By: Jonathan Feldstein
It’s astounding to think that a war anywhere in the world would become such a public cause by supporters of one side or another that it would dominate and even hijack the public space. That has not happened even with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, even with the wide display of blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag in solidarity with their plight, and a corresponding wide boycott of Russia and Russian products.
Other than the 2014 kidnapping of Nigerian girls by Islamist Boko Haram terrorists which generated its own hashtag, no recent wars in the Africa or Asia came close to the visibility of that in Ukraine. I’m hard pressed to think of any other war that’s come close to galvanizing any public opinion or outcry, even though it’s not the only war that’s taken place. And most would be hard pressed to list any of the dozens of other wars and armed conflicts taking place right now, even with a gun held to your head.
As much as solidarity with Ukraine was widespread, in no case was there widespread public disruption in protest of Russia’s aggression, or in support of Ukraine the victim, or of any other war. Until this October.
Israel’s war against Hamas has triggered widespread public disruptions by terrorist supporters around the world. Calling them terrorist supporters is not rhetoric but fact. Even before the bodies of the 1200 people massacred by Hamas terrorists on October 7 had been identified, massive public protests took place. Shockingly, astoundingly, the protests were not against Hamas’ atrocities and war crimes, but against Israel: the victim.
The world and millions of Hamas terrorist supporters turned a blind eye. They deny that Hamas committed such atrocities: that families were bound by metal wires and incinerated alive, women gang raped and executed in the most violent ways, babies were beheaded, children were murdered before their parents’ eyes and parents murdered before their children’s eyes, tens of thousands of rockets that were fired at Israeli communities by the terrorists, or when the terrorists’ own rockets fell short and killed Palestinian Arabs in Gaza.
And as they denied that these crimes took place, even saying that Israel fabricated the videos that the terrorists made themselves documenting their inhuman slaughter, they blamed Israel for the massacre. And then blamed Israel for its response.
Sadly, this kind of behavior and manufacturing of lies is all too expected from Hamas and its terrorist supporters. Now, however, we’ve seen them raise the bar on their incivility by shouting down and threatening others, and hijacking the public space over and over. They have effectively opened countless fronts of this terrorist war, not just against Israel but against the West, with particular distain for Jews and Christians.
This has taken place in many forms and venues. Pro-Hamas protesters disrupted the annual lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York, winning this year’s award for the biggest Grinch to steal Christmas. During the Christmas holiday travel season, pro-Hamas demonstrators blocked roads leading to major US airports as if somehow doing so is going to “free Palestine.” On Christmas day, a friend in Chicago tried to get to her parents, only to be rerouted for hours by pro-Hamas protesters blocking more roads. They blocked all the entrances/exits of the Freedom Tower, the site of another massive terrorist attack that you may have heard about on 9/11. New York Mayor Adams has warned that the annual New Years Eve celebration in Times Square will certainly become the target of pro-Hamas protesters ushering in a new year of hate.
All over the world, thousands of cruel heartless people tore down and defaced pictures of the 250 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, as if somehow showing human compassion for civilians held hostage in Gaza was an evil worse than that of the terrorists’ massacre.
Social media has been hijacked by the pro-Hamas ilk as well. Of course, they depict the war with the lies of Israel committing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and wantonly killing innocent civilians, believing the inflated and unconfirmed Hamas death toll which conflate the number of terrorists killed with actual civilians. Naturally, they make no mention of Hamas using these civilians as human shields, or the fact that Hamas has tens of thousands of terrorists wearing jeans and t-shirts so as to easily blend in and be confused with civilians.
Expecting terrorists’ lies is not unusual. However something no less insidious is taking place with simple social media posts that are apolitical being trolled and hacked by the pro-Hamas people. A personal example is the promotion of a petition to release all the hostages that I launched on behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation. Decent people from dozens of countries have signed the petition.
However, sick evil people who see any post, even with a picture of a ten-month old red-headed baby boy who remains in captivity, as fair game to attack. They launch evil and even threatening diatribe that not only shows no compassion, much less actually taking responsibility for taking hostages to begin with, but they respond with calls to annihilate Israel, or a “parallel” call to free terrorists.
Hamas is the little brother to the bigger and older PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization, established in 1964. The anniversary of the first terror attack for which it took credit is this week, January 1, 1965.
That the PLO was established in 1964 is significant. It proves that their goal was never to live side by side, with two states for two people, but to destroy Israel. This was three years before the so-called 1967 “occupation” about which they blame Israel for all their problems. Their ethnicity was invented in the 1960s, some time before the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” became their war cry, but the genocidal worship of massacring and expelling all the Jews from Israel is the same goal.
And it’s the supporters of this genocidal ideology and their actions today who are blocking highways, disrupting public events, and hijacking the public space, and are literally being allowed to get away with murder.