In the past, on occasion, I have used a phrase from the book of Matthew in the Christian Bible to describe many of those who abuse, assault, antagonize and threaten Jews in their writing or pronouncements. The phrase is “fools, liars, and hypocrites”, and you may have seen me use it here in the past.

One of the reasons I use this phrase, aside from its pointedness and structure, is that it was used at the time by the writer of that gospel to malign and impugn the Pharisees, the strain of 1st century CE Judaism that all current Jewish denominations evolved from. I want to own the language and turn it on its head, and so I aim it instead at those who choose to be our adversaries.

The double standards held and used by both local and international organizations when it comes to Israel, the false narratives and libelous claims made, and the sometimes obviously ridiculous or performative representations (think of Greta Thunberg) fit the words and cadence of the phrase. But I’ve concluded that there is another word we should be using to describe these people.

I’ve listened to and read many perspectives on Gaza and the outcomes of 10/7, and one of those I value highly is that of Ahmed Fouad Al Khatib. He is no fan of Israel, but he passionately despises Hamas and what they have done to the people of Gaza. He looks at the western activists, both the ‘useful idiots’ and the ‘fellow travelers’ (to use a few choice phrases from both sides of the cold war), and he is not surprised by their silence since the ceasefire.

I stood in village and town council meetings across Rockland (and beyond) several times, and those ‘activists’ insisted that they wanted a ceasefire, they wanted to save Palestinian lives, and they didn’t trust Israel to stop fighting the war inflicted upon it if the hostages were released. Lo and behold, when the hostages were released, Israel stopped fighting, and indeed withdrew to an agreed upon interim line. And Hamas? Hamas continued killing Gazans, executing them in gruesome public displays of violence to intimidate the populace. And those activists? Those here, around the country, and around the world? Not a word. Silence. Some have even justified the extrajudicial killing of ‘traitors’.

What is really keeping them quiet? Well, their cognitive dissonance has been exposed. Faced with choosing between facts as opposed to their political narrative describing Israel as fascist, white colonizing, racist, bloodthirsty genocidiares, they chose the narrative that fit their world view. Faced with the strategic defeat of Iran, all its proxies including Hamas, and the loss of solidarity from Qatar and Turkey who made deals with the President and backed the current ceasefire, they didn’t express contrition, regret, or admit they were at best misled or simply wrong. No, they’ve doubled down.

Beyond their foolishness, their lies, and their hypocritical double standards, Khatib, if I am paraphrasing correctly, sees them as cowards, as well. Cowards who were happy to see Gazans die (just as Hamas has openly said they were) as long as it suited their anti American and anti Israel agenda. As long as it fit their ‘oppressed-oppressor’ dynamic. As long as it didn't demand they look at the uncomfortable truths that come with backing a murderous ideology bent on destroying western civilization after it finishes with the Jews. As long as THEY could stand behind their masks, their encampments, their occupations, and rip down posters of murdered babies, or throw a few bricks through storefronts, they were being ‘brave’. All the while the Gazans they purported to support had the terrible experience of being Hamas’s human shields as Israel fought to remove the threat- and now bear the brunt of Hamas’s violence as Israel holds fire.

Cowards.

I wish I could say that the best thing to do is to ignore them, and to instead pay all of our attention to the heroes who walked out of the tunnels of Gaza last week. But we don’t have the luxury of ignoring them. Some of them have gone beyond words and posters and slogans and even bricks. Some of them have moved on to assault, arson and murder. Now they are angered by Israel’s apparent strategic victory, by the President’s success in stopping the fighting on terms not favorable to Hamas, and they are worried about diminishing crowds and curtailed funding from sources now aligning with American policy.

It behooves us to remember that you don’t have to be brave to be dangerous. The dock at the Tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946 was full of cowards.

I choose to be motivated by the brave; by a generation of young Israelis for whom sacrifice and brotherhood and sisterhood are what they expect, even demand of themselves; by mothers who never gave up, by grandparents who are raising their orphaned grandchildren; by Arab Israelis who rescued hundreds and Druze who lost their children but ran across borders to save their cousins; by community members like you who show up, who volunteer, who donate, who train and stand at the doors of their synagogues to be a part of securing our community.

I choose heroes.