Terrorists slaughter innocent people to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. They also do it to inspire their allies at home and abroad.
On Saturday, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel killing hundreds and wounding thousands. An unknown number of hostages were taken, according to CNN.
Considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal Palestinian enclave. Iran is a state sponsor of Hamas, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The wholesale slaughter of innocents should be universally condemned by all civilized peoples. But it’s not. The attack on Israel, which included thousands of rockets, is a cause for celebration for some.
It would seem one could support Palestine and condemn Hamas. To conflate Palestine with Hamas, however, is not only troubling, it’s also dangerous. In the U.S. some groups are doing just that. In New York City, “Pro-Palestinian groups applaud Hamas terror onslaught,” according to the Times of Israel. They’re also planning “support rallies.”
A chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America called for “solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist.” Other pro-Palestinian groups such as Within Our Lifetime, Samidoun, Decolonize This Place and Al-Awda, are planning rallies in New York on Sunday and Monday “to defend the heroic Palestinian resistance.”
Within Our Lifetime was blunt with the assertion, “Supporting Palestinian liberation is supporting whatever means necessary it takes to get there. Freedom has only ever been achieved through resistance,” according to the Times of Israel.
Remember, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that slaughtered scores of innocent women and children. What these groups are defending is not Palestine but the indiscriminate murder of innocent people. They are supporting sowing terror and taking hostages. They are supporting evil. Who would celebrate evil? Evil is as evil does.
New York’s hard-left Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul — who I very seldom agree with — called the planned rallies “abhorrent and morally repugnant.” She got this one right. Call it a common ground for good.
It’s not just pro-Palestinian groups who are cheering on the violence. The leader of National Justice, a white supremacist political group, applauded the terrorists for “taking bold and courageous action,” according to the Times of Israel. The leader of another antisemitic organization, the Goyim Defense League, said, “Palestinians are killing the synagogue of Satan. God bless these brave men of Palestine.”
Israel and Palestine have a long and complex history spanning centuries. The Middle East has experienced more than its share of bloodshed. People standing on the sidelines in America cheering on the slaughter of innocents is cowardly, immoral, and must be condemned at every turn.
It’s not just happening in New York. According to the Israel Times, “Anti-Israel rallies were announced in close to 20 other cities in the US, Canada and Europe, including at Israeli consulates and embassies in San Francisco, Atlanta and London.”
In London, police patrols increased after people appeared to be celebrating the attack on Israel, according to the Mirror. A government official said the celebrants were “glorifying the terrorist activities of Hamas.”
Rachel Riley witnessed the scene in West London where she saw people with Palestinian flags “bouncing up and down in their cars, seemingly celebrating like they were having a party.”
I just passed two cars in West London driving with Palestinian flags flying from each window, bouncing up and down in their cars, seemingly celebrating like they were having a party.
Make no mistake, this is a dangerous and terrifying time for all Jews around the world.
— Rachel Riley MBE ? (@RachelRileyRR) October 7, 2023
Riley also stated that “this is a dangerous and terrifying time for all Jews around the world.”
Terrifying indeed. The Anti-Defamation League has reported that antisemitic rhetoric is on the rise online. The rhetoric “includes a rise in the use of phrases that call for violence against Jews, Israelis and Zionists.”
No one needs to be reminded of the last time anti-semetic hatred spiked. Remember the Holocaust? It wasn’t a conspiracy theory. It was a world at war with itself.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
