I have been terribly disappointed in so much of the American and global Left that is so reflexively anti-Israel that they don’t care about, don’t talk about, excuse, ignore, deny, and sometimes even cheer the massacre of some 1200 innocent Jews in Israel — families in their homes, young people at a concert for the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, residents of a collective farm, from babies to senior citizens of various ethnicities and nationalities— as well as the hundreds of hostages, the biggest single attack against Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023. I am also disappointed and disgusted in those who do the mirror opposite and don’t care about Palestinian lives. “Hamas knew Israel would strike back hard. That was the point”, according to Shira Rubin and Joby Warrick. “To Hamas, Palestinian suffering is a critical component in bringing about the instability and global outrage it seeks to exploit.”
In my mind, if people can support the atrocity of October 7, they are not true Leftists and it doesn’t bode well. As Debbie Weiss asks, “Would a terrorist attack against any other nation be so rationalized?” And for those so-called Leftists who held rally signs reading “Gas the Jews”, they have joined the rabid right wing and have become nazis on this issue, regardless of how progressive they might seem on other issues. Many on the Left are selectively anti-racist, not realizing or caring that antisemitism (hatred of Jews), like islamophobia (hatred of Muslims), is a form of racism expressed as religious bigotry. Weiss wonders: “Why isn’t antisemitism seen as a form of racism as virulent as all the other kinds?” Why are Jews so disposable to so many non-Jews?
“If you felt any joy in your heart about hundreds of civilians getting slaughtered in their beds, about children getting executed in front of their parents, about grandparents sacrificing themselves to save their grandkids, about horrors that I can’t even handle describing — I truly have nothing to say to you”, Yuval Idan forcefully asserts. “Whatever is wrong with you is too deep and I want nothing to do with it until you figure that out.” Like too many people on the Left, they have become Hamas’ useful idiots.
“Their cruelty is inconceivable to any normal person, and yet they laughed and celebrated with whoops as they killed and killed and killed”, Kathleen Parker reports. “What was funny? One of the killers called his parents to brag about killing 10 Jews “with my own hands,” calling himself a hero, according to a phone recording released by the IDF on X [Twitter]. Using a victim’s phone, he apparently sent photos of his human bounty. How could anyone find common cause with such a person?”
Yuval Idan continues: “This is for those of you who know that what happened is, at the very least, sad. For those who treated this absolute nightmare as an unfortunate situation that we had coming. For those who didn’t celebrate but instead stayed silent. Who were so quick to lecture us about context and resistance from the comfort of your homes. Those who were so eager to share hot takes calling us losers who don’t understand decolonization while terrorists were still hunting down survivors to finish the job. While we were still searching through snuff videos of the massacre Hamas posted online, looking for signs of life or death from loved ones. Those who had the posts locked and loaded, ready to show us just how progressive and radical you are. This is for you.” This is for those who lost their humanity in their rush to line up with abstract Palestinians and against abstract Israelis.
Palestinian-American U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib passionately exclaimed that “The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me.” Those who cannot, will not, or do not hear the cries of “the other” side, both sides, are denying themselves their whole humanity. There is nothing progressive or humanitarian or just about not caring about attacks against innocent civilians, including murder, rape, torture, and hostage taking. As Valerie Kaur suggests, “Our most powerful response to the horror in Israel and Palestine is to refuse to surrender our humanity.”
“This should not be difficult”, Jennifer Rubin declares. “One can unreservedly denounce the Oct. 7 pogrom that slaughtered [1,200] people and mourn Palestinian lives lost in the ensuing war. One can seek to improve daily conditions for Palestinians, advocate for a two-state solution, criticize the Netanyahu government, and defend free speech. Indeed, many Israelis already do. Millions of American Jews do, as well. What is not acceptable, however, is to remain silent in the face of despicable antisemitism or, worse, to aid and abet it. It is indefensible to cheer for the destruction of an entire country and its inhabitants.” Sen. Bernie Sanders reminds us that “Hamas has made it clear, before and after Oct. 7, that its goal is perpetual warfare and the destruction of the state of Israel.”
“In some progressive precincts, the indifference — or worse — toward Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter of Israeli Jews has been unmistakable”, according to Jason Willick. “My people deserve — and have too seldom received — good-faith acknowledgements of the real fears they face” Rabbi Arthur Waskow implores. “It’s morally legitimate to care about the safety of our people. Terrified for the hostages, worried for my best friends, teachers, and relatives, jittery about my own security as a visibly observant Jew, angered at my peers on the non-Jewish left for their morally obtuse and frankly antisemitic refusal to condemn terror out of hand.”
