In 1968, the Polish Communist party unleashed a wave of “anti-Zionist” propaganda, expelled Jews en masse from the party and from the military, and effectively forced many out of the country. This attack on the Jews was a product of the Eastern bloc’s turn against Israel in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, latent anti-Semitism, internal dynamics of the Polish and Soviet governments, and the Polish regime’s attempt to redirect popular unrest away from itself and onto the Jews. Simon Gansinger writes:

The assault on the Jews teemed with declarations against “anti-Semitism.” At countless rallies, people carried signs that read “Anti-Semitism—No! Anti-Zionism—Yes!” Yet of the 8,300 members expelled from the Communist party, nearly all were Jewish. Almost 9,000 Jews lost their jobs and hundreds were thrown out of their apartments. The regime allowed Jewish citizens to leave the country under two conditions: they must revoke their citizenship, and they must declare Israel as the country of their destination. Thereby the regime legitimized the purge in the most cynical fashion: why would these people go to Israel if they hadn’t been Zionists all along? . . .

After Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War, the member states of the Warsaw Pact, with the exception of Romania, cut diplomatic ties with Israel. The developments in Poland, however, soon took a peculiar course. On June 19, 1967, one week after the suspension of diplomatic relations with Israel, Władysław Gomułka, [the de-facto head of state], made a remarkable comment on the Polish dimensions of the events in the Middle East. Some Polish Jews, he was sorry to hear, sympathized with the enemies of socialism, the “Israeli aggressors,” thereby forfeiting their claim to be loyal Polish citizens. These people were not just morally reprehensible; they also constituted a potential “fifth column” in the country, which had to be eradicated before it could gain strength.

The significance of Gomułka’s “fifth column” remark can hardly be overestimated. The term invoked a well-organized Zionist conspiracy whose center was to be found in the Jewish community, which in 1967 counted no more than 30,000 members out of a Polish population of 32 million.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.