It has almost been one year since Hamas launched a devastating surprise attack on Israel, slaughtering civilians and taking hostages.
Since then, a wave of antisemitism has cropped up and has been sweeping the nation. Anti-Israel protesters have staged wild demonstrations on college campuses and elsewhere, calling on institutions to cut ties with the Jewish state over what they allege is a “genocide” happening in Gaza.
As these attacks on Israel continue, it has become even more apparent that the opposition to the country’s actions against Hamas is not rooted in love for Palestinian civilians but in something far more sinister.
Agam Goldstein-Almog, a young Israeli woman who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, penned an op-ed describing her experience in captivity and what she found when she was finally released.
Goldstein-Almog details her ordeal, which began with Hamas terrorists "charg[ing] into [her] home," shooting her father and sister “in a furious ecstasy of hate.”
Then came Oct. 7. Hamas terrorists charged into our home, shooting my father, Nadav, and sister, Yam, in a furious ecstasy of hate. I was dragged out of the house together with my mother and two younger brothers and forced into a car to Gaza. I see my father’s fading eyes when I close mine at night.
Arriving in Gaza, the car was surrounded by a mob, mostly people who appeared to be about my own age, 17, or younger. They smiled and laughed as I wept.
The author goes on to describe the “brless hatred” the terrorists showed toward her, her family, and other Israeli hostages.
My Hamas guards hated me for being Jewish, so I was coerced into reciting Islamic prayers and made to wear a hijab. I was forbidden from mourning my father and sister, and often ordered to look down at the ground. Six female hostages I met in a tunnel told me about men with guns who came into their shower rooms and touched their bodies.
Hearing about these young women’s fear of sexual abuse was agonizing. When one of my guards told me that he would find me a “husband” in Gaza, and that I would live the rest of my life as a chained slave-wife, my mother interrupted, deflecting his advances. I was fortunate to be released, along with my family members, in a prisoner exchange after 51 days. But those six young women are still in captivity, held for more than 300 days, without their mothers. They all should have come home a long time ago.
Fortunately, Goldstein-Almog was set free during a prisoner exchange. Tragically, this was not the end of her exposure to “brless hatred.” She describes the responses she would get after posts on social media and in articles that told her story. “The comment sections of news articles mentioning my name were battlefields, as hatred from one side was met with hatred from the other,” she writes.
The author recalls watching “as the movement in the West for a Gaza cease-fire sometimes devolves into full-throated support for Hamas and the hounding of Jews in public spaces.”
She adds: “I’m sure my kidnappers still hate me, but when American students call for “intifada” or chant in praise of Hamas terrorists “Al-Qassam, you make us proud,” I’m reminded that many other people do, too.”
Goldstein-Almog’s experience highlights a sad reality about the debate surrounding Israel and the Palestinians in the West. It further reveals what is truly motivating many of those participating in anti-Israel protests: Hatred.
Yes, some folks are genuinely concerned about how the war in Gaza has affected people on both sides of the conflict. However, the pro-Hamas elements on college campuses and in other areas of the public square do not fit into this category.
The demonstrations against Israel happening in the United States have nothing to do with helping the Palestinians. It is about anti-Israel agitators using the current war in Gaza to elevate themselves while attacking the Jewish state.
This can be seen in their actions. In many cases, these people have harassed and even physically attacked Jewish people in the U.S. In one instance, a pro-Hamas protester stabbed a Jewish student journalist in the eye using a Palestinian flag.
At Columbia University, Jewish students faced serious threats during the protests. One protester was caught on camera holding a sign that threatened Jewish students with violence. The situation became so dangerous that a campus rabbi urged Jewish students to leave for their safety.
A student at Cornell University was sentenced to prison after making violent threats online. He called for people to slaughter and rape Jewish students.
Even further, pro-Hamas protesters at UCLA physically prevented Jewish students from going to class. The university police were instructed not to intervene on behalf of the students.
Harassing and assaulting Jewish students clearly isn’t going to help the Palestinian civilians the protesters claim to care about. However, it can cause Jewish students to feel afraid to voice their support for Israel and their views on the overall conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The actions of these protesters will not do anything to solve the situation in the Middle East, nor will it help Palestinian civilians. If anything, it only alienates people who might otherwise be sympathetic. The agitators know this but continue their thuggery anyway.
The reason why is that it is not love for the Palestinians that drives these people to engage in these antics – it is a deep hatred for the Jewish people and the State of Israel. As I’ve pointed out before, none of these folks will condemn Hamas, the group that has oppressed civilians in Gaza since they were elected. Instead, their animosity is aimed at Israel and Jewish folks in the United States.