What perfect timing.
When better to gather en masse to show support for Hamas than mere hours after the terrorist group announced the deaths of two little boys and their mother?
Those victims, of course, would be Ariel and Kfir Bibas and their mother Shiri, civilians who were murdered by Hamas.
The “pro-Palestinian” gathering took place last Tuesday night in Borough Park, the quintessential Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, where an exposition offering opportunities to buy homes in Israel had been scheduled to take place. The very idea of Jewish homes in Israel is enough to enrage such terrorism supporters.
The group that organized them to invade the neighborhood had called for fellow fanatics to “flood Borough Park,” a nauseating allusion to Hamas’ name for its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, “Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Demonstrators chanted the usual slurs and obscenities, and were accompanied by a drummer laying down a beat for megaphoned chestnuts like “There is only one solution! Intifada revolution!” and “Settlers, settlers, go back home! Palestine is ours alone!” Regular Dr. Seusses, these kids.
And, as might have been expected, despite a heavy police presence, some mayhem resulted, as local residents and other supporters of Israel turned out to counter the offensive demonstrators. There were assorted scuffles, and one person was arrested, reportedly for assaulting a Jewish man.
We live in a free society, whose ideals allow for even reprehensible expression. But it’s also a society, baruch Hashem, whose leaders (well, most of them) recognize the need to call out reprehensibility.
Democratic Bronx Representative Ritchie Torres, always ready with a pithy and perceptive observation, posted on social media that “Violence is not a bug but a feature of the so-called ‘Free Palestine’ movement, which has no desire to free Palestinians from Hamas.”
Other political leaders also reacted in condemnation of the ugliness. In a statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that “We will not tolerate the egregious behavior on display that was clearly designed to intimidate and harass Jews in the Borough Park neighborhood.”
Local activists confronted the anti-Israel crowd in real time. And, after the event, the pro-Israel group Betar US posted on social media that “We cannot guarantee the safety of those who threaten Jewish synagogues.”
Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov tweeted her pride in “the Jews and our allies who showed up and stood up to the HAMASNIKS.”
It is eminently understandable that Jews, confronted by an assault of animus and insults shouted at them in what is in effect their backyards, will want to rub the haters’ faces in some facts, and feel compelled to respond, if not in kind, at least with some show of strength.
But I can’t help but imagine what would happen, in the event of any such future rally in a Jewish space expressing support of Hamas, were the local residents to react by… not reacting. At all. By simply going about their business, walking to or from shul or going shopping or visiting an eatery. And utterly ignoring the utterly ignorant.
I can easily imagine what would then happen. The frustration level of the interlopers would rise to a fever pitch. They are there to provoke, for goodness’ sake, and no one’s even acknowledging them! They would be outraged, then become crestfallen; and they might even begin to doubt the worthiness of their warfare.
Such restraint on the part of heartfelt Jews is—I think, unfortunately—not likely to happen. Although self-control is a high Jewish ideal, holding back at the sight of masked and keffiyeh-ed degenerates voicing their hateful rhetoric, being confronted by inhuman humans, men and women who proudly embrace and celebrate barbaric murderers, is a large pill to swallow.
But if it could somehow be gotten down, and any such future demonstrators met with only yawns, I suspect that the yawning would sound louder than any megaphoned shriekings. And mark a critical victory over those who just love to hate.
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