Since Oct. 7, 2023, the progressive movement has crammed the question of Israel’s right to defend itself into the dysfunctional prism of oppressed and oppressor, not only on the quads of Ivy League colleges but also in government policy. Indeed, although the Biden-Harris administration has not gone full reactionary progressive mode against Israel, the progressive mindset is clearly influencing its policies. There is good reason to fear that Vice President Kamala Harris, if elected president, would lean much more heavily against Israel. Witness her October statement, “What he’s talking about, it’s real,” in response to a protestor accusing Israel of genocide.
A key feature of this worldview is the implicit notion that residents of the Gaza Strip have no agency. The international organization that perhaps best operationalizes this view—and is therefore held most sacred by progressives—is the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which the Israeli parliament this week voted overwhelmingly to bar from operations within Israel. Israel contends that UNRWA doesn’t truly want to improve the conditions of Palestinian Arabs, but rather, aims to keep them and their descendants as perpetual refugees for political purposes. There should be no dispute that this is the case: UNRWA is mandated by the United Nations to serve, and not resettle, Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants, who in essence are forced to function as the agency’s immaculate victims.
Yet it seems that as the designated oppressor, Israel is always at fault, however it defends itself. The Biden-Harris policy is based on an important theme we identified last November in explaining “The Progressive Movement’s Revealing Response to Hamas.” One of the key reasons for the “reactionary progressive movement’s doubling down on its opposition to Israel” is the rejection of responsibility for one’s life choices and actions on an individual level, but also on a national level.
“The idea that individuals play a significant role in their own fate seems to take a back seat to the idea that a person’s lot is determined by the group to which they belong. In this model, the oppression of groups is the cause of unequal outcomes. This creates a world that is not about individuals but only about groups, and those groups are assigned to categories: a group is either a victimizer or victimized, an oppressor or the oppressed, a colonizer or the colonized.”
As we further explained, Jews occupy a unique and despised position within the progressive framework, as they challenge the notion that external factors like discrimination and systemic racism are the primary barriers holding groups back from economic success. More generally, we explored how “the progressive left is entirely untroubled by (or even celebrates) the history of Palestinian Arab leaders rejecting offers by Israeli leaders for nearly all of the territories Israel seized in 1967” and supports terrorism against Israel as justified “resistance.”
Meanwhile, the rejection of responsibility has been on full display in statements by Palestinian Arab leadership. Hamas explained soon after the massacre on Oct. 7 that the tunnels and shelters Hamas built with dual-use “humanitarian” aid are exclusively for its fighters, while the safety of Gazan civilians is the responsibility of others, such as the United Nations, as they are refugees.
Harris insists that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself. But her year-long repetition of the slogan “How Israel defends itself matters,” including at the presidential debate, is a barely disguised accusation holding Israel responsible for Gazan casualties, not Hamas and its human-shield strategy. Harris criticizes necessary Israeli military operations, no matter the extraordinary measures Israel takes to limit harm to noncombatants.
For Harris, Israel’s right to defend itself exists only in the abstract, and the examples of her and the Biden administration’s embrace of the progressive victim framework are numerous. Harris demanded Israel not enter Rafah, claiming “I have studied the maps; there’s nowhere for those folks to go.” President Joe Biden threatened Israel with an arms embargo, arguing that very targeted counter-terror operations were the only acceptable alternative because a ground invasion would harm noncombatants. Israel wisely disregarded this pressure, while creating a humanitarian zone elsewhere for Rafah residents. But the pressure delayed Israel’s operations for months, needlessly prolonging the war and likely costing hostages their lives. The ground invasion was key to Israel turning the tide of the war, including the elimination of Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders, such as Mohamad Deif.
While Harris lectures that how Israel defends itself matters, the president and vice president seem to completely disregard that how Gaza conducts itself also matters. Setting aside murdered Israelis, Gazan casualties are directly due to the actions of Gaza’s government. But somehow, the actions of Hamas don’t seem consequential for Harris and the other progressives harshly attacking Israel for defending itself.
