Not helping
By 
We already covered this ground when the NYU Law SBA president expressed support for the Hamas attacks, but apparently we have to address this again: defending Hamas is not helping anyone. It is, in fact, almost certainly hurting.
The latest instance involves Albany Law’s Professor Nina Farnia, who took to social media to post “Long live the Palestinian resistance & people of Gaza” and to describe the recent attacks as “tearing down the walls of colonialism & apartheid.”
By way of contrast, if someone wants to say, “these attacks should not be used to precipitate potential further war crimes” or to point to past human rights abuses on the part of settlers or IDF personnel — not as a justification, but as part of an intellectually consistent rejection of all violence — those statements do not condone what’s happened. Calling the attacks “necessary” or draping kidnapping and massacre in the rhetoric of some sort of noble resistance does. . .
For those folks who position themselves as supporters of the Palestinian cause, consider these remarks from Israel’s president echoing the idea that the “people of Gaza” fully own these attacks:
In comments on Friday, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog said Palestinians in Gaza were collectively responsible for the attack. “It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians [being] not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true,” he said. “They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup ‘d etat.”
Can we all just stop ascribing collective guilt to children? Is it really all that fucking hard?
A funeral and burial will be held Monday for the 6-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed when his Chicago-area landlord allegedly attacked him and his mother because the family is Muslim.Family members will be joined by interfaith leaders, community members and officials in remembering 6-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume, according to a news release from the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The attack, which also left Wadea’s mother seriously injured, is being investigated by the Department of Justice as a hate crime.
The family’s landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Christ what a planet.