On Oct. 10, days after Hamas launched its depraved attack on Israel, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about some progressive members in Congress who were calling for a cease-fire and de-escalation. She did not try to hide her disgust.
“We believe they’re wrong,” she declared at a press conference. “We believe they’re repugnant and we believe they’re disgraceful.”
Yikes. What exactly did these progressives, most of whom are a part of what’s called “The Squad,” say that was so outside of the bounds of civilized discourse?
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said that, besides “condemning Hamas’ attacks, we must also oppose an Israeli military response that has already taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinians.”
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said she was “heartbroken” by the violence against Israeli civilians but also called for “ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
And Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, said: “The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other.”
Such talk has led to the filing of censure resolutions against Tlaib in Congress. It also got her chased through the hallways of a House office building by a Fox News reporter demanding to know whether she objected to “Hamas terrorists chopping off babies’ heads,” referring to unverified reports. She told the news outlet Michigan Advance, “I do not support the targeting and killing of civilians, whether in Israel or Palestine.”
Even before Israel’s planned ground invasion to wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth, the death toll involving Palestinian civilians has far surpassed the 1,400 Israelis killed in the original Oct. 7 attack. Of the more than 8,300 Palestians who have perished as of Oct. 30, nearly 3,500 are children.
The argument has been made by the American Jewish Committee and others that the deaths are not comparable, as Hamas deliberately targeted civilians while those who have been foreseeably killed by Israel’s punishing air strikes are “collateral damage.” It’s a distinction whose relevance is likely to be lost on those who are killed, and those left to mourn them. What’s disgraceful and repugnant is war itself.
I, for one, do not want a single penny of my tax dollars to pay for missiles that end the lives of children, no matter how wrong a place they happen to be in at how wrong a time. I do not want the United States to help Israel deliver the oversized carnage that ensures an endless supply of future martyrs for Hamas’ bloody cause.
In this war, as in others that have come before, our capacity for decency is being put to the test. There is a decades-long legacy of oppression of Palestinians that must be acknowledged. There is a need for restraint in Israel’s national defense that deserves support both from within that country and from the global community.
I join with those on the progressive left, in Congress and elsewhere, who say there’s been enough killing already.