Has Hamas Opened Some Leftist Eyes to the Horror of What They’ve Done?

By George Leef

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

 

Many people on the Left, saturated with the “oppressor versus oppressed” ideology of progressivism, leapt to condemn Israel and voice their solidarity with Hamas after the barbaric attacks of October 7. Some even described the killers as “martyrs.” But not everyone on the Left reacted that way. A few dared to ignore the blather about “context” and label the Hamas assault as murder.

 

Does this create an opening for those of us who generally see government power as the source of trouble? Can we take advantage of the horror to convince open-eyed leftists that they ought to reconsider their support for government interventionism?

 

Yes, argues Bob Graboyes in his latest Bastiat’s Window post. 

 

He thinks that there are sensible people on the left who might be receptive to perhaps 20 percent of our case for true liberalism. We should try to pry them away from thoroughgoing statism now that they’ve been shaken up by the viciousness of Hamas and the way so many of their ideological allies cheered it.

 

I particularly like Graboyes’ likening such people to Colonel Nicholson in that famous movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. He writes,

 

Nicholson becomes a sort of Dr. Frankenstein, with the bridge as the monster he loves and protects. His actions cost the lives of the allied saboteurs who are working to dynamite the bridge. As the movie ends, he watches a saboteur who hates him killed by Japanese forces. Suddenly shocked into awareness, Nicholson removes his cap, scratches the back of his head, and asks outloud, “What have I done?” Struck by shrapnel, he stumbles over to the plunger and falls lifeless upon its handle, thereby blowing the bridge apart just as a trainload of Japanese dignitaries is crossing the span. Viewers are left to wonder whether Nicholson’s final action was purposeful or accidental. Major Clipton, looking upon the destruction Nicholson has wrought, says, simply, “Madness!!!”

 

Leftists with any shred of decency may now be asking themselves the “What have I done?” question. They rejoiced over the decades as they took over American education, using it to promote their views about the awfulness of America, the Constitution, free enterprise, etc. Now they find that their supposed political allies have used that control to turn students into intolerant haters of Jews.

 

I think Graboyes nails it with his conclusion: “Hamas’s brutality, university administrators’ fecklessness, and protestors’ avarice has handed opponents of antisemitism a great gift. My right-of-center friends would be utter fools to waste this opportunity in the interests of stoking the polarization that characterizes our era. “Owning the libs” must take a back seat to combating antisemitism.”