Picture yourself at a rowdy MAGA rally: Paramilitary types sporting AR-15s and Kevlar vests roam the area, calling for the downfall of any government not led by Donald Trump, their glorious leader. Neo-Nazis spew hatred of immigrants and minorities. Other assorted yahoos shout conspiracy theories about stolen elections and evil forces controlling America.
“I’m not one of these crazies,” you tell yourself. “I’m just standing up for conservative principles.”
But if you’re hangin’ out with the crazies, maybe you need to rethink your political associations before you become part of something awful.
Erich Bridges
A similar scenario seems to be playing out among well-meaning people, including some Christians, who are protesting Israeli military actions in Gaza following the terrorist bloodbath carried out by Hamas in Israel Oct. 7. They are rightly appalled by the intensity of Israel’s bombing and the deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians. They are angered by Israeli attacks on medical facilities. They are heartbroken by the scenes of civilians fleeing battle zones, only to be wounded or killed in other areas Israel said would be safe.
So these well-meaning folks have joined protests in support of Palestinians, signed statements demanding an unconditional cease-fire, even joined hands with groups that oppose the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
For the record, I’m appalled, angered and heartbroken by the deaths of innocent civilians, too. I’ve been to Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East where Palestinians live. I’ve met many wonderful Palestinians, Muslim and Christian, and I count them as friends. I strongly oppose the many ways Palestinians have been oppressed, mistreated and discriminated against by Israel and various Arab states for several generations.
I support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, or at least the end of the miserable status quo in the region, which relegates millions of Palestinians to lives as second-class (at best) citizens. And I loathe the extremist coalition government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has expanded illegal settlements in Palestinian areas, weakened Israeli democracy and divided the nation against itself.
Not joining protests
But I’m not joining the protest marches against Israel or signing any statements calling for an immediate cease-fire. Why? Because I don’t want to become a useful idiot, exploited by the malignant forces that started this war.
“I don’t want to become a useful idiot, exploited by the malignant forces that started this war.”
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “useful idiots” before. It was coined by economist Ludwig von Mises and strategically employed to devastating effect by Vladimir Lenin, mastermind of the Russian Revolution. Lenin and his mass-murdering successor, Joseph Stalin, used the “useful idiot” approach to manipulate gullible sympathizers in the West into supporting and rationalizing any crime the Soviet communists committed, no matter how bloody, in the name of “liberating the people.”
Bad actors on the global stage have used the same strategy ever since — and the enemies of Israel are using it now.
How is it possible that within days of Oct. 7, which saw the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, so many influential voices safely outside the conflict zone already were condemning Israel, not the Hamas murderers, and calling on the Jewish state not to retaliate — and once Israeli military action in Gaza began, demanding an immediate cease-fire?
“There are good intentions, if also ignorance and shortsightedness, among many of those demanding a cease-fire,” wrote New York Times columnist Bret Stephens Nov. 21, as Israel and Hamas negotiated a four-day “pause” to allow for a hostage-prisoner exchange and increased humanitarian aid.
“But there is also the bottomless cynicism of others who accept, and even celebrate, Hamas as it uses living Gazans as human shields and dead Gazans as propaganda victories. The tragedy of those protests, like so many ‘antiwar’ movements in the past, is that the naive and earnest are again being manipulated as tools of the cunning and cruel.”
“The tragedy of those protests, like so many ‘antiwar’ movements in the past, is that the naive and earnest are again being manipulated as tools of the cunning and cruel.”
A humanitarian “pause” is one thing. A complete cease-fire that allows Hamas to continue its reign of terror in Gaza and its ability to attack Israel is quite another. Keep in mind, too, that the Iran-backed group clearly timed its latest attack to undermine the normalization of relations now developing between Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.
Hamas could get an immediate and lasting cease-fire and probably safe passage out of Gaza, Stephens noted, if it released all the Israeli hostages, gave up its arms and turned control of the area — which it has used as a staging ground for attacking Israel for more than 15 years — over to a responsible Arab power or coalition.
“That Hamas has done none of these things isn’t shocking: It’s a terrorist death cult,” Stephens wrote. “What’s shocking is that people in the Cease-Fire Now crowd don’t appear to have much interest in making any demands of Hamas equivalent to those they make of Israel. … They claim to want a ‘free Palestine’ for all its people. But I never hear them criticize Hamas’ dictatorship, or its contempt for the civil and human rights of its own people, or its members’ avowedly antisemitic boasts of slaughtering Jews.”
