You Are Not Allowed to Side With Palestine
An Unbiased American View
You are not allowed to support Palestine. This isn’t an issue of free speech or censorship–you are inflaming hate crimes against Jews by denouncing the Israeli state.1 No matter how carefully worded, critiques of Zionism sloganize “exterminate all Jews.”2
When you side with Palestine, you side with Hamas, a terrorist organization that tries to indoctrinate liberals all over the world with its decolonial propaganda.3 “Decolonization” is another code word for terrorism, which is why Israel prohibits its citizens from viewing any terrorist’s posts on social media.4 To help sift through the misinformation, Israel flooded YouTube with pro-war commercials promising to protect Israeli babies.5 Israel’s censorship, propaganda, and control over the media are not precursors for the genocide of human animals–these measures prevent people from inadvertently siding with beasts whose lives don’t matter enough to be targets of genocide.6
Indeed, Hamas must be bombed out of Gaza even if that means turning Gaza “into a parking lot”–as one United States Congress person stated–but not the Palestinian-American one who was necessarily censured for supporting Palestine.7 The threat of terrorism must be eliminated even if victory comes at the expense of blowing up the human shields Hamas hides behind.
The human shields Hamas uses include Palestinian civilians and the 240 hostages from Israel that Hamas took. If you support Palestine, you clearly don’t care that Israel is forced to kill its own, along with everyone else. What’s more, you disrespect the lives of the 1,400 people killed during the unprecedented attack on October 7th, give or take the few that died from IDF crossfire.8
Considering these atrocities, Israel must stop the free water and food it generously provides to the Gaza Strip, previously ensuring that Gazans consume the bare minimum for survival.9 Israel shouldn’t have to literally feed the people who violently resist its occupation.
Additionally, Israel must surveil and limit who and what crosses the Gazan borders–including the movement of Palestinian workers who construct and serve Israeli settlements–because it cannot risk weapon deliveries to Hamas.10 It must, therefore, shut off the electricity and the Internet when it sees fit, too.11
Have you ever considered how tough it is to find Hamas since Israel doesn’t allow the occupied territory of Gaza to keep an above-ground government and military?12 How else, except by indiscriminately bombing schools, hospitals, mosques, and refugee camps, will the IDF root out Hamas from its underground tunnels?13
Again, what about any of these tactics scream genocide?14
For the most significant attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, 10,000+ Palestinian lives, over 3,000 of them children, are not enough in compensation.15 Please don’t forget, too, all of the unconfirmed cases of sexually assaulted women and beheaded babies.16 Lack of evidence doesn’t mean a lack of fear and outrage.
How can you know all of these things and still deny that Israel—under its Iron Dome with its nuclear weapons and one of the largest and most expensive militaries in the world—has a right to defend itself?17
Although Israel does not recognize Palestinian sovereignty, it is at war with the ungracious foe it set free in 2005 when it removed its citizens and military from Gaza.18 That’s right—it gave the land back to Palestine. However, when Hamas won a democratic election in 2007, Israel had no choice but to control Gaza’s borders for security purposes. Israel has a right to do all of these things to keep its citizens safe. Blame Hamas for relegating its own constituents to an “open-air prison.” 19
Everything was running smoothly until Hamas, which offers suicide bombers instead of peaceful negotiations, broke the ceasefire.20 How can you now ask for another ceasefire? This war would end in a snap if Hamas would just return the hostages.21
How can you refute Israel’s compassionate “humanitarian pauses?”22 They are a purely altruistic move; that’s why they’re called humanitarian. Surely, everyone on both sides of this bloody conflict deserves an extended lunch break. These pauses will even allow humanitarian organizations to deliver meals to not-yet-starved or displaced Gazans.23
In fact, Netanyahu only agreed to such pauses after facing pressure from your well-informed President Biden.24 Biden supports Israel, and you should, too, because if you don’t back up Biden, you are allowing Donald Trump to get re-elected in 2024.25
Biden has your best interests in mind even when he goes against his own Democratic party and the popular opinion of the general public by refusing a ceasefire.26 Besides, our heroes Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have not called for a ceasefire, either.27 And, while Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for a ceasefire, even she knows that pro-Palestine protests are antisemitic.28
Honoring Israel’s autonomy, Biden also honors an alliance formed in 1948 when England and the United States gifted colonized Palestine to the nationless Zionists.29 Jewish people had just gone through the horrors of the Holocaust, so I believe they can recognize genocide when they see one.30
Thus, England colonized Palestine so that Israel didn’t have to. It’s therefore needlessly inflammatory to call Zionists “white colonizers.” Plenty of apartheid-nation-building Israelis don’t even see themselves as white.31
Additionally, the creation of Israel has allowed the United States to maintain an influential, necessary, and coercive presence in the Middle East.32 As Israel and the United States’ militaries train and support each other, Israel’s brutal surveillance of Gaza has led to important military technological advancements that it sells to the rest of the world.33 Their special relationship thus helps them broker peace, profit from gas, oil, and war, prevent Soviet expansion, stymie terrorism . . . the reasons expand into the 21st century just like Israel’s borders.34
Having gone through 9/11, I’d really expect you to keep a cooler head about all of this. No one regrets invading Iraq, even though we now know that the claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction were fabricated and false.35 Dick Cheney definitely does not regret it. During the Iraq War, this visionary sought to expand executive power and presidential authority while profiting from Haliburton’s rebuilding of Iraq.36
In that war, over 100,000 civilians died, and our surviving veterans have merely endured irreversible physical and mental health problems.37 Plus, the war guaranteed President Bush’s re-election. We love a warmongering President!38 Show Biden the same respect.
