THE NEW YORK TIMES In the early hours of Saturday the 7th, in the south of Israelthe terrorist group Hamas murdered hundreds of people at a music festival and kidnapped others at gunpoint to serve as human shields in Gaza. On Sunday afternoon in midtown Manhattan, a speaker at a rally of proPalestinian and leftwing groups celebrated the atrocity one of thousands suffered by Israelis in recent days, which, we later learned, included the deaths of babies and young children.
“As you may have seen, there was some kind of rave or party going on in the desert having a great time until the resistance arrived in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,” one speaker said. “But I’m sure they’re doing very well, regardless of what the New York Post says.” He was greeted with applause.
I watched the demonstration with my own eyes: would there be any, even superficial, condemnation of Hamas’ methods? A brief nod of compassion for Israel’s grief? A trite reference to the cause of peace and nonviolence? Not that I heard it. What I saw was joy and jubilation, as if someone’s team had won the World Cup. Hamas had carried out the largest oneday massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and the crowd cheered.
Site of the rave in the Negev desert in Israel where 260 people were killed by Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on Saturday 7th. Photo: Ronen Zvulun/Portal
Similar scenes occurred around the world. In London, around 5,000 protesters gathered near the Israeli embassy and fired fireworks at the building.
At a rally at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, chants of “Free Palestine” gave way to the underlying sentiment: “Fuck the Jews.” At Harvard, nearly 40 campus groups issued a joint statement declaring “the Israeli regime for the entire unfolding Hold violence fully responsible.” A Yalies4Palestine statement noted that “breaking out of prison requires strength, not desperate pleas to the colonizer.”
Regardless of what may be said about these demonstrations and statements, the protesters and manifesto writers deserve to be singled out for their honesty.
Continued after advertisement
For many of them, “proPalestine” means proHamas. “Antioccupation” is resistance to Israel’s right to exist in some form. Israelis are guilty because they are Israelis, so their murders and humiliations are a ridiculous matter. If “Zionism is genocide,” as the posters at the demonstration said, no means is too terrible to end it.
If twice as many Israelis had been murdered on Saturday, would that have punished the demonstrators or made them twice as happy?
Not everyone on the far left has gone this far. However, the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America promoted the rally on social media Alexandria Ocasio Cortezthe group’s most prominent member, condemned the demonstration and released a 66word statement in which he “strongly condemned the Hamas attack.”
He then called for “an immediate ceasefire and deescalation.” Someone should tell the New York congresswoman: Calling for a ceasefire now will protect murderers from consequences and deny their victims the right to effective selfdefense. This is, in the language of the old left, “objectively” proHamas, even if it masquerades as a call for peace.
Something similar needs to be said about a much larger section of the left that looks at Saturday’s events with genuine horror, but rarely to ponder whether she played any role in creating the moral and intellectual climate for what happened.
Continued after advertisement
I’m talking about the “bienpensant” crowd for whom antiZionism not just legitimate opposition to various aspects of Israeli politics, but the denial of Israel’s right to exist in any form is a respectable political position, not just a formula on antiSemitism updated.
I’m talking about the UN rapporteurs and the oncegreat human rights organizations who spread the lie that Israel deliberately set up an “openair prison” in Gaza, without caring that Gaza borders the country Egyptor that Israel only evacuated the area almost 20 years ago being rewarded for endless attacks from above and below.
I’m talking about university presidents who defend free speech when it comes to antiSemitism, but who become particularly critical when it comes to other forms of controversial speech.
Demonstration in support of the Palestinian cause in New York, USA, following the terrorist attacks by the Hamas group on Saturday, 7. Photo: Kirsten Luce/NYT
I’m talking about political leaders who repeatedly promise solidarity with Israel, but then quickly demand restraint when Israel tries to destroy the infrastructure that Hamas uses to maintain its war machine.
I’m talking about narratives that seem designed to create the outrageous impression that Israeli soldiers are deliberately killing Palestinian children.
Continued after advertisement
I’m talking about the people whose anger at the Israeli government never seems to subside, but who rarely stops to notice that the Hamas is a dictatorship of religious fanatics or President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is a diehard antiSemite.
Taken alone, none of this poses a direct threat to the life of any individual Israeli. Taken together, this explains very well how Israel, the nation of Jews, is routinely treated, as some have said, as a “Jew of the Nations,” with bloodwritten consequences.
If some of the antiIsrael left are horrified by what happened on Saturday, now is a good time to take a long, critical look at themselves.