As I said in my article from 10 years ago, “Israel and Palestine with Peace and Justice” in the Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture, “As historical and religious cousins, in addition to being neighbors and potential partners, Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, need to find ways to discuss, debate and disagree with, and unfortunately even to hate each other sometimes, without descending to verbal abuse and violent attacks against each other, thereby debasing and demeaning themselves and their religions in attempts to damage or destroy the other. In doing so, they might also find that they sometimes agree with and even like each other. It is worth reflecting on the fact that these peoples and countries will be neighbors forever.” To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., they must live together as cousins or perish together as fools.
David Brooks writes that “A group of highly educated American progressives cheered on Hamas as anti-colonialist freedom fighters even though Hamas is a theocratic, genocidal terrorist force that oppresses LGBTQ people and revels in the massacres of innocents.” Whatever one thinks of Israel, Hamas committed war crimes under international law by targeting, attacking, and mass murdering Israeli civilians. Hamas are not heroes nor freedom fighters.
Where is the outrage over that? When Hamas was on its murderous rampage, who called for a cease fire? When Hezbollah fires rockets from Lebanon into Israel, who demands they stop? When Islamic Jihad fired a rocket aimed at Israel and destroyed a hospital in Gaza, who condemned them and asked them for peace? Does everyone else, no matter how awful they are, get a pass if they attack Israel and try to kill Jews?
Those on the Left who are defending right-wing Hamas while ignoring, downplaying, or excusing the massacre of innocent Jews in Israel make it easier for others to feel empowered to verbally and physically attack Jews worldwide. Indeed, antisemitic incidents of harassment and assault against Jews have risen dramatically since the Hamas terrorist attack on the Jewish holiday on Simchat Torah. As my sister-in-law Rabbi Mona Alfi asks, “Why is it that so many in the world seem so comfortable with dead Jews?” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl says that “those who generally have the most compassion for victims of oppression and violence simply have a blind spot when the victims are Jews.”
As a tiny minority, Jews have long been an easy scapegoat and target. As a Jewish democratic socialist, this is especially painful and disappointing to experience. This is the Jewish hole in the Left, knowing the Left isn’t a monolithic group, as too much of the Left has absorbed the antisemitism of the Right. And the Right’s antisemitism is dead wrong.
To say “Free Palestine” or “I support Palestine” and to say Israel attacks “schools, apartment blocks, mosques” and to say the Palestinians have “no heavy weapons” or “no military”, as many have, is deeply decontextualized at best. “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” leaves no room for Israel or Jews. (And the fact that most Americans don’t know which river or which sea, or how Palestine would be free without democracy, should tell us something.) When I hear that Israel should not exist, I wonder what other countries people say that about. “Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction”, the New York Times reports. “One of its leaders recently promised to keep attacking until Israel was destroyed.” Can we name other countries that are singled out this way?
“I understand being pro-Palestinian. I’m also pro-Palestinian”, Abigail Pickus pleads. “But why must being for one people mean being against another? Why is it socially acceptable to say the most vile and hateful things against Jews — but if you substituted out the word “Jew” or “Israel” with any other minority — it would be considered hate speech.” I have long supported a two-state peace plan with a free, secure, independent Palestine alongside a free, secure, independent Israel (something Hamas opposes in its charter!), but to announce only the above statements or a similar statement in the wake of the terrorist attack is giving cover to regressive Hamas and their heinous crimes. Criticize Israel when appropriate, but in this case, start with criticizing Hamas for its homicidal desires and murderous rampage. And there is much more to criticize Hamas about.
“It is important to remember, of course, that Gaza was not occupied”, writes social justice Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, who works with “foster children, asylum seekers, and refugees, for racial justice, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, humanitarian relief for the unsheltered and other related causes”. “The people of Gaza were given a chance to build a beautiful Mediterranean paradise [since 2007 when Hamas took power] and instead of feeding the population and building the society, the Hamas terror group used their funds toward weapons of destruction.”
“Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas leader station in Qatar admitted. “This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers”, he added. “It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”
Further, Hamas, which is supported by Iran, is known for storing weapons in “schools, apartment blocks, mosques”, and for using Palestinians and foreign hostages as human shields. There is now definitive evidence of Hamas artillery, supplies, and a tunnel in and under the Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital. A Palestinian hospital worker said that resources, including medical care, are often diverted to Hamas members and away from others. Hamas is not only dangerous to Israel and Jews, Hamas is and has been dangerous to Palestinians and Muslims, those they supposedly represent. Israel can and should be legitimately criticized for acting unjustly in various ways, including its occupation of the West Bank, but that does not diminish the fact that Hamas is horrific and no friend or ally to any progressive, pro-peace, or secular person. Getting rid of Iran-supported Hamas, if that is possible, would be better for Palestinians and the world. Likewise with Islamic Jihad, whose missile accidentally hit a hospital in Gaza, and Iran-supported, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel, as well as the Iran-supported, Yemen-based Houthis, which have been attacking ships in the Red Sea.
