A statement has recently been circulating online, purporting to bear the signatures of over 1,000 individuals—most of whom are professors of Jewish studies—under the title “The Elephant in the Room.” Although it begins with a complaint about “Israel’s recent attack on the judiciary,” it deviates quickly from the agenda of the Israeli protest movement to assert that the real problem (hence the title) is the “illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” which it thrice describes with the term “apartheid.” Jarrod Tanny zeroes in on some of the document’s “falsehoods and dangerous claims.”

“Meanwhile, American Jewish billionaire funders help support the Israeli far right.” I should not have to explain to Jewish-studies scholars why blaming much of Israel’s oppressive policies on Jewish money and power from abroad is anti-Semitic. . . . Whether there are American Jewish billionaires giving money to the Israeli right is irrelevant. As a counterexample, consider George Soros. Whenever Fox News sounds the alarm over “George Soros Globalists” funding destructive projects, the Jewish left screams “anti-Semitism.”

“American Jewish billionaire funders” does nothing but trigger anti-Semites, giving them the much-wanted confirmation from “blue-chip” Jewish-studies scholars that their project to liquidate Israel and the global Zionist threat is a righteous endeavor.

This document will not “fix” Israel. It can’t, much as BDS resolutions on college campuses can’t. But fixing Israel is not [its authors’] immediate objective. Their objective is to promote anxiety and discomfort among diaspora Jews. They want Zionist Jews to know their message is being received by anti-Zionist activists, politicians, and the larger academic community: Israel is not kosher, there are good Jews and bad Jews, and we, the bad Jews, are tainted by the stain of Jewish supremacy; we are no better than the ever-expanding circle of “fascists” and “racists” who are bringing America to its knees. The Jews, rather than any imagined connection between the “occupation” and Israeli judicial overhauls, are “the elephant in the room.” We are the target.

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.