JANUARY 11 • 2024 | 11
J
N

continued from page 8

someone who confided 
that he envies people who 
lost family members in 
the massacre. I completely 
understand. In a way, carrying 
that sign, whether the physical 
sign or the permanent one 
in my heart, is a privilege. 
Some of those people at the 
bus stop, particularly the 
Haredim, might not have had 
another way to feel connected. 
Carrying my sign around, 
whether figuratively or 
literally, comforts me and, so 
it seems, comforts others.
In truth, all of us in Israel, 
along with Jews around the 
world, are in mourning. We 
all need comfort. 
Hamas didn’t attack Hayim 
personally because of who 
he was, or even in spite of 
the fact that he was a peace 
activist. (Unfortunately, some 
people have coopted his 
memory in order to justify 
a hateful agenda against 
all Arabs.) Hamas attacked 
Hayim because he was a Jew 
and an Israeli. In that way, 
those terrorists who killed 
him attacked us all. We are all 
mourning, not only for the 
1,200 who were killed, for our 
fallen soldiers, and, I hope, 
for the innocent Palestinians 
on both sides who have been 
killed. We mourn our sense 
of security, the faith in our 
government’s ability to protect 
us and the happy times we 
enjoyed before Oct. 7.
May we all be comforted 
among the mourners of 
Jerusalem and Zion. 

Hannah Wacholder Katsman is the 

Resource Development Coordinator 

for the Center for Women’s Justice, 

an advocate for abuse victims and a 

writer. 

— the only nation in the 
region where LGBTQ+ 
rights are respected. What 
explains this hypocrisy?
“Pro-Palestinian” leftists 
pay virtually no attention 
to how Palestinians are 
treated in other Arab states. 
Palestinians in most Arab 
states have no citizenship 
or rights of any kind. In 
Lebanon, Palestinians are 
banned from 39 professions 
and confined to squalid 
refugee camps.
It also seems not to faze 
progressives that Arab states 
have frequently subjected 
Palestinians to massacres 
and mass deportations. 
During the 1970-71 Black 
September revolt in Jordan, 
for example, the Hashemite 
regime killed 15,000 
Palestinians and expelled 
20,000. After the Gulf War 
in 1991, Kuwait expelled 
200,000 Palestinians because 
the PLO supported Iraqi 
dictator Saddam Hussein. At 
least 4,000 Palestinians were 
killed during the Syrian civil 
war. None of this stirred 
protest among the Western 
left, who only accuse Israel 
— with no basis in fact — of 
massacring and deporting 
Palestinians. Why the 
inconsistency?
Focus on the Palestinians’ 
conflict with Israel is rooted 
in neo-Marxist critical 
race theory (CRT), which 
sees the world divided 
between oppressors and the 
oppressed. Of course, since 
Jews in the United States 
and Israel have achieved 
notable success — and 
because Jews are supposedly 

“white people” — they are 
by definition oppressors. 
This, notwithstanding 
the fact that Jews are the 
most frequent victims of 
hate crimes, and that Jews 
have historically been 
persecuted for not being 
white. CRT also ignores the 
reality that most Jews in 
Israel are people of color, 
with origins in Africa and 
the Middle East. 
This bias bars the 
progressive left from 
acknowledging the 
remarkable rights and 
prosperity enjoyed by 
Israel’s 2 million Arab 
citizens. Unlike Palestinians 
in other Arab states, Arab 
Israelis enjoy full civil rights 
and equal opportunity. 
Unlike Palestinians in 
Lebanon, for example, 
Israeli Arabs can aspire 
to any career they want. 
Indeed, Israeli Arabs 
comprise 30% of the 
country’s doctors and 50% 
of its pharmacists even 
though they make up 
only about 20% of Israel’s 
population. 
Moreover, Arab Israelis 
have achieved wide success 
in government — as 
Members of the Knesset, 
cabinet ministers and 
Supreme Court Justices. 
An Arab party was part of 
Israel’s previous coalition 
government. In a triumph 
of antisemitic double 
standards over hard reality, 
Western leftists have the 
chutzpah to accuse Israel of 
practicing apartheid.
Finally, Israel does more 
to improve the lives of 

Palestinians in Judea and 
Samaria and Gaza than any 
other entity. Israel supplies 
both electricity and water 
to the P.A. and Gaza. Until 
Oct. 7, Israelis provided tens 
of thousands of jobs — and 
some $5 billion in revenue 
— to Palestinian workers. 
Thousands of Palestinians 
receive medical treatment in 
Israel. Most pro-Palestinian 
groups — like SJP and 
CAIR —provide no social 
benefits to Palestinians, who 
suffer brutal oppression and 
poverty under the P.A. and 
Hamas dictatorships. 
In truth, Western leftists 
ignore real Palestinian 
suffering unless they 
can blame Israel for it. 
They were silent when 
“Palestinian” land was 
occupied by Egypt and 
Jordan. They ignore the 
maltreatment of Palestinians 
by their iron-fisted rulers. 
They overlook massacres, 
deportation and torture of 
Palestinians by fellow Arabs. 
Above all, they refuse to 
acknowledge the exemplary 
treatment Palestinian Arabs 
receive from the Jewish 
state. 
The “pro-Palestinians” 
among the “progressive” left 
are not pro-Palestinian at 
all. They are simply anti-
Israel and antisemitic. 

James Sinkinson is president of 

Facts and Logic About the Middle 

East (FLAME), which publishes edu-

cational messages to correct lies 

and misperceptions about Israel and 

its relationship to the United States. 

Originally published by Facts and 

Logic about the Middle East.

