Willam F. Buckley Jr famously quipped, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University. By that same logic, those first 2,000 names have to be better being governed by a group of Hollywood celebrities.
Alyssa Milano -- most famous as a child actor on Who’s the Boss? and a twentysomething witch on Charmed -- tweeted a list of demands on President Biden on the Israel-Hamas war.
Milano and her chorale of self-proclaimed “artists and advocates, but most importantly, human beings” demanded “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half -- a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic.”
This statement underlines the dismissive phrase “bleeding-heart liberals.” It’s unfortunate, because it’s admirable to have empathy for others. Mockery should be reserved for the absolute lack of any sense of the nature of Israel’s enemy and their strategic objective – to eliminate Israel and all the Jews in it.
It's right there in the Hamas Charter, which we recommend to Milano and her hopelessly naive colleagues. Try this passage about Allah’s promise: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”
Does that suggest an “immediate de-escalation and ceasefire” is going to work? It’s like issuing a statement after 9/11 suggesting a ceasefire with Osama bin Laden.
Logic isn’t the point. Establishing themselves as the Conscience of the World is the point. “Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity,” according to Milano’s tweeting troops. “We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people -- and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed. We refuse to tell future generations the story of our silence, that we stood by and did nothing.”
But a call for a ceasefire is a demand to do nothing to curtail further violence and terrorism.
Sadly, Team Milano isn’t the worst gaggle of “artists and advocates” putting out statements. Under the title "Artists for Palestine,” actress Tilda Swinton and other Brits put out a much more pro-Hamas statement against the “war crimes” of Israel: “We support the global movement against the destruction of Gaza and the mass displacement of the Palestinian people. We demand that our governments end their military and political support for Israel’s actions.”
It should be noted that 700-plus celebrities signed an open letter released by the non-profit entertainment industry organization Creative Community For Peace in support of Israel, which contains a better sense of the peril for Jews. Celebrities landed on all sides of this argument. That doesn’t make them better strategists or humanitarians than average citizens.
The Milanos of the world should encounter all the heartbreaking stories about Hamas killing Israelis who sincerely believed in a “two-state solution” and some kind of Israeli-Palestinian harmony. All five members of the Kutz family were savagely burned to death inside their home just east of Gaza. They were part of an annual kite-flying festival promoting a message of peace with Palestinians.
They in no way got “what they deserved,” but wishing for peace and achieving peace can be entirely different concepts. Sometimes only war brings peace.
