On October 7^th, 1,400 Israelis were murdered by throngs of Hamas terrorists who swarmed Israel’s southern border, going from house to house searching for civilians to slaughter and broadcasting their savagery for those who were unable to join in the brutality.

Protesters gather in Freedom Plaza during the National March on Washington for Palestine.

The reaction in parts of the Middle East was unsurprising – a mixture of raucous cheers from civilians and endorsements or muted responses from Arab governments.

Amongst America’s progressive Left, the response wasn’t much different. Outside the established wing of the Democratic Party, the modus operandi has been to excuse, celebrate, and whitewash the crimes of Hamas. College campuses across the country have erupted in pro-Palestine protests, framing the violence as “liberation from oppression.” Meanwhile, numerous videos have emerged of individuals tearing down the posters of kidnapped Israelis, claiming the victims to be “occupiers” and “colonisers.”

Prominent progressive intellectuals, such as Judith Butler, have called for an end to Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and warned that the “structural violence” will only continue to produce “resistance”. Similarly condemnatory comments from members of Congress’ progressive “squad” have been generated with predictable regularity.

For years, the American Left has positioned itself as giving a voice to the oppressed and offering refuge to those suffering; its response in the wake of October 7^th has destroyed any uncertainty about its true moral compass. Equivocate or even excusing indiscriminate murder surrenders any vestige of moral high ground the movement once held. All that is left is the remains of Left-wing liberalism and a shell of empty syllogisms.

October 7^th has shone a spotlight on a grotesque intersection of the academic Left and visceral anti-Semitism among some groups. The relationship between the two movements is symbiotic and converges on a similar hatred for Jews. The progressive paradigm of the “oppressor and oppressed” has found footing in delusional histories of the origins of the state of Israel.

It doesn’t matter that gay men and women are murdered in Gaza and the West Bank, or that women continue to face oppression and abuse. The progressive Left has decided that effectively embracing anti-Semitism is worth it if it means maintaining fealty to the oppression industrial complex.

Liberalism was once a combination of two principles: procedural liberalism (equal rights for all before the law) coupled with a particular sensitivity towards remedying social and economic inequalities. The “new Left” that has engulfed academia, HR departments and the United Nations cast aside the first principle in a mad quest to deliver social justice to the supposed oppressed. Now every inequality is viewed as the result of actions, real or imaginary, by the assigned “oppressor”, and never as the product of internal dysfunction within a particular society.

Once the “oppressor” and “oppressed” have been assigned roles, the cast is fixed and immutable, remaining unresponsive to changing political, economic, and social circumstances.  And because of the racial framing of most politics in America, the initial casting of roles almost always follows perceived racial dynamics rather than of actual interactions between the parties.

As a result, the paradigm is generally divorced from reality. Indeed, for many on the progressive Left, Israel is a “white supremacist” nation oppressing “people of colour,” despite the fact that many of Israel’s Jews are of Middle Eastern or North African descent themselves. Thus, it is no coincidence that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar once compared the Palestinian plight to the “racist killing” of George Floyd. Even the West’s enemies have picked up on how this works.

While many have expressed shock at the anti-Semitism now on display on the Left, for years now, the dominant voices in this movement have been illiberal ones. What has replaced reverence for Western liberalism is a celebration of brutal savagery, destruction, and death directed towards anyone deemed to be a member of a fixed oppressor group.

Now, it is up to the Right to assume control of the moral high ground: to position itself as pro-civilization and anti-barbarism – and to be unafraid to use such language. We must denounce the atrocities unequivocally and unabashedly.

The alternative consists of watching one side of the political spectrum devolve into barbarism dressed up in academic language. For the sake of civilisation, that cannot be allowed.