Antisemitism and Israel

Less than three months ago, 1,400 people, mostly Jews, mostly civilians, were slaughtered in some of the cruelest and most unimaginable ways in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

This serves as a painful reminder that Israel faces an enemy in Hamas that seeks nothing less than the total elimination of the Jewish people. In the aftermath of such a barbaric massacre, much of the world shockingly rushed not to condemn the perpetrators, but to blame Israel.

I stand firmly with Israel's right to self-defense against terrorists who openly call for a second Holocaust. The international community cannot apply a hypocritical double standard that denies Israel's basic right of self-preservation while ignoring the genocidal ambitions of Hamas.

Tragically, we have seen antisemitic and Islamophobia skyrocket across America following the October 7th attacks. Jewish businesses vandalized, students harassed on campus for wearing yarmulkas, and Jewish teachers and students forced into hiding. And as a student at Stanford, we are seeing it right in front of us. Antisemitism masquerading as activism must be exposed and condemned.

My friends, it pains me deeply that in Israel's hour of need, so much of the world has abandoned it. An ally, a friend. The hypocritical silence and even tacit justification of Hamas's gruesome October 7th attacks represent a moral betrayal of the highest order.

Why are the streets not flooded with righteous demonstrators outraged at Hamas's brazen pledge to annihilate every last Jew?

I will never understand the vilification of Israel's very founding as an act of so-called colonial oppression when it represented the triumphant homecoming of refugees determined to write a new chapter after the smokestacks of Auschwitz.

And I will never tolerate the normalization of genocidal slogans calling for Palestine to stretch from the river to the sea, to wipe Israel off the map.  

I don’t want this speech to lose sight of innocent lives. An innocent life lost anywhere is a tragedy, and we must mourn the loss of life in Gaza and mourn for the Palestinians. The number of children, mothers, and elderly who have been killed is tragic for everyone. I know that the war has been challenging for my Muslim-American friends as well. Islamophobia has increased and has resulted in gruesome acts of violence. We must continue to foster discussions across communities and continue to protect Muslim-Americans as Islamophobia rises.

But, as Golda Meir once said “If [Hamas] put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Israel put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.”

However unchecked antisemitism disguised as solidarity may spread, I will forcefully condemn it. Israel's security and the Jewish people's rights are non-negotiable. My commitment never wavers.