Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. In today's episode, I'm going to be talking about man's inhumanity to man, more or less, specifically focusing on not controlling oneself, but control or the desire to control other people. Specifically, the control of land. And I will be attributing the things that I say pretty much entirely to a historical document that is known the world over. It's called the Bible. It spans a time period from about 4,000 years before Christ to about 95 AD. So it will serve as the pretext of the things that I want to talk about today. I'm quick to point out that I am not a historian, but I am a student of history. So in a way, that kind of makes me a historian. And if you are a student of history, that makes you a historian in your own right as well. That's the way I look at it. The land that is now Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank throughout history has been controlled by many different empires, to be sure. About 2,000 years before Christ, that region of the world was under Egyptian control. Most of us then remember the exodus of the children of Israel who were led by Moses out into the so-called promised land. And after wandering in the desert for four decades, the children of Israel entered into Canaan, which is modern day Israel. And sometime after that, we had the empires of David and Solomon. And Solomon apparently has twelve or had twelve districts, which occupied a pretty big land mass. And so I'm not going to get bogged down into the weeds about where exactly these empires and different uh controlling elements were actually located. Suffice it to say, it is within that region of the world, what we would typically refer to today as the Middle East, but it also encompassed parts of Europe, uh northern Africa, and the like. The Assyrian Empire lasted close to 200 years, from about 824 BC to 640 BC. And then the Persian Empire was around 500 BC. Now, I know what you may be thinking, wow, that's a huge jump from 4000 BC to 500 BC. Yes, it is. I've never said this is going to be a history lesson. I'm just saying that I'm a student of history and I'm obviously glossing over a lot about history. But the objective here is to prove a point about who controls land and the often terrible consequences that it has for people who are just simply trying to live their lives the best way they know how, not to mess with anybody else, and not to be messed with. And please understand that I'm talking about huge swathes of land, millions of square acres of land. I'm not talking about a piece of property that you own that's measured in square feet that's not even more than four or five thousand, six thousand, whatever. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about those who control land and who do it by conquest and by other means, which often are very nefarious. Okay, so fast forward from the Persian Empire, which was about 500 years before Christ was born, to the time that Christ actually was born, and that region of the world was under Roman Empire, which included the bulk of Europe, northern Africa, including Egypt, Israel, and so much more land. At some point after the birth of Christ, the Palestine Empire was from about 6 AD to 44 AD. Another huge jump from about 44 AD, we go all the way to 1948, when Israel declares statehood, which marked the first Jewish state in over roughly 2,000 years. So there was a period of time of roughly 2,000 years, a little less, I suppose, where Israel essentially had no statehood officially declared anyway, until 1948, when they did declare statehood. Now, by 1948, let's admit that a lot of water was under the bridge by then. There were clashes amongst tribal peoples, there was animosity, there was hatred, there was a lot of finger pointing, still is today, but suffice it to say, by the time 1948 rolled around, there was a lot that was going to be put into play, and we all know that a lot has happened from that time until now. Shortly after Israel's declaration of statehood in 1948, war between Israel and Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon took place. Egypt then controlled Gaza until the Six Day War in 1967. So you see, a lot of young people today, especially, and even people in my generation, are ignorant about the things that took place prior to a lot of the things that we have seen happen over the last, oh, I don't know, 20, 30 years. But don't you find it interesting that essentially through all of recorded history, there have been so many different entities that have controlled that area of the world. More so than, well, I'm not going to say more so than any other region of the world, but certainly a focal point for so many different types of empires, I guess, who had this desire to control that part of the world. I just find it very fascinating. So after Israel's war with Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon, and subsequent Egyptian control of Gaza until the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has certainly had a hard time maintaining any sort of statehood. And that's always been interesting to me as well. I get it. There's a lot of animosity, there's a lot of hatred that's gone back and forth between Israel and Arab countries, and it's still going on to this day. It's perplexing to me, and it's troubling to me that it is happening, but it is what it is, as they say. The Oslo Peace Accords took place in 1993 and 1995, and essentially it