Biden claims that “Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.” But Gazans voted for Hamas in the 2006 elections. They overwhelmingly supported the Oct. 7 massacre carried out not just by Hamas and other terror groups but by ordinary Palestinians. Electoral runner-up Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority, boasts of having joined in the attacks and vows that similar ones will continue until Israel is destroyed.
Gaza started the war without provocation, killing, torturing, abducting and mutilating Israelis to advance the Hamas and Fatah common goal of destroying the Jewish state.
Gaza has made the war crime of using human shields not just a tactic but an overarching strategy. Gaza’s UNRWA schools and hospitals double as military headquarters, and Hamas hides behind noncombatants in every manner imaginable. Hamas built its massive tunnel system and military infrastructure with billions of foreign funding designated for humanitarian purposes. These actions, not any wrongdoing by Israel, are responsible for the deaths and destruction.
But Gazan actions are ultimately irrelevant in the progressive framework in which the “oppressed” are acted upon and have no agency. The conditions of the oppressed are always beyond their own control or influence and never because of their own choices.
A key corollary to ignoring the actions and choices of the oppressed is basing policy on abstract utopian notions, such as restorative justice, regardless of their effect. If members of oppressed groups are disproportionately committing crimes, severely limiting incarceration is the progressive solution no matter the effect on communities suffering from high crime. And utopian policy can only fail, according to proponents, because it hasn’t been pushed far enough.
Learning nothing from a year of Hamas war crimes, Biden and Harris continue to reward Hamas human shields, leading Hamas to re-establish bases in Gazan schools filled with refugees. International law aims to limit harm to noncombatants but puts on each side the primary responsibility for the protection of their own noncombatants. The administration absurdly argues Israel may not defend itself when Hamas hides behind Gazan civilians.
Immediately upon taking office, the Biden administration reversed the Trump administration policy and sent aid to various entities with close ties to Hamas such as UNRWA. The administration acknowledged the aid may benefit Hamas, but argued the risk was worth running because the funding would purportedly calm tensions and advance peace.
Despite the evidence that “humanitarian” aid and organizations in Gaza helped Hamas, the administration sent more such aid even after the Oct. 7 attacks. Pursuant to progressive doctrine, the administration doubled down on failed policy instead of reconsidering whether former President Donald Trump was wise to make sure the U.S. was not funding Hamas, even indirectly.
Biden said a year ago: “If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people, and it will end as a practical matter. It will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid.”
But true to progressive dogma, the administration keeps funding Gaza, even though more than $1 billion has been diverted to Hamas since Oct. 7, as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) recently noted.
Despite past claims by Harris of Gazan starvation turning out to be false, Harris again proclaimed a Gazan starvation crisis this month, laying the blame on Israel. The secretaries of State and Defense piled on with a harsh letter blaming Israel for Gazan conditions and demanding Israel ramp up “humanitarian” aid, including through UNRWA. The letter absurdly claims this is required by international law. A combatant generally must let enemy civilians receive aid. But there is no such obligation when it will be taken by enemy combatants.
With Biden’s signature, Congress enacted a law to prohibit any U.S. funding of UNRWA this year because of massive wrongdoing, including support for terrorism. But the administration is attempting to circumvent U.S. law by forcing Israel to support UNRWA, and thereby Hamas. The State Department reacted with outrage to the Knesset vote, threatening Israel with an arms embargo, and insisting that UNRWA and only UNRWA is capable of providing aid to Gazans and cannot be held accountable for its actions.
Congress and the Knesset legislating against UNRWA reflect an overwhelming American and Israeli consensus driven by common sense that what UNRWA and Hamas do matter. Biden-Harris support for UNRWA and focus on “humanitarian” aid, regardless of whether such aid goes, to Hamas is almost a parody of our observation one year ago: “Like poverty in the U.S., the progressive movement isn’t interested in examining the underlying cause of Gaza’s troubles, which is the dedication of societal resources, and billions in foreign aid, to seeking the destruction of Israel, rather than improving Gaza.”
