Suggestions
Edward Tolchin
Principal Attorney Offit Kurman, PA
Edward Tolchin is a distinguished legal professional with a diverse educational background and a wealth of experience in the field of law. He pursued his JD in Law at the prestigious Georgetown University Law Center, showcasing his commitment to excellence in legal studies. Prior to this, Edward obtained a BA in History from Yeshiva University, demonstrating a well-rounded academic foundation.
Highlights
I'm in Jerusalem, Israel now, having been unable to reach my intended destination in Italy on Sunday because Hamas' murderous rampage on Saturday shut down the airport. Jerusalem is relatively quiet. We had numerous rocket sirens on Saturday, and one or two since. Yesterday's siren warned us of a rocket attack that landed just a few miles from us, injuring several children and a grandmother, one seriously.
I am posting this non-business related Linkedin post, hoping that everyone who reads this will learn something about the situation in Israel.
Here are the choices you face. You can support a Palestinian state, or not. If you support a Palestinian state, you can support it as a second state along with Israel, or you can support it as a state to replace Israel.
Many Israelis support a second state; many do not. Virtually no one here supports a replacement state.
Whenever the debate arises, those who do not support a second state point to history. Palestinian areas are always cleansed of non-Arabs, and many (not all) Palestinians support terrorism as a means to cleanse non-Arabs from Israel in the hope that the Palestinian state can become a replacement state. Historically, a Palestinian state is racist and apartheid in the true senses of those terms.
Israel is imperfect, as are most nation states. But, to say that Israel is a racist or apartheid state, as I've heard recently from Representatives Omar, Tlaib and Bush, is a lie. There are racists in Israel, as in the United States. But all who live in Israel, regardless of national origin or religion, have the full protection of the government and law, as in the US.
So, detractors of Israel complain that Israel discriminates against those who live in Gaza and the West Bank, which are areas ruled by Palestinian governments. That too is a lie.
Take Gaza. Before Hamas arose in 2005, thousands of Gazans worked in Israel, and commerce between the Israelis and Gazans was robust. That changed when the majority of Gazans elected Hamas whose platform was to become a replacement state, getting there in any way, including terrorism.
In the last two days, Hamas murdered approximately 1200 people, many elderly and children. Hamas then kidnapped grandmothers, babies, and anyone that they could get their hands on to trade for other Hamas terrorist murderers held in Israeli jails.
Israel has said that the rules of the game are now different. When Hamas acted up in the past, the Israelis allowed Hamas operatives to escape rather than risk any civilians. Israel gave warnings before it attacked any asset, allowing civilians, and Hamas personnel, to escape before an asset was destroyed. Israel has now said - no more. If a Hamas operative is present, he will be attacked without warning. While collateral civilian losses are horrible, there is no choice given that Hamas uses civilians as human shields.
Please don't let mistaken moral equivalency arguments and lies cloud your views of what happens next.
