Wednesday, November 08, 2023
From Ian:
Hamas Defenders Wield Words as Weapons
Hamas Defenders Wield Words as Weapons
From the streets of American and European cities, television studios, newspaper columns and legislatures, we are being bombarded with rhetoric that seeks to persuade us not to believe what we see, to convince us that right is wrong, justice is tyranny, terrorism is heroism. All kinds of cunning efforts have been used to get us to see that the country whose citizens were wantonly slaughtered on Oct. 7 by an enemy that has sworn to wipe it from the planet is in fact the wicked oppressor.Clifford D. May: Make Qatar choose
"Cease-fire" sounds straightforwardly decent. But we know it would mean victory for Hamas. It would mean that the terrorist group should be allowed to continue to run a statelet only a few weeks after it has made good on its commitment to attack its neighbor and done so with complete disregard for international law or common decency.
There is something especially malignant about the term "genocide" to describe Israel's operation in Gaza - and those propagating it know that full well. They use it deliberately to equate what happened to the Jews at the hands of the Nazis with a military action today that is justified in self-defense. If you can suggest that what Israel is doing in Gaza is equivalent to what happened in the gas chambers, then you are explicitly reducing the Holocaust to the level of a regrettable byproduct of a legitimate military campaign.
"Decolonization." The idea that Israel is a colonist settlement on Arab soil is such ahistorical nonsense that we can understand why it could be tolerated only on the campuses of our most prestigious universities.
The war launched by Hamas has put the lives of Gazans in jeopardy. Israelis have dropped more than a million pamphlets and made more than 6 million phone calls advising Gazans uninterested in killing or dying to head south, away from Hama' "center of gravity" in the northern section of the coastal enclave.Bari Weiss: End DEI
Hamas prefers they stay and die. We are "proud to sacrifice martyrs," Mr. Hamad told the Lebanese TV interviewer. The use of human shields is a serious crime under international law (a Western concept). The Biden administration, which has steadfastly supported Israel's right to self-defense, has begun pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare temporary ceasefires. Mr. Netanyahu has said there will be no cessation of military operations "that does not include the release of our hostages."
Among the hostages surviving (we hope) in Hamas' tunnels are infants and toddlers. And how exactly would a "humanitarian pause" work? Would Israeli troops in Gaza do crossword puzzles while keeping an eye out for terrorists popping out of holes to shoot them?
To further assist Gazan non-combatants' exodus from the north, Israeli forces last Saturday opened a humanitarian corridor. Hamas attacked the Israelis with mortars and anti-tank missiles and shot Gazans attempting to utilize the corridor. They then, of course, blamed the carnage on the Israelis.
The more Gazan ground Israelis manage to clear, the more safe spaces there will be for noncombatants, and the more aid that can be supplied. Already, about 100 truckloads are arriving daily. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 Israelis have been displaced from communities near the Gaza and Lebanon borders – the biggest internal displacement in Israel's history.
Northern Israel has been under sporadic attack from Lebanese Hezbollah, Tehran's foreign legion. For now, at least, Hezbollah appears reluctant to open a full-fledged second front. I have a modest suggestion. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh lives, quite comfortably, in Qatar. American officials should ask Qatar's leaders to choose: Are you with us or against us?
If they are with us, they need to give Mr. Haniyah, an ultimatum: You have one week to get the hostages back from your Hamas friends.
Should that not happen, the US would revoke Qatar's status as a "major non-NATO ally" and designate Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism. For Mr. Haniyeh, too, there must be consequences. Of course, Hamas' surrender would save more lives more quickly. But I'm reminded of an old aphorism: "If you teach a cannibal to eat with a knife and fork, that's progress."
And Western civ could use a little progress right now.
We have been seeing for several years now the damage this ideology has done: DEI, and its cadres of enforcers, undermine the central missions of the institutions that adopt it. But nothing has made the dangers of DEI more clear than what’s happening these days on our college campuses—the places where our future leaders are nurtured.Aviva Klompas: Things We Would Like to See Palestine Free From
It is there that professors are compelled to pledge fidelity to DEI in order to get hired, promoted, or tenured. (For more on this, please read John Sailer’s Free Press piece: "How DEI Is Supplanting Truth as the Mission of American Universities.”) And it is there that the hideousness of this worldview has been on full display over the past few weeks: We see students and professors, immersed not in facts, knowledge, and history, but in a dehumanizing ideology that has led them to celebrate or justify terrorism.
Jews, who understand that being made in the image of God bestows inviolate sanctity on every human life, must not stand by as that principle, so central to the promise of this country and its hard won freedoms, is erased.
For Jews, there are obvious and glaring dangers in a worldview that measures fairness by equality of outcome rather than opportunity.
What we must do is reverse this.
The answer is not for the Jewish community to plead its cause before the intersectional coalition, or beg for a higher ranking in the new ladder of victimhood. That is a losing strategy—not just for Jewish dignity, but for the values we hold as Jews and as Americans.
The Jewish commitment to justice—and the American Jewish community’s powerful and historic opposition to racism—is a source of tremendous pride. That should never waver. Nor should our commitment to stand by our friends, especially when they need our support as we now need theirs.
But “DEI” is not about the words it uses as camouflage. DEI is about arrogating power.
