Silence Is No Answer to the Pro-Hamas Protesters Outside the DNC | Opinion

The mask-clad protesters who have descended upon the Democratic National Convention in Chicago have been abundantly clear where they stand on Israel and America.
In front of cameras and for all the world to watch, they chant “Long live the intifada,” burn the American flag, and threaten to “bring the war home.” They also bluntly dismiss a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution, screaming “We don’t want no two states. We want all of ’48.”
Less clear on where they stand are the party leaders inside the convention hall.
One by one this week, governors, senators, congress members, and candidates have touted party unity while willfully ignoring the protesters outside—presumably out of fear that addressing them directly is a losing electoral proposition.
The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, including the right to protest. But when speech crosses the line into harassment and violence, leaders have a duty to speak out.
Instead, the people vying to run this country hope we won’t notice that they are not addressing the real issues at hand. In speech after speech, Democratic officeholders—those who even raise the subject—have offered some variation of “We must end the war in Gaza” and “bring home the hostages.”
That’s exactly what most Israelis want. It’s what all decent, rational people want. But it’s not what the terrorists that Israel is fighting want. Yet again this week, they rejected the terms for a hostage release-ceasefire deal.
Democratic delegates voted at the convention to maintain an “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security. But it’s hard to see that commitment as much more than platitudes when they won’t stake more courageous positions.
The party seems to have adopted a policy of silence that they hope will appease protesters, but that is woefully out of sync with most of the nation.
The vast majority of Americans understand the threat posed by terror groups in the Middle East. According to public polling this summer, 80 percent support Israel over Hamas; two-thirds believe Israel is trying to avoid civilian deaths in Gaza, and 70 percent say they would only support a ceasefire if Hamas is removed from power and the Israeli hostages are released.
The American people know right from wrong. Anyone who wants to lead this country should be able to express concern for the Palestinians’ plight while recognizing the fundamental difference between terrorists who target civilians and an army that targets the terrorists who attack its civilians.
Similarly, anyone who wants to lead this country should have the courage to stand up to the extremists in the streets who praise terror groups, call for the annihilation of the Jewish state, terrorize Zionists, and spout a hateful ideology.
Silence sends a dangerous message that such behavior is tolerable, even acceptable.
Even President Joe Biden, who has shown himself to be a steadfast and longstanding friend of Israel, refused to denounce the protesters, choosing instead to indulge them. In his remarks to the convention and the country, he said, “The protesters on the street have a point. A lot of people are being killed on both sides.”
Respectfully, Mr. President, they do not have a point, and they are not showing compassion for “both sides.”
The protesters outside the DNC—much like the ones who set up encampments on college campuses—are not voicing disgust at the Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,200 people in southern Israel. They are not condemning the barbaric terrorists who took 251 hostages and still hold more than 100 of them. They are not denouncing the daily rocket and drone attacks on Israel’s northern border, one of which recently claimed the lives of 12 Druze children on a soccer field.
And they are certainly not condemning Hamas.
The terror group has always been crystal clear that its ultimate objective is the destruction of Israel. They have demonstrated throughout this war that they will pursue that objective no matter how many Palestinian lives it costs. Hamas long ago made the calculation that its best hope of survival is to hide behind civilians in Gaza while feeding the West a steady diet of horrific images and inflated casualty figures.
Their strategy has proven to be effective. Especially this week in Chicago.
At the DNC, we have seen precious few moments of candid honesty. One came when Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told CNN that “antisemitism is present in our commonwealth, in our country, and in some areas within our party.”
It’s also present just outside the arena among the thousands of hateful protesters in the streets. And it needs to be called out. Silence is not the answer.
Aviva Klompas is the former director of speechwriting at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations and co-founder of Boundless Israel, a nonprofit organization that partners with community leaders in the U.S. to support Israel education and combat hatred of Jews.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.