From the River to the Sea

Hamas is showing what that slogan really means

The anti-Israel Left in action: genocide’s little enablers

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The anti-Israel Left embraces a narrative of the long-standing conflict between the Jews and the Arabs as a battle between Good and Evil. There’s no need, I trust, to specify which party is labeled as the villain of the piece. This narrative is summed up in a single slogan: From the River to the Sea.

That slogan’s meaning is unambiguous: A resolution of the conflict cannot and will not embrace a two-state solution. Palestinian nationalism is genocidal in root and branch. It demands the destruction of the State of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the soil of “Palestine.” What Hamas did in the early hours of its invasion—the indiscriminate house-to-house killing of Israelis—is a preview of what a Palestinian Arab “war of liberation” would look like.

It is not, alas, difficult to find historical precedents for what’s going on in Israel now. But given the frequent charges of fascism and Nazism hurled against the Jewish state by the anti-Israel Left, it seems appropriate to cite the activities of German Army, SS, and police units in occupied areas of the USSR during World War Two. The murder of Red Army POWs, the indiscriminate massacre of civilians, the taking and shooting of hostages and other outrages were staples of German “pacification” tactics. And they represented a foretaste of the fate that lay in store for all the peoples of the USSR, should Germany win the war.

Those who support Palestinian nationalism in its current guise are thus complicit in a program of genocide.

Sad to say, the US government bears the taint of that complicity, and in the early hours of the Hamas attack, we were treated to yet one more example of the Biden Administration’s moral confusion. The State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs posted on X (formerly Twitter) as follows: “We unequivocally condemn the attack of Hamas terrorists and the loss of life that has incurred [sic].” We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”

This atrocious post, suggesting that Israel would be wrong to defend itself, was later deleted. A subsequent statement from the Administration, though tepid, was at least not so utterly stupid and craven. Twelve hours after the attack began, the President himself finally released a statement condemning “this appalling assault against Israel.”

Better late than never, I suppose.

Biden’s words may sound all right, but they lack a certain credibility when one recalls that the Democratic Party, of which he is the leader, harbors a vile cabal of “anti-Zionist,” i.e. antisemitic, activists in and out of Congress. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Squad form just the tip of this iceberg. Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has described Israel as a “racist state.” There can be no doubt whatsoever that she spoke for many members of her caucus. But the President has never spoken up to condemn such slanders, and he himself could never be described as a good friend of Israel. And beyond Washington DC there is the scandal of antisemitic activism in the guise of “justice for Palestine” on university campuses across the country, and on the broad progressive Left.

The war just begun is likely to go on for some time. And make no mistake, that’s what it is: a war between Israel and Hamas, which is a proxy for the atrocious Iranian regime. We shall see whether the events now unfolding will prompt the Biden Administration to abandon its lunatic policy of appeasement of the Islamic Republic. I have my doubts about that. And we shall see whether now, finally, leftist anti-Israel activists will face up to the fact that what they’re supporting in the name of justice and peace is really a genocidal ideology that precludes any resolution of the conflict not involving mass murder and destruction. I’m not at all optimistic that they will; in fact, I expect them to double down on their support for Hamas.

“Justice is truth in action.” So said Benjeman Disraeli, and “Dizzy” never spoke a truer word. It follows that the converse is the case: Injustice (and worse) is falsehood in action. Those who support the Palestinian cause with smears and lies are furthering injustice and worse—far worse. And the pity of it is that the ultimate losers are, as always, the Palestinian Arabs, who’ll once more be forced to pay the blood price of other people’s virtue signaling.