Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The Lord will keep you from all harm — he will watch over your life. (Psalm 121:4-5; 7)

We begin with a grasp at hope. Hamas leadership called for Friday to be a “Day of Jihad,” a call to arms to the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims. And yes, there were several violent incidents across the globe. Plus, in Germany, Star of Davids were painted on the doors of Jews, deliberate echoes of the Holocaust. A rabid army of some 50,000 gathered in London, waving jihadist flags and calling for the Jews to be pushed into the sea. And on American campuses, protesters shouted for “One Solution” … meaning, a liquidation of the Jews … with the zeal of Taylor Swift fans shouting out song requests.

It’s ugly, it’s demonic, and things are going to get worse. But we have to at least point out that on Friday, a vast percentage of the Muslim world, regardless of where their sympathies may lay, sat out Hamas’ Day of Resistance. Indeed, places like Cairo and Baghdad were little different from college campuses in America. 

Ground Invasion of Gaza Delayed … Hamas Not Letting Citizens Flee

As of 6 p.m. Eastern, Israel has not begun its anticipated massive ground operation in Gaza. Israel has been giving residents of Gaza more time to head south, away from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where fighting will be fierce. Israel has also turned the water back on in the south. 

Yet another nail in the coffin of those who insist on moral equivalency: Hamas has spent days trying to stop Palestinians from fleeing Gaza after Israel warned citizens to get out. As the invaluable MEMRI.org reports, “media outlets operated by Hamas and PIJ have been instructing residents of the Gaza Strip not to heed these warnings and not to share them or forward them to others.” Fox News got confirmation from both diplomatic and Gaza sources.

IDF has also posted drone footage it says shows some of the effort to block an evacuation.

The IDF has posted drone footage of Hamas attempts to block residents of Gaza City from evacuating south, including setting up physical roadblocks pic.twitter.com/HNOjzOPUVv

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 14, 2023

Hamas itself is posting video of how it’s using babies as human shields.

Why would Hamas do that? Have they no care for the safety of the residents? Their own people? Dr. Michael Brown in his latest article quotes a Jordanian-Palestinian businessman and politician named Talal Abu Gahzaleh. Here’s what Gahzaleh told Lebanese TV:

Israel would not sacrifice a single person. There isn’t a goal for which it would sacrifice a single person. They are afraid of death. Death for them is strange and loathsome. We, on the other hand, welcome death. A Palestinian carries his son on his shoulders, with a headband on the kid’s forehead, which his father inscribed: ‘Martyrdom Seeker.’ This is a man who says: ‘I want my son to die.’ A [Palestinian] mother says: ‘I have given birth to six children, so that three could die in the revolution. I gave birth to children so that they would be martyred.’ This does not exist in the Zionist mentality.

Stream contributor Peter Rowden, who lives in the region, comes at it from a different point of view in “The Evil of Ordinary People.” 

MEMRI: An Invaluable Resource

For those who don’t know, the Middle East Media Research Institute or MEMRI translates speeches and communications from the Islamic world, so you can get the real skinny on what is being said and planned. Not what Hamas and other radical officials and their enablers say on Western media outlets. Check the site out and tell me if it sounds like what you’re hearing on CNN and MSNBC.

Campuses Sounding Like Terrorist Training Camps

A quick snapshot at just some of the pro-terrorist rallies at campuses across the U.S. in recent days. We mentioned above the chants for “One Solution” to the Israel-Palestinian problem.

That, as Charlie Kirk posted, happened at the University of Washington.

JUST IN: Pro-Palestine rally advocating for “one solution” at the University of Washington.

College campuses are breeding grounds for terrorist sympathizers.

Defund them.
Stop writing them checks.
Don’t give them your kids.pic.twitter.com/zD2BNq2rTe

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 12, 2023

A Stanford professor has been suspended after separating out Jewish students in his class and forcing them to stand in a corner. This after calling those who slaughtered 1200 innocent people as “freedom fighters” and blaming Israel for the mass murder.

The unidentified lecturer asked each student where they were from and then labeled them “colonizer” or “colonized” based on that heritage. “This is what Israel does to the Palestinians,” said the instructor, according to Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of the Chabad Stanford Jewish Center. He then asked, “How many people died in the Holocaust?” When a student answered, “Six million,” the professor responded, “Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer.” 

Talk about turning the world upside down. Separating Jews? This is precisely what the Nazis did. What a cruelty for this “educator” to inflict on Jewish students. What next? Separating out blacks and flashing a whip?  

Down the coast at UCLA, students were calling for an “intifada.” Uprising. Though in the specific context, as Campus Reform says, it refers to episodes of militant and terrorist attacks against Israel. The Palestinian uprisings ended up with thousands dead on both sides. In the second intifada alone, 741 Israeli civilians were killed, including 124 minors.

🚨As a @UCLA alum, part time lecturer and Jew, I find the chanting of "intifada, intifada!" disgusting in the wake of the barbaric terror attacks in #israel and Hamas call for violence against Jews globally.
This is happening now at UCLA pic.twitter.com/ua7tLk2dwX

— Ariel Jalali ⚙️💬 (@arieljalali) October 12, 2023

At the University of Minnesota and elsewhere, Students for Justice in Palestine defended the terror attack and beheadings and burning of children. They called terrorism the “only option left for the oppressed and colonized.”

They called Israel a “brutal-settler-colonial ethno-state.” Do you think the leftist students joining the protests think any different about the United States? Hardly. 

At Drexel University, a Jewish student’s dorm room door was set ablaze Tuesday. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

One final thing to note. On campuses throughout the country, students – along with faculty – are cheering Hamas. Calling for “decolonization,” which is a euphemism for “genocide.” (And not just of Israel.) And university officials seem to have no problem. Free speech and all that.

Yet, Riley Gaines can’t even go on a campus to say “dudes shouldn’t play women’s sports” without being cancelled … or physically attacked … without a great big yawn from administrators. 

We continue to pray for peace in Israel and for the families of those lost or captured. 

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and co-author of the counter-terrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.