Let Themselves be Killed

Interesting, isn't it, that during the past administration—you know, the one that suggested that the palestinians and their elected leaders in Hamas were nothing more than terrorists who didn't deserve American aid dollars—there was little violence or upheaval between Israel and the palestininas. Even more profound, peace began to break out in the Middle East, with sworn enemies of Israel recognizing the tiny democracy in their midst. It was an incredible achievement that the leftist media did everything possible to bury or minimize.

But with the ascension of the Biden administration and its cadres of woke, anti-Israel leftists, everything has changed. Violence has returned in the aftermath of Hamas rocket attacks on major Israeli population centers. The Arab world is upset, not at Israel, mind you, but because Biden's handlers want to make nicey-nice with Iran's Islamist regime. And of course, the now predictable Leftist "outrage" against any Israeli attempt to defend itself has returned in full flower.

In an article entitled, "Why Won't the Israelis Let Themselves be Killed?", Brendan O'Neil writes:

The judgement and treatment of Israel by a double standard is one of the most disturbing facets of global politics in the 21st century. That double standard has been glaringly evident over the past few days. Israel is now the only country on Earth that is expected to allow itself to be attacked. To sit back and do nothing as its citizens are pelted with rocks or rockets. How else do we explain so many people’s unwillingness to place the current events in any kind of context, including the context of an avowedly anti-Semitic Islamist movement – Hamas – firing hundreds of missiles into civilian areas in Israel? In this context, to rage solely against Israel, to curse its people and burn its flag because it has sent missiles to destroy Hamas’s firing positions in Gaza, is essentially to say: ‘Why won’t Israelis let themselves be killed?’

No other nation would be expected not to respond either to internal disarray – Hamas supporters have rioted in parts of Jerusalem and around Al-Aqsa Mosque – or to foreign attack. Imagine if the Isle of Wight was home to a movement whose founding constitution expressed loathing for all ethnic Britons and which regularly fired hundreds of missiles into Sussex, Kent, Hampshire. Wouldn’t the British military respond? Of course it would. But the woke demonisation of Israel is now so acute that Israel is expected to take the military assaults of the radical Islamists to its south. To Western activists who find the very existence of Israel abhorrent, any effort Israel makes to protect its borders or its citizens is an affront to global peace and decency. They cannot understand why Israel doesn’t hate itself as much as they hate it, and therefore will not allow itself to be punished by its righteous enemies. How dare you live?

The Left has never met a fantasy it didn't like. So the fantasy that the palestinians somehow have the right to Israeli land (they do not) or for that matter, that the palestinians are a people that has been recognized historically over the centuries (they are not) is readily embraced by Leftists. No matter that the palestinians (or for that matter, the Iranian leadership) is racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and proponents of Islamic supremacy, the Left just loves 'em. Well, maybe not, but they certainly do HATE Israel.

O'Neil continues:

Here’s the irony of anti-Israel commentary and activism in the 21st century: it has the form of anti-imperialism but the substance of imperialism. Witness how campaigners brand Israel a ‘rogue state’, borrowing from the language of modern Western imperialism. Observe how they call on the Western powers to isolate and chastise Israel and to enforce sanctions against it. Or see how, in its more extreme form, anti-Israel activism promotes a racial caricature of Israelis as bloodthirsty, as uniquely dangerous, as a very particular threat to world peace. Anti-Israel sentiment adopts the postures of 20th-century national liberation while in fact pushing an agenda of Western chauvinism that views Israel as a distinctly problematic state in need of our virtuous punishment.

There is nothing positive in contemporary Israel-bashing. In its naivety, it assists the rise of Hamas. In its arrogance it empowers the West to determine the fate of the Middle East. All of this stores up more conflict and hatred for the future.

Where Israel is concerned, the fantasy thinkers on the Left adopt "naivety," "arrogance" and hatred in a toxic brew. Their moral preening suggests ignorance, not insight. Their 'outrage' is more like a tantrum than some meaningful expression of concern. And their fantasy of 'the palestinians' as some noble group of freedom fighters crumbles when it is confronted with reality and history.

UPDATE:

As a hard leftist, Trevor Noah can't resist the anti-Israel verbal diarrhea that he and his ardent followers consider to be "deep" thinking. He indirectly asks the question: Why Won't the Israelis Let Themselves be Killed? in a quote noted in this tweet. 

Seth Mandel's rebuttal is priceless.

UPDATE-2 (5-13-2021):

In the body of this post, I implied that the current administration has made decisions and personnel appointments that have encouraged the palestinians to reintroduce violence as a negotiating tactic. Jeff Dunetz breaks down the reasons for this (read the whole thing).

Dunetz contends (correctly) that the implicit message sent to the "Triad of Israel Haters"—Iran, the palestinian authority, and Hamas—is that the Biden administration support for Israel is tepid at best. The result is violence in a region that was moving toward a new era under the past administration.

UPDATE-3 (5-14-2021):

Whenever Alexandria Ocasio Cotez speaks, idiocy, ignorance and illogic follow. As a committed socialist, AOC is predictably anti-Israel. The fact that she's wrong on the facts and wrong in her arguments never deters her juvenile babble. David Harsanyi comments:

Ocasio-Cortez, usually a font of half-baked socialist economic ideas, now regularly offers thoughts on the Israeli–Palestinian situation to her 12 million Twitter followers.

Here is one:

First of all, there are no “expulsions of Palestinians.” Six Palestinian families may be evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in a property dispute — and the Israeli supreme court has delayed a decision — over land that was seized from Jewish families by the Jordanian Army after 1948. It’s a complicated case, brought to the judicial system by private citizens and adjudicated in an independent court. The case has been litigated for nearly 50 years, through the existence of numerous Israeli governments, both left and right. Now, I realize Ocasio-Cortez has little use for independent judiciaries or private property — or history, for that matter — but cases like these are just a pretext for the Palestinian Authority, frustrated by the Abraham Accords and their own failures, to create chaos and deflect blame.

Second, the Al-Aqsa mosque was not “attacked.” Israeli police fired stun grenades and tear gas at rock-hurling rioting Palestinians, spurred by rumors of Jewish intrusions into the Muslim holy site. Palestinian leaders have relied on this ugly tactic for nearly a century — even before the idea of Palestinian state had been concocted — to gin up protests and insurgency. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the situation knows the Israeli government has absolutely no interest in controlling or taking Al Aqsa. If they did, they would never have handed administration of the site over to Muslim authorities. If they did, the Israeli military wouldn’t be rerouting Jewish marchers celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem to placate Palestinians.

Other Squad members such as Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib openly spread blood libel. If you listen to them, you’d think Israelis go around killing Palestinian children for kicks. It’s odious. They’re Jew haters, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.

And the Democratic leaders in response to this non-stop Jew-hatred? Crickets.