Others have avoided such rancid commentary but also fallen short of what honesty demands. University administrations that are often quick to opine on some issues have been slow and equivocal in commenting about what President Biden has rightly called “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.” They might not have harshly anti-Israel views themselves, but they know that those views have a constituency inside the academy.
If all this moral imbecility and cowardice has a “root cause” — to use one of the favored phrases of those who indulge it — it’s a simplistic worldview that insists that the first and last question to ask about any political controversy is who are the oppressors and who are the oppressed, and treats the latter as practically incapable of doing wrong. This ends up dehumanizing everyone, implying as it does that Palestinians have no choice but to kidnap and murder children.
The rest of us are justified in judging, scorning and ridiculing anyone who makes excuses for Hamas. We should, however, make allowances for, say, those students who foolishly joined an organization that later issued an outrageous statement without their approval — provided those students then repudiate the group.
At the same time, we should not exaggerate the number or sway of Hamas apologists. When some Democratic members of Congress called for a cease-fire immediately after the Hamas attacks, White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre called their statements “wrong,” “repugnant” and “disgraceful.” Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of the cease-fire advocates, felt it necessary to condemn a pro-Palestinian rally for the “bigotry and callousness” it had showcased. (She soon went back to form, unfortunately, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”)
Conservatives, meanwhile, have been largely supportive of Israel. One might have expected otherwise, given how many of Patrick Buchanan’s views have gained purchase on the right in recent years. His ferocious criticism of Israel still isn’t finding many takers.
The news media and, even more, social media amplify the voices of noxious outliers. And it is easier to condemn those voices than to identify how to destroy Hamas and safeguard Israel, so condemnation is more prevalent than strategic analysis. (In this column, for example.)
We should be willing to criticize Israel if its actions place too little value on Gazans’ lives — even as we distinguish between its actions and the intentional killings committed by Hamas. People who cannot bring themselves to state the most obvious truth about what is happening in the Middle East, however, deserve no place in our public debates. Marginalizing them is possible because they are, indeed, a fringe.
