The Left Refuses to See Jewish Suffering

  The Atlantic

After the brutal violence committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians, I looked around for my friends on the left and felt alone.

RealityBites by Broc Smith, Blog at WordPress.com.

“ 'Did they really decapitate babies?” my 14-year-old daughter asked me yesterday. She was pointing to a text message on her phone from a friend. “They’re saying they found Jewish babies killed, some burnt, some decapitated.” And I froze. Not because I didn’t know what to say—though in truth I didn’t know what to say—but because for a moment I forgot what century I was in. All of the assumptions I had made as a Jewish father, even one who had grown up, as I did, with the Holocaust just a few decades past, were suddenly no longer relevant. Had I adequately prepared her for the reality of Jewish death, what every shtetl child for centuries would have known intimately? Later in the day, she asked if, for safety’s sake, she should take off the necklace she loves that her grandparents had given her and that has her name written out in Hebrew script.

"The attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians last Saturday broke something in me. I had always resisted victimhood. It felt abhorrent, self-pitying to me in a world that seemed far away from the  Inquisition  and Babi Yar —especially in the United States, where I live and where polls repeatedly tell me that Jews are more beloved than any other religious group. I wasn’t blind to anti-Semitism and the ways it had recently become deadlier, or to the existential dread that my family in Israel felt every time terrorists blew up a bus or café—it’s a story whose sorrows have punctuated my entire life. . . ."  The rest is, sadly, behind a pay wall. TD

The Anti-Israel Left Needs to Take a Hard Look at Itself  . . ."On Saturday morning in southern Israel, Hamas murdered hundreds of people at a music festival and kidnapped others at gunpoint to serve as human shields in Gaza. On Sunday afternoon in Midtown Manhattan, a speaker at a rally of pro-Palestinian and left-wing groups celebrated that atrocity — one of thousands suffered by Israelis over the past few days, which we later learned included the killing of babies and toddlers." . . .

There are more photos of new member of Congress Rashida Tlaib with a Palestinian flag than with an American flag

Gaza war: blaming Israel for October 7 Hamas attack makes peace less – not more – likely (theconversation.com)  . . ."Hamas’s horrific attack, which included physical and psychological torture, mass rape and the taking of more than 200 hostages, left Israeli society deeply traumatised. Responses that focus only on Palestinian victimhood and dismiss Israel’s experience of violence and terror are likely to contribute to Israel’s sense of isolation and anger.

"The more that Israelis feel abandoned by the international community, the harder it arguably is to bring a workable, lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The situation is dire enough without making things worse, and the situation is bad.

"Israel’s military response to the October 7 attack has resulted in the killing of more than 29,000 Palestinians and the displacement of nearly 2 million more. It almost certainly violates international humanitarian law, as well as Israel’s own military code of conduct.

"There is no excuse for this extreme military response, but we need to understand Israel’s perspective if we are to break the cycle of violence. It’s important to consider that the scale of Israel’s response may be the result of anger, fear and trauma as opposed to reasoned strategic thinking. It’s likely a sense of isolation serves to exacerbate these sentiments." . . .