October 9, 2023

With hundreds of Israelis killed and many more kidnapped or injured by the anti-Semitic Arab supremacists of Hamas, the rhetorical war for Israel has begun. This war, as has always been the case, is fought in the realm of rhetoric and argument and not upon the means of military weapons. We will now see with the outrageous annihilation of civilians by an unrepentant aggressor in the political sovereignty of Hamas, a massive social and intellectual effort to rationalize the genocidal ambitions of Hamas, Hezb’allah, and the Shia Supremacists of Tehran. Intellectuals and academics will rally to the defense of these fanatical anti-Semitic genocidaires and we must take a measure of their rhetorical arguments to plan for the defense of Jews worldwide.

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At the tip of the anti-Semitic rhetorical sphere is Harvard. Exhibit A is Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe. Within moments of the Sabbath attacks on women, children, and any civilians in easy reach of Gaza, Professor Tribe explained: “’Is Netanyahu wagging the dog of war to take attention from his own war on the independent judiciary?’ Can anyone put that past him?” Though he immediately deleted the post when confronted, the moment exposed the institutional commitment of Harvard to an old anti-Semitic canard from one of the most important scholars of American jurisprudence.

Study the rhetorical contrasts between presidential candidates Cornell West and Robert Kennedy Jr. West, a former Harvard faculty member, complained in his 2021 resignation that Harvard was hostile to the Palestinian cause. In the ongoing genocidal ambitions of Hamas, Professor West argues presently: “The escalation of the barbaric violence in the Middle East must stop. The vicious Israeli occupation and the ugly Palestinian retaliation results in the killing of precious innocent people on both sides. We must have a lasting peace based on justice! #TruthJusticeLove.” West offer’s a half measure of equivocation and full measure of “Israeli occupation” propaganda to push for a tolerant response to Hamas’ killing and kidnapping of women and children. Robert Kennedy Jr. takes a different tack: “This ignominious, unprovoked, and barbaric attack on Israel must be met with world condemnation and unequivocal support for the Jewish state’s right to self-defense. We must provide Israel with whatever it needs to defend itself — now. As President, I’ll make sure that our policy is unambiguous so that the enemies of Israel will think long and hard before attempting aggression of any kind.” Though both men are arguably features of the American political Left, Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Harvard degree does not prevent him from seeing how his father’s defense of Israel led to his assassination by Sirhan Sirhan.

Nonetheless, more than a dozen Harvard student organizations have signed a statement in the shadows of the ongoing anti-Semitic slaughter stating: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence… millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison… The apartheid regime [Israel] is the only one to blame.” America’s intellectual elite at the State Department crafted the brilliant statement: “We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.” This ridiculous statement was also immediately withdrawn. The U.S. State Department restored millions of dollars in aid to UNRWA in Gaza in 2021. An important component of this aid to Gaza is to educate children about how evil Israelis and Jews are and the profound moral legitimacy of Hamas’ genocidal ambitions. On 9/11/23, the Biden administration made a point of releasing billions of dollars in aid to the financier of this Sabbath slaughter to fanatical anti-Semitic Shia Supremacist government of Tehran that five times a day leads partisans in chants of “Death to Israel and Death to America.” Hamas’ leadership says that the Iranian government helped coordinate these attacks while the Biden administration says they are unsure of Iran’s role in the killing of civilians — including some Americans.

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In one important respect, the Harvard students are correct: millions of Palestinians live in an open-air prison. But that prison is built, maintained, and held by the governance of Hamas and an array of even more radical splinter groups who view the human beings within their grasp as mere utilitarian means to their genocidal ambitions. The sovereignty of Hamas and its rival groups over the Gaza Strip must be ended with complete military force. The education provided by UNWRA that continues the indoctrination of children to accomplish Shahid must be ended. It is the false propaganda education of Gaza that propels the violence. The fact that American intellectuals fawn and obfuscate to encourage such a system is disgraceful and is worthy of all of our civil disobedience and a true quest for human freedom.

Dr. Ben Voth is a professor of rhetoric and director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. His most recent books — Political Campaign Communication 10th edition with Robert Denton and Centennial of the Modern American Presidency: The Presidential Rhetoric of Wilson, Harding and Coolidge (both with Lexington Books) come out in December.

Image: OSPS7