In the wake of savage attacks by Hamas on Israel that have killed over 1,200 people — including 27 Americans — and the Hamas seizure of about 150 hostages (a number of which are also believed to be Americans), some on the left are shockingly blaming Israel for sparking the terrorism because of its treatment of so-called Palestinians.
The unhinged leftist criticism of the world’s only Jewish state and the claim that Hamas terrorism is an understandable response to Israeli actions is part of a long and shameful tradition on the American left of glorifying and romanticizing murderous tyrants and their followers.
Over the years, leftists have showered praise on communist leaders Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong of China, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam. The left glorified fanatical Islamist Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran in the run-up to his overthrow of the U.S.-allied shah of Iran in 1979.
In our own country, leftists praised groups of thugs like the Weather Underground and Black Panthers years ago, and Antifa and Black Lives Matters more recently.
Today we see democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont— and Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — among those blasting Israel for defending itself by attacking the Hamas terrorists who rule the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has used Gaza as a launching pad for rockets and terrorist raids against Israeli civilians since Saturday, intensifying earlier rounds of attacks. Terrorists in the group have murdered Israeli babies and people of all ages, raped women and girls, and kidnapped victims including children and Holocaust survivors.
Israel couldn’t avoid responding to these attacks, any more than America could have failed to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks or the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor that plunged our country into World War II.
Reacting to Israel’s cutoff of food, water and electricity to Gaza while Hamas rockets rain down on Israeli towns and cities, Sanders said: “Israel’s blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent civilians.”
Make no mistake: Hamas is solely responsible for the harm that comes to innocent civilians. In fact, they literally design their terror to harm their own people expecting leftist sympathizers to blame Israel. Hamas created a dystopian hellscape committed only to genocide and mass murder when elected to be in charge of the Gaza Strip. But Israel is required to provide these things to a monstrous enemy whose stated goal is the extermination of the Jewish people? Yeah, no.
Tlaib called on Israel to take a series of actions to help Palestinians and demanded an end to all U.S. aid to Israel. Omar said that “we must oppose an Israeli military response.” Even the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter joined in the Israel bashing, posting a graphic on X (formerly Twitter) of a Palestinian terrorist on a paraglider like those used by terrorists who attacked an Israeli music festival Saturday, killing at least 260 people. The caption on the graphic read: “I STAND WITH PALESTINE.” The group deleted the post after it sparked criticism.
Let’s get a few things straight to respond to the above claims.
Israel goes to incredible lengths to avoid harming civilians in Gaza while Hamas has no interest in preserving lives, while specifically targeting civilians for torture and murder. Hamas uses their own people as human shields, firing rockets and storing munitions in mosques, schools, hospitals and apartment buildings. Israel targets only terrorists, but some Gaza civilian casualties are sadly inevitable in large part because Hamas arranges it to be so.
Israel uses multiple means to warn the people of Gaza before airstrikes, encouraging them to flee prior to the mission. But Hamas has told people to stay in their homes and to ignore the Israeli warnings. BBC is reporting as Israel warns of strikes Hamas leaders hide in tunnels while they put civilians on top of buildings.
While the suffering of civilians in Gaza is tragic, it has been brought on by Hamas, which started the war now underway. Any food and fuel entering Gaza will inevitably go to Hamas terrorists first, prolonging the war, death, suffering. Israel has made it clear there will be no water or electricity until all the hostages Hamas is holding are released.
There is no Israeli occupation of Gaza. Israeli troops and settlers withdrew in 2005 and offered assistance to Palestinians to create a prosperous self-governing territory living in peace alongside Israel. But Hamas took power in Gaza after 2006 elections and turned Gaza into a terrorist base with the goal of wiping Israel off the map, repeatedly waging wars against Israel while receiving billions of dollars in international aid.
All this terror and chaos is reminding people that former President Donald Trump was the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite Arab protests and recognized Israel’s annexation of the strategic Golan Heights that it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. Trump cut off over $200 million in annual U.S. aid to the so-called Palestinians when the Palestinian Authority (a rival of Hamas) refused to participate in peace talks with Israel.
Trump also brokered the Abraham Accords that led to the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. He was determined to further expand Israeli relations with its neighbors if he had stayed in office. The accords undermined Islamist terrorist efforts to isolate Israel.
In contrast, President Joe Biden resumed U.S. aid to Gaza and upped it to at least $235 million year. Biden tried unsuccessfully to revive a nuclear deal with Iran (which funds and supports Hamas terrorism) and inexplicably agreed to give Iran access to $6 billion in return for the release of five imprisoned Americans.
After an uproar by Republicans and others following the Hamas attack on Israel, Biden reversed course Thursday and blocked Iranian access to the funds, according to reports, which remain in a Qatar bank. Yet, Hamas terrorist group leaders have lived in luxurious peace and safety in Qatar for years, as they unleash inhuman massacres against Israel using their own people as cannon fodder.
All of this is a stark reminder that the president of the United States matters and that world peace is only possible with strong and determined American leadership. Horribly for us and the world, the US has neither.
Right now, with Israel at war, feuding political parties there have united to defend their country. We must do the same in America. Hamas has killed more Jews in one day than at any time since the Holocaust. Just as an earlier generation of Americans stood with Jews against Adolf Hitler, we must now stand with the Jewish state against the terrorist savages of Hamas.