Why So Silent?

It appears there’s finally a resolution at hand to the two year long war in Gaza, with both Israel and Hamas signing on to a peace plan negotiated by Trump and his proxies. While the process is going to be long and complex, and while anyone who thinks Hamas will now beat its proverbial swords into plowshares is living in fantasy land, it’s a hugely positive development. The ceasefire alone should warm the hearts of the many who’ve been demanding it for so long.

*Should.

The silence from much that cohort is both deafening and telling.

I figure some of them are disappointed that Israel isn’t simply going to walk away and let Hamas rebuild its war machine.

I figure some of them are angry that their assertions of “genocide” are refuted by this turn of events

.I figure some of them are furious that it was Trump who made this happen and incensed at the mere suggestion that he be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I figure some of them are simply protest addicts who don’t want to let their outrage go.

I figure some of them are angry that Israel gets to continue to exist, that “Palestine’s” claim on all the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea isn’t going to be actualized, and that Jews aren’t going to be purged from those lands. In other words, anger that the war may be over.

For the past couple years, we’ve heard endless insistence that support for Gaza and opposition to “Zionism” has nothing to do with antisemitism (a soft euphemism for Jew-hatred), and that those chanting “From The River To The Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free,” waving Hamas flags, and wearing keffiyehs want peaceful coexistence and land that the Palestinians can call their own. That a two-state solution was their desired outcome.

A two-state solution was at hand when Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005. The Gazans promptly elected Hamas to run that would-be nation, and Hamas promptly turned their political victory into an opportunity to build an anti-Israel war machine. Hamas built a tunnel network larger than the New York City subway system, stealing vast sums of foreign aid from the people it was intended to help, and deliberately putting its military installations in and under civilian locations such as hospitals and apartment buildings. And, on October 7th, 2023, Hamas mostly destroyed the prospects for a two-state solution with its barbarous attack on Israeli civilians.

I say “mostly,” because this plan does appear to set Gaza back on the path to some degree of autonomy. With reports that Gazans are sick of Hamas growing in number, and with many of them celebrating this peace deal, maybe we can see some modicum of peace in that region.

For a while, at least. Nothing in politics is ever permanent. Even if Hamas were dismantled, the ideas that motivated its members would lead to other anti-Israel and anti-Jew structures forming. With the Best-and-Brightest of the West continuing to sympathize with the barbarians who cannot abide the existence of Jews anywhere in the Middle East - or the world, for that matter, it really is only a matter of time before violence against Israelis resumes. The Israelis know this, of course, and Israel’s continued existence is dependent on perpetual vigilance and a constant state of preparedness.

But I digress. You don’t need to be an ardent believer or a Biblical scholar to recognize the truth of “By their deeds they shall be known.” Those demanding a ceasefire got their stated wish, but they aren’t running through the streets, smooching each other the way Americans did on V-J Day. Their muted responses and outright silence affirms what many of us have suspected for decades: their real desire is the elimination of Israel.

As I’ve noted in the past, one simple question would clear away the fog and tell us where a person actually stands:

As for those who are happy for the peace, but are staying quiet rather give Trump any credit?

Get over yourselves.

Praising him for this doesn’t undercut your right to criticize him for policies and actions you disagree with. If you can’t process that notion, if partisanship is more important than outcome, you are part of the problem.

Titania McGrath, a brilliantly satirical alter ego of British writer Andrew Doyle, nails it: