Ivo Welch: June 2024
How can the otherwise presumably smart people in the progressive momenent be so mind-bogglingly stupid? Just step back and ask yourself (as also Thomas Friedman often asks): "What would your worst enemy want you to do?" The Ku Klux Klan (and Donald Trump) could not possibly have thought of a more effective false-flag operation than what progressives are performing for the public every day now without prompting (though with surreptitious fanning from foreign actors).
Let's assume that racial and gender diversity, equity, justice, anti-racism, affirmative action, and other progressive causes are perfectly justified. Alas, when progressives imagine that their vocal demands only promote their stated objectives, they seem to forget that Whites (especially in rural areas beyond their few select progressive cities) are also listening. And not only do they vote, but they are also still in the majority. What good can possibly come from emphasizing tribal differences? We shouldn't pick a fight with a knife if the other party has a gun. Instead, we should emphasize commonalities — such as the fact that poor people of all colors and backgrounds are disadvantaged, and that we are all in the same boat competing with other countries for our economic survival and anti-democratic countries for our political survival. Unfortunately, our progresssive and populist stupidities have set back many a good cause by decades, and this also has dire consequences for universities and enlightened democracies more broadly.
What good can a sit-in on a campus do? Divestments of university endowments could not possibly make any difference.
Why don't we instead try to organize humanitarian help for the poor Palestinian civilians suffering in Gaza1? And if not our own money, we could even ask endowments to channel the thus-foregone returns directly to the population? (What did donors want?) And why don't we also help the millions more poor civilians in Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, Venezuela, and North Korea, while we are at it, too. They also deserve our attention, they also very much need help, and humanitarian aid could also save their lives. The situations of innocent civilians caught in conflicts is heart-breaking.
Hamas is a murderous medieval Islamic terror organization: anti-modern, anti-feminist, anti-LBTQ, anti-diverse, Sharia-based, anti-secular, anti-Christian/Jewish/Bhuddist/Hindu. They don't even hide it. Read their charter. Ask what they do in practice to apostates, atheists, and critics. Ask them what they aspire to. Salman Rushdie considers them to be like the Taliban. The G'd of Hamas is definitely neither progressive nor tolerant of progressives.
I hope the university protesters' goal is not to extend Hamas' rule from the river to the sea — although such an outcome would practically ensure that the Jews would suffer the same fate as the Yazidis did under the equivalent ISIS. The Christians might merely suffer the same fate as other Christians in the Middle East — being driven out. And the Palestinians, whom Hamas does not represent, would end up like Afghanis and Iranians: happy under the freedoms granted by Mullahs.
If it is correct, then Israel's throttling of humanitarian aid (food and medicines) to the civilian population would be atrocious. Food and medicines for innocent civiliarns should be a top priority. (PS: I hate Israel's government and its settlers, too; and the Westbank is now Apartheid, but this is another matter. Vote Netanyahu out of office ASAP and evict the settlers!)
Does Hamas have the right to do what it did on Oct 7 and repeat it, as they stated they would? Does Israel have a right to prevent "righteous" repeats?
Are we willing to win a war against evil? Does the inevitable killing of innocent bystanders — which Hamas seeks out — mean we have no choice but to give in?
What better choices do Israelis have now? 60% of Israel's population descended from Jews expelled from their Arab country homelands, and another 20% are Muslim Arabs. (Western Jews are a minority.) Should they live under a Syrian-, Afghan-, Iranian-, Sudanese-, Egyptian- or Lebanese-inspired system?
I sometimes wonder who the protesters consider to be the lesser evil: Hamas or Israel?
1: The 1/3 civilian casualty rate is lower than it has been in other recent wars. This is cold comfort to the innocent victims.