One of the consequences of an evil act is moral clarity. Equivocations, uncertainty and justifications disappear as our view of life comes into focus. We can see things as they are rather than how we want them to be.
For Americans, 9/11 provided that kind of lucidity. America and innocent civilians were targets of terror in ways that were previously unimaginable. The country unified in grief and anger. There was no “other side” of the story that might have provided some explanation for the attack.
Now Israel has suffered its 9/11. The attack by Hamas resulted in the single greatest loss of life at one time for Jews since the Holocaust. The terrorists carried out a rampage of murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent men, women and children. Horrifying stories of torture, execution and decapitation are emerging.
Within hours of the attack, anti-Israel groups in this country organized demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, while condemning Israel.
At Harvard University, 31 student groups signed a letter holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.” A number Black Lives Matter chapters in major U.S. cities rallied, claiming the Hamas attacks were in “self-defense.”
Hamas apologists have characterized the slaughter as “resistance.” One BLM group claimed the Hamas attack, “must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.” Representative Ilhan Omar (D, Minn.) claimed in a tweet that the Israeli response to the attack was tantamount to a “war crime.”
The debate over the suffering and fate of the Palestinian people is real and necessary. Their struggle for a self-determined homeland is one of the great unresolved issues dating back to even before the Balfour Declaration in 1917 that established Palestine as a national home for Jewish people.
But timing is important.
Hamas’s charter calls for the destruction of Israel and when its fighters slaughter innocent civilians, including children, it is not a good time to try to win converts to the Palestinian cause. As I heard one commentator say, when a Jewish settler murders 29 Palestinians in a West Bank Mosque (as happened in 1994), it is not an appropriate time to loudly proclaim Israel’s right to defend itself.
Some of the demonstrations against Israel are rooted in long-standing antisemitism. A survey released earlier this year by the ADL found that 85 percent of Americans believe at least one anti-Jewish trope and 20 percent believe in six or more.
Other demonstrators claim they support the Palestinian cause, but not Hamas. That may be true, but from what I have seen and heard, the leaders and speakers at these events are not making that distinction.
President Biden, to his credit, was unambiguous in his remarks to the country Tuesday. He condemned the “act of sheer evil” that was perpetrated by the “bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas, whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews.”
Palestinians and people around the world who sympathize with their plight can make strong moral arguments on their behalf. The issues surrounding a Palestinian homeland and self-determination are mind-numbingly intertwined with historical, religious and security concerns with Israel.
But at this moment, there is only the clarity that comes from the evil of terrorists and the necessary response. There is no “other side” of that story.