dense Forces advance against Hamas, the world has been split into un-alterably opposed camps. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters, who have taken to the streets giving clarion calls of genocide and Free Palestine without the slightest realization of history or any other context, Context, remember that ?

What can one call this ? Jew and anti-Jew ? This is the same sentiment that brought Hitler to power in the first place. Where were all the German non-Jews when their Jewish neighbors and friends were rounded up and sent east to the Camps, and six million to their deaths ?

It is a common refrain of "Never Again" speaking of the Holocaust. But at the same time, friendships have been destroyed. As an example, Havard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz has broken ties with former President Obama who has been non-committal with regards to the Israel Hamas War.

It has been over a century since "All quiet on the Western Front" was signaled in November, 1918. The War to end all Wars never materialized, there had been more and bloodier conflicts that followed. The Israel-Hamas conflict is the latest and can trace its lineage to the end of the First World War. On a day where one is supposed to commemorate those that answered a Call to the Colors, like Israel, since October 7th.