Pro-Palestinian Has Morphed Into Anti-Jewish

It’s More About Hating Jews Than Helping Palestinians

If there were a singular global protest movement for American and European progressives not to emulate it would be the Palestinian one. This uniquely unsuccessful enterprise has resorted to plane hijackings, the killing of Israeli Olympians, invented the suicide bomber, launched two failed “intifadas”, rejected multiple peace treaties and their violent efforts culminated with October 7, which predictably led to the destruction of Gaza.

Each time the “Free Palestine” movement has launched a war they have lost more land and every foray into terrorism has led to additional restrictions on freedom. In their infinite wisdom, they rewarded Israel for pulling out of Gaza in 2006 by electing Hamas.

The only thing Hamas has ever successfully “resisted” is the formation of a Palestinian State. When the Palestinians had chances to be a country, they preferred staying a trendy western cause. As the saying goes, they have “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

This decades-long, hapless crusade has only produced body counts and further radicalization of its participants. Yet, much of the American and European left has followed this flailing faction into a black hole of abject failure. They have inexplicably jumped on this foreign trainwreck as their new domestic political model. The results speak for themselves.

During the last election, for example, such activists histrionically howled “Genocide Joe!” and “Killer Kamala!”, helping to deflate democratic turnout and elect the fascist Donald Trump.

We knew this dynamic would happen because we’ve seen it before. To destroy the Oslo accords peace deal, Hamas launched a string of deadly suicide bombings. The result was helping elect a Machiavellian madman, Benjamin Netanyahu, energizing right wing Israeli politics and crushing the Israeli left.

Good work, guys.

The so-called intifada uprisings horribly backfired in the Middle East, yet too many pro-Palestinian activists in the West seek to “globalize the intifada.” We can already see the deadly results for Jews, as well as the same political boomerang for Palestinians.

In May, a couple who worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were shot dead while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. As the police hauled away the shooter, Chicago-based Elias Rodriguez, he shouted “Free Palestine.”

Yesterday, Mohamed Sabry Soliman used a “makeshift flamethrower” to injure eight Denver residents who were marching peacefully in support of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

To highlight the absurdity of the pro-Palestinian movement, the suspect is an Egyptian citizen who stayed in the United States after his tourist visa expired in 2023. Not only did this loser not help a single Palestinian, but he also took the focus off suffering in Gaza and provided Trump a fresh rationale to help push for a new Muslim travel ban. As usual, those trying to “help” Palestinians do nothing but setback their cause.

Increasingly, some pro-Palestinian activists, apparently frustrated with their inability to influence events in Gaza, think they can get through to Israel by harassing or terrorizing Jews in the U.S. and Europe. They might be surprised to learn that their despicable actions anger and galvanize Jews more than scare them.

If the violent wing of the pro-Palestinian movement thinks they can bully and terrorize Jews into silence, they would do well to reevaluate their plan. These thugs likely have a misperception of Jews, because they encountered passive Jewish scholars on university campuses. If they continue their intimidation campaign, they are surely going to meet a different set of Jews that aren’t as congenial.

There is an increasing sentiment that if pro-Palestinian mobs want to “globalize the intifada”, western Jews will have no choice but to organize and “globalize Israel’s response”.

This is not to say that the violent wing of the pro-Palestinian movement is a majority—because it certainly is not. I know plenty of wonderful, peaceful people in that movement that I’ve collaborated with on other social issues.

However, the non-violent activists, who do care about Palestinian lives, appear strikingly reluctant to call out extremists in their midst. It’s as if they are afraid to get on the bad side of these radicals or don’t want to be ostracized and shunned by progressive leaders.

The result is that the pro-Palestinian movement has become increasingly shrill. A sizable portion of their in-person protests, and online behavior, has become a dystopian cesspool of antisemitic rage and toxic conspiracy theories.

In the name of saving Palestinians, a shocking number of “progressives” in this movement believe it’s appropriate to compare Jews to Nazis, work to turn the word “Zionist” into the new N-word (while gaslighting by denying it), say they wish the Holocaust had been more successful, call for the end of Israel, and nastily accuse Jews, who merely support Israel’s existence, of backing “GENOCIDE”. This is true, even if they reject Netanyahu’s policies.

As usual, the bilious calumnies of the pro-Palestinian movement have the opposite effect of that intended. Instead of decreasing Jewish support for Israel, which I assume is their goal, they cause most Jewish people to recoil and reflexively embrace Israel as a bulwark against antisemitism. Their actions lead Jewish people, who are disgusted by the current policies of Israel, to look the other way—because the “other team” is so vile.

It hasn’t gone without notice that huge numbers of “progressive” supporters downplayed the horrors of October 7, regularly pretend the Israeli hostages in Gaza don’t exist because it is inconvenient to their narrative, and some have even turned a blind eye to brutal rapes against Jewish women.

