AURORA, CO – Let me preface this column by saying that I love the Jews. This is not meant to be anti-Semitic in any way. I just have a few issues about Israel that I wanted to talk about, and in this day and age of hyper-political correctness, I’m quite sure some people will get offended even with my disclaimer. If it helps, I am not a religious person, so I am approaching this subject from a completely impious and non-judgmental point of view. A separation-of-church-and-state point of view, if you will. Now let’s get to the good stuff!

I have been researching the history of the state of Israel in preparation for this column, and although there is a lot of pro-Palestinian propaganda out there, as well as pro-Israeli rhetoric, I think I have been able to cut through the hyperbole. While it is difficult for me to factor in the religious significance of the Holy Land, the consensus among all the differing information out there is that Israel was founded in 1948 as a sort-of geographical apology to the Jewish people for the Holocaust.

In high school and college, the plight of the Jewish people in World War II always struck me very personally. I am not Jewish and neither is most of my family, but you would have to be inhuman to not feel anguish for the tragedy that was the Holocaust. There are extremists out there who deny the entire theory of a Holocaust, but even the most conservative of legitimate estimates number the dead at the hands of the Nazis at 6,000,000 (six million). It angered me then, and still does, that the world didn’t have the courage to end Hitler’s brutality until it was too late. It really pisses me off when Tom Cruise puts out a movie that paints Nazis in a compassionate light, because there are still similar sympathizers today with men like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad given credibility on the world stage.

At any rate, what I have never been able to understand is why the US and other allied victors of WWII thought it was in their power to carve out land in the Middle East to create the state of Israel when the second World War had virtually nothing to do with the Middle East. The infighting between the tribal factions in the Muslim world hasn’t stopped since the beginning of time, and it won’t end in my lifetime. Insinuating an entire country out of other people’s land – land that had very little, if anything, to do with the Nazis – has only stoked the hatred and unending violence in the region.

It seems to me that the logical thing to do if appeasement of the Jewish people was the reason for forming the state of Israel would be to call Germany Israel and call it a day. I think the world would be a much more stable place if that were the reality. I know it has something to do with the biblical Holy Land, and stories of Moses wandering through the desert for 40 years. But is that enough of a reason to displace an already unhinged populous? And after 61 years of increasing vehemence, is Israel still worth our seemingly unconditional loyalty and defense?

The recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has re-awakened all these questions. While Israel certainly has the right to defend itself and its citizens from an unending barrage of rocket attacks, there is a valid argument concerning the questionable foundation of the nation, and in the humble opinion of this reporter, that is the root cause of most of the Middle Eastern unrest. After six decades, it seems time is way overdue to re-evaluate our foreign policy stance toward Israel. No longer are they our only ally in that region of the world, so it really doesn’t make sense to continue our extreme military support. I have talked to a lot of people in my age group (20-40) who feel that the United States treats Israel as if it were the 51^st state. We don’t give Nebraska as much military support as we give Israel, not that Kansas is lobbing bombs across the state line. But you get my drift.

I know I appear to be beating up on Israel a lot in this blog, and I am. I just think there is a time when every man, woman, child, and country has to grow up and leave the nest. But let’s be honest, there is plenty to be said about the other side in this conflict. There is no question that the Palestinians brought this upon themselves for democratically electing a terrorist organization into governance, knowing full well that Hamas’ primary objective is to destroy Israel. Hamas wouldn’t even have a place to hang their hat – or launch their Katyusha rockets – if Israel hadn’t conceded the Gaza Strip in the first place. And what thanks do they get?

Israel had no choice but to stop the daily attacks on their civilian population, but the only way to put an end to the bloodshed is to completely annihilate Hamas. Thanks to our tax dollars, Israel is certainly capable of accomplishing that goal militarily, but that will never happen. So I suppose this is not going to be the last time you hear me opining about the Middle East conflict. This violence is never going to end, not in my lifetime. And it would have been nice if someone had put a little more thought into this whole Israel thing in 1948.