Last Saturday afternoon, about 100 anti-Israel demonstrators gathered in Teaneck, New Jersey, home to a large and thriving Orthodox Jewish community. After a week of anti-Israel protests that frequently degenerated into the harassment of Jews, and in several instances into violent attacks, Luke Moon, a Christian, decided to be present at the location of the protest in a show of solidarity with the Jewish people. The experience brought to his mind a verse from the book of Obadiah: “On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off [Israel’s] wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.”

As a Christian, my willingness to go stand alone for Israel . . . is rooted in my reading of Scripture. I find the passages like the one from Obadiah to be a warning for my fellow Christians not to be like the Edomites, [whom the prophet is addressing]. This passage is not the only warning about callous indifference towards Israel and the Jews.

My stand for Israel and the Jews is deeply personal—a combination of theology, history, experiences, and relationships that I have developed over the last several years.

As I stood with my sign opposite the 150 to 200 Palestinian activists, other Jews began showing up. Some wore kippot, and others did not. Our numbers never grew to more than a dozen. As the afternoon grew hotter, so did the anger hurled at us. The cries of “Fascists! Nazis! Baby Killers!” by the Palestinians, however, were met with “I don’t hate you” and “We want peace” by the Jews.

In those moments, I was proud of the side I had chosen. And when the next threat of pogrom happens, I will be there again. I will stand because I refuse to be counted among those who stand aloof when their brothers and sisters are in trouble.

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.