By TIM BARTO | SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
Immediately following the Oct. 7 slaughter of Israeli innocents by Hamas terrorists, the prominent initial reaction was condemnation of the attacks and support for Israel, even by liberals such as Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden.
The near-universal support for the Jewish state quickly turned as leftists began perversely blaming Israel for the beheadings, rapes, and murders committed toward their own people.
The leftist mobs, whose obsession with demonstrations against all things western brought us Occupy Wall Street, the Women’s March, Antifa/BLM riots, and endless screeches about transgender women being women, gladly focused their trendy hate toward Jews. Their anti-Semitism is thinly veiled, but not fully disguised, as anti-Zionism.
The same ilk that insisted during the “Me Too” hysteria that all women who claim to be victims of sexual harassment and assault must be believed without question, seem to be the same people that are now questioning Jewish women’s claims of rape and torture at the hands of Hamas hordes.
The defenders of women’s allegations have become skeptics who want to see photographic proof of the violations; yet when shown videos of the atrocities as filmed by the Hamas attackers themselves, they deny the veracity of the videos. The images, they claim, are either propaganda or don’t actually show the hideous violations needed to substantiate the Jewish claims.
The mobs do their best to mimic post-war Nazi sympathizers and other anti-Semitic allies that to this day deny the deaths of six million Jews during the Final Solution, and they are finding sympathetic ears among 1) the mainstream media and 2) what is now being revealed as the base of the Democrat party. Schumer and Biden, as liberal as they are, are dinosaurs in a party now steered by the far left, although the latter is softening his stance to appease the radical demographic.
The anti-Israel demonstrations, often taking place or at least emanating from America’s college campuses, are exposing the inherent hate of its participants. College professors and administrators – vividly exposed as hypocritical and anti-Semitic during their own pitiful testimonies in front of Congress – provide guidance for their gullible and rudderless student minions, but traditional liberals are afraid of calling them out because the leftists now occupy the Democrat base, and it is too politically dangerous to alienate such a loyal bloc of voters, especially when the most important thing in their universe is keeping Donald Trump from ever again stepping foot in the White House.
One of the most outspoken critics making the connection between pro-Palestinian Hamas supporters and leftist mobs is Dennis Prager — prolific author, syndicated radio host with 400 affiliate stations, and founder of Prager U. He is a proud adherent to Judaism and an unabashed Israeli apologist who has long been frustrated by the tendency of his American Jewish brethren to vote for Democrats and leftists while simultaneously forsaking the Republicans and conservatives who have been far more supportive of Israel.
While hate groups such as neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan have traditionally received the label of “right wing” even though their groups are either fascist-based or founded by the Democrat party, the labels stuck, and anti-Semitism was associated with right wing movements.
Prager explored this phenomenon during an October 2022 interview of Benjamin Netanyahu, when he asked the conservative Israeli Prime Minister if he ever imagined a world in which the Left, rather than the Right, would be Israel’s biggest enemy. Netanyahu answered that his conservative upbringing, support for the United States, and commitment to free economies, led him to believe the right side of the political spectrum was where Israel’s support would lie.
During a recent debate at Oxford College regarding the Hamas-Israel war, Prager addressed the argument that Israel’s aggressive military response has been disproportionate because thousands more innocent Gaza lives have been lost since Oct. 7 than Israeli lives lost in the initial massacre itself. Prager offered a World War II analogy. Seeing as how he was in England for the debate, Prager referenced Great Britain’s response toward Nazi aggression. Britain caused far more German casualties than they suffered themselves. Was that disproportionate? Was it improper for Britain to bring the Aryan fascists to complete devastation, or would the proper thing have been to match the number of German casualties with the number of Brit casualties?
The latter argument appears to be what the pro-Hamas/anti-Semitic demonstrators are calling for. Hamas murdered some 1,300 Israelis on October 7th, so that should evidently be their numerical limit for the number of Palestinians/Hama supporters who meet their demise. Using this logic, one has to wonder, then, if Israel should then have a right to kidnap a couple hundred Gazans and behead a few dozen babies as well. You know, just to make things even.
Israel has to response in an intensely aggressive and utterly devastating manner in response to the October massacre. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s pledge to destroy Hamas is valid and must be carried out to completion. The continued existence of the Jewish state depends on it.
The Left, however, continues to surprise at such an appalling level that one must wonder whether it’s intentionally antagonistic. For example, the debate question at Prager’s Oxford appearance was, “Is Hamas a greater obstacle to peace than Israel?” The question itself begs incredulity. Such a question, Prager pointed out, could only come these days from an academic institution.
To equate the two groups as moral equals is ignorant naivete at best and blatant evil at worst (author’s words, not Prager’s).
Just as Nazi Germany was a greater threat to peace than Great Britain in the 1930s, so too is Hamas a greater threat to peace than Israel today. Prager advances his argument by conjoining Hamas with Isis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hezbollah. When questioned why he used Muslim and/or Arab movements as examples (because, of course, in the eyes of the Left, criticizing Muslims and Arabs is Islamophobic and racist; whereas arguing against Jews and Israel is legitimate critique), Prager pointed out that these are the only groups on earth that behead people.
In no other conflicts is there a debate about when it comes to a police state (Hamas) fighting a democratic state (Israel). The only country for which it is acceptable to target for extinction is Israel. Prager’s defense of Israel is necessary. It provides a flicker of common sense in a dark world.
When Prager visited Anchorage in 2022, he expressed a desire to return so he could experience the Northern Lights, so he is returning, this time to Fairbanks for two presentations on Saturday, Feb. 24. We are fortunate to have a courageous intellectual like Dennis Prager visiting us.
Tim Barto is a regular contributor to Must Read Alaska, a longtime follower of Dennis Prager, and vice president of Alaska Family Council – the organization bringing Prager to Alaska.
