Short take: When Terrorism Goes Mainstream

Over and over, I think of the words of Lyrissa Lidsky.

Nevertheless, I know that in the war of generations, the younger always wins.  I just wonder what victory looks like.

The answer is beginning to emerge.

And the streets tell the story as well.

From London to Ireland, Germany to Italy, Scotland to France, Spain to Turkey, Denmark to Sweden, Indonesia to South Korea to Kashmir, Canada to the U.S., and beyond, millions all around the world are marching for Gaza.

The citizens of the globe are on the right side of history. pic.twitter.com/9mCnq36LsJ

— sarah (@sahouraxo) October 28, 2023

The “right side of history” trope is like a warm and fuzzy blanket the unduly passionate wrap around themselves to insulate them from the cold winds of reason and reality, but protests are fun and it’s one of the only ways they get any fresh air.

But hidden within the chants is the real message, from the river to the sea, glory to our martyrs. These chants aren’t about the poor Gazans who are used by Hamas as human shields both for the terrorists protection and to enrage the insipid in the streets, but extolling the use of terror to achieve what progressives believe to be the correct outcome.

They may have been taught a combination of fake history and word-salad rationalizations about “colonialism,” but regardless of what they’ve been sold, they have accepted that the use of terrorism by the oppressed is acceptable, even justified. Demands for a ceasefire are demands for terrorism to go without recourse, for the kidnapped to be forgotten, for future terrorism to thrive as it will not only survive this time, but is rewarded by the young. The same young, mind you, that it despises and would mercilessly kill.

As the toolkit distributed by Students for Justice in Palestine asserted, the Israelis (and others, including Arabs) murdered weren’t innocent civilians, but military assets. By that bizarre rationalization, we’re all military assets if you squint hard enough, settling on other people’s lands. And since terror is a legitimate response ridding the land of colonizers, now that burning and looting are for kids, there is no reason to believe that terror won’t be the weapon of choice going forward. It’s very effective and very deadly. Plus, it makes rape fair play, followed by eliminating the witness.

Up until now, no matter what the cause or how righteous the goal, the use of terrorism was wrong and unacceptable. Terrorism was never the answer.

Terrorism is, at least to a cohort of the young, now the answer.

Lyrissa Lidsky’s words haunt me, more now than ever.