To the Left, Everything Is Violence—Except Violence Against Jews, Which Is Justified | Opinion

There's an old Jewish joke: Mort and Saul are facing the firing squad and are asked if they have any last requests. Saul says he'd like a cigarette. Mort then chides him, "Why are you making trouble?"

Well, it's time to make some trouble.

Here's the good news: Some people are starting to feel that the antisemitism evident since Hamas's brutal attack on Israel on October 7 is perhaps a tad too much. Universities, corporations, politicians and even celebrities are finding themselves under justified pressure to address an alarming rise in attacks on Jews across the nation. You're starting to see the impact—the elites of our grand institutions have clearly noticed, and are making moves to try to get on the right side of this. But they are going to try in the wrong way, and we must not let them.

Here's what you're about to see: They'll start by including people with yarmulkes on their recruitment webpage. They'll publicly celebrate a Jewish holiday, one of the easy ones, like Hannukah. They'll release empty statements denouncing antisemitism and Islamophobia in the same breath, and remind you that people do not necessarily represent the actions of their government, so don't hate Jews for what the evil Israel is doing.

Most of all, they will consistently try to drive a wedge between Jews and their homeland, because while they may agree that Jewish people should not be attacked, they either believe in or are afraid to stand up to the poisonous antisemitism and anti-Zionism that led to the attacks in the first place.

They'll try to do what they've always done, which is walk a fine line and appease as many sides as possible—those chanting for Jewish genocide, as well as their targets; those spreading misinformation about "colonialism"—and those who are being attacked for being labeled as such.

They will try to draw flimsy parallels between those who spew antisemitic blood libels and those who wave an Israeli flag. Some may even try to appease by elevating fringe, anti-Zionist Jewish voices, who represent a tiny fraction of Jews and whose main purpose is being a fig leaf for antisemites.

In a way, we saw this coming, though none of us could predict its utter shamelessness. We should have known when Yasser Arafat became the It Girl of campus fashion that it was going to be trouble. For years, we have seen incitement against Israel on campus and online, stemming from far-Left ideology that embraces political Islamism coupled with the narcissistic desire of young American activists to place their own perceived struggle—whether it's for trans lives or climate justice—clumsily on top of thousands of years of disputes in the Middle East.

With the rise of identity politics, progressivism, and social media, the Overton window has shifted so much that in certain circles, a sovereign nation's right to exist and its inhabitants' lives are actually up for debate. And now, when the hate and violence the anti-Zionist rhetoric gave birth to is on the rise, our elite institutions are going to pick the easy way out, using meaningless gestures or word-salad statements that don't offend anyone—that don't tell the truth.

That's how we got here: because no one thought lying, just a little, about the humanity of Jews and legitimacy of Israel, would lead to this.

Don't let them pretend. Don't let them lie. Demand Zionist voices be heard, and yes, reclaim the Z word proudly.

Demand opportunities to explain why Israel must defend itself.

Demand an end to incitement using calls for extermination that fit nicely on a protest sign or hashtag.

Demand the Israeli flag and its people not be erased—from classes, cultural events, discussion—because it's just too "polarizing."

Demand words have meaning again, words like genocide, war crimes, colonialism, Nazis—hurled at Jews with zero evidence and zero impunity.

Demand administrators not give in to intolerant and hateful voices just because they yell the loudest about a perceived offense, while the rest of us—Jews and anyone with a shred of common sense—have to pay the price.

Whatever you do, don't stoop to their level by whining, lying, and throwing tantrums to get your way. They can criticize Israel all you want, but demand those criticisms be fact-based, not derivatives of simplistic TikTok videos. They can and should feel sorrow for Palestinians facing a crisis, but demand they understand Hamas bears the responsibility, not you.

Don't be shy about rejecting anything that falls short of creating a safe environment. The worst thing that can happen has already happened. Remember, college administrators, DEI professionals and various celebrities, and media figures have created this environment, and now they're presented a perfect chance to put those ideals to the test.

After all, they are the ones told us that misinformation is dangerous, but allow lies about "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" to go unchecked.

They created seminars on the harms of victim-blaming, but are quick to add "yes, but" to the events of October 7th.

They told you to believe all women, but will dismiss eye-witness accounts (as well as videos and confessions!) of brutal rape of Israeli women by Hamas.

They celebrated intersectionality, but find the murders of 1,400 Jews, Arabs, Druze, Muslims and Christians just too controversial to condemn.

They educated you about how words are violence, while protecting those who walk past your homes chanting "Intifada."

They flaunt their pronouns in an effort to be inclusive to those they view as marginalized, but tell you a poster of an 86-year-old kidnapped woman is might hurt someone's feelings.

They'll encourage you to speak up if you hear a micro-aggression, but won't lift their voices for babies trapped in closets for hours with the bodies of their murdered parents.

As it turns out, everything is violence—except actual violence.

Jews have been in so much pain this month that the courage to call bullshit on meaningless gestures shouldn't be too hard. October 7 was possibly the most black-and-white moral choice since WWII; so many of the people in our lives failed—not just us but humanity.

We've seen friends dismiss the massacre of our people, co-workers question whether we have a right to live, and our favorite celebrities sharing propaganda that an Israel 5th grader with a map could refute. When given a chance to live by the ideals that they claim to stand by—compassion, peace, empathy—so many chose to just change their ideals instead.

Hopefully, more Americans will also come to see this what many Jews are beginning to see now: None of it meant anything all along.

Yael Bar tur is a New York-based Israeli social media consultant and graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.