The seasoned bully

When Leon Uris wrote his novel “Exodus,” he hit a goldmine.

The book took on the many enemies surrounding the tiny country of Israel, describing the conflict in 1948 and, in a possible prelude to the 1967 war, showed the Jewish nation thoroughly thrashing Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan mostly with weapons supplied by us, the United States.

I followed that war closely, because my office in Heidelberg received a daily summary of battles via a secret classified document my staff copied and distributed to our general and top military staff. At first, we were guarded, per regulation, and kept silent, not telling anyone of this incredible war.

Israel managed to kick butt all over the Mideast. Their military, especially their air force, had the latest fighter jets that obliterated any opponents. It was an unfair fight.

Countries that had picked at Israel over the years were chewed up and spit out into the Mediterranean.

According to the world press, Israel never made a mistake wiping out the aggressors, but my office knew the real story. We kept quiet until my sergeant noticed the same classified information was republished the following day in the Armed Forces Stars and Stripes newspaper.

For example, we knew about the Israeli tank commander who led his battalion of some 20 tanks up a winding mountain road that ended in a dead-end. Imagine those tank drivers reversing and backing down that mountain.

There was nothing to fear, because the enemy had been defeated, soundly, by the new bully of the Mideast.

Years before, I’d read a Playboy interview of Uris. He described his life’s greatest desire: He wanted to recruit the biggest, toughest football players to his unnamed Jewish university so they could, um … kick butt around the U.S.

Now, the bully has gone too far. It is one thing to have the power to control and seek revenge and quite another to commit genocide against an unarmed enemy.

I wrote about Israel’s grave mistake a few weeks ago, killing over 30,000 Palestinians, wiping out health care and schools in Gaza and creating famine by blocking aid trucks, actually bombing them.

I was amazed and ashamed at some of the responses I received.

With only a handful thanking me for showing compassion and empathy for the Palestinians, the majority took issue with my determination not to vote for Joe Biden unless he stopped sending weapons, bombs and fighter jets to the seasoned bully of the Mideast.

To them, it was a grave mistake on my part to threaten the possibility of putting Donald Trump in the White House come November.

It is scary to know how powerful my one vote might be.

As promised, I wrote to President Biden as a friendly warning to ask him to stop sending those weapons, because I considered his actions complicit in Israel’s genocide.

Our continuing to solve international disputes by supplying weapons shows our own narrow-mindedness. We are acting like a bully ourselves. And, it shows we have no moral compass and have lost our way, like that tank commander.