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Those who do not condemn Hamas outed as antisemites
By Susan Estrich
Published: October 14, 2023, 6:01am
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It should not be difficult to condemn terrorism.
It has nothing to do with whether you support the current Israeli government and its policies. One can sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians, as many of us do. But that has nothing to do with the brutal murders of women and children and the elderly, with the point-blank executions of 260 young people attending a music festival, with the slaughter of children in front of their parents or of parents in front of their children, as Hamas did. For a very long time, those on the left who have been most critical of Israel’s policies have insisted that they are anti-Israel and not antisemites. Not so.
Those who do not condemn Hamas are antisemites. It is as simple as that.
The mass murder of over 1,000 Jews — the worst day in Jewish history since the Holocaust — was driven by hatred of all Jews. To blame Israel for this mass murder is an expression of antisemitism at its worst.
In New York’s Times Square last Sunday, the antisemites held a rally in support of Palestine. They were joined by their allies — Nazis waving swastikas. What is wrong with these people? They are haters, and they cheer the butchers.
Consider the statements by the congresswomen who are part of the “Squad,” justifying the brutality of animals.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat, was quick to blame Israel. “The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance,” she stated.
Resistance? Killing grandmothers, raping women, beheading babies. That is not resistance. That is pure evil.
Rep. Cori Bush wrote on X: “a military response will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike. As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to stop this violence and trauma by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
To call for ending U.S. government support for Israel, at this point, to condemn a military response, is the position of only those who hate Jews and are willing to excuse animal savagery.
Rep. Ilhan Omar went so far as to call the cutoff of supplies to Gaza a “war crime” and tweeted that “the solution to this horror, as ever, is a negotiated peace” and expressed her opposition to “continuing unconditional weapons sales and military aid to Israel.”
A negotiated peace with terrorists? Opposition to military aid to Israel as it seeks to defend itself from murderers?
What is stunning about these statements is what is missing from them. Where is the recognition that Hamas is a terrorist organization backed by Iran? Where is the outrage at the mass murders of young people dancing the night away to celebrate peace, the slaughter of civilians, the kidnapping and rape of innocents?
Some 30 student organizations at Harvard signed a joint letter holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Harvard’s leadership took two days to respond, initially with only a tepid letter saying the students did not speak for the university. Jewish students are rightly outraged at the recognition that antisemitism is flourishing on campuses across the country.
“Black Lives Matter Grassroots” put out a statement saying that “we must stand unwaveringly on the side of the oppressed.” Because Palestinians “have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.” Since when does mass murder of innocent civilians, decapitating babies, qualify as “resistance,” much less self-defense?
The people of Israel, many millions of whom do not support the domestic policies of the Netanyahu administration, are united now because they are confronting an enemy who would wipe the Jewish state and the Jewish people off the face of the globe. Hamas is also our enemy, and to treat them as anything other than that is antisemitism, pure and simple.
Those of us who have condemned antisemitism on the far right, as well we should, must be just as vigilant in condemning those on the left who are equally hateful. The savagery of Hamas is so easy to condemn that those who fail to do so deserve to be outed as the antisemites that they have always been. Savagery reveals their true colors.
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