How to tell if you are pro-human

Douglas Murray said, “In every European capital and in America, photos of the Israeli hostages were put up, and in every city, they were torn down. If someone in London or Paris loses their dog, they will put up a poster and if even one person in our society went around tearing down such a poster, we would ask what had happened in our society; we would ask why we were producing people so pathological. Yet when the missing are Jewish children or Jewish women or Jewish men, these posters are torn down.”

There are people who tear down posters and there are people who create them. For many years, an artist who lived in my city created posters in support of Palestinians. In December 2023 he wrote, “I’m a pacifist. I believe in solutions to disagreements that avoid violence. I stand with countless others demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. We are an intelligent species capable of cooperation and solving problems without violence.”

Bereft of an understanding of the genocidal intention of Hamas, the artist offers platitudes that reveal an abundance of naivety. Indeed, his comments are as helpful as saying, “I know how we can eliminate cancer. All we need to do is find a cure.”

Calling himself ‘pro-human’, the artist, along with too many others, has a selective concept of humanity that somehow never seems to include Jews.

One of the posters he created depicted a Palestinian boy crying. However, we should look beyond the surface.

What does the Palestinian boy cry out for?

He cries out for a world that understands that ceasefires with terrorists don’t bring an enduring peace, nor do they bring freedom to the oppressed people who are governed by the terrorists.

He cries out for the chance to attend a school that doesn’t teach him to kill people because they are of a different faith.

He cries out for all of the Palestinian children Hamas used as human shields.

He cries out for the Palestinians to build a country of their own instead of trying to tear down what Israel has built.

He cries out for people to show sympathy for Palestinians killed in wars in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, and not only the wars involving Israel.

He cries out for countries to take in Palestinian refugees, as they opened their doors for millions of Syrian and Ukrainian refugees.

He cries out for the world to protest Lebanon’s treatment of Palestinians who are not allowed to own property or travel freely.

He cries out for Arab countries to grant full citizenship to Palestinians. No Arab state, other than Jordan, has ever granted full citizenship to Palestinians.

He cries for the food that Hamas stole and continues to withhold from the Palestinians. After Israel was widely accused of causing a famine in Gaza, in July, the United Nations acknowledged that 90% of the food that Israel provided was stolen.

He cries for his fellow Muslims who are citizens of Muslim countries, yet do not have the immense freedom and opportunities that Muslim citizens have in Israel.

How can you tell if a country is pro-human?

Although Venezuela does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, shortly after the recent earthquake there, Israel supplied first aid, search-and-rescue advice, critical supplies, water purification, and communication systems. In fact, the Jewish state has provided emergency search-and-rescue teams and relief supplies and has set up field hospitals with medical staff in over 140 countries.

In 2018 when Iran faced a water crisis, Israel created a website describing in the Farsi language how Iranians could recycle their wastewater. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “The Iranian regime shouts: Death to Israel! In response, Israel shouts: Life to the Iranian people!”

How can you tell if you are pro-human?

If you perpetually post memes about racism but at a time when antisemitism is soaring, you never mention it, you are not pro-human.

If a black student was harassed and told to go back to Africa, you would be outraged, but when Jewish students were harassed and told to go back to Poland, you shrugged it off, then you are not pro-human.

If you have heard the never-ending calls of ‘From the River to the Sea’ and have no concern where 10 million Israelis (Jews, Muslims, Christians, and people of other faiths) will go, then you are not pro-human.

If you think that Israel, a country continually under attack from rockets, doesn’t have a right to defend itself, you are not pro-human.

If you create multiple posters supporting Palestinians, but after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, you could not bring yourself to create even one poster depicting the suffering of Israelis, you are most certainly not pro-human.

Bernard-Henri Levy said, “The absence of support for Israel will be considered by future historians as a moment of huge disgrace for the West. It is a defeat of humanity and a moral defeat. It is the loss of any moral compass.”

Antisemitism has been called a “light sleeper”. Indeed, it is easily roused. People who, under the guise of humanity, championed the Palestinians, knowingly contributed to the drastic rise in antisemitism.

Moreover, they contributed to an increased number of Palestinian deaths. In fact, had the western world overwhelmingly and steadfastly stood with Israel, Hamas likely would not have prevented civilians from taking cover in tunnels, nor would the terrorists have fought from schools, hospitals, and civilian homes. Hamas sought Palestinian casualties because they knew there would be a direct link between a high Palestinian death count and a rise in antisemitism. Ironically, the people who supported the Palestinians ended up being their worst enemy.

Certainly, any civilian death is sad, but we should remember what Ze’ev Jabotinsky said over 100 years ago. “A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live. But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist—and this also applies to nations.”

The people who condemn Israel’s actions in wars started by Hamas and Hezbollah fail to recognize that the real tragedy is that after two millennia of persecution, the Jewish people are still all too often under attack. Whereas slavery is the biggest stain on American history, the pogroms and genocide perpetrated by Christians and Muslims against Jews for thousands of years is the biggest stain on world history and the biggest injustice by far.

It is easy to be generous when it’s not on your dime. It is easy to claim virtue while expecting others to make sacrifices and take risks. It is easy to call for a ceasefire from the security of an elite university or from an artist’s studio.

However, if you lived in a country that has missiles raining down, and just a few miles away there were terrorists who, with machine guns and machetes, might come into your house and drag you into a tunnel where you would be endlessly starved, tortured, and raped, your concept of humanity would change.

Whether you call yourself pro-human or not, whether you tear down posters or create them, when all is said and done, you would want your government to do whatever it takes to protect you, too.