Call Me Cold, Call Me Evil, But Betrayal Is Still Betrayal

When Jews March Alongside Supporters of Hamas, They Should Understand Exactly What They Are Standing For

Call me cold, call me evil, call me whatever you want. I genuinely do not care anymore. But seeing Jews walking in anti Israel demonstrations, alongside people openly glorifying or defending the terrorist organization Hamas, makes my blood boil. Absolutely boil. Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, including Israeli Jews, men, women, children and entire families. They burned homes, slaughtered civilians, committed sexual violence and dragged innocent people into Gaza as hostages. And now I am supposed to calmly watch Jewish people marching alongside individuals who excuse, celebrate or justify those atrocities? I am supposed to respect that as some noble expression of Jewish conscience? Absolutely not.

Israel is the JEWISH homeland. Not a temporary political experiment, not a colonial invention and certainly not a country whose existence depends on the approval of demonstrators shouting slogans in European streets. Jewish history, Jewish identity, Jewish religious traditions and Jewish national survival are inseparably connected to the land of Israel. That connection existed thousands of years before Hamas, before modern political movements and before anyone invented the fashionable language used today to deny Jewish self determination. You do not have to be religious to acknowledge that history. You do not even have to agree with the Israeli government. But deliberately erasing that connection while presenting yourself as the authentic voice of Jewish morality is something I find utterly contemptible.

And then there is the IDF. The Israel Defense Forces, an army whose soldiers are expected to defend a tiny nation surrounded by threats while operating under extraordinary international scrutiny. I consider the IDF one of the most morally accountable fighting forces in the world, despite mistakes, failures and incidents that deserve investigation. Its soldiers are defending a country whose enemies have repeatedly declared their intention to destroy it. Yet some Jewish demonstrators seem more interested in condemning those soldiers than in confronting the terrorists who deliberately attacked Jewish civilians. Apparently, condemning Israel earns applause in certain fashionable circles. Defending Jewish lives does not.

Let me make something perfectly clear. Criticizing Netanyahu is not treason. Opposing a military operation is not treason. Demanding accountability from Israeli politicians or soldiers is not treason. I have criticized Israeli politicians myself, sometimes in the harshest possible language. Israel is a democracy, and disagreement is part of democracy. But there is an enormous moral difference between criticizing your government and knowingly providing support, legitimacy or assistance to an organization dedicated to destroying your country.

And THAT is where my patience ends.

Throughout history, treason during wartime has been considered one of the most serious crimes a citizen can commit against their own country. In many countries, betrayal during war was punishable by death, particularly when it involved assisting enemy forces, revealing military secrets, espionage or deliberately endangering soldiers and civilians.

In Israel, certain forms of intentionally assisting an enemy during armed hostilities can carry the death penalty or life imprisonment. In the United States, federal treason law still permits capital punishment. In the United Kingdom, treason was historically punishable by execution, although the maximum punishment today is life imprisonment. The Netherlands executed collaborators after World War II, including Anton Mussert, the leader of the Dutch Nazi movement NSB. France also executed wartime collaborators. Germany, Russia and China have histories of imposing extraordinarily severe penalties for betrayal of the state.

Why? Because wartime betrayal is not an innocent intellectual exercise. When someone deliberately provides intelligence to an enemy, assists hostile military operations or knowingly helps an organization murder their fellow citizens, the consequences can be measured in human lives.

Of course, demonstrating against Israel is not legally equivalent to treason. Nor does Jewish identity automatically create Israeli citizenship or legal obligations to the Israeli state. And accusations of Hamas financing require actual evidence, not assumptions based on who attends a protest. But legality and morality are two different questions. Something can be perfectly legal and still represent, in my eyes, a profound betrayal of the people whose history and identity you claim as your own.

What makes this particularly infuriating is the historical irony. Jewish people have endured centuries of persecution, expulsions, massacres, pogroms and ultimately the Holocaust. For generations, Jews were accused of disloyalty, denied protection and murdered because of their identity. Israel represents the restoration of Jewish sovereignty and the ability of Jews to defend themselves. And now, barely eight decades after the Holocaust, I see Jewish demonstrators standing in crowds where the destruction of that sovereignty is openly advocated.

Do they understand the difference between opposing Israeli policies and helping normalize the elimination of the Jewish state? Do they understand what it means when Hamas supporters use Jewish participation as political cover? Do they understand that being Jewish does not magically make every slogan they endorse morally defensible?

And before anyone starts screaming that I am demanding blind loyalty, save your breath. I am demanding something far more basic: intellectual honesty, historical awareness and moral consistency.

If you condemn civilian deaths, condemn them consistently. If you demand human rights, demand them for Israeli children too. If you claim to oppose terrorism, stop making excuses for terrorists. And if you genuinely believe in peace, explain how empowering an organization responsible for the October 7 massacre brings anyone closer to it.

I will never accept the argument that Jewish identity somehow makes apologizing for Hamas more respectable. It does not. It makes the moral contradiction even harder for me to comprehend.

Call me cold. Call me evil. Call me intolerant. But do not expect me to applaud people who knowingly stand beside those celebrating the murder of Jews and then demand that I call it solidarity.

History has taught us what betrayal during wartime can cost. You have every right to criticize Israel. You have every right to demand changes in its government and military policies. But if you knowingly defend Hamas, justify its atrocities or materially assist its campaign of terror, do not hide behind the language of peace and human rights, you are just a trator of your own people.

Betrayal does not become courage simply because the person committing it calls themselves a peace activist.

And Jewish identity does not turn support for terrorism into a virtue.