I don’t mind the student protesters on American university campuses. It’s good to see young people stand up to what they see as injustice. They don’t remain silent. This is a good thing. a

What bothers me is that they do not know the history of the conflict, they do not understand the relationship between Israelis, diaspora Jews, and the Arabs of Gaza, Judea, and Samaris. It bothers me that they do not know why Israel had to invade Gaza. It bothers me that the swallow with complete and utter credulity the Hamas narrative of the current war, while at the same time stopping their ears to the Jewish narrative. And reality.

It bothers me that they claim they are only “anti-Zionist,” not antisemitic, while denying access to university facilities to anyone they perceive as Jewish. It doesn’t bother me that they criticize Israel as a country. It bothers me that they declare Israel as “illegitimate,” and call for Israel to be un-made.

It in no way bothers me that people want to see an end to the killing all round. But it does bother me that demands are only being made of Israel, as if Hamas was completely innocent, and was aggressed upon.

Pro-Palestinians claim they are only attacking Israel. But then, why are they attacking random Jews in other cities? Jews who are not citizens of Israel, and have no say in Israeli policy? Why do they vandalize and firebomb synagogues, places of business, and even hospitals, instead of the local Israeli consulate or embassy?

These children do not understand history, the culture of the Levant, the rules of warfare (especially urban warfare, or the concepts of proportionality, or the use of human shields), they refuse to believe the intent of Hamas, nor their atrocities committed upon civilians, despite their having livestreamed their acts of barbarism to the world. They don’t even understand the Arab chants of “intifada,” or “Khaybar,” or “From the river to the sea.”

And I resent that it’s the Right Wing in America which tries to make common cause Israel, which seems to support Jews, who seem to understand the evil represented by Hamas and Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And I resent that Jews are being ejected from the progressive organizations and causes that we have supported for generations. And I resent that the Right Wing is probably only trying to make cause with us because they want the Jewish voting bloc.

And I further resent that the progressive “squad’ in the United States Congress makes cause with the Palestinian Arabs in their hatred for Israel, yet would still have my vote because the policies they think best for the United States, because I agree with them. At least with respect to what I believe America needs in order to move forward.

And I am tired of arguing with the supporters of our enemies. We aren’t allowed to mourn our dead; we are told instead to mourn the dead of our enemies. We are told we deserved what Hamas did to us on October 7^th. And that Hamas never did it, anyway; it was the IDF that did it. And that they will commit another Black October on us again, a hundred times, a thousand times, until we are gone. No matter that Hamas themselves recorded what they did for all to see. No Israeli women were raped. No hostages were taken. Israel actually killed the hostages.

But you know? Throughout the past two thousand years of history, the gentiles have always tried to crush us, to repress us, to murder us, to lie about us, to exterminate us. The relative ease we’ve had for the past seventy or eighty years was an aberration. I would dare to say that things are returning to ‘normal.’ But now, we have Israel. Jews are not so easily swept aside and murdered these days. And apparently some people are just not happy about that.