The June 1 attack on a peaceful pro-Israel rally in Boulder, CO, has left progressives, including a few elected Democrats and a host of media figures, scrambling to avoid allegations of culpability. After years of anti-Israel rhetoric, which often spilled over into antisemitism and escalated dramatically following the Hamas massacre of Israelis in October of 2023, the political left is facing a reckoning. The attempts to evade, excuse, and obfuscate are not going well. Democratic politicians are missing an opportunity – and it may already be too late – to escape, once and for all, the justified perception that they never moved on from a decades-old trend of left-wing hostility toward Jews.
First, it should be noted that Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national living illegally in the United States, committed an act of terrorism when he carried out his assault on the march staged in support of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Most of those yet to be returned are presumed dead, but more than 20 are believed to be alive.
Boulder Terror Attack Spin
By any definition, it was a terrorist act: planned, ideologically motivated, targeting civilians, and intending to cause mass casualties. Yet the left-wing establishment media will not use the T-word. That evening, Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett (D) put out a brief statement on X, using the word “attack” but also describing it as a “tragic incident.” Soliman, yelling “free Palestine” and anti-Israel slogans, threw Molotov cocktails at the marchers, injuring 12. The Boulder police, however, refused to describe the assault as an act of terror, claiming that a motive had not yet been established.
Efforts by progressives and left-wing journalists to avoid or deny the reality of the situation have been many, varied, and wholly transparent. One media report from NBC described Soliman as a “lone wolf,” and that narrative has been picked up by others. This makes it possible to claim the individual's radicalization had nothing to do with anti-Israel sentiment and propaganda promoted domestically by the left. The network also avoided describing the victims as Jews, preferring instead to refer to them as “Gaza-hostage-awareness marchers.”
One noted progressive ranter even tried blaming the Trump administration for not deporting Soliman sooner. When Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted about the attack on X, Keith Olbermann responded, “[F]or all your tough talk, [you] had four months to remove him and you utterly failed. Blood on your hands, scumbag.”
Beyond the ridiculous and, in some cases, appalling media takes is the issue of antisemitism and the reality that this is a left-wing problem. The “both sides” argument does not hold up. Jews are not being assaulted by conservatives and libertarians. Republican members of Congress are not accusing Israelis of “occupation” or “genocide.”
MSNBC identified the Boulder assailant as a white man, thus leaving the door open for the network’s predominantly left-wing audience to assume this attack was perpetrated by a “right-wing extremist.” Democratic politicians – including those who frequently rail against the Jewish state – will often decry “the rise of” or “growing” antisemitism, but they will not identify those responsible, which presents the possibility that antipathy toward Jews spans the political spectrum. And, to a small extent, it might, but again, right-wingers are not the ones confronting and assaulting Jews on American streets and college campuses.
Antisemitic or Anti-Zionist?
Also, there is the false narrative that the campus protests happening today in the United States – along with the pro-Hamas demonstrations – are anti-Zionist rather than anti-Jewish. There is indeed a distinction, though many Jews and non-Jews alike would argue it’s a distinction without a difference.
Zionism, in the simplest terms, is the belief in the right of Jews to live in a sovereign state established in their ancestral homeland – a region previously (though not historically) known as Palestine. Not all Jews consider themselves Zionists.
In any case, it is hard to argue that you are not antisemitic but merely protesting Israeli policy toward Palestinians when you are discriminating against or attacking Jewish people in a country thousands of miles from the Holy Land. It is not credible to deny harboring antisemitic sentiments when you are chanting “from the river to the sea.” That slogan directly refers to the dream of a Palestinian homeland entirely supplanting what is now Israel – which would necessarily require the wholesale removal from that region of the Jewish population. Does it suggest a genocide of Israeli Jews, then? It certainly seems to do just that.
Words Do Matter – Because We’re Human
There is finally the matter of anti-Israel rhetoric inciting anti-Jewish violence. It is an unfortunately common tendency among humans to direct anger at innocent individuals who happen to be in some way associated with the perpetrators of a real or perceived injustice.
The assaults on American Muslims – and in some cases on people who looked as if they might be Muslim – after 9/11 are an example. So is the vandalism of Tesla vehicles and dealerships and aggression against Tesla drivers because leftists hated Elon Musk’s support for Trump. Yet another, the now not uncommon public harassment of Trump supporters.
So, when a politician or someone else who commands public influence spews accusations of murder and genocide against Israel, and then Jews in other countries are attacked, there is a connection. The words likely incited or at least inspired the actions.
Democrats looking to distance their party from the damage inflicted upon it by toxic progressive ideology would do well to recognize this connection – and own it. Rather than making excuses that no intelligent observer believes, they should be acknowledging that antisemitism has become a serious issue on their side of the political divide. Honest, unequivocal, and unconditional condemnation would perhaps earn back some of the trust, respect, and credibility that Democrats have squandered over the past decade or more.
What happened in Boulder cannot be viewed outside the problem of left-wing political violence and bigotry against one particular ethnic group.
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