While reading The Morning Jolt from Jim Geraghty today at National Review, I found myself agreeing with at least one of the points he was making about the attack on Israel by Hamas. Or more accurately, the responses to the attack that have been showing up from any number of people around the world, around the United States, and perhaps even from ourselves in some cases. There is a lot of seething anger out there at the moment, which is totally understandable at a time like this. And there is plenty to be angry at or about. Should we be angry at Hamas for its latest atrocities? Of course. We can also be angry at the crowds of people in some primarily Muslim nations who inevitably show up on the news dancing and cheering every time something awful happens to Israel or the United States. (They did it after 9/11, after all.)
Unfortunately, some deserving of a dose of righteous anger can be found much closer to home. Some of them may even represent you in Congress. Jim describes them as the people “who flunked the moral test.” And as we’ve seen all too often, some of the perpetrators were with The Squad.
As our Zach Kessel lays out, even a few House Democrats are denouncing their colleagues in “the Squad” of progressive Democrats who put out statements in the aftermath of the Hamas attack that made the Israelis sound like the aggressors.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called for “an immediate ceasefire” Saturday afternoon, after Hamas massacred the Israelis but before the Israelis could respond.
If you oppose the victims of a massive assault defending themselves and retaliating against a massacre, you’re not really pro-peace. You just want to end the fight after only one side has been attacked. In a clarifying op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called for Americans to “distinguish between the aggressor and the victim. There can be no calls for ‘both sides’ to de-escalate. Israel deserves the time and space to defend itself.”
The phrase “distinguish between the aggressor and the victim” should be kept close at hand by anyone who is encountering apologists like these. It’s a key distinction that seems to be too easily lost in the media’s coverage of such events.
The excerpt above includes AOC calling for an immediate ceasefire. But all an immediate ceasefire translates to is telling the actual victim not to fight back. That’s not just wrong. It’s insulting. And it comes from a deeper, darker place that puts the lie to the idea that some people are simply “anti-war” and want to see the fighting end.
The other Squad members similarly performed in predictable fashion. Rashida Tlaib called for “lifting the blockade, ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.” Those were all references to Israel. Do you notice any particular words missing from that proclamation? How about Hamas, terrorism, invasion, rape, murder, or hostage-taking for starters? And she said all of that while they were still trying to put out the fires, locate all of the bodies, and compile a list of the missing. She writes it all off as “resistance.”
Ilhan Omar retweeted a call to “sound the alarm to prevent atrocities and war crimes, which an Israel with unhinged leadership can easily carry out again.” That’s going several very large steps beyond calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and a demand that Israel not seek to punish the guilty. She’s claiming that as Israel goes into Gaza to hold Hamas to account, if anyone is injured, it will be Netanyahu who is “unhinged” and prone to atrocities and war crimes.
And then there were the Democratic Socialists and the parade they launched in New York to “celebrate the freedom fighters of Hamas.” You really can’t make this sort of thing up. The word “disgusting” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Normally we advise our children not to be too quick to anger and to control their tempers. Those are admirable practices to pass down if you live in a civil society. But sometimes anger is justifiable and even demanded. And these people make me angry. Some people dancing in the streets of Tehran should not be the focus of our anger. They were raised in a society where people in positions of authority told them for their entire lives that America is “the Great Satan” and that their god will righteously strike us down. You don’t have to agree with them, obviously. But you can understand how that worldview wound up in their brains. But what excuse do these elected members of Congress have? They have arguably benefitted more from the fruits of the American dream than most voters ever will. And yet this is how they treat one of our closest and potentially most vulnerable allies. So you bet I’m angry. And you probably should be also.
