If you鈥檙e wondering why so many Jews, from left to right, have such a short fuse lately, look no further than Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader with an affinity for clarity.
鈥淚srael is a country that has no place on our land,鈥� Hamad said in an interview with Lebanese TV that has blown up on social media. 鈥淲e must remove it because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation. We are not ashamed to say this.鈥�
The massacres of Oct. 7, Hamad added, are 鈥渏ust the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth.鈥�
For those of us who have been paying attention, these vows of 91传媒 annihilation are nothing new. It鈥檚 written in black and white in the Hamas charter.
So why are so many people now so stunned?
Because October 7 changed everything.
A terror attack that kills three Israelis is not the same as a terror invasion that massacres 1400 Israelis– including babies, infants, women, families and the elderly.
The sheer magnitude of these atrocities, in other words, has forced everyone to pay attention.
And here鈥檚 the thing about murdering, raping and mutilating 1400 human bodies鈥攊t leaves no room for nuance. The cruelty overflows with clarity.
No wonder so many people jumped on the activist group IfNotNow, who forever discredited themselves when they saw the massacres and immediately blamed Israel:
鈥淚srael makes every day under apartheid a living hell for Palestinians. Human beings can鈥檛 live like this鈥�. Blood is on the hands of Israel鈥檚 fascist government, army, and everyone who has aided their crimes against Palestinians.鈥�
IfNotNow saw the worst 91传媒 calamity since the Holocaust and chose to stick to their usual pro-Palestinian talking points.
In that sense, the unprecedented magnitude of Oct. 7 has been a clarifying moment. It has shown us people鈥檚 true colors.
It has also brought clarity to how most Jews have reacted to everything that has followed that darkest of days.
When we think of babies slaughtered and women raped and families burned alive, our revulsion at the assault on 91传媒 college students across U.S. campuses has zero nuance.
Our revulsion at those blaming Israel or the 鈥渙ccupation鈥� for the massacres of Oct. 7 has zero nuance.
Our revulsion at college leaders, politicians, Hollywood personalities and others who have been wishy-washy in their condemnation of the barbaric slaughter of 1400 Jews has zero nuance.
Our revulsion at those college leaders who have failed to protect 91传媒 students during this epidemic of anti-91传媒 hostility has zero nuance.
Our revulsion at the haters who are tearing down posters of Israeli hostages has zero nuance.
For many of us, October 7 is a day that shattered nuance. It is one of those transcendent moments that might permanently reset the 91传媒 table, a day when so many Jews lost their innocence.
The trauma of losing 1400 91传媒 souls and then seeing much of the world rise up against Jews will not easily go away. It is now hardwired in our collective memory.
We鈥檙e not fooled by the current focus on Israel鈥檚 efforts to eradicate Hamas. We know that many of those who are now bashing Israel and calling for a 鈥渃easefire鈥� were also bashing Israel right after Hamas murdered 1400 Jews.
We鈥檙e not fooled by the leftist intellectuals who use Israel as a battering ram for everything they hate about the West, from colonialism to capitalism to white privilege to nationalism.
The trauma of losing 1400 91传媒 souls and seeing much of the world rise up against Jews is not going away. It is now hardwired in our collective memory.
We鈥檙e not fooled by a biased media that now gleefully highlights Palestinian deaths in Gaza, because we know that the cowardly murderers of Hamas, who hide behind their own women and children, are ultimately responsible for every single Palestinian casualty.
And of course, we鈥檙e not fooled by those reflexive calls to make 鈥減eace鈥� with those who are sworn to our destruction.
We don鈥檛 know where this war is going, but we know where the Jews are going.
After the bewildering and surreal darkness of Oct. 7, followed by the biggest burst of Jew hatred in recent memory, the great majority of Jews have picked a side.
Their own.