And the movement that is gathering all this power does not like America or liberalism. It does not believe that America is a good country—at least no better than China or Iran. It calls itself progressive, but it does not believe in progress; it is explicitly anti-growth. It claims to promote “equity,” but its answer to the challenge of teaching math or reading to disadvantaged children is to eliminate math and reading tests. It demonizes hard work, merit, family, and the dignity of the individual.
An ideology that pathologizes these fundamental human virtues is one that seeks to undermine what makes America exceptional.
It is time to end DEI for good. No more standing by as people are encouraged to segregate themselves. No more forced declarations that you will prioritize identity over excellence. No more compelled speech. No more going along with little lies for the sake of being polite.
The Jewish people have outlived every single regime and ideology that has sought our elimination. We will persist, one way or another. But DEI is undermining America, and that for which it stands—including the principles that have made it a place of unparalleled opportunity, safety, and freedom for so many. Fighting it is the least we owe this country.
We want to see Palestinians free from their other Arab "allies" as well. Allies like Egypt who have barely opened their border with Gaza for aid, let alone commerce. Allies like Saudi Arabia and Jordan have no interest in taking in Palestinian refugees and close their borders to them. Allies like Turkey and Qatar who empower Hamas' reign of terror in Gaza by harboring their leaders. With allies like these, who needs enemies?From the River to the Sea? Arab Citizens of Israel Say, No Thanks to ‘Liberation’
We want to see Palestinians free from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the most dysfunctional relief organization in the world. A slouching, bloated bureaucracy, UNRWA's senior leadership has been mired in scandal for years, including charges of nepotism, corruption, and sexual misconduct. They have a billion-dollar budget and yet Palestinians remain trapped in an endless cycle of destitution. UNRWA does not work, and it does not serve the Palestinian people.
Finally, we'd like to see Palestinians free from Western academic orthodoxy, the adherents of which naively chant, "from the river to the sea," but who have no meaningful understanding of the history, politics or culture of the middle east. Their virtue signaling is an act of violence because it legitimates those who wield authoritarian violence over Gaza. Their patronizing ideology requires Palestinians to remain forever impoverished, forever victims without agency — rather than a people with a future.
We are unapologetically Zionist, believing that the state of Israel embodies the promise of a homeland free from persecution for the Jewish people. We also want to see Palestinians prosper as a people. This requires Palestinian leadership that is willing to compromise and recognize a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state. Arab intransigence is not a starting point. Neither is Palestinian terrorism.
And that means ensuring that a future state of Palestine is free of Hamas, free from the corruption of Fatah, from the dysfunction of UNRWA, from the cynical exploitation of so-called allies, and from the idiocy of academia.
From there, we can do more than hope and pray for peace: we can realize it. From the river to the sea.
Palestinians and their allies have justified and even celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel as a blow against Jewish oppression. But the 2 million Arab citizens of Israel have overwhelmingly responded by drawing closer to the Jewish state.
Among Arab Israelis, prominent media personalities have helped lead an unprecedented surge in support for their country and opposition to their self-proclaimed liberator Hamas. Pro-Israel arguments that were previously almost unspeakable in the Arab mainstream have in recent weeks gotten a respectful hearing.
Yoseph Haddad, a 38-year-old Christian Arab influencer, has skyrocketed to fame in Israel with his outspoken advocacy for the country in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Haddad told CNN on Oct. 22 that Hamas’s attack was a wakeup call for the Arabs who constitute about 20 percent of Israel’s population.
"We literally felt that Hamas could have conquered the south and then the center and also the north of Israel, where the majority of Arab Israelis are staying, and we had a very bad feeling about it," said Haddad, who has more than 1.5 million followers across social media. "Immediately my friends and colleagues here said, ‘That’s the last thing that we want. We don’t want to live under a terrorist organization. We want to live in a democracy, and that’s what the state of Israel is.’"
In this way, at least, Hamas’ barbarity on Oct. 7—killing and abducting hundreds of civilians, including dozens of Arab Israelis—has strengthened Israel and weakened those who accuse the country of apartheid or genocide.
"It’s astonishing that around the world, some prominent Jews have condemned Israel for its self-defensive reaction to terrorism," Nimrod Nir, a social scientist and pollster at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told the Washington Free Beacon. "But here in Israel, the vast majority of Arab citizens legitimize the country’s response."
Haddad noted that a number of Bedouin Israelis heroically saved Jews on Oct. 7. He said many Arabs agree with his advocacy for social integration but have been silenced by the types of extremists who constantly threaten him and his family. However, the "silent voice" of Arab society has grown louder since Hamas’s attack, he said.
Lucy Aharish, 42, Israel’s first Arab mainstream news anchor, endorsed the country’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in an Oct. 13 "message to the world."
"Our beloved country is under attack … [from] a brutal, barbaric, inhumane terror organization," Aharish said in English from her seat on Reshet 13 news. "Don’t be mistaken. We experience difficulties, disagreements, and major disputes, like any other country on this globe. But it does not mean that we will not protect ourselves and our children, our homeland."
"As a Muslim, this is not Islam—what Hamas is doing in the name of religion—this is not being a Muslim," she told CNN days later. "This is being a monster."
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