By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY
People can peacefully protest to express dissatisfaction with policies or actions, to raise awareness about a cause, to connect with like-minded individuals, and to push for negotiation, compromise and policy changes.
Terrorism, however, is the unlawful use of protest, force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce governments, civilian populations, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. This includes actions that cause death, serious bodily injury, or hostage-taking, with the intent to provoke a state of terror in the public or to intimidate a population or compel a government. Indeed, Hamas’s horrific attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was an act of genocidal terrorism under the slogan of “Free Palestine.”
Historically, Nazi’s propaganda against Jewish people from 1933 to 1945 often used slogans and phrases designed to dehumanize, blame, and incite hatred. These slogans were a core part of the Nazi regime’s efforts to scapegoat Jewish people for Germany’s problems and justify their persecution.
The main purpose of Nazi’s antisemitic slogans was to blame Jewish people for Germany’s socio-economic problems; foster antisemitic sentiment; justify discrimination and persecution; and, ultimately, commit the horrific crimes against Jewish people during the Holocaust, exterminating six million European Jews.
Other forms of Nazi’s propaganda reinforced these ideas, including antisemitic publications; antisemitic public displays and signs; children’s books depicting Jewish people in a negative and hateful light and reinforcing harmful stereotypes. These slogans and other propaganda played a significant role in creating a hostile environment for Jewish people in Nazi Germany and, therefore, contributing to the atrocities of the Holocaust.
The most well-known Nazi term for the extermination of Jews was the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” This was a euphemism used by Nazi leaders to refer to their plan for the systematic and intentional mass murder or genocide of millions of European Jews.
The “Final Solution” represented the central part of the horrifying culmination of Nazi anti-Jewish policies and ideology, which viewed Jews as a dangerous threat to the German “race” and its racial purity. In fact, progression of the Nazi anti-Jewish policies evolved over time, starting with discrimination, exclusion, forced emigration, violent attacks of the civilian population, and culminating in the “Final Solution.”
The decision to systematically murder all European Jews, including my grandfather Roman Umansky and my uncle Shura Dolitsky, was made likely with the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
It is well documented that implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was carried out through mass shootings by mobile killing units and in extermination camps with gas chambers in occupied territories. The Nazis used “resettlement” and “special treatment” tactics to hide the truth about their genocidal policies.
The Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942 was a meeting of high-ranking Nazi officials to coordinate and formalize the implementation of the “Final Solution.” In summary, while the Nazis used various terms and slogans to promote their antisemitic agenda, the term “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” is the most direct and specific reference to their plan for the extermination of the Jews.
Today’s pro-Palestinian antisemitic slogan for freedom from the “Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” is calling for a complete eradication of Israel and extermination of Jews worldwide.
Clearly, the Free Palestine organization and its movement opposes the existence of Israel and its historic connection to the ancient land of Judea. In fact, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that was founded by Jews nearly 3200 years ago, while other countries in the region in close geographic proximity to Israel, except for Egypt, were artificial constructs of British and French mandates of the early 20th century.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formally established in 1932 by King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud) after unifying various regions and Bedouin tribes under his rule. Bedouins in Saudi Arabia were traditionally nomadic desert-dwelling tribes; part of a larger group of Bedouins who inhabited the Arabian Peninsula and other nearby regions.
The creation of Jordan as a modern state is a story of evolving borders and political transitions. It began with the formation of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921 under British mandate. This entity was later transformed into the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946, gaining independence and eventually becoming known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The modern Syrian state was officially created in 1946 after World War II, gaining independence from the French mandate after a long period of Ottoman rule and then French administration. Prior to this, Syria was part of larger empires and regions, including the Ottoman Empire, and was later administered by France under a mandate from the League of Nations.
The creation of Iraq as a modern nation-state followed the end of World War I (1914-1918) and the official collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. Initially, the region, encompassing parts of the Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, was placed under a British mandate by the League of Nations in 1920. This mandate period, lasting until 1932, saw the establishment of a Hashemite monarchy under British protection. In 1932, Iraq achieved independence and became a constitutional monarchy.
The modern State of Lebanon has existed within its current borders since 1920, when Greater Lebanon was created under French and British mandate, resulting from the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I.
The murder of Israeli diplomats Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2025, by a pro-Palestinian terrorist, along with the recent attack in Boulder, Colorado on a march in support of hostages held in Gaza (both terrorists were yelling “Free Palestine”) reverberates and resembles a beginning of the Nazi’s-like “Final Solution.”
European Jews and others were silent when antisemitic atrocities emerged in Europe, naively hoping that the “wind of the Final Solution” will eventually stop or change its direction; but it did not, resulting in a massive extermination.
American Jewry and all the civilized world must recognize a danger of the “Free Palestine” terrorist organization and its movement to all humanity and peace-seeking nations; and they must do all possible in preventing its growth, advance and being of existence. Indeed, the slogan “Free Palestine” is a call for the destruction of Israel and extermination of Jews worldwide.
Alexander Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and enrolled in the Ph.D. program in anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also lecturer in the Russian Center. In the USSR, he was a social studies teacher for three years and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He then settled first in Sitka in 1985 and then in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education and Yukon-Koyukuk School District from 1988 to 2006; and Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center from 1990 to 2022. From 2006 to 2010, Alexander Dolitsky served as a Delegate of the Russian Federation in the United States for the Russian Compatriots program. He has done 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky was a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, and Clipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions. He was a Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. Dolitsky has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka, Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia, Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers in Alaska, Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During World War II, Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East, Living Wisdom of the Russian Far East: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska, and Pipeline to Russia: The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in World War II.
To all those Americans frothing at the mouth over this conflict – regardless of which side you hate – why not go there and fight? Put some skin in the game.
This is America and I don’t if you have noticed but we Americans have more then a few existential crisises at the moment that require all of our attention. Among which is that we are bankrupt as a nation. We ought to forthwith reduce our government spending drastically- including crossing the Potomic and taking the Pentagon down from 1 trillion plus a year to 500 billion. Foreign aid to countries such as Israel and Egypt also has to go.
God gave this bountiful and fruitful land that is easily defended. Let us head Washington words about no foreign entanglements and once again become the economic and agricultural powerhouse that we are destined to be.+++
Pick one: constitutional republic or empire.
Sorry, Alexander, but I care very little about the fate of Israel, as I care little about the fate of every other benighted Middle Eastern country. The entire region is a cesspool of longstanding hatred and bigotry, and the USA would do well to stand back and let it all rot. I am tired of being constantly assailed by US politicians (under the influence of AIPAC) insisting that, and acting like, Israel is as important, if not more so, than our own nation.
A pox on all their houses!
PS: The Middle East was relatively untroubled before the creation of the modern state of Israel.
To Jefferson: Jefferson, I understand your rational and frustrations. But this is the world we live in and humanity is responsible for its outcome. In my article, I tried to convey to readers that “Free Palestine” isn’t just a slogan, it’s a genocidal call echoing the darkest chapters of history. Today’s pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rhetoric masks deep-rooted antisemitism, regardless you are for or against Israel.
In a remarkably tone deaf comment by Democratic James Carville on the large number of Jewish Democrats fleeing the Democrat party due to the support of antisemitism in their ranks, Carville said he doesn’t believe it when wealthy Jewish donors tell him they’re ditching the Democratic Party because of antisemitism among its members. He says they’re doing it for a “f—ing tax cut.”
Nothing like standing up against antisemitism by doubling down with antisemitic rhetoric. When a guy who has been a major part of the Democrat Party for decades is openly accusing Jews of abandoning the Democrat Party for money and not because of the very antisemitism that he himself is displaying, there is a major problem.