A cease-fire would spare some civilians caught in the crossfire, to be sure, Stephens acknowledged. And “it would spare, and embolden, the main fighting force of Hamas. It would also embolden terrorist allies like Hezbollah. That’s a virtual guarantee for future mass-casualty attacks against Israel, for ever-larger retaliation, and for deeper misery for the people of Gaza. No Israeli government of any political stripe is going to allow the territory to rebuild so long as Hamas remains in charge.”
Selective condemnation
Yet the calls continue for a complete cease-fire, which would be a de facto victory for Hamas. The calls are so earnest, so virtuous, so self-righteous, so characteristic of the selective condemnation heaped upon Israel for decades by those who ignore far worse abusers of human rights around the globe.
One such statement appeared Nov. 18, as reported Nov. 21 by Baptist News Global.
“Christian Organizations Demand Immediate Cease-fire in Gaza” trumpeted the declaration. Claiming to represent a “diverse coalition of Christian voices,” it begins with a vague, perfunctory nod to the “loss of innocent life in Israel” (1,200 innocent lives, to be more specific; their slaughter, and Hamas, are never mentioned in the statement) before quickly moving on to Israel’s “genocidal massacre, destruction and inhumane siege on civilians in Gaza, … the cruelty and complicity of U.S. government officials, and the cowardice or callous indifference of many of our religious leaders and institutions.”
The statement drones on in that vein for quite a while: “Religious devotion is being weaponized in the service of profound evil … genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid …” and so on and so forth. The declaration specifically demands, in addition to an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the “comprehensive dismantling of the brutal and dehumanizing regime of Israeli apartheid, including its occupation and blockade … and the right of return for all refugees.”
Oh, and an end to all U.S. military aid to Israel — which faces the greatest threat to its existence since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, as the Gaza conflict rages and potential war with Hezbollah in Lebanon looms.
The “diverse coalition” of signers consists mostly of Mainline Protestant peace networks, Palestinian advocacy groups, a handful of churches and 660 individuals.
The company you keep
Most significantly, the declaration was initiated and propagated by an organization called “Friends of Sabeel North America,” the North American affiliate of the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. FOSNA has long opposed any Jewish claim to statehood in Israel. It also “has been a driving force behind various boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel,” according to a profile of the organization published by the Anti-Defamation League, the most prominent American Jewish group dedicated to defending Jews around the world from antisemitism.
“Sabeel’s efforts to demonize Israel and Israelis have also featured charges of deicide against Jews,” the ADL profile reported. “They have compared Palestinians to a modern-day Jesus and accused Israel of engaging in a ‘crucifixion’ of these Palestinians. In an Easter message several years ago, (Sabeel founder Naim) Ateek explicitly said, ‘Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. … The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily’ — a highly offensive expression given centuries of Jewish oppression on the basis of deicide charges. Ateek and his organization have also compared Israel to the Nazis, accusing Israel of committing a ‘Holocaust’ against Palestinians.”
FOSNA also has been active for years in organizing anti-Israel groups on U.S. college campuses, which have seen a rapid rise in antisemitic incidents and demonstrations since Oct. 7.
In 2013, FOSNA made the ADL’s “Top 10” list of anti-Israel organizations in the United States.
“The list represents the worst of the worst anti-Israel groups,” said then-ADL Director Abraham Foxman. “They lob any and every accusation against Israel, including charges of Nazi-like crimes, ‘apartheid’ policies, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide. Their accusations are rarely, if ever, balanced with an acknowledgement of Israel’s repeated efforts to make peace with the Palestinians or the legitimate terrorism concerns faced by Israeli citizens.”
How many earnest signers of the Nov. 18 declaration are aware of FOSNA’s long history of anti-Israel advocacy and alleged antisemitism? Some, I’m sure, are just as anti-Israel as FOSNA. Others, I suspect, are useful idiots, clueless about who they’re making common cause with, signaling their virtue by condemning Israel’s attacks in Gaza.
My recommendation to them — and to others jumping on the anti-Israel bandwagon: Be aware of the company you keep.
Erich Bridges, a Baptist journalist for more than 40 years, has covered international stories and trends in many countries. He lives in Richmond, Va.
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