Hamas, Hezbollah want to destroy Israel — and U.S.

Let’s pretend the unprovoked Oct. 7 attacks on Israel never happened. That Israelis should just lump their losses of 1400 raped, tortured, murdered, and butchered relatives and imagine it won’t happen again. That Israel should just accept Blinken and Biden’s conditions and restrictions for Israeli response. That Hamas and Hezbollah with state sponsors like Iran would abandon their quest to annihilate Israel. Just give money to terrorism-sponsoring nations and declare a ceasefire.

Considering history and the terrorists’ own words, this is unrealistic and insane. A nation has a right to defend itself, eliminate threats of escalation and repetition, and fight to exist. Yes, Israel must consider hostage safety in enclaves of cowardly terrorists using women and children as “shields.” Unlike Hamas, Israel will.

To win the war on terror we must stop supporting terrorism-sponsoring states like Iran, reimpose harsh sanctions, freeze foreign assets and stop feeding both sides of this war. Moreover, we should stop funding universities, professors and students who justify Hamas’ atrocities and applaud antisemitism. We need to support our ally Israel.

I believe most Muslims worldwide don’t agree with terrorist tactics and radical interpretations of the Koran. However, violent jihadists believe they have a moral mandate to hasten their messianic Mahdi, create a universal Islam-only caliphate and the end to the world. We must realize these nuclear-armed foes not only hate Israel, but also their “great Satan” USA, and are determined to destroy both. This fact alone should halt the unabated foreign invasion at our southern border.

Tim Bickel

Cedar Rapids