As 'Free Palestine' demonstrators -- let's call them that for now -- assemble across the western world, in city streets and on university campuses, these gatherings are referred to by many in the news media as "pro-Palestine" or "anti-Israel" protests. Such descriptions miss the mark. All of the protests in the week-plus following the horrific terrorist attack of October 7 occurred before Israel's expected ground invasion of Gaza, which is intended to root out Hamas. Many of them took place before Israel responded in any significant way. This timeline matters, especially because the anti-Israel propaganda offensive is already underway, seeking to place all the blame and pressure against Israel's self-defense, while memory-holing, diminishing, and denying the Hamas atrocity (which intentionally and mercilessly targeted civilians, including and especially young children) that forced Israel's hand:
Let's get one thing straight, before the timeline becomes hazy for many:
— Yoni Michanie (@YoniMichanie) October 14, 2023
"Pro-Palestinian" demonstrations around the world calling for Intifadas and the gassing of Jews began after Hamas' massacre of Jews and before Israel's response in Gaza.
They were not standing in…
These are not “pro-Palestine” or “anti-Israeli policy” protests. They are pro-Hamas, pro-Jew-butchery, eliminationist hate rallies. https://t.co/qKnTisqCLI
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 14, 2023
Not everyone in attendance favors mass killings of Jewish people. But an appalling number of them do, and the others are choosing to publicly associate themselves with such bigoted degenerates. These psychopaths haven't chanted about Israeli government policies. They've "protested" at Jewish locations, shrieked about the "intifada," cheered on "the martyrs," demanded that Jews be gassed, and taunted those mourning dead women and children. These are, without exaggeration or hyperbole, anti-Semitic, pro-elimination, ethnic-cleansing-endorsing, Nazi-style festivals of hate. They angrily and brazenly deny reality, insisting that women weren't actually raped, that babies weren't actually killed, and that Israel is the 'true' terroristic Nazi actor in all of this. It's a frightening and revealing echo of Holocaust denial. No, it's not out of bounds to invoke that memory. Many of these people are doing the same thing right now, just a few days later after the fact, in spite of the perpetrators live-streaming and exulting in their mind-boggling acts of pure evil:
My reaction to a montage of radicals on American campuses defending Hamas — and either rationalizing or outright denying what just happened to Israeli civilians: pic.twitter.com/tKmtnPQoe9
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 13, 2023
Just look at what is playing out at universities dominated by leftists who routinely conflate anodyne words deemed 'problematic' with "violence," while also denouncing silence in the face of "hate" as "violence." Large numbers of those very same leftists are currently either silent about, or are joining in on, this outright celebration of Jew-butchery. Here's a national student group applauding the slaughter of 1,300 Jewish men, women and children by terrorists as “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance:"
A large number of student protest groups have now used this image. Paragliders like these were used to massacre innocent people in Israel.
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) October 13, 2023
The image comes from the National Students for Justice in Palestine's "Day of Resistance Toolkit"—itself a highly disturbing document. 1/ pic.twitter.com/IbGzTCti7X
"Liberation is material," which means that "liberating colonized land is a real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary."
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) October 13, 2023
That should include "armed struggle, general strikes, and popular demonstrations. All of it is legitimate, and all of it is necessary." pic.twitter.com/ywBwbrhhp7
At my alma mater, the Muslim student publication is denying Hamas is a terrorist organization and smearing Israel -- whose citizens were just massacred -- as the true terrorists:
Disturbing, immoral rant from the editors of “@NorthwesternU’s one and only magazine by and for Muslim students.”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 15, 2023
In describing Hamas, they put “terrorists” in scare quotes, assert that “Israel is the terrorist here,” and attack the journalism Dean for having “perpetuated… pic.twitter.com/Z2uyGMcrV2
As I noted, "they accuse Israel supporters and the media of enabling 'genocide' via 'cheers of support under the guise of human rights.' This is, of course, totally morally inverted. These students are the ones actually cheering genocidal terrorists under the guise of human rights. And if they are worried about Islamophobia, they might want to consider what impact Muslim students at American universities openly defending the Jew-slaughtering terrorists of Hamas might have on the PR front." Don't put us in danger by being Islamophobes. Also, Hamas is good and the Jews deserved death. There is literally no other imaginable context in which such pro-terrorism, pro-murder sentiment would be tolerated within academia. Yet administrators and faculty are burying their heads in the sand, equivocating, or even participating in it. What are the pros and cons of this idea?
I have asked the Biden Administration to follow our existing laws by cancelling the visas & immediately removing foreign nationals who support Hamas.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 14, 2023
Any foreign national marching on our streets calling for “intifada” or celebrating the slaughter of Israeli babies needs to go…
We are talking about people who support and defend actual terrorism against Jews, "by any means," which they overly favor as "legitimate and necessary." Acts like this:
If they will march and rally in support of this, they will march and rally in support of anything. https://t.co/zwzEtSnuUf
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 14, 2023
I'll go a step further: If they will "march and rally in support of this," how many of them might be willing to perpetrate such acts? I'd guess that the vast majority of Westerners who aren't sure what to make of this, or might be inclined to default to the perverse oppressor/oppressed moral framing of the hard Left, are just deeply ignorant of the situation. Others are much more malignant. It's the responsibility of honest brokers and people who hold themselves out as impartial journalists to tell the truth, including critical context. Propagandists and hate rally attendees ignore Israel's practice of bending over backward to avoid civilian casualties, including 'roof knocks' before bombings, advanced warnings of attacks on terrorist targets, and days of urging Gaza residents to evacuate certain areas.
Hamas, of course, intentionally places terrorist targets within civilian areas and facilities such as hospitals, schools and mosques. Hamas leaders have also instructed Gazans not to heed Israeli warnings, allegedly going so far as to block civilians from leaving and staging false flag attacks to this end. More fundamentally, Israel tries to avoid harming or killing civilians. Hamas deliberately kills as many Israeli civilians as possible, and uses their own civilians are human shields. There is absolutely zero moral equivalence in any of this. And yet, nearly all of the demands for restraint and concessions are leveled against the morally right side, whose citizens were just murdered, raped and kidnapped. The truth is that all the Israel-blaming framing, as usual, effectively absolves Hamas of agency, instead demanding the country whose civilians were slaughtered not fully and aggressively defend itself. Hamas makes it as hard for Israel to do so, on purpose, by putting Gazans’ lives at risk. They and their co-conspirators are entirely responsible for this. I'll leave you with this:
Much of the “international community” isn’t really interested in Hamas’ endless crimes against humanity — only Israel’s “war crimes” and “disproportionality.” These people enable Hamas and basically expect Israel to put up with the barbarism. No more. https://t.co/JnnqqXKNVV
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 14, 2023
I try not to raise my voice during interviews, but I felt the line of questioning by @CBCNews here was totally off. We are trying to do the right thing by calling on civilians to evacuate, yet get lectured on humanity. pic.twitter.com/01dWN6QsEn
— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) October 14, 2023
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