Israel, Hamas, and the American Left

The attack on Israel by Hamas, without hyperbole, changes everything. It being the current matter in politics, domestic and international, I find it difficult to write about anything else. Rather than pick an angle, as I usually do here, today I present a medley of thoughts.

• The instant, knee-jerk responses from a bevy of leftist individuals and groups have been breathtaking in their audacity and tone-deafness. Many have been back-walked, but they serve, in true Kinsley Gaffe manner, to reveal their utterers' true feelings. I recently re-posted the litmus test I'd put to all those who argue that the Palestinians have legitimate grievances. One question:
  
  Does Israel have a right to exist?
  
  In their hearts, I'm certain that too many think "no." This makes them different only in degree from Hamas, which has as its raison d'être the end of the nation of Israel.

• Hamas terrorists have been uploading videos of their atrocities, which include murders of civilians, rapes, killing children and babies, beheadings, and more. Some people are upset that platforms such as X are permitting these to be shared, rather than censoring them. European apparatchiks have warned Elon Musk against insufficiently moderating what they call "disinformation," supposedly because some old content has been mislabeled as current. But, the real purpose of such is to temper public backlash against Hamas, no matter the barbarity. This is "ideology overriding sanity." Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you're a Palestine apologist), quashing those vids and other evidence of that barbarity has proven too tall a task, and we all know it happened and is happening.

• Many rushed to call for ceasefire and peace, which is shorthand for "Israel, stand down, don't act, just accept the deaths and horrors." Similar calls were heard after 9/11, from similar quarters. Those quarters are almost always highly insular and highly insulated from the death and destruction. Luxury beliefs coupled with arrogance and a presumption of intellectual superiority makes for a rather toxic stew.

• Some are twisting themselves into pretzels to distinguish between Hamas and the citizens of Gaza, as if Hamas is some sort of "other" unrelated to the entity that is Gaza or its residents. In 2006, those citizens voted Hamas into power, giving Hamas 74 of the parliament's 132 seats. Hamas promptly did what it does, and eight years of sporadic civil war ensued. Certainly, Hamas does not represent the will of the entirety of Gaza, just as neither major American political party represents the will of all Americans, but to imply that Hamas isn't "Palestine" or some such is pure tendentiousness.

• Firebrands such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez call Israel an apartheid state, no matter that the twenty percent of Israel's citizens who are Arab have voting rights and enjoy the same legal protections as all the other citizens. On the other hand, there appear to be no Israelis, or Jews for that matter, in Gaza. Who is the real discriminator?

• Are there questions and criticisms regarding Israel, Gaza, and the Palestinians? Sure, but there’s a time for them, and there’s a time to stand up against naked barbarism. My advice to the leftists who hate Israel and are engaging in whataboutism - either pick a side and make your true beliefs known, or shut the [redacted] up. This isn’t about you and your privileged narcissism.

• Some, including my Congressman and Squad member Jamaal Bowman, have reiterated their desire for a two-state solution. Israel has already ceded land in exchange for the promise of peace. That Israel continues to maintain some control over Gaza (notably, its airspace) can be attributed to too many Palestinians' apparent lack of interest in a two-state solution. As I just noted, they voted Hamas into power over the more moderate Fatah back in 2006, and Hamas wants Israel gone, all the Jews in Israel gone, and all that land under its control. Arguing for a two-state solution at this juncture is the same sort of solipsistic arrogance found in those who demanded Israel not respond to the attacks.

  

• Ponder the dissonance, nay the stunning ignorance, of Western "liberals," many of them women, who side with a regressive, patriarchal culture that subjugates women and treats them as property and against a Westernized nation that treats women as equal to men, that has had female heads of state, that sees military service by women (including in combat roles). Substitute "gays" for "women" and you come to the same conclusion. The progressive values many Hamas apologists espouse are summarily rejected by Hamas even as they are embraced by Israel.

• Hamas has shown no compunction in nestling its military locations among civilians, in blatant violation of the Geneva Convention and the statutes of the International Criminal Court. This poses the question - who is responsible for civilian collateral casualties if a military position in Gaza is struck by Israel? If Hamas puts a rocket launcher on an apartment building, does that mean the launcher is now off-limits to the people it's being used against?

