It’s hard to write about work at this moment. I have so many conflicting feelings that I hardly knew what to write this week. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I imagine that I am more sensitized than many to the horrors of antisemitic violence, and am deeply troubled when I detect indifference or worse in the wake of such horrors.
The inconceivably barbaric assault by Hamas last weekend has been met by widespread condemnation. Polls suggest that the American public generally supports a strong response by Israel to protect itself and its citizens. But I am disquieted by the emerging narrative that focuses less on the innocent victims of terrorist atrocities than on the impact of the Israeli response in Gaza. The two are causally linked, but they are not morally equivalent. Irrespective of the status of Israeli-Palestinian relations, Hamas chose to brutally kill, maim and hold hostages, without direct provocation. They are solely responsible for this crisis.
During the week, I was thinking about an alternate scenario, in which violent extremists from a historically aggrieved group with legitimate complaints set out to kill as many residents of Washington, DC, as they could so they could claim the city as their own. They planned extensively, and on a quiet weekend morning embarked on a lethal rampage in a nice section of town, killing more than 1,000 innocent people, including children and the elderly, taking hostages back to their secure enclave and threatening to broadcast executions of the hostages if they don’t get their way. How would you feel? How would you want our government to respond? Throw up its hands? Do nothing? Give in to the terrorists? I don’t think so.
Yet that is what some, including students at elite universities, seem to desire. It is not my nature to be on the lookout for antisemitism, but I can’t help feeling that the vehement anti-Israel sentiments floating around since the Hamas attack echo hateful ancient tropes. Universities should be homes for vigorous, open-minded and respectful debate, and everyone ¾ everyone ¾ should feel cared about and welcome. No scapegoats. I fervently hope that the Georgetown community embraces these ideas at this unprecedented, trying time.
As I mentioned in my blog last week, there is an essential difference between terrorism and the complex, confusing issues that have bedeviled the Middle East for a very long time. Violence is not the answer. Murdering babies in front of their parents solves nothing. Eliminating terrorism is necessary if there is to be justice for everyone in the Middle East.
I stand for the end of terrorism and for continued work toward justice. I hope you do too.
Stay safe and be well.
Lou
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