We should be thankful that Biden isn’t as right-wing and authoritarian as Netanyahu.39 The Biden Administration would never allow for the LGBTQ community to be attacked like it is in Israel, and our government recognizes women as equal to men.40
Reviewing all of the blatant propaganda, we should realize that the truth will only set us free if we can find it. That’s why Israel had to target and kill journalists supporting Palestine–to stop the spread of lies.41 In the United States, social media platforms, universities, and other institutions should silence dissenting voices.42 People absolutely must lose their jobs for publicly supporting Palestine and making us all unsafe.43
I hope this essay has helped you see the truth or at least know where to look for it. I also hope it makes you think twice before posting in defense of Hamas on your social media accounts and before taking to the streets to celebrate your hatred of Jews. These activities are not illegal in the United States, but they might be soon. Until then, you are a disgrace to a country that ultimately does not care about you and what you think anyway.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance helps define antisemitism, underlining that criticisms of the Israeli state are not antisemitic. I would like to underline, too, that not all Jews identify as Zionists and vice versa. Moreover, many Jews and Israelis do not agree with or support the Israeli state for a variety of reasons. I am using a brusque, satirical tone to mimic and critique how I interpret the Israeli state’s presentation of itself, which the United States and Biden Administration support and parrot. For Israeli State propaganda sources and examples, visit the Israeli State Instagram @stateofisrael and the IDF Instagram @idf. Or, search YouTube for news footage of Netanyahu, Edward Said’s account of meeting him, or Israeli governmental officials speaking in English, which they do to reach American ears.
Wikipedia entry about Zionism. It should also be noted, again, that when I talk about Israel, I am talking about the Israeli State, not the civilians who may or may not dispute the country’s Zionist ethnonationalism and military actions. I adopt the divisive language of Israel vs. Palestine to underline the Us vs. Them propaganda proliferated by the Israeli State, which misconstrues this conflict as a war between Jews and radical Islamicists.
Wikipedia entry about Hamas, which neither confirms nor denies Hamas as a terrorist organization. It seems that you might be able to stand with Palestine if you first openly and loudly condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization with the mission to kill all Jews, a point not outlined in their charter. I also want to point out that, in public discourse, while we are encouraged to falsely assume that“Palestine” means “Hamas,” which also means “terrorist organization,” pejorative associations with Israel, the Israeli state, and Zionism—such as “illegal occupiers” or “colonizers”—are heralded as antisemitic even as none of these terms are synonymous with all Jews and sects of Judaism. The paradox of this double standard becomes increasingly head-spinning as we watch footage of IDF soldiers beating anti-Zionist rabbis.
Al Jazeera article: “Israeli parliament bill criminalises ‘consumption of terrorist materials’, Human rights groups say the amendment to Israel’s counterterrorism law is tantamount to thought policing.”
Middle East Eye article: “Israel-Palestine war: The incendiary rhetoric deployed by Israeli leaders, Israeli leaders have referred to Palestinians as beasts and called for a second Nakba, the reoccupation of Gaza and the use of nuclear weapons.”
Vox article: “The House censure of Rashida Tlaib, explained.”
I’m not suggesting that any Israelis were actually killed in IDF crossfire. However, I want to bring your attention to the Hannibal Directive.
This Vox video provides a brief overview of how the Gaza Strip was created. Also, from The Guardian: “Crisis in Gaza: why food, water and power are running out.”
NPR article: “Israel's war with Hamas disrupts Palestinian workers and Israeli employers alike.”
From Wired: “Internet Blackouts in Gaza Are a New Weapon in the Israel-Hamas War.”
Does Palestine have a military? Short answer: no.
The United Nations is asking its members to prevent genocide in Palestine.
The Nation article: “We Must Not Let the Truth Become a Casualty of This War.”
From Newsweek: “How Does Israel's Military Compare to Hamas Forces?” And, from The Guardian: “What are the rules of war – and how do they apply to the Israel-Gaza conflict?” And, from Jacobin: “As an Occupier, Israel Has No Right to ‘Self-Defense.’”
Human Rights Watch on Gaza after 15 years of being an “open-air prison,” and how the illegal blockade is deadly for children.
From The Guardian: “Netanyahu rejected ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, sources say.”
Al Jazeera on what “humanitarian pauses” will mean for Gaza. NPR has reported that Israel is now expanding the pause into a corridor.
NBC News update on how many Gazans have been displaced. Reuters on the same statement.
The Nation opinion piece about not being able to vote for Biden.
From The Guardian: “Progressive Democrats bring resolution calling for ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war.” While writing this, Sanders finally released a public statement supporting a ceasefire. However, the amount of time he spent dragging his feet on this issue still sustains my point.
And many Jews and survivors of the Holocaust do speak out against Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
I am directly responding to this New York Times opinion piece.
Middle East Eye on Biden’s history of pro-Israel statements. Also, The Council On Foreign Relations discusses how oil dependency impacts US foreign policy.
Wikipedia entry about Israel-United States Military Relations. There’s also this, this, and, regarding who profits from weapons and war, this.
On Cheney and Haliburton. This, too.
Casualties of the Iraq War.
The Human Rights Campaign about violence against LGBTQ in 2023; the Human Rights Watch on the overturning of Roe V. Wade.
Al Jazeera on the death of journalists during the conflict; criticism of the New York Times’ biased coverage of Gaza.
About students being arrested; colleges losing their way on free speech; social media platforms censoring users. The AP reports that Brown, Columbia, MIT, and the university from which I received my Ph.D., Brandeis, have all shut down student groups and protests or have otherwise silenced students and faculty on this issue. Interestingly to me, President Ron Liebowitz accuses Brandeis’ chapter for the National Students for Justice in Palestine of siding with Hamas and calling for “the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people,” which sounds like the authoritarian language propagated by the Israeli state that is openly mocked in this essay.
Students fear their careers are threatened; Art Forum editor fired after writing letter in support of Palestine.