On the menu today: If you want the people of Israel to be free and safe and the wicked, beastly men of Hamas to suffer severe repercussions for their actions, Tuesday was a pretty good day. President Biden gave a good speech by his standards*, but even more importantly, the idiots who stood up and either praised Hamas or criticized Israel on Saturday and Sunday started feeling the consequences of their actions — from the White House to Capitol Hill to a prestigious New York City law firm to Harvard and even to Playboy magazine.
Hamas Defenders Get Their Comeuppance
Like antibodies fighting off an infection, various better and wiser forces in American society are standing up, rebutting and rebuking their fellow countrymen who cheered for Hamas or blamed Israel for the attacks — “freaks,” as our Charlie Cooke observes. And some knee-jerk critics of Israel, whose first reaction to the massacre on Saturday was to show the world how much they oppose the Jewish state and how much they support “resistance,” are suddenly retreating and insisting they didn’t mean to say what they said or do what they did.
Let us begin at the White House, where press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t call out the members of the Squad by name, but she did denounce their statements and positions in surprisingly strong language from the podium:
Q: What is the President’s message to members of Congress who seem to be equating the Hamas terror attack with actions that were previously taken by Israel?
JEAN-PIERRE: Look, here’s the thing — and which — which — which congressional members?
Q Well, there have been some members of Congress who have called for a ceasefire, and they have not gone as far as backing the administration’s call for support for Israel.
JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend. And we’re going to continue to be very clear: We believe they are wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful.
Our — our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped hundreds — hundreds of Israelis. There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here. There are not two sides.
President Biden has been clear on where he has stood. You heard him — you heard from him directly today. You heard from him also on Saturday on this. There’s been multiple statements from this President. And he’s taking action to provide additional support to ensure that Israel has the — has what they need to defend themselves.
On Sunday, members of the Democratic Socialists of America and others rallied in Times Square, chanting slogans like “resistance is justified,” “globalize the intifada,” and “smash the settler Zionist state.” They also chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” As noted yesterday, the river is Jordan and the sea is the Mediterranean, so that chant is calling for Israel to disappear between those bodies of water.
Yahoo’s senior White House correspondent, Alexander Nazaryan, reported:
“And as you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,” one speaker joked about the Hamas assault on a desert rave, where horrific scenes of murder and rape took place.
Luke Tress, the correspondent for the Times of Israel, reported:
Among the pro-Palestinian side, the mood was celebratory and spiteful. Demonstrators chanted “700,” apparently referring to the confirmed number of Israeli fatalities in the attack so far, and held up the number seven on their hands while making throat-slitting gestures. Others flashed victory signs with their hands while shouting insults.
That was Sunday. It only took until Tuesday for local congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to recognize that the rally was not a good thing:
“It should not be hard to shut down hatred and antisemitism where we see it. That is a core tenet of solidarity,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement to Playbook late Monday — her first comments on the rally.
“The bigotry and callousness expressed in Times Square on Sunday were unacceptable and harmful in this devastating moment. It also did not speak for the thousands of New Yorkers who are capable of rejecting both Hamas’ horrifying attacks against innocent civilians as well as the grave injustices and violence Palestinians face under occupation. . . .”
(AOC had called for a ceasefire Saturday afternoon, after Israelis had been killed but before the Israel Defense Forces had started any retaliation in earnest.)
Yesterday, even the New York City Democratic Socialists of America itself started acting like it had inadvertently made a mistake in promoting the rally:
NYC-DSA believes in peace, equality, and freedom for all Palestinians and Israelis. We deeply mourn the loss of life in the region and unequivocally condemn all hatred and the killing of all civilians. Our sympathy and condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones or have loved ones in harm’s way. On Saturday, in anticipation of escalatory violence to come, we tweeted a promotion of a rally in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We understand why many, including our allies, were shocked by the timing and the tone of this message in a moment of profound fear and grief. We are sorry for the confusion our post caused and for not making our values explicit.
Of course, the DSA statement went on to say, “We are also concerned that some have chosen to focus on a rally while ignoring the root causes of violence in the region, the far-right Netanyahu government’s escalating human rights violations and explicitly genocidal rhetoric,” blah blah blah. But the fact that the DSA felt the need to acknowledge it had done something wrong represents a pretty significant backtrack from the kind of folks who almost never apologize or backpedal. It’s an indication that their “allies” — read: mainstream Democrats — are likely spitting hot fire at them behind the scenes.
Democrats such as Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — both up for reelection next year — are calling for the Biden administration to re-freeze that $6 billion in funds it released to Iran a month ago. (Our Andy McCarthy points out that it’s not certain that the Biden administration has a legal mechanism to compel Qatar to return the funds to U.S. control.) Releasing the $6 billion looks like an indefensible mistake considering Iran’s support for Hamas, and it’s not a policy that any endangered Democrat will bother defending.
All weekend long and into Monday, we saw ill-informed pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionist student groups denounce Israel and forget to offer even a pro forma criticism of Hamas. By Tuesday, their future employers were noticing, and one firm sent an extremely public signal that it had seen enough:
Chicago-based law firm Winston & Strawn LLP rescinded a law student’s offer of employment, after the student said that Hamas’s slaughter of innocent Israeli children was “necessary.”
