What’s happening to Palestinians in Gaza, and the West Bank, is a tragedy. Yes, Palestinian militants have a long history of terrorism, and the Oct. 7 terror attacks incited the violent Israeli response. But the only “crime” of the Palestinian children being killed and maimed is unlucky parentage.
While Israel imprisoned Gazans in a narrow strip of overpopulated land, and Israeli settlers aggressively and sometimes violently drove West Bank Palestinians out of their homes and stole their land, the western democracies pursued the chimera of a “two state solution” hoping to defuse the conflict and bring lasting peace to the Middle East.
The Oct. 7 terror attacks left Palestinian civilians exposed. Israel justifies the harshness of its response, and high civilian casualties, by arguing its security necessitates tearing out Hamas by its roots. But even allowing this is war, and Hamas started it, the IDF has engaged in questionable actions (including gunning down journalists and aid workers).
That and the injustice of Israel’s larger treatment of Palestinians has evoked sympathy among some Americans for the genuine “plight of the Palestinians,” support that those who genuinely care about the Palestinian people can ill afford to squander.
The Gaza war, and Israeli atrocities, has provoked demonstrations on U.S. campuses, including the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. Ana Marie Cauci, the U.W.’s president, has responded similarly to many other university leaders.
Masked vandals retaliated against her on Wednesday night, November 13, 2024, at her home. They slashed her car tires, and spray-painted “pro-Hamas” symbols and slogans on the car and home, according to a KOMO 4 News report here.
The “pro-Hamas” verbiage is that of a university spokesman. Equating the Palestinian people with Hamas is a false equivalency. The Hamas terrorists are Palestinians, but the Palestinian people are not Hamas. They have no say in what Hamas does. It’s also intellectually dishonest to equate the Palestinian sympathy movement here and elsewhere with the terrorist organization.
But acts of vandalism and intimidation won’t generate sympathy for Palestinian victims of the conflict. They’ll only drive the public away from the sympathy movement. This is also a criminal act, and if the perpetrators are caught, the consequences could be severe. If they’re students (I suspect they’re not), they’ll be expelled; and they could end up with felony records that will follow them for the rest of their lives. For what? What do they gain by this? Nothing.
