by Robert Spencer
The Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel and its aftermath have been a comprehensive wake-up call. Most notably, they’ve revealed that leftist and Islamic groups have been preparing for this moment for years and have been able to mobilize, all across the nation, a massive demonstration of support for Hamas and hatred for Israel. There has, however, also been movement on the other side: many leftists are discovering the sheer horror of what they’ve been supporting all these years and are bidding adieu to the left.
One of these former leftists is Sofie Berzon Mackie, an Israeli woman who lived just under two miles from the Gaza border. The UK’s Daily Mail profiled Mackie on Saturday, noting that Mackie would sometimes jog toward the border and look into Gaza: “She would see the city, see the sea and be filled with the hope of peace one day – certain that there were mothers just like her on the other side of the fence who wanted peace, too.”
This is the sort of thing that makes leftism so attractive to so many people: while the more realistic side is warning of dangers and threats, leftists are talking love, peace, and reconciliation. It would be wonderful if the same spirit animated the enemies to whom leftists love to reach out, but it does not, as Mackie discovered to her horror on Oct. 7.
Now Mackie says: “I’ve been a left-winger all my life. I don’t believe in violence. I always wanted co-existence. Even in our darkest hours, I told my children that in Gaza there were mothers like me, and children like them, and they are not the devil. Now I realize how naïve I was.”
Mackie may have been naïve, but leftists in general are something more than just that; they’re in an out-and-out war against reality. That’s what makes them so dangerous. A woman at the Gaza border hoping that those on the other side will drop their genocidal rhetoric and become her friends is one thing; an American administration that demands that Israel behave as if the genocidal rhetoric weren’t happening and that the people across the border are already friends is quite another.