I didn’t see this coming but in retrospect it makes a certain amount of sense. Ben Shapiro, as everyone knows, is Jewish. He’s not just ethnically Jewish, he’s religiously observant. And Andrew Tate, since being imprisoned, has converted to Islam and become outspoken about his new faith. So his immediate response to the attack on Israel was this:

There is but one certainty in this mess.

There is no God but Allah and Muhammad (PBUH) is the Messenger of Allah.

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) October 7, 2023

Tate has also been subtweeting “the American right” as calling for “genocide” and also claiming this is all a “Psyop.”

The "free thinkers" on the American right are screaming for genocide without giving the questions as to how MOSSAD could fail on such a monumental level a fraction of thought.

Ushered into another Psyop.

They all cucked for Covid just the same.

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) October 8, 2023

Given the commitments, it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that a war between Hamas and Israel sees these two on opposite sides. Today that resulted in some sparring on X. It started with Shapiro responding to a UN call for a ceasefire:

And they can fuck right off. https://t.co/SnYPauzNkc

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 9, 2023

That led to Andrew Tate’s response. He’s all about peace.

Mr tough guy.

Let me assure you as someone who has does his own fighting – as opposed to excitedly encouraging others to do it for him- while sitting at home on a comfy chair.

Peace is always worth a conversation.

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) October 10, 2023

It’s worth noting that calls for “peace” after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust aren’t unique to Andrew Tate. Pro-Palestinian leftists have been saying the same thing, some since Saturday. Having murdered hundreds of civilians and paraded their bodies through the streets as adoring crowds cheered, we should now prevent Israel from responding to this barbarism by trying to kill the Hamas militants who planned it and carried it out. That seems to be the gist of the immediate calls for a ceasefire. In any case, Shapiro responded with this.

Let me assure you, as someone who has not pimped women and bragged about it, that morality requires that those who rape women and kidnap children must be eradicated, not negotiated with. https://t.co/tmI7owud4w

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 10, 2023

And then Tristan Tate joined in.

A Jewish man speaking of the “eradication” of a race of people.

2023 is a scary time to be alive.

I wonder how many of the women and kids who are soon to be obliterated kidnapped or raped anybody.

My guess is zero.

This is nihilistic and evil.

— Tristan Tate (@TateTheTalisman) October 10, 2023

You may have noticed that Tristan has intentionally missed the point here. Shapiro was never talking about genocide. He was talking about killing Hamas, i.e. the people who just murdered hundreds of Jewish civilians in their homes.

I called for those who "rape women and kidnap children" to be eradicated. So not only are you immoral, you're apparently illiterate. https://t.co/DWYUfNXK6F

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 10, 2023

Tristan pointed out that people other than Hamas will die in Israeli airstrikes, which is true.

Yeah I’m sure only men who fight for Hamas die in these air strikes you’re praising.

The footage from the ground says otherwise.

Either you’ve changed your tune in 22 hours or you literally forget what you post. https://t.co/8fsqenTNaa

— Tristan Tate (@TateTheTalisman) October 10, 2023

Shapiro pointed out there was no way around that under the circumstances.

Either you are stupid, or you are morally illiterate. Hamas literally hides behind civilians. They are currently texting civilians and telling them NOT TO LEAVE target areas. They put their military headquarters under a HOSPITAL. https://t.co/KL2aksIeNt

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 10, 2023

That’s the end of this argument, at least for now. Shapiro is right that Israel has warned Palestinians to flee, sending messages warning people what specific buildings are being targeted. Hamas has told people in Gaza to ignore those messages.

I’m very much on Shapiro’s side in this argument as you can probably tell. The atrocities committed by Hamas were intentional. They murdered children and even babies as they went house to house. There was no attempt to distinguish between legitimate military targets and women, children and the elderly. By contrast, Israel is making an effort to target Hamas fighters, not simply level every building in Gaza. There’s no moral equivalence between the two.

Hamas declared war on Israel. Israel has the right to fight back and make sure nothing like this is possible again, at least not anytime soon. That’s probably going to mean thousands more Hamas fighters (and many Israeli soldiers) are going to die before this is over. But after what happened this weekend, there’s really no alternative. You can’t make peace with mass murderers who vow to keep killing the innocent.

I’ll give Ben Shapiro the last word. This is his latest show. As he points out, the video and images of atrocities committed by Hamas continue to roll in. We’re still learning what happened over the weekend and it’s as close to pure evil as you’re likely to see. And it’s likely to get even worse now that Hamas has vowed to behead hostages.

May God Avenge Their Blood pic.twitter.com/vwM3S646aR

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 10, 2023