Hamas wants to institute theocratic rule with Islam as the official religion and the Quran as its Constitution for every bit of Israel and Palestine. Article 7 of the Hamas Charter “references a hadith which states that the Day of Judgment would not come until the Muslims fight and kill the Jews”: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” This is their scripture. Antisemitism, like racism, is “maximum hate for minimum reason”, as Rabbi Abrahm Joshua Heschel famously said. Likewise with islamophobia and any other equivalent bigotry.
In Article 8, the Hamas Charter repeats the Muslim Brotherhood’s slogan of “Allah is its goal, the Prophet is the model, the Quran its constitution, jihad its path, and death for the sake of Allah ‘is the loftiest of its wishes’.” In this way, Hamas is aligned with the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS in being a theocratic, dictatorial, terroristic death cult.
Article 13 states that “There is no negotiated settlement possible”, automatically rejecting the possibility of a peace agreement and repeating the need for armed jihad. Article 18 defines “the role of women as homemakers and child-rearers”, making their patriarchy clear. Articles 22 and 23 make a variety of old, debunked, nazi-style claims about “Israel, Judaism, and Jews”. Hamas is anti-Jew, anti-peace, anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-secular, anti-humanism, anti-pluralism, and no friend to the Left. The fact that so much of the Left aligns with them is frightening.
According to Wikipedia, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, criticized the founding charter of Hamas by labeling it as a “genocidal” document and compared it to the [fake, debunked, and antisemitic] Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Referring to the charter in an article in The New Yorker magazine, American commentator Philip Gourevitch accused Hamas leadership of having “genocidal” intentions against Jews. Bruce Hoffman, as well as other scholars, also states that the Hamas Charter exhibits “genocidal intentions”. Tragically, this is well established.
For what it’s worth, Palestinians have not held elections in either the West Bank or Gaza since Fatah and Hamas, respectively, took over. Torture has been rife against political opponents in these Palestinian dictatorships, according to Amnesty International. Most Palestinians oppose a two-state solution (70% oppose “the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel”, oppose a one-state solution (76% oppose one state “in which the two sides enjoy equal rights”), and oppose negotiations for a peaceful resolution (with 22% supporting “peaceful popular resistance” and a majority — 52%! — selecting “armed conflict”). Given the very long history of verbal and physical violence, including genocide, against Jews, the Jewish community understandably has a form of collective PTSD and we rationally and irrationally react to real and perceived existential threats. When thousands of years of trauma are triggered by physical and verbal attacks, strong responses should be expected.
However, it is worth noting that most Gazans distrust Hamas, according to recent survey data, even as it is dangerous to speak out against them. One Gazan woman said “Ending Hamas is the demand of young and old alike in Gaza.” Another Gazan lamented that “Hamas bears responsibility for all the wars, but we’re the ones who pay the price.” Meanwhile, various Islamic scholars in the Middle East have recently issued fatwas in support of Hamas and against Jews and Israelis.
For those who think Palestinians are in their ancestral homeland, check what it was called before it was called Palestine or Palestina. And for those who think Palestinians are the original inhabitants of the land, check the history of how Arabs and Islam expanded from the Arabian Peninsula to throughout the Middle East and North Africa. I also have some serious questions: Why are there Hamas commanders in a refugee camp? Why do they hide themselves and their weapons in camps, schools, hospitals, mosques, densely-populated neighborhoods, etc.? Why is there a Palestinian refugee camp in Palestine? Why is it only called an Israeli blockade of Gaza when it is a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza? Why haven’t Arab countries, of which there are many (about 2 dozen, some of them quite wealthy), helped the Palestinians build schools, hospitals, housing, businesses, libraries, infrastructure, etc., supporting Palestinians to become prosperous? Why does Iran and Qatar, for example, support Palestinian terrorism against Israel, but not economic development and freedom for Palestinians?
The New York Times reported that there are many who “seem to care more about the human rights record of Israel than, say, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Hamas.” I would hope that anyone, but especially the Left, could be nuanced enough to criticize Israel (and any other entity!) for what it does wrong, while also criticizing, not condoning or congratulating, those seeking to destroy Israel, kill its inhabitants, and institute a regressive religious dictatorship. Leftists should, as they always have, support social justice. That is our raison d’etre.
