The primary goal of pro-Palestinian protestors is vilification of Israel rather support of Palestinian Arabs, as is suggested by these activists’ silence when Palestinians are murdered by other Arabs, most recently Hamas’ executions of opposing Gazans. Indeed, their limited perspective lacks focus on other contemporary ethnic conflicts such as Arabs attacking Africans in Sudan and Muslim persecution of Christians in Nigeria. The most apparent explanation for the anti-Israel monomania on campuses, in the United Nations, and elsewhere is that Israel’s direct opposition consists of populous, politically active, and oil-supported Muslims.
But why do non-Muslims join the anti-Israel frenzy -- even to the point of celebration of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli citizens? Two easy answers are ignorance and antisemitism. But these factors are hardly comprehensive. Observers have noted that anti-Israel sentiment is fostered by biased reporting, tendentious analysis, and lack of historical knowledge. Again, true but incomplete. Rarely noted are several factors extrinsic to the conflict itself.
As to media bias, several watchdog organizations publicize the frequent misreporting and misinterpretation in the mainstream media. For example, academics, journalists, and others characterize Israel’s military campaign as genocide despite Israel’s warnings to Gazan civilians prior to attacks on nearby military targets, provision of food to this overwhelmingly hostile population, and achievement of a remarkably low civilian-to-military fatality ratio even though Hamas uses its own people as human shields. This assessment is bitterly ironic given a prevalent Hamas’ goal of genocide of Jews, foreshadowed by the October 7 massacre. Related is the charge of Israeli apartheid that is contradicted by the prominence of Arabs in all walks of life including Israel’s Supreme Court, parliament, and military -- again in contrast to the Judenrein Palestinian -- and other Arab-controlled areas where even Jewish passersby would risk their lives.
Moreover, with limited knowledge of history, protestors claim as indigenous the descendants of 19th and 20th-century Muslim immigrants from Algeria, Egypt, and Syria into the Palestine region , overlook that so-called settlements include areas once populated predominantly by Jews (notably the Old City of Jerusalem, ethnically cleansed of Jews by the Jordanian Army in 1948), and disregard the mass expulsion of Jews from Arab countries shortly after the modern state of Israel was reborn. Despite Israel vacating Gaza in 2005, some still describe the area as Israeli-occupied. Few are aware of the goal of Islamic supremacy reflected in past and intended future colonialism and conquest. Eliminating Israel has been the enduring Hamas and Palestinian Authority intention, hence their refusal to negotiate several two-state proposals over the years.
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