• America unfroze $6B of Iranian oil profits in exchange for five American hostages. While the administration claims that $6B was earmarked for humanitarian purposes only, and while Politifact asserts that it hasn't been disbursed yet... please. Money is fungible, and the $6B is out of American control. It was ransom money, and paying ransom encourages more hostage taking. Hamas reportedly has 14 Americans among the 150 hostage it has taken, and I've no doubt they'll be used as human shields (see above) and beaten/tortured/executed as deterrent against Israeli retaliation and American assistance to Israel. As for recent reports that the money has been frozen? Fox, henhouse.

• A litany of "blame the victim" bleats and other forms of "two sides" excuses are an affront to moral decency. Israel isn't butchering babies, no matter how often the "blood libel" and other slanders are repeated. There is no rational conclusion to draw from Hamas's behavior other than a combination of animal savagery and the inculcation of terror. How do you negotiate with such barbarity?

• Despite that, outlets such as the NY Times and the BBC are refraining from using the word "terrorists." This isn't impartiality, as some assert, nor is it born of fear or trepidation. It's another telltale of where its writers' and editors' sympathies lie.

• Israel will likely be feeling tremendous time pressure. International outrage will grow in the short term, as the apologists get abashed into retraction or quiet, but soon there will be growing noise calling for Israel to cease its responses and to return to the previous status quo. The goal should be to end Hamas, by capturing or killing its top people and by disarming it as much as possible. This is a VERY tall order, of course, made even taller by the ticking clock.

• Likewise, Israel will be feeling some major shackles due to the hostages being held, including (and especially) the Americans. Hamas will almost certainly distribute them among their top military installations, hoping that one or more of them becomes collateral damage from an Israeli strike. The game is psychological as much as anything else, and the civilized are always at a disadvantage against the barbarous.

• Speaking of shackles, it's probably best at this juncture if America and other nations do not put boots on the ground in Israel or Gaza. Such boots come with conditions, and the last thing Israel needs now is some foreign generals and diplomats meddling in its efforts to root out Hamas. Besides, Israel already has 300K active duty and reservists gearing up to go clean out the viper's nest.

• The Arab world could repudiate Hamas and help matters out by expatriating Gazans during Israel's counterattack. Instead, Egypt closed the border and is refusing Palestinian refugees. This echoes the long-running question - if the Palestinians needed a home, why haven't any of the neighboring nations embraced them? Rhetorical, of course. The existence of "Palestinians without a homeland" (um, what is Gaza?) serves the political ends of many Arab nations, who are happy to tacitly stoke anti-Jew and anti-Israel animus as a deflection from their domestic failures.

• As to that animus, ponder Iran's role. Palestinians are, by and large, Sunnis. Iran, being Shia, would normally be at odds with them. But, the virulent, racist hatred for Jews has them puppeteering the extremist loons in Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

• The degree of atrocity committed by those loons is, in a way, a head-scratcher. No thinking or conniving person would conclude that the beheading of babies would serve to advance stories of oppression and subjugation which would justify the attack, so is this an example of the Hamas leadership creating monsters they were unable to control?

• Israeli officials are accelerating the gun permitting process for civilians. Imagine if there was a Second Amendment in place over there - would lives have been saved and hostage taking prevented?

• Finally (for now), there is the schadenfreude laden spectacle of the myriad "we support the attack!" bleaters getting their just deserts. College students are seeing their job offers rescinded, members of organizations that issued pro-Hamas statements are saying "I didn't see that before they released it" and quitting those organizations, and those who gleefully canceled others over the most trivial transgressions are themselves being canceled. Boo hoo.

• Nevertheless, leopards don't change their spots, and we should continue to pay attention to those who equate, equivocate, and double-speak despite the absolute indefensibility of Hamas's massacre.

I present, in closing, Bernie Sanders' mealy-mouthed, two-sides thoughts on the matter:

The targeting of civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it. Israel's blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent civilians.

Bernie, you should be ashamed of yourself.