negotiated for Israel their withdrawal from Gaza, which eventually took place in 2005. So at that point, you're thinking, ah, that's great. There's this negotiation of peace, and let's get Israel out of Gaza, which did actually take place in 2005, but unfortunately, Hamas takes control of Gaza in 2006. So really not even a year later, Gaza takes control. And they have that control, air quotes, to this day. Now, like many of you, I'm thinking to myself, what kind of control does Hamas have in Gaza? It's such a narrow piece of land, the whole situation there with where they live, the borders between Egypt and Gaza and Israel and Gaza and so forth, it's really sad that a people have to live the way they live. Now, I'm not coming down on either side. Like I said before, there's plenty of finger pointing to go around. But the idea that humanity wants to be free, I think that that is a it's an inherent part of living on this earth, to want to be able to be free, to have the liberty to do what you want to do without being attacked by anyone, without being accosted by anyone. But unfortunately, and I'm not naive here, but we live at a time where hatred and animosity reign supreme. It's all around us. You don't even have to turn on the news. You can look at a social media post or anything in social media and see that the state of the world is not in a very good place for a lot of people. So it's safe to say, of course, that there have been many, many conflicts between Israel and Hamas since 2006, including the present day conflict which began on October seventh when elements of Hamas attacked an Israeli music festival, and the carnage and the very troubling brutality of that act and the amount of people who died because of it is it's unconscionable. It to me, it it baffles the mind how one or in this case, many human beings could have such hatred for other human beings and treat them in a most barbaric fashion. You can say what you want about either side, and I frankly don't care where you may stand in terms of your support for either side. My point is when a people will go in and rape, murder, behead, and do all sorts of wickedness, that's not happening on both sides. Yes, there's collateral damage. There is unfortunately the atrocities of war that take place and innocent civilians are killed, they're caught in the crossfire, whatever. But when a terrorist organization such as Hamas uses human beings, their own people as human shields just to protect themselves, that's disgusting. So, yes, when Israeli missiles are fired into a target and there are civilians who are around and they are killed, that's unfortunate and it's terrible. It is, it really is terrible. But again, these are atrocities of war. That's why they call it war. It's not pretty, it's not it's terrible. It's a part of our lives, we've all known it. It's please, it's been a part of history from the beginning. There have been wars, there have been hatred that's existed, and the result is well, if we can't settle things through discussion and through talking about it, then we'll just go and fight you and kill you and take what we want. At some point during this present-day conflict, the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war. He said that we're at war. And he's right, they are at war. And frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I don't see an end to this war because of the fact that it's passed on from generation to generation. I don't understand, as I said, all the complexities that are involved in this. I just know that it is unfortunate. It's it's so unfortunate because it impacts the lives of many people. And to think that some people will live their whole lives from the time they're old enough to know anything about anything until the time that they die, which for many soldiers and also many of the people who join Hamas is not a very long life. And all they've known their whole lives is to fight, is to hate, is to rape, to murder, to treat people as if they were not even people. So, yeah, you you can say all you want about the conflict, and as I said, I don't care what side you come down on, you have the right to believe whatever you want to believe, that's fine. But don't try to tell me that the Israeli soldiers or or any other Western uh military drags people through the street or takes teenagers away from their families and rapes them and then savagely tortures them and then ultimately brutally murdering them. For the most part, that does not happen. To say that it has never happened would not be true either. But as a general rule, you don't see that kind of behavior from the Israeli army compared to the Hamas, and I guess I should say the Israeli defense forces. I don't know if they're called an army or not, whatever, I just call them an army, but you know what I'm saying. Ladies and gentlemen, look, I'm like you. I look at this conflict and it's taken place over the whole of my lifetime, and it's easy, as I said before, to point the finger of blame. There's plenty to go around. But what's the pathway to peace? Is is that even a reality? Can you talk about peace when one side wants to negotiate for peace, but the other side does not? Wasn't that the whole objective of the Oslo Peace Accords back in the 1990s? To sue for peace? Wasn't that the objective? Wasn't that the ideal? How come that is not in place today? That's been long forgotten, believe me. There have been people who have been born or