President Joe Biden and the United States have been forceful in their support for Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Biden’s remarks on Oct. 10 were powerful and unequivocal. His condemnation of Hamas was clear-sighted and forthright. There was no moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. His message was spot-on.
Biden called the Hamas attacks “pure, unadulterated evil” and stated that Hamas is “a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews.” He did not flinch from describing the atrocities that Israelis had suffered: “Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children. Stomach-turning reports of — babies being killed. Entire families slain. Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace. Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies. Families hid their fear for hours and hours, desperately trying to keep their children quiet to avoid drawing attention.” The “bloodthirstiness” of Hamas is reminiscent of “the worst rampages of ISIS.” He warned other parties (i.e., Iran and Hezbollah) to stay out of it.
Biden displayed remarkable leadership in the moment. “We must be crystal clear,” he said. “We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack.”
He backed up his words with action, sending a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean and delivering munitions and military equipment to Israel, including interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome missile defense system. The U.S. Defense Department has warned Iran and Hezbollah to back off, otherwise the U.S. is prepared to come to Israel’s defense.
The contrast with the radical ideologues of the Black Lives Matter movement and leftist student groups on campuses throughout the United States, among others, could not be clearer.
BLM’s Chicago chapter posted a graphic of a paragliding Hamas terrorist and the words “I Stand with Palestine” emblazoned under the image. The group also shared an infographic in which supporters of Hamas “educate” those who say Hamas’ hostage-taking was a bad thing: “The few Israeli ‘hostages’ are in fact Israeli soldiers and Israeli army generals who are responsible for keeping Palestinians hostage in the world’s largest open air prison, Gaza. The 2.4 million Palestinians held hostage are all civilians.”
The pro-Hamas character in the graphic, who represents BLM’s position, continues, “There is a lot of disinformation being spread about what Hamas are doing based in racist and Islamophobic tropes of Muslims and Arabs. … Such disinformation is being used to dehumanise the Palestinian civilians that Israel has declared genocide upon in Gaza.”
BLM’s Los Angeles chapter also chimed in: “When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense. … May the borders, checkpoints, prisons, police and watchlists that terrorize our communities crumble and may the world we build from their ashes honor those who have fallen in struggle.”
Student groups at American universities have also expressed support for Hamas’ atrocities.
Dozens of student organizations at Harvard blamed Israel exclusively: “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.” Students for Justice in Palestine at Swarthmore called the terrorist attacks “valiant,” adding that the group supports “the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Zionist regime by any means necessary and honors the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for liberation.”
These are but two examples of the moral rot that is being exhibited on American campuses. Meanwhile, Hamas supporters in Times Square held up swastikas.
Let’s run down what BLM, these student organizations and these protesters support: an invasion of Israel in which Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,300 people (including babies in their cribs) on the deadliest day for the Jews since the Holocaust, abducted civilians (including a Holocaust survivor), videotaped themselves mocking kidnapped children, raped women next to the bodies of their dead friends, paraded corpses, burned people alive and killed beloved family pets, all while expressing glee amid desperate screams for mercy.
The American government, and the overwhelming majority of the American people, are another matter. Biden could not have been clearer when he said, “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.”
Biden is to be commended for his moral leadership and his decisive action in support of America’s ally Israel during a time of true horror for the Jewish people.
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