A significant portion of the Left in general and the Democratic Party specifically supports the actions taken by Hamas this weekend. When you vote, will you join them?
There appears to be many on the Left, including members of Congress, who support the brutal and animalistic actions of Hamas. They blame Israel for what happened or they claim that the Palestinians are justified in murdering, wounding, and holding captive Israeli (and apparently, American) citizens. Most people, including many Democrats, find Hamas’ actions repulsive and inexcusable. Still, one has to wonder about those wearing Palestinian flags in a Manhattan pro-Hamas rally and those in Congress who blame Israel as to why they support Hamas.
Let’s look at the actions of the group they support. Hamas may fairly be accused of the following:
*killing unarmed civilians who did not attack them;
*raping and physically abusing civilians that they captured;
*taking into captivity elderly civilians as well as young children;
*firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilian population centers;
*executing captives who presented no threat to Hamas terrorists; and,
*parading captured civilians through Gaza and letting them be abused by a hysterical crowd.
One could wonder how the American folks wearing the Palestinian flags could support all of the repulsive behavior described above. There is nothing that I listed that is not true. There is nothing I listed that has not been historically true of Hamas or other jidhadist terror groups. So why do “social democrats” (whatever that means) not only not condemn such behavior but praise and embrace it? Why do they throw their lot with professional misogynists, those who throw homosexuals off of tall buildings, and those who settle differences with violence? Are not these the same lefties who tell us one must always believe a woman, that gays and transsexuals are to be praised and protected and who wish to defund the police and get rid of bail, even for the most violent criminals? Why is behavior over here in the Middle East OK but frowned upon in the United States?
I believe that there are two elements in play. The first is Murphy’s third law: “Where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.” It’s easy to support Hamas when they are thousands of miles away. If they were in midtown and throwing homosexuals onto the speakers at yesterday’s hate fest, the Left would have a problem. If some Hamas guys grabbed progressive female lawmakers and gave them some personal surgery like they give their wives and sisters, then there would be screaming. But Hamas is over here. The left glosses over its murder of women and children. Rape? Yes for Harvey Weinstein, but for Hamas and their friends? No biggie. The second and truly dominating factor is antisemitism. Any means to “screw the Jew” is kosher. Whether it is two dozen Harvard organizations denouncing Israel or members of Congress saying that Israel had it coming, all of these expressions are simply antisemitism cloaked in righteous anti-Israel rhetoric. Post-Holocaust, it’s not easy for Western antisemites to simply come out and say kill the Jews! The Arabs have no problem saying it and one can hear it from Hamas and other Islamic supremacist groups all of the time. But the Westerner, like not wanting to smell bad in an elevator, is not comfortable continuing the Nazi call to exterminate the Jew. Instead, he or she hides behind BDS (are there BDS movements for ANY country other than Israel?) or accusations of apartheid, which is absurd as Israeli Arabs have 12 percent of the seats in the Knesset and Palestinian Arabs vote in their own elections if Mahmud Abbas would ever get around to having them. They claim that Israel murders children, which is patently untrue, or engages in ethnic cleansing, which is also a lark. Unfortunately, Israeli soldiers and police have endangered themselves and at times lost their lives so as not to harm Palestinian civilians. I wrote recently that Israel must overcome the worry about collateral damage. In the last flare-up, a pilot is seen in a video about to drop his bomb when a kid shows up and he announces that he is aborting the mission. Did anyone in the Hamas videos show any mercy to a child, a woman, or an elderly Jew? Did they let the young mother with a baby and small child go? No, in all documented cases, they either killed them, beat them, or dragged them abusively off to Gaza. Most of the videos are from Hamas, so clearly they are proud of their disgusting behavior.
Think about the location where hundreds were killed, wounded or captured: a “peace” music festival in an open space not far from Gaza. Hamas had a thousand people for the killing, and they took advantage of the opportunity, killing far more than the Las Vegas shooter did. Were those killed soldiers? Only those trying to protect the young party-goers. Were they religious Jews who are a favorite target of antisemites? No. They were mostly young men and women who came to have a good time. And Hamas slaughtered them - 260 bodies were recovered this morning from the field where the event took place.
So American Jews need to make a choice. Typically, they vote well over 60 percent for Democrats. Orthodox Jews strongly support Republicans. But the vast majority of Jews are non-orthodox denominations, with “no affiliation” being bigger than Conservative or Reform, according to recent Pew studies. In the past, one could vote for a Biden or Clinton or Obama and feel that his/her candidate was pro-Israel enough. But those days are over. A significant portion of the Democratic Party likes Hamas and its treatment of the Israelis (= Jews). Can you pull the lever for a party whose members rejoiced in having families murdered in their homes for the crime of being Jewish? Can you pull the lever for a party whose members have no problem with women and elderly being marched through bloodthirsty crowds screaming death to the Jews? Can you pull the lever for a party whose members have no problem with Jews being slaughtered in numbers not seen since 1945? Republicans wall-to-wall condemned what happened here and support Israel’s right to respond as necessary. Will you vote for the party that would have been pleased if you had been visiting family in southern Israel and now were in a Gazan dungeon? My Jewish brothers and sisters, the time has come to wake up. The time has come to drop a party that left you long ago. The time has come to support a Jew’s right to live in peace wherever he or she may live. The time has come to vote overwhelmingly Republican.