Lauren Lejeune

At the beginning of the month, I left with my family for the mountains on a week-long hunting trip. Being able to step away from the everyday hustle was a really welcome reset for myself and my family. What I didn’t expect was to turn my phone on and discover that our modern world had been turned upside down. 

The Oct. 7 attacks plunged the nation of Israel into an all out war with the Iranian-backed terrorist organization known as Hamas. The organization fired rockets into southern Israel and launched a ground assault on the border Israeli towns, resulting in the deaths of over a thousand people and hostages being taken into Gaza, including American citizens. Israel has since declared war on Hamas and begun its counteroffensive moves, vowing to completely erase Hamas from the world. 

Sifting through news media outlets and social media has gotten to be one of the most tiring activities. But what has easily become one of the most shocking turn of events for me is the amount of outspoken support coming from Americans. Over the past few days, pro-Palestinian rallies have been held across the country, some of the largest taking place on university campuses. 

Students holding Palestinian and Hamas flags gather together shouting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Now, there is nothing wrong or antisemitic about advocating for Palestinians to have their own state. But let’s be clear about one thing: They were given the opportunity to split the land and they refused because they did not want to accept the creation of a Jewish state. I’m beginning to wonder if this current up-and-coming generation, my generation, knows what exactly they’re cheering for. 

Hamas has ruled over the Gaza strip since 2007 when they violently took control of the area. They have built and stored bombs in schools, hospitals and in civilian neighborhoods. Hamas uses children for shields. They dig up water lines and make rockets out of them. Gaza is not occupied by Israel. In fact, Israel allows Gaza citizens to come into Israel for better work opportunities. I guarantee Israeli people are not going to Gaza for their 9-5 work day. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free … if you haven’t figured it out yet, it’ll be free of Jews. 

So when young Americans take to the streets, screaming for the liberation of Palestine, what does that look like? What does that even mean in light of what’s happened? Does Palestine’s freedom begin with firing hundreds of rockets into Jewish civilian towns, or slaughtering a few hundred young Jewish people at a music festival? Does freedom begin with assaulting and killing Jewish women, filming the horrific moments before they disappear in Gaza as hostages? Is freedom the same as burning entire families to death, wiping out mass populations of innocent people? 

No sane person will answer yes to any of the above. And yet, people are reluctant to fully condemn what’s been done to Israel. “Well yeah, of course it’s wrong to hurt innocent women, but …” There are no buts. You are either fully against any acts of terrorism or you’re complacent to the deaths of innocents. 

Woke universities and a general lack of world knowledge and moral decay have led to the youth of our First World country celebrating the genocide of Jewish people. I urge everyone to do their research on what has happened and is currently happening in the Hamas-Israel conflict. Well-informed individuals who stand up for the truth will be the last line of defense against the spread of misinformation in a world ready to sink its teeth into the first thing the propaganda machine comes up with.