Also, although occupation is unjust, Israel was not occupying Gaza and Lebanon and has zero settlements in those jurisdictions. Israel occupies the West Bank, though it is not alone in the world in being an occupier, yet it is often singled out as if it were. And, for what it’s worth, Jews have been living continuously in Israel for the past two and half millennia and more would have been living there if not for past pogroms, crusades, genocides, invasions, foreign occupations and colonialism, forced conversions, instances of terrorism, and so on.
If one cares about occupation, it is imperative to remember that the US is an occupying country (America, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, US Virgin Islands), as is China (Tibet), Russia (parts of Ukraine and Georgia), Morocco, England, France, and, in fact, many other countries. Indonesia occupied East Timor and killed about one-third of the East Timorese people. China is not only brutal to many Chinese, but it reneged on its promise regarding democratic Hong Kong, threatens the sovereignty of democratic Taiwan, and occupies and commits genocide in Tibet and Xinjiang Uyghur. This is not meant to excuse occupation, but to contextualize it. Or take Saudi Arabia, for example, where the Saudi family took over, renamed, and rules much of the Arabian Peninsula under theocratic brutality, where only their brand of Islam is allowed (other religious institutions are banned and atheism is equivalent to terrorism there). While the Left spends very little time and energy criticizing wealthy and powerful Saudi Arabia and China, for example, it spends a disproportionate amount of time and energy demonizing the tiny country of Israel, with no explanation for either allocation. “Your history of colonialism is old enough, your history of genocide effective enough”, Yuval Idan reminds Americans, “that you and your family and everyone you love can continue to be safe and comfortable while you preach about armed resistance.”
Do Americans realize that they are settlers on stolen and occupied land? That Native Americans were decimated in genocide, violently kicked off their land, and the descendants are the poorest group in America and still discriminated against? That some indigenous tribes are recognized, while others still are not? Do Americans consider themselves and their families, regardless of ideology or sympathy for Native Americans, illegal colonizers and legitimate targets for violence and murder? Do they question America’s right to exist? Americans should be glad that Native Americans don’t act like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. As settlers on someone else’s unceded land, how are we Americans different from the approximately 1200 innocent Israelis who were slaughtered by Hamas and over 200 taken hostage, some of whom were Leftist and peace activists? Are all non-natives, including foreigners and tourists, in Hawaii (the US invaded this sovereign country in 1893, toppled their government, occupied their land, and annexed it as a state in 1959) legitimate targets by this warped standard?
Even if you or your family treated your poorer neighbor badly, if they suddenly broke into your home killing some members of your family and kidnapping some others, threatening to destroy your home and kill all of you no matter how long or what it took, how would you react? Would you call for a truce if they still wanted to kill you and still held your family members hostage? These are not rhetorical questions and are worth considering. Ayelet Levy Shachar is an Israeli physician and the mother of a bloodied young woman taken hostage by Hamas. Shachar pleads: “What would you do if your daughter were being held hostage by violent rapists and murderers for…months? Perhaps the better question is: What wouldn’t you do?”
As a Leftist, as much as I strongly oppose occupation and injustice — Israeli, American, Russian, Chinese, English, French, and otherwise — I also strongly oppose the terrorist targeting of innocent civilians, regardless of who does either. People without power are never legitimate targets. Condoning and, worse, praising those killings is dead wrong. Leftists should be supporting peace with justice, not tribal murder, nationalistic sides, and religious bigotry. Without a comprehensive peace agreement, these tragedies will periodically occur, likely strengthening the most fanatical factions on all sides, which are already led by right-wing lunatics and is bad for everyone. With a comprehensive peace agreement and a two-state solution — “a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River”, as Thomas Friedman puts it — we strive toward peace with justice, security, and prosperity.
Mansour Abbas is a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, a devout Muslim, and the leader of the United Arab List party in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. He told Thomas Friedman that “No one can accept what happened on that day. And we cannot condemn it and say ‘but’ — that word ‘but’ has become immoral.” Israeli Arabs and Bedouins overwhelmingly condemn the Hamas attack. “If you want to help Palestinians”, Mansour Abbas pleads, “then talk about a two-state solution and peace and security for all the people.”
As King Abdullah II of Jordan recently wrote, “A two-state solution would be a victory for our common humanity… If the status quo continues, the days ahead will be driven by an ongoing war of narratives over who is entitled to hate more and kill more. Sinister political agendas and ideologies will attempt to exploit religion. Extremism, vengeance, and persecution will deepen not only in the region but also around the world… It is up to responsible leaders to deliver results, starting now.”
Dan Brook is Senior Lecturer Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University.
