By Allen West

Once again, attention is being drawn to a region I am quite familiar with, the Middle East. Once again, it has to do with an Islamic terrorist organization and their savage brutality. I find it extremely unconscionable to have useful idiots and mindless lemmings who are siding with these depraved monsters. Once again, they scream “Free Palestine” and disturbingly advance an idea that these terrorists are some misunderstood freedom fighters seeking relief from an “apartheid” type of persecution. Hmm, is that why we are seeing images of little Jewish children in cages? Anyone with a semblance of a moral compass can recognize who the perpetrators of evil are, and always have been.

However, perhaps it is time for the ol’ Colonel to give a little history lesson and expose the utter absurdity of this delusion of Palestine, and Palestinians.

Let’s take a trip back to the 2nd century, the years 132-135 AD, to what was known then as Judea. It was during this time period that the Romans controlled the region and subjugated the Jewish people and their nation. It was then that a man named Simon bar Kohkba embarked upon what is known as the Bar Kohkba or Second Jewish revolution, against the Roman empire. Initially, the Jewish people were successful against a numerically superior, and dominant, Roman army, but that did not deter Rome. The resolve of the Roman empire was well known at that time in history and their commitment to crush the Jewish people was intense.

The end result of the bar Kohkba revolt was that Rome unleashed hell upon the region of Judea, and the Jewish people. Roman Emperor Hadrian believed that the root cause of the revolt was Judaism, the Jewish faith. The objective was to erase the Jewish people and their faith from existence. Scrolls were burned, rabbis were executed, temples were once again destroyed, and the Jewish people fled, the first diaspora. To add greater insult, Emperor Hadrian decreed that Jerusalem would be renamed Aeolia/Aelia Capitolina and the region would no longer be called Judea, but rather Syriac/Syria Palaestina. Yes, the first introduction of the word “Palestine” was as punishment to the Jewish people, by the Romans, for revolting against their rule.

Now, the interesting thing about the word “Palaestina” is that the root word, or derivative, comes from the word “Philistia.” This goes back to the ancient Philistines — you know, Goliath — and scholars believe the Philistines originated from Greece or the islands in the Aegean Sea. Now, fast forward to just after World War I, when the region fell under the control of the British upon the defeat of the Ottoman Turk Empire. The passports issued to those residing in the region were Palestine. But do not forget, the region was also referred to as the Levant and even the terrorist organization used this reference as ISIL. But we do not hear of any references to Levantinians?

My point? There has never been a nation called Palestine, it is just a region. The introduction of the word is based upon the destruction and dispersion of the Jewish nation 132-135 AD, as a decree from Roman Emperor Hadrian. There has never been a separate Palestinian language, culture, currency, anything. Much differently, the Kurdish people, the world’s largest ethnic group without a homeland, have a distinctive language, culture, and history, which is why I support an independent Kurdistan.

People talk about a two-state solution. Well, the world made that decision, and it was Israel and Jordan. That was not good enough for a militant Islamist, an Arab, named Yasser Arafat, who established the original Islamic terrorist organization, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). Just what were they intending to liberate? Their goal was the same as subsequent Islamic terrorist organizations — Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad — to eradicate, eliminate, and erase the Jewish nation, and its people. Hmm, was that not the same goal and objective of Roman Emperor Hadrian? Or for that matter Adolf Hitler as well as Yasser Arafat’s uncle, the so-called Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who blended Naziism with Arab Nationalism. Oh, didn’t Yasser Arafat receive the Nobel Peace Prize?

This whole Palestine thing is just a big ruse and a hoax, that is if you accept history and fact. Otherwise, you are, as mentioned earlier, a useful idiot and mindless lemming who has been duped. The entire purpose of Hamas and Hezbollah is the eradication of Israel, just as with Roman Emperor Hadrian. There is no, and never has been a nation called Palestine or a people called Palestinians. Heck, it would be the same in declaring “Free Appalachia!” They’re American, speak English, and it is a region, not a nation.

In order to Live Free, you can’t be stupid and a pawn of leftist and Islamic terrorist propaganda. As the Executive Director of the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU), I condemn the actions of Hamas, send a warning to Hezbollah, and desire that our policies change toward the top sponsor of Islamic terrorism, Iran. Israel is a sovereign Nation-State, our closest ally in the Middle East, and has the right to exist and defend itself against this barbaric incursion which claimed the lives of nine Americans as part of the nearly 1,000 Jewish citizens who were killed, with three times that number wounded.

If you wish to “Free Palestine,” based on history, it means returning Judea to the Jewish people, and I would also include Samaria. There has never been any such thing as a West Bank until the smoke screen of Islamists forced it into existence, after losing a war to Israel because of their attack.

Islamic terrorists who control Gaza invaded a sovereign nation, as non-state, non-uniformed belligerents they are not protected under the Geneva Convention. America should be on alert as we have allowed millions of single military-age males entry into our nation, some known, many unknown, and thousands from countries on the terrorist watch list.

The tolerance for this abhorrent behavior has run out. No amount of ranting from progressive socialists and their media accomplices will deter the inevitable: the destruction of Islamic terrorism. I am all in with that.

Steadfast and Loyal.

Allen West is Executive Director of American Constitution Rights Union