(The Federalist) Two items from the last few days capture the dire situation now facing the West. The big one was the massive pro-Hamas demonstrations over the weekend in New York, London, and other major Western cities — crowds that rivaled the immense gathering Saturday in Istanbul, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of thousands of his countrymen that “we will declare Israel a war criminal,” and threatened “to reignite the war between the crescent and the cross.”
In New York, pro-Hamas mobs took over Grand Central Station and shut down the Brooklyn Bridge, carrying banners declaring “honor the martyrs” and calling for the elimination of Israel “by any means.” In London, a crowd of a hundred thousand or more descended on Whitehall, where protesters attacked police, surrounded Westminster, and chanted “Allahu Akbar” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In Hamburg, demonstrators waved Taliban and Al Qaeda flags.
These were larger versions of the aggressive demonstrations we saw on college campuses across the U.S. immediately following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Coming so soon after the mass slaughter of Israeli civilians — even before Israel was able to respond — it was clear that such demonstrations had nothing to do with concerns for the safety of civilians in Gaza and everything to do with a virulent antisemitic and anti-Western ideology that has taken root in our schools and cities. (Read More)
