The Hypocrisy of Selective Morality: When Political Ideology and Jewish Safety Clash

How Celebrating Trump’s Calls for Violence and Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza Undermines the Fight for Jewish Security

1920s USA Map, Artist Unknown

It’s a rainy Tuesday morning in my city. I walked my dog, lit some incense, and had my coffee. To my honest surprise, the world around me feels normal without the incessant hum of the world wide web. Turns out if you step away from the screen, it still feels like 2005 outside. Sorry for doubting you mom, you were right all along.

Last night my partner asked me if I heard the latest Trump absurdity. Guantanamo Bay?
No, not that one, the newer one.
Here we go.

The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, we'll own it ... We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal ... the Riviera of the Middle East.

—Donald Trump

I’m wondering how many different ways I can express the feeling of deep disappointment with those who encouraged abstention or third party votes. “What a shortsighted plan,” I want to tell them, “how the hell did you lot not see this coming?”

There are two illusions that have shattered post-October 7th. I’ve since realized that:

1. Non-Jews only speak up for Jews when doing so promotes their ideology of choice.

2. Most people prefer to perform morality when convenient rather than uphold their values consistently.

I hold the second point to be true not only to the non-Jews on the left and right, but also to the people within our own community.

When antizionists called for the ethnic cleansing of our people “from the river to the sea”, we were rightfully mortified that such a violent call for actual ethnic cleansing could be made in broad daylight. There were countless videos of Jews conducting street interviews, asking hamasniks to identify “which river and which sea”. I can’t lie, it was simultaneously entertaining and cathartic to watch how easily their intellectual superiority complexes shattered in the presence of a basic geography question. Behind the laughter, however, I found a painful truth: not even a mirror to their own ignorance was strong enough to combat their deeply rooted antisemitism. Ideological loyalty has become inseparable from their core identities, provoking visceral discomfort and anger when challenged.

And after logging onto Instagram this morning for the first time in weeks to see how big Jewish accounts were reacting to Trump’s latest word vomit, I saw this exact phenomenon take hold of them too.

To avoid unnecessary infighting, I won’t be sharing screenshots or naming names. Those of you who do engage in this corner of the internet will know exactly what I’m talking about. To those of you who aren’t chronically online, there were many big Jewish accounts celebrating Trump’s statement. A statement that—even in its low likelihood of being enacted—should be met with seriousness and concern.

Before I begin, I want to clarify that I don’t think people who are cheering this on are evil or bad. I believe that these individuals genuinely think they’re acting in the best interest of our people. I also completely understand the temptation to support anyone or anything that seems to align with Jewish interests, especially during a time where we feel completely abandoned by non-Jews.

But for the sake of maintaining the longheld tradition of two Jews, three opinions, I’ll say this:

To see the same accounts that rightfully condemned college campus protestors calling for the ethnic cleansing of Israelis now cheer on the prospect of actual American colonization and ethnic cleansing of an entire people is deeply and utterly hypocritical. For the past year and a half, haven’t we been begging non-Jews to stop inciting calls to violence against us? Have these same huge accounts—who profited/gained followers from their opposition to a brainwashed faction of the left—forgotten what they stand for? How disappointing to see the same people who condemn far-left violence now cheering it on when it serves their own interests.

Besides the fact that this does nothing to bring peace to either Israelis or Gazans, it also emboldens those who have been using the terms 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide' as blood libel, allowing them to say, ‘See, this is what they’re cheering for. We knew they wanted this all along.’”

Just as antizionist Jews don’t represent the consensus of Jewish thought, I can only hope we as a people aren’t lumped into the category of 'supporting extremist Puritanical violence'—you know, actual colonialism and ethnic cleansing. While I’m not one to prioritize optics over action, in this case, both are equally horrific and reduce a tragic war down to a sports match. It’s a bastardization of the memories of the pogrom victims, the hostages, and the Israeli people.

Needless to say, I’ll be staying offline until the dust fully settles. Plus, if I see one more Jewish account cheering on the man responsible for the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, I might just flush my phone down the toilet.