Weaponizing Sympathy: 'Pro-Palestinian' blackmail takes center stage.

Jew-haters are extorting U.S. voters and the Democratic Party to cower to their un-American demands. And it seems to be working. Jews in the U.S. must take notice and quickly change our tactics.

Palestinians and their allies and supporters doing what they do best: lying, gaslighting, distorting, and Jew-hating (photo: Nikolas Gannon/Unsplash)

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At the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago, tens of thousands of so-called “pro-Palestinian” protesters have been doing what they love to do — screaming, bullying, intimidating, interrupting, and breaching — in an effort to assail U.S. President Joe Biden administration’s “position” on Israel.

I honestly don’t know what other “position” these folks want the U.S. to take. Israel is one of America’s most loyal and long-term allies which regularly provides the U.S. with disproportionate amounts of science, technology, defense, and intelligence, among many other assets.

On October 7th, Hamas led the worst attacks on Jews since the Holocaust, and Hezbollah in Lebanon joined the fray exactly one day later. I can’t imagine that if the tables were turned — if Israel perpetrated the worst attacks on Gazans in 80 years — that anyone in America (including Jews in America) would “protest” the U.S. and other countries coming to Gazans’ aid and helping them prevent another such attack in the future.

This leads me to believe that these “pro-Palestinians” are not truly “pro-Palestinian.” If they were, the prescription is pretty obvious: They would be demanding that Hamas immediately surrenders and its remaining leaders go into exile far, far away from Gaza.

After all, these despicable terrorist organizations have created an unhinged Islamist regime in the Strip, turning it into a Jihadist fortress at their own people’s expense, while systematically depriving them of even the most basic human rights and civil liberties — all in the name of good old-fashioned Jew-hatred.

Some Gazans have spoken out against Hamas’ primitive reign, but in true authoritarian fashion, the terror group tortures, jails, and murders political dissidents as a matter of policy and record. As one Gazan courageously wrote about Hamas in January, some 20 masked men had recently kidnapped his father — an imam in the Strip.

“His crime?” the Gazan asked rhetorically. “He refused to brainwash his people with their politics.”¹

So, if these “pro-Palestinians” are not really “pro-Palestinian,” then what are they? Anti-Israel? Maybe, maybe not.

First of all, Israel is the world’s only country that has “anti” prefixed to it. Meanwhile, there are plenty of pariah states on this planet, from North Korea to Russia, Iran to Venezuela. But you never hear people refer to themselves as “anti-North Korea” or “anti-Venezuela.”

Why then does Israel, which is anything but a pariah state, get singled out?

The only plausible explanation: because Israel is the Jewish state.

Keyword: Jewish.

In other words, these “pro-Palestinians” are not “pro-Palestinian” or even “anti-Israel.” They are bonafide Jew-haters, using the banners of “Palestine” and baseless allegations of Israeli “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” to hide their deep-seated antisemitism.

Let’s remember a few things about antisemitism. First, it is not binary, meaning people do not either love Jews or hate Jews. Antisemitism typically tells us more about the antisemite than it does about the Jew. This means that antisemites tend to struggle with a range of emotions which have nothing to do with Jews but which they ultimately project onto Jews, such as: jealousies, frustrations, insecurities, animosities, resentments, failures, bad luck, bumps in the road of life, and so forth.

Jews, both past and present, have always been the easy scapegoat, Jews in America notwithstanding.

As an American Jew myself, it boggles my mind how so many Jews think they and their Jewishness are untouchable in the United States. So too did German Jews and many other Jews living in many other countries dating back thousands of years. A Jewish history lesson would quickly show the ignorance and dangers of this illusion that Jews and their Jewishness are somehow untouchable in the United States.

Another thing we ought to remember about antisemitism is that it tends to take many different forms and fashions throughout history. Many Jews in America presume that the antisemitism of the “old days” is what antisemitism would look and feel like today (i.e. Right-wing antisemitism from Nazi-like people). There are definitely some similarities between present-day and historical types of antisemitism, but it is not apples to apples.

Today’s antisemitism, the kind that truly has an impact on American society, is predominantly coming from the Left, from these so-called “pro-Palestinians” and their allies and sympathizers. They and their extensive financial backers (formerly the Soviets and nowadays the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, and Qatar) understood that being a blatant Jew-hater (like the Nazis) will not fly in the post-Holocaust West.

So they created an optical illusion called “Palestine” and used language that would appeal to well-intentioned but nonetheless gullible Western audiences, such as “liberation” and “resistance” and “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.” Unfortunately for those who believe in intellectual honesty, it worked like a charm. Mostly Left-leaning Westerners bought into this fairy tale called “the Palestinians.”

I call it a fairy tale not because the Palestinians do not exist (they do) but because everything — and I mean everything — that these supposedly Left-leaning Westerners stand for is purely nonexistent in the Palestinian Territories.