As president of New York University’s School of Law Bar Association, Ryna Workman emailed a weekly newsletter to students professing her “unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination.”
“Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life,” the non-binary, 24-year old NYU student said. “This regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary. I will not condemn Palestinian resistance.”
Winston & Strawn condemned the “violence and destruction” Hamas ignited, adding that the firm looks forward to “continuing to work together to eradicate anti-Semitism in all forms.” The firm rescinded Workman’s offer the same day it learned of her email. . . .
“These comments are profoundly in conflict with Winston & Strawn’s values as a firm. Accordingly, the Firm has rescinded the law student’s offer of employment,” the company said in a statement. “As communicated yesterday to all Winston personnel, we remain outraged and deeply saddened by the violent attack on Israel over the weekend. Our hearts go out to our Jewish colleagues, their families, and all those affected.”
And, as our Zach Kessel observed, porn star Mia Khalifa’s perspective on the massacre is apparently too immoral for her to continue being employed by Playboy.
No doubt some will argue that the firings of Workman and Khalifa represent “cancel culture.” But very few critics of cancel culture would argue that your employer never has any right to terminate your employment based upon your statements and actions inside or outside of the workplace. (The law on this is complicated.) The question is: What sort of statements are so inherently objectionable and heinous that the employer has a good reason to fire the employee? If you show up to work with a Swastika armband, place a copy of Mein Kampf on your desk, and insist upon grooming a square mustache, it is very likely your boss will tell you to clean out your desk and mail you your last paycheck.
If, shortly after the most Jews are killed in one day since the Holocaust, your reaction is to announce to the world, “I will not condemn Palestinian resistance,” go figure, a firm whose co-chairman was recently honored by the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation is not going to view those comments warmly and may well decide some other law student can do your job just as well without publicly cheering for terrorists.
Yesterday, Troy McKenzie, the dean of the NYU Law School, also put out a much-needed statement:
Some of you may have seen a message from the president of the Student Bar Association regarding the horrific conflict in Israel and Gaza. This message was not from NYU School of Law as an institution and does not speak for the leadership of the Law School. It certainly does not express my own views, because I condemn the killing of civilians and acts of terrorism as always reprehensible.
A bit further north, 150 members of the Harvard University faculty blasted both the statements of the pro-Hamas students and the administration’s mealy mouthed initial response:
As a University aimed at educating future leaders, this could have been a teaching moment and an opportunity to remind our students that beyond our political debates, some acts such as war crimes are simply wrong. However, the statement by Harvard’s administration fell short of this goal. While justly denouncing Hamas, it still contributed to the false equivalency between attacks on noncombatants and self-defense against those atrocities. Furthermore, the statement failed to condemn the justifications for violence that come from our own campus, nor to make it clear to the world that the statement endorsed by these organizations does not represent the values of the Harvard community. How can Jewish and Israeli students feel safe on a campus in which it is considered acceptable to justify and even celebrate the deaths of Jewish children and families?
We recognize that Harvard has students and community members from all regions, including from the Gaza Strip. These are not easy times, and we pray for the safety of all our members and their families. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and complex history. We hold varying opinions, but none of us endorses all of Israel’s past actions. However, the events of this week are not complicated. Sometimes there is such a thing as evil, and it is incumbent upon educators and leaders to call it out, as they have with school shootings and terrorist attacks. It is imperative that our academic leadership, whose good faith we do not doubt, state this clearly and unequivocally. Further, while individuals’ free speech should be protected, our leaders should make it clear that our community rejects any statements that excuse terrorist acts.
Maybe the Hamas defenders and knee-jerk Israel critics never realized that there could be consequences for what they say and choose to celebrate. Attention is the currency of social media, and for a long time, even alongside the phenomenon of cancel culture, our society incentivized making the most provocative, shocking, incendiary, and often repulsive or objectionable comments possible. “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” the foolish insist.
Well, declaring, “The Jews had it coming” in the aftermath of a bloodbath — the latest numbers are more than 1,200 dead and 2,700 injured — will certainly get attention. And everybody else in our society, the teeming throngs of good and decent people who still have functioning consciences, may well say, “To hell with you.”
*If you read the comments at NR, my assessment that Biden gave a good speech by his standards is evidence that I “put on my angry face whenever I talk about Trump, then hand wave away all of Biden’s controversies.” If you read the comments on Twitter/X, my assessment that Biden gave a good speech by his standards is evidence that National Review “is as nihilistic as Hamas is.”
It’s entirely possible that I go through life arrogantly believing that everybody who criticizes what I write is an idiot. But in my defense, a lot of the loudest ones really are idiots.
ADDENDUM: Here’s a closing paragraph from yesterday’s Corner post that I suspect encapsulates what we will be discussing in the year to come:
Men falling from planes desperate to leave Afghanistan, mass graves and war crimes in Ukraine, and now beheaded babies in Israel. We’ve all witnessed a lot of twisted bloodshed, sadism, cruelty, and brutality committed by evil men in a really short span of time. Next year, the Biden administration will go before the American people and argue that this tidal wave of rampaging evil has nothing to do with their decisions and policies. It’s just bad luck, I suppose, that in country after country, the world’s most evil men have no fear that America will find them and bring their atrocities to an end.