As I assume you know, Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and his family, survived an attempt to murder them by firebombing them while they slept. The attempted murderer, cory balmer, did so out of fury that Shapiro is a supporter of Israel.
Those are facts. But, based on Democrat reactions to this horrific act (keeping in mind that Shapiro himself is a Democrat), you’d never know it.
And why is that? Melanie Phillips, writing for the Jewish News Service (JNS) has a very worthwhile take on the reason.
I urge you to use the link and read every word of her commentary. But here is a key segment:
Shapiro is a senior Democrat who shot to national prominence when he was considered as a vice-presidential running mate for Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.
Yet despite this appalling attack on one of their own, the Democrats and their supporters have been remarkably silent. There’s been virtually no shocked outrage from those quarters. In the liberal media, there has been only the most subdued reporting.
The reason for this is as obvious as it is shameful. This attempted murder was committed in support of the Palestine cause. And such is the commitment by liberals to that cause that they can’t bring themselves to react against the terrible deed that was done in its name.
They will be busily telling themselves that Balmer is mentally ill, which seems true. But if a mentally ill neo-Nazi had firebombed a black family, the Democrats and the liberal media would be shouting from the rooftops about the inherent racism of Western society. If a white-skinned thug had tried to burn alive a prominent Muslim family, liberals would have convulsed for days over the nation’s “Islamophobia.”
If Shapiro’s mansion had been firebombed by a member of the Proud Boys screaming about the Great Replacement, the Democrats and liberal media would have erupted with charges of far-right antisemitism, and every conservative patriot would have been tarred with a murderous ideology.
In all these hypothetical instances, the attack would have been seen as politically motivated. But when an attack is mounted in the name of the Palestinians, liberals are suddenly struck dumb.
This is because they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that such a terrible act has been committed in support of a cause upon which they hang their claim to be moral, compassionate and decent people. To condemn it would be to condemn themselves.
It awakens their deepest fear—that to denounce the motivation for such an act would destroy their moral and political personality. They are terrified that it would turn them into the thing they dread more than anything else—to become “right-wing.” In their minds, this is synonymous with evil.
But the Palestinian cause that they so devoutly support is not moral or decent. It’s motivated by genocidal aspirations and Jew-hatred, and violence is its calling card.
Its supporters in the West—having swallowed the egregious lies on which this cause is based—peddle a grotesque inversion of reality in which Israel is blamed for defending itself against a barbaric and genocidal onslaught in a seven-front war of annihilation. It is these Palestinian supporters who are spreading evil.
Does Ms. Phillips have a point? Is she right about Democrats and “liberals” (a word that I don’t associate with leftward politics, but Ms. Phillips and others do)?
Well, where are the outraged Democrats? Where are the angry denunciations of hatred on behalf of “the Palestinians”? Why is it that, even those who do speak out (with relatively few exceptions) tend to do so in generalities, and not specify the reason this murder attempt took place?
Is it fear that they will alienate their constituencies? Are Democrats, in general, that against Israel/in sympathy with/support of the hamas terrorists?
Well, let’s consider the most recent polling done by the Gallup Organization, and released last month. The data show that Republicans support Israel by 75% – 10%; that’s +65% in favor of Israel. By contrast, Democrats support “Palestinians” over Israel by 59% to 21%; minus 38% for Israel.
That is a 103% swing, which is nothing short of stunning. And it is something, I would think, that any Democrat who supports Israel should think long and hard about.
