Clueless and politically expedient Democrats marked the one-year anniversary of the terror attack on Israel by repeating their calls for a cease-fire — a case of incredibly bad timing and an affront to our Israeli allies.
Leading the liberal charge were Massachusetts Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley and Ed Markey, who not surprisingly caved to the left-wing activists that control the party and tied up traffic over the weekend with pro-Hamas protests. One of the few exceptions was Gov. Maura Healey, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and smartly kept her statement focused on the horrific toll of the Hamas attack on Israel and the accompanying rise in antisemitism in the U.S.
Oct. 7 was not the day for criticizing Israeli leaders, but that’s exactly the path Warren and other liberal Democrats took.
“The United States must commit to upholding human rights, international law and accountability for the use of U.S. weapons,” Warren said. “We urgently need a cease-fire, release of the hostages, massive humanitarian relief in Gaza, and diplomatic efforts towards a two-state solution.”
She blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “unleash(ing) unthinkable violence on innocent civilians in Gaza.”
One of the leaders of the far left, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, went even further, saying that she was “thinking of” Israelis murdered by Hamas, the Israeli hostages and “the more than 41,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military over the last year.”
And that’s after far-left activists chose to mark the day before the anniversary of the attack by blocking traffic.
Good move, that will get the public on your side.
Despicably, a pro-Palestine hate group at Tufts University marked Oct. 7 with a protest urging students to “join the student Intifada” and posting images of assault rifles on their social media account.
The actions were so bad Tufts was forced to suspend the group. That’s not far enough. Those students who led the protest and posted the images should be tossed out of school and face punishment.
Markey was not as extreme but couldn’t resist his call for an “immediate cease-fire to bring (the hostages) home, to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, and end the brutal war that has gripped the region for the past 12 months.”
This despite the fact that Hamas continues to hold more than 100 Israelis and others hostage and terrorize Israel.
Massachusetts liberals thus chose to appease their far-left constituency rather than do the decent thing, which was to focus solely on the massacre of Israelis and others at the hands of Hamas.
Shame on them for thinking of their own politics rather than what started the war — the surprise Hamas terror attack.
Not everyone thankfully did that. Healey noted the anniversary of the attack by directly blaming Hamas for the war — not Israel.
“Since that day,” the Democratic governor said, “terror, grief and trauma have continued to reverberate throughout the Jewish community, coupled with a rise in antisemitism and hate both here in Massachusetts and across the globe.”
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss also said the U.S. “must endeavor to lead the world in supporting Israel as it defends itself against the ring of fire encircling it: Hamas to its south, Hezbollah to its north, proxy terror groups in Iraq and Syria to its east, all fueled by Iran.”
Joe Battenfeld is a columnist for the Boston Herald.
