You know what I hate?

I really do not hate a lot of things. I do hate broccoli. I hate asparagus, kale and many things that belong under a lawn mower. I do like cucumbers, green beans, peas, lettuce, slaw and to me, the best green food is. . . you guessed it – key lime pie. I hate willful ignorance to where you point something out as undeniable truth yet people still want to disagree with you.

When I was still in the Air Force, I was teaching out at Maxwell AFB when an instructor from another seminar came into my room and asked if I could come down to his class and answer a question. When I got there, the question dealt with placing KC-135 tanker aircraft at a certain airfield. They wanted to also place the E-3 AWACS at that base. There were some constraints placed in the exercise so they wanted to know if it was feasible. The students had made some planning assumptions but one was mostly incorrect. They were basing the placement of the two aircraft on being the same size. I stated that although the two aircraft, with the exception of the radar on top of the AWACS or the boom on the tanker, looked similar, they were two different airplanes. I stated that the AWACS was somewhat larger than the tanker.

Enter an A-10 pilot who was in the class. He told me they were in fact the same airplane. The AWACS was just a tanker with the radar on top. I said that was incorrect. I told the class that a general way to remember the two is that the KC-135 is approximately 135’ wide by 135’ long. Actually, it is 136’x130’. I then told them an AWACS is approximately 150’ x 150’ although it is 152’ x 145’. The student then said that he had seen the two planes on the ramp and knew what he was talking about. I asked the class, “Do you guys realize that I flew both airplanes, had over 4,500 hours on them and was an instructor/evaluator pilot on the AWACS?” The A-10 pilot doubled down on his stupidity. “No. They are the same airplane.”

At this point I am pretty angry. I leave the room, go to my office and print out the official Air Force specs on both airplanes. I print them out and carry them down to the classroom. I showed the class the official sizes of the airplanes. It didn’t matter. Not only would the A-10 pilot not budge, but he was able to convince two or three other students to follow his stupidity. This is what I mean when I say willful ignorance. No matter what contrary “facts” are placed before someone, they will not budge from what the want to believe.

But in the world today, do you know what I REALLY hate? I mean from the depths of my soul; with every fiber of my being? I hate antisemitism. I hate it. It sickens me in every way. I hate the fact that antisemitism is in vogue now in the country where I grew up. When I lived in New Jersey, most of my best friends were Jewish. I had Jewish girlfriends, teammates, movie buddies, etc. My absolute best friend from second grade through high school was Jewish. (As a side note, the night of his bar mitzvah, we went to see the movie The Exorcist. Big mistake.)

I watch the hate spewing from the wretched and distorted faces on so many of our clearly not-so “elite” universities and people somehow see it as normal and acceptable. What I see on television today is disgraceful. Who are these people to think they have the right to dictate foreign policy to the US and more importantly, tell Israel they have to suck up what Hamas delivered in October? Can you imagine the Allies stopping the war before the Germans and Japanese were defeated in 1945? Would we have listened to a bunch of foul-mouthed college kids? No. We are to believe Jews are bad; Jews are wretched; Jewhave tails. What is next? The hate and fear for the Jewish people is unending. Why the world so hates and fears .2% of the world’s population amazes me. .2%, folks, that’s it.

The UN is equally pathetic. Again, let us not forget 7 October 2023. It was not Israeli commandos paragliding into Gaza and killing thousands of Palestinians. Yet the UN continually, as totally predicably, condemns Israel yet remains mostly silent on the Ukraine or the Uyghurs in China.

So other than our colleges and universities being breeding grounds for communism and socialism, why will these institutions not be more proactive is supporting their Jewish populations? I already answered this question. If I oversaw DHS, yes, I would be there when these cretins are arrested. I would have two piles if you will. US citizens and non-citizens. Non-citizens, your deportation process has just begun. You would be done. Out. Sorry, not sorry. Do you think for one second we should allow non-citizens to bring their antisemitic crap from their home country and spew their filth here? No. Sorry, not sorry. And let’s not be deceived, a simple protest and calling for repeated October 7th style events forever (as some screamed), is not the same. If you are a non-citizen and calling for the death to all Jews, some of which are obviously American citizens, in the perfect world, within a month you would be on a slow-moving shrimp boat back to anywhere but here.

The bottom line, in my view, there is no place for this behavior in my world. Zero. When I was flying with the Saudi Air Force, we had a Lt.Col. that we called Colonel Zieg Heil. From the moment he stepped on the jet (including mission planning the day before) until the post mission debrief was completed, all he talked about was how much he hated Jews. He talked about the Israeli weather machine that prevented rain in Saudi Arabia (you cannot make this stuff up) to Jews doing and controlling everything under the sun. Although I was only a Captain at the time, as the aircraft commander, would still tell the Lt. Col. to be quiet if had nothing positive to say. I didn’t want to hear it for 9.5 hours in the jet.

The behavior of many of our young people is disgusting and disturbing. The next few weeks should be interesting. But I must ask myself, do I think Israel does everything right? The answer is, no. Who does?

Regardless, I still put my unwavering support behind Israel because no matter what, at this time in history, they are our biggest Ally in the Middle East.