Historical Continuity of Antisemitism: Drawing from Holocaust sites in Romania and the Balkans, the author argues that the world’s oldest hatred has resurfaced, with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian leaders explicitly calling for Israel’s annihilation and repeating October 7-style attacks, echoing earlier figures like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

Defense of Israel’s Military Conduct: Israel’s campaign against Hamas is presented as a necessary war of survival against an enemy embedded in civilian infrastructure; the author claims IDF warnings, precision munitions, and relatively low civilian-to-combatant ratios distinguish it from true genocides (e.g., in Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, or China against Uyghurs/Tibetans).

Rejection of “Colonial” Narrative: The piece asserts Jews have continuous historical presence in the land for over 3,600 years (from Abraham through successive empires to 1948 statehood), notes there was never a Palestinian state or people in that form, and welcomes growing recognition of Israel via the Abraham Accords as a path to lasting peace.

Israel is battling enemies who promise to slaughter Jews until the ‘Zionist entity’ is annihilated

My recent Sephardic Balkans Jewish Heritage Tour took me from Bucharest, Romania north along the Carpathian Mountains, then west and south into Transylvania and Hungary, and finally to Belgrade, Serbia. We enjoyed fine company and dining, toured historic palaces and churches, and explored Bran Castle, legendary home of Vlad the Impaler and Count Dracula.

Mostly, we visited overgrown Jewish cemeteries and once-thriving synagogues, some restored to their pre-WWII glory, many just a shadow of their former splendor. The now silent holy places reminded us how Jewish communities were slaughtered by Nazis and Nazi-aligned Europeans.

In my wife’s grandmother’s hometown of Iasi, 13,000 out of 50,000 Jews were murdered in the streets by fellow Romanians; survivors were sent to death camps in Poland. In Sighet, a majority-Jewish town before 1940 and birthplace of Elie Wiesel, just 2,300 of 10,000 Jews survived the war. Only in Bucharest – thanks to the King, Queen Mother, Chief Rabbi of Romania and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau – were Jews not deported.

In the Middle East, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini worked to bring Hitler’s Final Solution to Palestine. Formerly Judea but........

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