Similarly, these same folks, who fancy themselves social justice warriors, halfheartedly condemned the recent antisemitic terrorism in Washington and Denver. They always start by saying they “oppose the violence…. but…”

There is no “but”.

You can’t be a self-proclaimed progressive peace activist, then find a way to justify slaughter because it aligns with your goals. In doing so, a growing number of these folks increasingly sound like Osama bin Laden, who also justified mass murder to achieve political ends. Is it only a matter of time before a radicalized lunatic, in a fit of self-righteous rage, flies an airplane into a skyscraper or sports stadium, while screaming, “Free Palestine”?

Bruce Hoffman nailed it when he wrote in The Atlantic:

Terrorism doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It depends on the oxygen of rhetoric for sustenance and encouragement. Nearly two years after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, the cumulative effect of calls to “Globalize the intifada” and “End Zionists” perhaps inevitably led to the horrific attack yesterday in Boulder, Colorado, where a man yelled “Free Palestine” as he threw an incendiary device at a Jewish gathering in support of the hostages.

The western pro-Palestinian movement isn’t taken seriously because they rarely offer tangible solutions. Their original sin is a pathological obsession with Israel’s founding in 1948. They chronically talk about Israel as if its very existence is a mere theory, or academic exercise, to bandy about in fancy coffee shops.

In the real world, it’s now 2025 and Israel is a thriving country with major cities, a healthy economy and a population of nearly 10 million people. Yet, much of the pro-Palestinian world thinks if they scream loud enough, these 10 million people are going to pack their bags, abandon their homes and leave. To where exactly? These fools have no idea.

In the infinite wisdom of their hallucinogenic fever dreams, millions of Jews will willfully return to Europe where their forefathers were murdered in bloody pogroms or slaughtered in Nazi death camps. Meanwhile, the Israeli Jews from the Middle East will return to the Arab countries that previously expelled them, to live under autocratic or Sharia law. Such progressive delusions are so ludicrous that one suspects they party at all-night ketamine bars with Elon Musk.

Sadly, these activists are piggybacking on the horrors of Gaza to cynically peddle their political agenda—which is hating Jews, while trying to delegitimize Israel and wipe it off the map. In doing so, they delegitimize themselves and render their impotent cause one that is more interested in self-righteous slogans than finding actual solutions. In their self-serving zeal, they also split the progressive movement and open the door to MAGA-style fascism.

Even more outrageous, is these hypocritical activists caterwaul about “stolen land” from the comfortable confines of Manhattan and Chicago—basically land heisted from Native Americans. At no point do they consider selling their own homes to return the land to Native Americans. Why not?

The European progressives are even worse. They have the nerve to question Zionism? We only have Zionism because their ancestors murdered mine and forced us to flee. I’m sure there were many Jews who would have preferred to stay in the lovely cities of Paris, London or Berlin, instead of fleeing to some dusty, scorching desert, but that wasn’t really an option, now was it?

The tragedy of the pro-Palestinian movement is that it would be so easy to build bridges and succeed. Netanyahu is a hated figure on the Israeli, European and American left. He cavorts with odious Jewish supremacists, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security, and Bezalel Yoel Smotrich, Minister of Finance.

In the West Bank, you have right wing settlers engaged in Jewish Jihad. They are bullying Palestinian farmers—which enrages mainstream Jews. Meanwhile, attempts to stall aid and starve children in Gaza is unspeakably cruel and unconscionable.

Many of us agree with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who wrote an opinion piece for Haaretz newspaper saying that Israel is now, “committing war crimes” in Gaza and “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed.” Olmert, who served as Israel’s 12th prime minister from 2006 to 2009, accused the current government of “waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success.”

He concluded: “Never since its establishment has the state of Israel waged such a war … The criminal gang headed by (Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history in this area, too.”

Many of us understand that too many Israeli citizens and right-wing Jews have lost their damn minds. Just yesterday I came across a social media post where supporters of Israel were making sick jokes about starving children in Gaza. Way too many of these zealots have become desensitized to atrocities and are sympathetic to irrational arguments about Palestinian displacement (or worse). Such horrific actions would be a historic mistake and an eternal stain on Judaism.

Many Jews are disillusioned with the current policies and want something better for both Jews and Palestinians. But, sadly, that’s not enough for large sections of the pro-Palestinian movement. They rather cater to crackpots, who portray Hamas as “freedom fighters”, than form winning coalitions. They would prefer ideological purity over practicality.

For example, they know damn well that singing “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at protests is divisive and alienates most Jews. “But, hey, who cares if it’s toxic, when it’s lyrical!”

This really is the definition “rhyme without reason”, but it defines the hapless futility of the largely performative pro-Palestinian movement. There are actual Palestinians that could use their help, but at every turn, they put their own narcissism in front of creating a better world for the people they purport to care so deeply about.

Next time, instead of angrily bellowing “Free Palestine”, maybe try chanting, “choose peace in the middle east.” It might not provide an emotional release, but maybe it will make your message more palatable for the masses.