The events of October 7 press three troubling questions upon us.

Question #1: Why Do Muslims hate Jews?

This question has been simmering for a long time. We have probably all known the answer for years, but a recent flurry of internet postings on this very question makes it very clear that the reason Muslims hate Jews is because Islam mandates it, and all Muslims are taught it from infancy.

Hating and killing Jews is a religious obligation of Islam! That means this is a problem that has no solution.

Our American constitutional right to freedom of religion did not envision a religion of mandatory murder. Jews and Judaism are protected under American law. Can Islam be protected also? Can a Muslim claim First Amendment constitutional religious liberty as a defense in court to a charge of murdering a Jew? How do we deal with this?

Marco Rubio wants to block the immigration of “pro-Hamas foreign nationals”—that is, Muslims, into the USA.

Is that a good idea? If so, what should we do with all the Muslims already here? In other words, do we deport those non-native Muslim residents or support Hamas?

There is a broader question to ask: Besides Jews, is there anyone else Muslims hate? Well, actually, maybe that’s not the right question to ask. After reading Eileen Toplansky’s Biden and Islamophobia and Jean DeBois’s Israel and Jews: Just the Canary in the Coal Mine, along with the links they include, perhaps we should revise the question. Instead of asking, “Who else do they hate?” we should ask, “Is there anyone they don’t hate?”

Question #2: Do gun-free zones attract mass killers?

The bowling alley in Maine where so many died was a gun-free zone. If firearms had been present in that bowling alley—openly visible and in abundance—would that have made a difference?

Has there ever been a successful mass killer attack at a gun show or a gun range?

Without research, one can easily answer “tain’t necessarily so,” but anecdotal evidence, data, and common sense argue in favor of making guns more, not less, available to ordinary civilians.

Note, too, that in the October 7 Hamas massacre, all the Israeli victims were unarmed. The only ones who survived were those with weapons. The celebrating teenagers at the rock concert were all unarmed. The babies were all unarmed before they were beheaded. The slaughtered families were all unarmed. After the massacre, the Israeli government rushed firearms to the survivors. A bit too late, don’t you think?

When Hamas made its plans, did it assume “unarmed victims”? Might the attacks have gone differently if every rock concert celebrant had an AR15 slung on his shoulder and if every Israeli family had a brace of firearms on the living room wall?

Again, the obvious answer is “tain’t necessarily so,” but nonetheless, is it not sufficiently plausible to justify an experiment?

“Exactly what experiment?” you may ask. Well, consider: We Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, but almost no one does so openly. In my eighty-year sojourn in this vale of tears, only three times have I encountered someone openly carrying a firearm in public.

Is there a practical distinction between (a) a society in which bearing arms is prohibited by law and (b) a society in which bearing arms is protected by law, but almost no one does it? Is that not a distinction without a difference? What if there were no gun-free zones and our law mandated the open carry of firearms everywhere? What would be the effect of that?

Question #3: Treason?

Is a “proxy war” a war? Presumptively, yes. Are we not at war with Russia via our proxy, Ukraine? Israel is at war with Hamas. We are arming Israel. Are we, therefore, at war with Hamas via our proxy, Israel? Are we, therefore, in a state of war with Hamas?

Among the breathtaking consequences of its incredibly immoral October 7 butchery is that Hamas has not only revealed itself as depraved beyond comprehension but it has also smoked out the Hamas running dogs in the Western world, not only in Brussels, Paris, and Berlin, but also right here in the USA, in our streets, universities, and the US Congress. We now know who these rats are.

But are they merely rats? Are they not also traitors? Federal statute 18 USC sec. 2381 declares:

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

If the USA is in a state of war with Hamas, then is not Hamas our “enemy,” and are not the pro-Hamas crowd adhering to Hamas, giving Hamas aid and comfort?  When the Hamas leadership reads online of the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel Jew hatred on US college campuses and in mass demonstrations, do they not feel “aid and comfort”? 

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