The killing of two people working at the Israel Embassy—preceded by arson in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and followed by firebombs in Boulder, Colorado– has focused attention on a phrase—‘globalize the intifada—incorporated into common parlance without giving much thought to the somber origin story propelling it. These high voltage words have catalyzed emotions of self-proclaimed ‘progressives’ against an Israel stamped as an evil manifestation of colonialism. Linking Israel to colonialism imprints the country with the stigma of a vilified world-wide project and also, not insignificantly, with the conviction that its sovereignty cannot long endure as the last shreds of empire are swept away.

Few attacks against Israel have gripped the imagination of activists as powerfully as those conducted by Hamas on 7 October 2023. A barbaric massacre was almost instantly lionized as a moment of liberation for Palestinians and as a critical strike against a settler-colonialism that supposedly plundered its way, without much hindrance, to prosperity. With Hamas proxies, on and off university campuses donning keffiyehs and shouting scripted slogans, demonstrations have become akin to sacred rituals wrapped in an aura of virtue around the proclaimed rise of the dispossessed.

Notwithstanding the savagery of October 7—distorted by a national media narrative that gives substantial cover to eruptions of Palestinian violence–the wreckage and carnage across Gaza have directed outrage at Israel for supposedly killing innocent Palestinians and for posing dangers to an international infrastructure charged with peacekeeping and dispensing humanitarian aid. But what is the relationship of an infrastructure purportedly enabling........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)