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This is a guest essay written by Zach Ross of “I Dare You To Think.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
On September 11th, 2001, 19 Muslim Arab terrorists from Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes, flying two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and another crashed in a field after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Nearly 3,000 innocent Americans were murdered that day. What’s often forgotten is that these terrorists framed themselves as the victims, justifying the attacks as “resistance” against perceived American oppression in the Muslim world, particularly U.S. support for Israel.
The terrorists used the “struggle for Palestinian liberation” narrative as a tool or a cover, to justify their actions and to portray the United States, like Israel, as an enemy to Muslims everywhere. (Sound familiar?)
While some in the Middle East celebrated these attacks (most notably the Palestinians who gleefully took to the streets), the open support for terrorism in the U.S. was rare. Some of us encountered it in our workplaces or schools or social circles with Muslims who we thought were our friends making claims like, “It was the Jews who did it.”
Or we watched in the news when certain mosques and Muslim American organizations were being exposed for preaching or raising funds on behalf of terrorist groups.
But most of the Muslims and Arabs who did support it chose to stay silent. There were certainly no rallies in the streets of New York City with people waving Al-Qaeda flags. They stayed silent rightfully fearing the enormous consequences of speaking out or being labeled a terrorist themselves.
Fast forward 23 years, and we see something very different. Those who supported 9/11 in America and around the world would go on to raise their children with the same hatred of Jews, Israel, and America. The young Palestinian children seen in the infamous videos after 9/11 handing out sweets in the streets of East Jerusalem have grown into terrorists themselves who try, and sometimes succeed at, stabbing, shooting or running over innocent Israelis.
The young Muslim Arab boys and girls in the West whose families or community celebrated 9/11 quietly in their homes or mosques are now out in the streets brazenly dressed as Hamas terrorists calling for an “intifada” and glorifying terrorism under the guise of “Free Palestine.” They are not afraid anymore.
Nearly 46,000 terror attacks have been committed by Islamists around the world since 9/11. All of them were framed as “resistance” — one of the most recent and most notable being October 7th, which was the largest terrorist attack in Israel’s history. It was also framed as resistance against the oppression of Muslims.
More than 1,200 innocent Israelis were brutally tortured and murdered and hundreds were abducted by the same people who celebrated 9/11. These atrocities — which included burning people alive, gang-raping women, mutilating young festival-goers, killing children in front of their parents, and beheading people — was celebrated right here in New York City, where thousands of people lost their lives to the same evil, dangerous Islamist ideology only 22 years prior.
In practice, Hamas and Al-Qaeda are the same. Their desire for the destruction of Israel and America are the same.
The normalization of support for such acts of terror, which would have once been relegated to the fringes of society, has now become mainstream. Today, even the term “terrorist” is being spun as “racist” towards those who commit acts of terrorism. Kamala Harris, the current U.S. vice president, even said: “We must have the courage to reject the term radical Islamic terrorism.”
That is someone who is hoping to become president of this country.
Rape, kidnapping, and murder of innocent men, women, and babies is being twisted as a legitimate form of “resistance” by those in the streets, dressed in Hamas headbands, carrying signs that read: “resistance by any means necessary.”
Upon being asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates campus policy, the presidents of our elite universities stated in a congressional hearing: “It depends on the context.”
The black-and-white keffiyeh, which was popularized by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat as a symbol of Palestinian terrorism, has now become somewhat of a fashion statement. Terrorist chic. The line has become so blurred that one cannot easily distinguish between pro-Hamas “Free Palestine” hate rallies in the West and actual Hamas rallies in Gaza or Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank).
How did we let this happen?
The shift we have seen over the last 23 years is not just about radicalization from abroad; it is also a cultural and psychological phenomenon happening in America itself. In a country where so much freedom and privilege exist, many Americans —especially young, so-called “progressive” leftists — have come to see themselves as the villains.
With no real oppression in their lives, they develop a sense of guilt: White guilt, Western guilt. They see themselves as part of an inherently evil system and believe they must “disrupt” it to give themselves purpose. Without something to “fix,” they feel lost. It is all about them.
This mindset has been manipulated and magnified by foreign influences like Iran, Russia, and Qatar over decades, through very deliberate and insidious propaganda campaigns designed to sow division within the Western world. These regimes have infiltrated our academic and cultural institutions to push narratives that pit people against each other — making them hate their own country and each other.
They have worked to stoke hatred toward Israel, amplifying anti-Western, anti-Israel sentiments as part of a broader strategy to weaken the West from within. The Islamic Republic of Iran, in particular, has been adept at supporting extremist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah while spreading propaganda that frames them as “freedom fighters,” encouraging Westerners to rally behind “Free Palestine” in exchange for a ticket of entry into an enlightened and exclusive group for the morally superior.
In the West today, young people are more lonely and disconnected than ever before, with fewer strong social ties and a growing sense of purposelessness. This creates fertile ground for insidious movements like “Free Palestine” to take root.
Rallying behind these causes gives them a sense of social validation and belonging, which explains the phenomenon in which some of their support is coming from marginalized groups that would be murdered or jailed in Palestinian society on the basis of their identity alone, including LGBTQ+ people, women and, yes, even Jews.
Most of the young people marching in our streets genuinely believe they are standing for something righteous, without a clue that they are supporting the very things they think they are standing against — genocide, war, oppression, colonialism. This is the brilliance behind “Free Palestine” and most cults that use deceptive tactics to recruit and indoctrinate members. This is the cult of moral superiority. And moral superiority is a powerful drug.
Even when it means aligning with terrorist groups that engage in the most horrific crimes against humanity, people are willing to overlook these atrocities if it means they get to belong to something bigger — a righteous cause that provides the validation they so desperately seek.
None of them truly care about the Palestinians.
They are obsessed with themselves and will subscribe to any movement or group that provides them the social benefits, no matter the cost. In this case, they unwittingly embolden genocidal Islamic terrorists and advance their agenda in killing both Palestinians and Israelis for power and money, while they add another emoji to their Instagram bio or badge to their tote bag as signals of their belonging to the “enlightened” class.
The result of their desperate virtue signaling is the mainstreaming of radical, dangerous ideas under the banner of “justice” where people now dress as Hamas militants in the streets of New York City, waving flags that stand for the destruction of Israel and the country, the United States, that has afforded them the greatest freedom humankind has ever known.
The combination of a morally confused society, foreign propaganda, and social isolation has created a toxic environment in which extremism thrives. The “Free Palestine” movement has been tremendously successful at co-opting progressive language and exploiting Western sympathy and vulnerabilities to justify and even celebrate terrorism.
It is as shocking as it is terrifying.
We must ask ourselves: “How did we get here?” And then we must ask ourselves: “How do we get out?”
I don't know how we get out of it. I would start by closing down all the social science and humanities departments of the universities in the western world, defunding research by professors in these fields, and not supporting students who train in these disciplines. But the main way we get out of it is supporting Israel, moving there if we are Jewish, certainly moving our young there, and ensuring that Israel is totally victorious over Gaza, abolishes the PA in Judea and Samaria, and clobbers Hizbollah, ruining Lebanon if necessary. There is nothing like a military victory over villains to wake up the West and serve notice on enemies of the West; only that will make them think. When the Palestinians are dealt with in such a way that they have no base or voice to assert their heinous claims, the morons who support them now will be deprived of their favourite cause and move on. Who knows? They may even come to think differently, but don't bet the house on it.
I think they actually do care about the Palestinians – as much as they care about the Sudanese, Syrians, Yemenis, and Kurds.