who were born after that, who are fighting in this Hamas terrorist group, who don't know the first thing about the Oslo Peace Accords, and frankly, don't even care. They don't care at all. Because all they want to do is wipe Israelis off the face of the earth. That is their whole objective. If that is their goal and they have no desire for peace, then how can you put a plan for peace in place? Which has to include getting along with each other, letting each other live, and just leaving each other alone. Figure something out, do something that makes it so uh fine. If you want to have a Palestinian state, have it. And have a Jewish state, have it. But have it. Don't just talk about it, don't just do the things that will never make it happen. There has to be a willingness to make it happen. And if only one side is willing to live in peace with the other, it's not going to work. It's just not. It's like oil and water, they'll never mix. And it seems apparent to me that this conflict presently with Israel and Hamas is never going to be settled. I'm a glass half-full type person, but I don't see a way out of this particular conflict because of the fact that there is a group of people, you can call them whatever you want to call them, I call them radical, who are hell bent on destroying the people of Israel, wiping them off of the map. And for the media and political leaders in our country to ignore this fact is despicable. It is despicable. It's a fact that these terrorist organizations sponsored by Iran and other sponsors of state terrorism, they want Israel wiped off the map. And close behind in a close second is the United States. And if you want to sit there and tell me that the southern border of our country is secure, then that's laughable. It's not secure at all. And we don't know over not just the last few years, but the years prior, we don't know how many people from these radicalized countries who have crossed our border and who are here now, and what are they planning to do? It's no secret. And if if we don't recognize this, if we don't look at it and say, look, we're not trying to discriminate against people, but as a sovereign nation, we have a right and a duty to secure our border to make sure that the people who are coming into this country don't want to plan on killing a bunch of us and doing what they can to wipe us off the map, too. Well, that'll be a different story than it is in Israel. I can tell you that right now. Because I know that there are plenty red-blooded Americans who will fight to the death to defend this country, the Constitution, freedom and liberty and all that we stand for, not just for us, no, but for anyone who wants to come to this country legally. We will defend it for those people as well. Not just those of you who are born here. If you're born here, great. You came here to this country legally from another country because you wanted another chance, you wanted to be free, you wanted to have the liberty to pursue your dreams, then great. I think that's amazing. That's what this country was built on. It was built on people coming here to find freedom, to find the liberty to do what they want to do, to make it in this country, and millions of us have. And I would say, I would dare say, that most people, if not 99.9% of the people living in this country have it better than any other people in a lot of third world countries, and even in a lot of countries who live under a functional democracy. I'll take this country over just about any other. And it's not that I hate other countries. I don't. I just love America and what America stands for. Do you think, ladies and gentlemen, that there is a pathway to peace? Is it possible? The way forward to me has to include a complete abandonment of radicalism, this desire to want to just kill anyone or a people because they're different. If that exists in the minds of people, and it will until who knows when, it seems difficult to me at best that peace can be achieved. I don't know about you, but how can you have complete and whole peace if something like that exists? I don't know. I don't know the answer to it. I just know that hatred will never, ever produce peace. Never. There's absolutely no possible way. If you hate somebody so much because they're different than you, there will never be peace. And I'm talking about peace on the macro level. What about peace on the micro level? What about peace within the individual? That is the thing that we are seeking. To have peace and contentment in ourselves so that we can in some way help other people to realize that that is the way to go. That's the way to live. To be peacemakers, yes, but to have peace in your heart and mind goes a long way. But if you have hatred and animosity towards other people to the point where you want to actually murder and do uh I think even worse things than that, you need help. Plain and simple. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what's going to happen in this latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, but I do pray that it can end soon and that lives can be put back together and some semblance of freedom can take place. I really do. I don't want to see anyone suffer due to the acts of others. It's unfair and it's unfortunate to say the least. I want to end with this short quote from Milton Friedman, who said this A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both. End of quote. If you can plan it, you can do it.