Hamas attack exposes the bankruptcy of the far left and right

There is always a danger in using a foreign crisis, particularly one as horrific as the war against Israel launched by the Hamas terror group over the weekend, as a source of lessons on domestic American political issues. And yet in this case, it’s a plain fact that the new war in the Middle East has already had an effect on political alignment in the United States, exposing the bankruptcy of both the progressivist left and the populist right.

Expressions of solidarity with Hamas by large portions of the left have been widely seen as a “masks off” moment. The raids which began Saturday and were conducted with truly unspeakable cruelty — entire families including babies and children gunned down, elderly men and women murdered in their homes with photos and videos of their murders sometimes posted to their social media accounts for their relatives to see, young women abducted and reportedly raped, the motionless and nearly naked body of one woman paraded like a hunting trophy on the back of a truck — were hailed as “resistance” by the oppressed by a number of American academics and activists.

At a rally in Manhattan organized by the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that includes progressive members of Congress as well as local politicians, a speaker cheered the Hamas attack on a music festival where at least 260 young people were slaughtered and many other taken hostage. (Several group members, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have finally condemned the cheerleading.) Several Black Lives Matter chapters shared an image celebrating the Hamas paratroopers who attacked the concert. Student groups at Harvard and other top universities issued statements blaming the murderous attacks entirely on Israel.

Many people have said that such shocking reactions from the left reveal progressive antisemitism. But while some American Hamas sympathizers are no doubt antisemitic, the real source of those sympathies on the left is the mindset that neatly divides the world into “oppressors” and “oppressed” and labels industrialized liberal democracies as “the oppressor.” In this calculus, which ignores the complex history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israelis are the evil colonizers and Palestinians are the righteous, victimized “people of color.” Never mind that many Israeli Jews are Black and brown people driven out, or rescued, from Middle Eastern and African countries.

While the left is discredited, so is the “America First” populist right. The current crisis makes especially obvious the need for American leadership on the international scene, in alliance with other liberal democracies. One may legitimately criticize various aspects of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy, such as attempts at rapprochement with Iran, a known Hamas sponsor. But Republican attempts to blame the attacks on Biden are irresponsible and morally repugnant. Donald Trump’s disjointed and self-centered remarks about the crisis have also been a reminder that at this point, Trumpism is not a legitimate political movement but a cult — one that cannot be allowed back into positions of power.

Right-wing populism has also taken a hit in Israel, where Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies helped splinter Israeli society on the eve of the attacks — and almost certainly contributed to the poor preparedness that cost far too many lives.

The liberal order rejected by both the right and left remains the best guarantee of security, peace, and human rights, domestically and internationally. In the current crisis, both the United States and Israel represent that order. Illiberal forces are exposed as enablers of evil.

 OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY Cathy Young, a writer for The Bulwark, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.