Willful, arrogant, and misguided ignorance marches through downtown Portland
Supporting terrorism- the execution of innocent men, women, and children- is never a good look. So why were hundreds marching through downtown Portland doing precisely that?
Can't you see that I'm only advising you to beg yourself not to be so dumb?
Petronius, The Satyricon
Intelligence minus purpose equals stupidity.
Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity
Tonight, I witnessed something that angered me almost beyond comprehension- a group of several hundred people marching up Broadway in downtown Portland chanting, “Free Palestine!!” It was all I could do to refrain from shouting that they were marching in support of those who burned babies and executed innocent men, women, and children. And don’t even get me started on the rapes Hamas militants committed and the bodies they mutilated.
The marchers were supporting terrorists as if they either didn’t know or care. I was furious, but I quietly turned around and walked away. Some of the folks participating in the march were astonishingly self-righteous, like the woman who walked by and gave those of us watching the march the finger.
Perhaps she only wanted us to appreciate her fingernail polish…which was a rather grotesque shade of black. It matched her demeanor perfectly.
I must confess that I’m becoming fed up with some of those who, like myself, call the ideological Far-Left home. You’d think these folks could get their news and information from different sources and understand what’s happening in Israel.
On early Saturday morning, 10/7, Hamas guerillas somehow managed to cross into Israel and staged a terror attack that resulted in the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Think about that for a moment. Hamas guerillas killed more Jews in a single terror attack than had been killed since the Holocaust. To accomplish this, terrorists killed innocent civilians- women, children, senior citizens, babies, and non-combatants. In other words, people who had no opportunity to defend themselves
At the very least, this is the very definition of cowardly. The butchery and barbarity displayed by the terrorists are almost beyond comprehension. It defies rational understanding to believe that any human being (and I’m using that term very loosely) could be capable of treating another with such casual savagery.
I’ve seen pictures of burned babies and videos of atrocities I’d rather not describe here. More than likely, you’ve seen them yourself. We live in an age in which so much is captured by security and dashboard cameras and cell phones. This means that so many atrocities carried out upon innocent Jews by Palestinian terrorists have been recorded for posterity.
To call the 10/7 attack evil barely begins to scratch the surface of the depravity, the barbarity, and the animalistic blood lust with which the attacks were undertaken. It’s as if the Palestinian terrorists didn’t consider the Jews they killed to be people but rather vermin to be exterminated. Most of them recorded in action betrayed no emotion as they extinguished one life after another as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
When all was said and done, Hamas had succeeded in murdering 1300 innocent people, most Israelis, but at last count, the dead included close to 30 nationalities, including Americans. Almost all of the victims were Jews.
It was not a great victory because Hamas wasn’t fighting an armed and worthy adversary. They knew that taking on the Israeli Army would be disastrous for them, so their best plan was also the most cowardly- to attack civilians and non-combatants- people unable to defend themselves.
This wasn’t a victory for Hamas in any sense. Hamas isn’t an army; it’s a ragtag and undisciplined collection of wannabe soldiers who kill people unable to defend themselves. That doesn’t make one a soldier; it’s practically the textbook definition of cowardly.
And people on the American Left are marching in support of cowards, cold-blooded killers, and terrorists? Do they know nothing of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or is this merely about anti-Semitism? If they understood the area's history, they might be better informed about the issues, and they might understand that Israel didn’t necessarily “steal the Palestinian’s land.”
Israel is the Jewish homeland, and they have every right to exist and defend itself. Hamas has embedded itself within the civilian population of Gaza, whom they’ve used as human shields. This is a no-win situation for everyone concerned, but the civilian population of Gaza has essentially allowed Hamas safe haven. That needs to change, and the Israeli Army aims to do precisely that.
Granted, much of what Hamas has done in Gaza has been at gunpoint, but if civilians didn’t want to be used as human shields, they could’ve found ways to force Hamas out of Gaza City and into the countryside. More than two million people seriously outnumber Hamas.
After the 10/7 attack, Israel feels it has little choice but to go into Gaza and tear out Hamas by the roots. It’s a terrible thing to contemplate, but when you spend your life living cheek to jowl with those who wish to slit your throat, it becomes an untenable situation at some point. After having 1300 innocents slaughtered, sitting back and doing nothing isn’t an option.
The question, of course, is what will become of the 1.1 million Palestinians that the Israeli Army has ordered to evacuate the northern part of Gaza. Large swaths of Gaza City, the world's most densely populated piece of real estate, have already been reduced to rubble, meaning many will have nothing to return to. That will pose a tremendous challenge and an almost unimaginable humanitarian crisis, but that worry is for another day.
I genuinely wonder what it is the marchers think they’re supporting. Are they so thoroughly uninformed that they’ve chosen not to understand what happened on 10/7? And have they consciously decided not to understand the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Or do they hear the word “Zionism” and react viscerally, convinced that all Israeli Jews are complicit in living on “stolen” land?
These impulsively ignorant souls don’t fully grasp that they’re supporting the senseless murder and grotesque executions of 1300 innocent civilians- men, women, and children- who never had a chance to defend themselves. They’re defending terrorists responsible for what’s become known as “Israel’s 9/11.” Have they given that so much as a second thought?
Would these people be marching in support of the 19 Saudis who hijacked four planes on 9/11? Because that’s the moral equivalent of what they’re doing, whether they care to admit to it or not.
Arrogance and willful ignorance in support of terrorism isn’t a good look. When your anti-Semitism blocks you from seeing the horrible truth behind your beliefs, flaunting your hatred of Israel in public probably seems a good choice.
It’s not. It makes you look like a fool.
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Another spot on article, Jack. I too have been appalled by the utter cluelessness, and sometimes willful vitriol of the Left. But I have to say I'm not surprised. I've been warning about antisemitism on the Left for years now. But the events of 10/7 have made it blisteringly clear. These people are ghouls with placards and paint-by-numbers, 2nd hand, "radical" ideas that would do a Nazi proud. Which is a complete inversion of what they're supposed to stand for. Consider the deep irony; the Left is where antifa resides. And the Left is also where if the fascists are Hamas then a part of the Left considers them avatars of resistance. It's asinine. These people, who are likely more educated than average, nonetheless, are too hidebound to discern an ethical difference between Israeli oppression, which is a legitimate concern, and Israeli unintentional, collateral military deaths, and a group of terrorists whose intention was to commit purposeful slaughter upon defenseless people, making no distinction for age, sex, or infirmity. To these self impressed "deep" thinkers Israeli oppression, and unintentional killings of civilians occupies the same moral plane as Hamas sociopaths on an intentional killing spree. And these same people are always agonizing over how the Left is caricatured as being extreme and over the top? is it any wonder when the Left responds to what for most of us is a gut wrenching atrocity that's a slam dunk to condemn, but for them is confirmation of their radical chic. I disavow these people with the same fervor as I do the Right-Wing extremists they claim to oppose. It turns out that these Leftists are just selective about their preferred extremism. As long as it meets their standards they eagerly embrace it.