And not only is it nonexistent, but Palestinian culture and society, on the whole, are diametrically opposed to every issue that liberals cherish: democracy, separation of church and state, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, freedom of religion and the media, and the right to peacefully protest (just to name a few).

I am sorry to break it to you, but if you are a Left-leaning Westerner (like me on some issues) and you also find yourself overly supporting or empathizing with “Palestine” and “the Palestinians,” you have become a victim of the aforementioned optical illusion.

Some argue that, “if only” the Palestinians had “true freedom” they would be “just like us.” No they would not. Look at every Arab country in the Middle East and North Africa; they all have their “true freedom” and none of them are “just like us.” They are Islamic societies run by oppressive, authoritarian regimes (including the more “moderate” Arab states).

And yet, there is nothing wrong with that. I am not a virtue-signaler who believes in my bones that every country ought to be like the United States or other Western countries. But here’s what I am saying: It is supreme nonsense to vehemently wave the flags of democracy, human rights, and civil liberties while at the same time championing, excusing, and/or supporting the so-called “Palestinian cause.”

Pick a lane.

Turns out, an uncomfortable amount of these “pro-Palestinian” Americans have picked a lane: “Palestine” on the surface, anti-Jewish beneath it. Of course these “pro-Palestinian” Americans often remind us that they have nothing against Jews, just against “Zionists” — but some 90 percent of American Jews are Zionists.

In other words, these “pro-Palestinian” Americans have a lot against Jews and make an exception for the few self-hating Jews who agree to be their modern-day kapos (Jewish prisoners in Nazi camps who were assigned to supervise other Jewish prisoners’ forced labor and carry out administrative tasks).

Modern-day “kapos” rally against Israel just one day after Hamas murdered 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 more.

One of the reasons why Right-wing antisemitism in the U.S. bothers me far less than this Left-wing variant is because Right-wing antisemitism mainly exists in unimportant corners of the internet and random, inconsequential American towns. At the Republican National Convention a month ago, we did not see neo-Nazi protesters dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits, for example.

But at the Democratic National Convention this week, we are seeing tens of thousands of “pro-Palestinians” donning keffiyehs (the equivalent of Ku Klux Klan outfits) and parading Palestinian flags (which are, deep down, an anti-Jewish symbol).

Many of these “protestors” are coming from Palestinian and Arab communities in Illinois and neighboring states, but here is what should terrify all Jews in America: The coalition also includes groups advocating for a range of causes, including reproductive rights and racial justice.

To be more blunt, these “pro-Palestinians” have successfully manipulated several other causes that have absolutely nothing to do with “Palestine” to grow their numbers and put more pressure on the Democratic Party to acquiesce to their so obviously un-American demands. In other words: blackmail.

Dozens of Muslim delegates and their allies are seeking changes in the Democratic Party’s platform and plan to press for an unsubstantiated, meritless arms embargo on Israel. Many of these “pro-Palestinian” Americans are saying that they support Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee to beat former U.S. president, Donald Trump, but they would not vote for her given the Biden Administration’s support of Israel.

“In good conscience,” one of these delegates said, “I can’t vote for her with the lack of a concrete policy on an arms embargo on Israel and a real ceasefire.”²

This is unadulterated devilry. Kamala Harris is a fine Democratic candidate who will hopefully do great things for many Americans across the United States. And these folks damn well know this to be true.

What they also know is that, by co-opting other completely unrelated causes and affixing “Palestine” to them, they are able to blackmail the hell out of her and the Democratic Party — and she will likely cave to them in growing desperation to simply have a chance at winning November’s presidential election. You and I would probably do the same if we were in her shoes.

But we are not in her shoes. I, for one, an am Israeli-American Jew who fundamentally understands the value of the U.S.-Israel relationship, no less the disproportionate contributions that Jews in America have for decades offered to U.S. culture and society. And these “pro-Palestinians” (some naively, some deliberately) want to destroy the U.S.-Israel relationship and downgrade American Jewry’s (mostly positive) influence to the point where Jews in America feel exponentially less safe there.

For these “pro-Palestinians,” it is a zero-sum game, either them and their warped policies that significantly harm Israel and American Jewry, or us (Israel and Jews in America).

On Israel and American Jewry’s side, virtually no one is making this same zero-sum demand, myself included. But maybe we should — because, at least in part, the Democratic Party has been taking the Jewish vote for granted. They are comfortably assuming that because so many American Jews have historically voted Democrat, and because so many American Jews detest Donald Trump, the Jewish American vote is predominantly in the Democratic bag.

I say, to both parties, the Democrats and the Republicans: Earn the Jewish American vote, not just in words but in actions. Show us (don’t just tell us) exactly how you plan to maintain and hopefully grow the incredibly mutually beneficial U.S.-Israel relationship. And show us (don’t just tell us) exactly how you plan to ensure that Jews in America will be undeniably protected and safe across the United States.

