Strange pathologies from the left. Ultimately, there’s no surprise.
Last week was a historic day for American victims of Palestinian terror. The Supreme Court heard the cases USA v PLO and Fuld v PLO. One can listen to the arguments here. As our lawyer quipped, our case (filed in 2004) is old enough to go to law school—something that the justices appreciated. The case deals with a specific law to make the Palestinian Authority “at home” for the purpose of jurisdiction in civil lawsuits brought by our family and many others who have been harmed by the actions of Palestinian terrorists. The Court is expected to issue its opinion before the end of its present term in June.
On Sunday, Israel fired on three Palestinians who were throwing rocks at cars in the West Bank. There are a couple of points that I need to mention. Firstly, rocks are not a joke. Several have died from having their cars stoned and subsequently losing control. Many actually hit by such stones suffer lifelong injuries. Additionally, the IDF in the past did not shoot at such terrorists. It was considered low-level; since the October 7th pogrom, the IDF returns fire. One Palestinian terrorist was killed; two were injured. The one killed was an American citizen. In the past, the Biden or Obama administration would have demanded a thorough IDF investigation into the incident, which was filmed by the army. I don’t expect the U.S. to demand the same today. The Trump administration understands that Israel is fighting for its life and will not get on its back for such events. The teenagers tried to kill Jews; the IDF opened fire in response. Don’t throw rocks at cars, don’t die.
Now if the deceased was a “Palestinian-American,” why didn’t his American side kick in and tell him to go play video games and not hang out with such depraved people like his stone-throwing friends? The simple answer is that he was a Palestinian who happened by the events of his birth to have American citizenship. There was nothing American about him except that one of his parents probably was an American. And we are seeing similar anti-American behavior throughout the U.S. Students on campus openly denounce not only Israel but also the United States. Now it’s one thing to hate the Jews, an activity performed by antisemites throughout the ages. It’s quite something else to hate the country that has given you everything you have.
One sees the “protesters” on and off campus, and they look well-fed, well-dressed, and they always have iPhones or the like. America is truly an amazing country, and those ingrates—both native and imported—have a quality of life that they would not enjoy anywhere else in the world. One can claim that some other country enjoys more freedom or has better social benefits, but the comparison is always to America. When my buddies and I were debating where to go to college, my friend’s father casually said to me that I would go to Harvard. At that point I was not sure, so I asked him how he was so certain. “You compare everything to Harvard. That school has better engineering than Harvard, etc. Harvard is your standard, and that’s where you will go.” If the ingrates, Muslims and lefties, so much hate the U.S. that they want to destroy it and replace it with either a Sharia state or a Marxist dump, they should be the first ones at the airport to leave. But they never leave. They protest but have plenty of time for shopping or working out. They can travel and see the endless beauty that the 50 states provide. They hate the U.S. but they know that it would never be better anywhere else. They’re too proud and/or stupid to admit the same.
And when one looks at the left more generally, he sees incredible psychological pathologies. Elon Musk and his posse are exposing government computers that invent money or clear-cut cases of graft and fraud. The left’s response is to demand that the money be left exactly where it was found. Violent criminals are deported from America’s borders, and some on the left demand that they be brought back immediately. People damage Tesla cars and dealerships without any direct information as to the owners of the vehicles. It is guilt by association to the point that they don’t care about “climate change”; they would rather destroy electric cars associated with Elon Musk than attack gas-guzzling cars from other manufacturers. There are those on the left openly demanding the murder of Trump and Musk. They support guys taking sports hardware from women and many of them are OK with pedophiles in their ranks. What happened to these people, who openly express their hatred for the U.S. and its leaders?
Next week is the holiday of Passover. Jews have celebrated it for thousands of years. Even not very religious Jews will generally eat matzah, drink some wine and tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. When a person has some type of moral code, he or she can measure things according to certain rules. I believe that God wants me to eat kosher food; when I go grocery shopping, that principle is a guiding force for what I buy or leave on the shelf. What we see on the left is the natural extension of the demise of religious connection in the West. One can allow himself to damage someone else’s car with a swastika—he doesn’t even know who the owner is. Maybe it’s a BLM leader who hates Trump. Doesn’t matter. Musk is little Hitler so his cars must be damaged. Same with those demanding that violent criminals be returned to the U.S. Once a person does not have some type of moral compass that can define good and bad, acceptable and beyond the pale, then anything goes. The final in a recent billiards competition had two guys who pretend to be women. Up until around 2010, they would have been laughed out of the competition.
The great success of the United States over 250 years involved people having very similar values and moral orientation. Debates in the past were over tax rates, how best to contain the USSR, and whether welfare should be tied for work. Whereas Israel has Arab Knesset members who wish for the destruction of the state, when I was growing up, I do not remember anyone in Congress who hated the U.S. Sure, there were differences of opinion, but most of those in office had served in the armed forces and loved the country—though they vigorously disagreed on the proper path forward. They would never have tolerated damage to Tesla cars or threats to Musk for uncovering waste and fraud. Those in the AOC/Bernie Sanders wing—which is ascendant—of the Democratic Party want power and have no moral brakes to limit their actions. That's why they could cheer for the rapists and mass murderers from Hamas. And that fact is truly horrific.