Part of this means explicitly denouncing antisemitism (as well as “anti-Zionism,” a direct subset of antisemitism) and not bizarrely equating it with Islamophobia. Part of this means making it loud and clear that Israel is a tremendous American ally and anyone who intends to harm this relationship is, in turn, harming America.

The reality is that many Democrats — Kamala Harris in particular — have been bewilderingly equating antisemitism with Islamophobia since just a few days after October 7th, and many Democrats have enabled those who explicitly seek to downgrade the U.S.-Israel relationship. For example (and this is just one of many examples), Harris recently told “pro-Palestinian” protestors who were heckling her at at one of her rallies that: “Everyone’s voice matters.”

Kamala Harris (left), the current U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee (photo: Kamala Harris/Facebook)

In February, several senior Biden Administration officials met with Osama Siblani, a Michigan-based publisher of the Arab American News who has praised Hamas and Hezbollah, and claimed the U.S. government was “bought” by the “Zionist lobby.” Why did they meet with him? Because he has an outsized impact on Arab Americans living in the all-important “swing state” of Michigan, which the Democrats must win if they are to keep the White House come November.

To add insult to injury, earlier this year Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “randomly” promoted Maher Bitar to a new position on the United States’ National Security Council. Bitar is a former anti-Israel activist of Palestinian descent who has hosted conferences praising Islamic terrorism (i.e. Jihad). And now this man is on the National Security Council, the senior-most official responsible for coordinating U.S. Government intelligence and defense policy.

Again, imagine if the tables were turned. Let’s suppose that “anti-Palestinians” were disrupting public events and calling for the complete destruction of “Palestine” (i.e. genocide). Or that a Jewish “anti-Palestinian” activist was placed on the United States’ National Security Council — even as this activist has a record of hosting conferences praising Jewish terrorism that purposely targets Palestinian women and children.

This is entirely unimaginable. And yet, the Democratic Party increasingly enables these growing extremist elements of their party because they are terribly desperate just to have a chance in the upcoming presidential election.

At the same time, I fully understand and appreciate that many American Jews do not vote in elections solely through an Israel and/or Jewish lens. There are many others issues near and dear to American Jews — myself included — and a major part of upholding democracy, at least the way I see it, means respecting each person’s right to vote (and vote for whomever they want), especially when others decide to vote differently.

Nowadays, I see far too many Americans (both Jewish and non-Jewish) ending relationships, speaking down to people, and excessively judging others because they are not voting for the same candidate or party. I find this behavior to be nothing short of disgraceful.

One cannot, without being a flaming hypocrite, wail and scream about the supreme importance of protecting American democracy while implicitly demanding that others must vote for a certain candidate or party, or that the reasons why others vote for a certain candidate or party are somehow illegitimate and inferior. That is not democracy. That is fascism.

And one cannot, without being a flaming hypocrite, project that, for example, many Republicans stupidly vote against their own interests, especially after the ways in which the Biden Administration has handled post-October 7th (mostly Left-wing) antisemitism across America and very much within the Democratic Party, no less his bizarre both-sides management of the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah war. For I could easily make the argument that any American Jew who votes Democrat in the upcoming presidential election is indeed, as a Jew, voting against their own interests.

But I pride myself on not being a flaming hypocrite. I respect how each American decides to vote, including not voting or even voting for someone like Mickey Mouse. I do not gaslight people into feeling bad for not voting because, as many people argue, no-votes are an implicit vote for one candidate/party or another.

And I do not mandate that other Americans justify to me in great detail why they vote the way they do. I acknowledge that each person has unique life experiences, viewpoints, and so forth — all of which impact how they see the world, vote, et cetera. To each their own. I do not just write that; I live it, and I have great admiration for others who do too.

Unfortunately for American Jews, the “pro-Palestinian” crowd and those in naive, irresponsible, exploited alliance with it do not subscribe to the “to each their own” mentality. They are — by dictionary definition — fascists, racists, and bigots (if not in intention, then in outcome).

And if Kamala Harris cowers to their obscene blackmail, she might not be a fascist, racist, or bigot herself — but she will further amplify their Jew-hating ideologies and continuously enable them to spread their destructive fires that directly harm Jews in America and potentially others.

To me, that is even worse than being a fascist, racist, or bigot. And it does not matter to me who is her opponent. Two fascist-, racist-, or bigot-enabling candidates do not make a perfect angel.

This is not math, where two negatives make a positive. This is politics, and anyone who wants my vote ought to go out and, through both words and actions, unequivocally earn it.

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1. “Hamas Kidnapped My Father for Refusing to Be Their Puppet.” The Free Press.

2. “DNC’s pro-Palestinian protests draw thousands in Chicago.” Reuters.