Theater of the Absurd

“DSA is steadfast in expressing our solidarity with Palestine. [Saturday’s] events are a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime. … This was not unprovoked. For over 60 years, Palestinians have faced ethnic cleansing, torture, bombings, and housing demolitions.” —Democratic Socialists of America (“Six Members of Congress are part of this organization: Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Greg Casar (D-TX). Do they stand by this disgusting statement?” —RNC)

“When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense. Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting [75] years of settler colonialism and apartheid. As Black people continue the fight to end militarism and mass incarceration in our own communities, let us understand the resistance in Palestine as an attempt to tear down the gates of the world’s largest open air prison. As a radical Black organization grounded in abolitionist ideals, we see clear parallels between Black and Palestinian people. We, too, understand what it means to be surveilled, dehumanized, property seized, families separated, our people criminalized and slaughtered with impunity, locked up in droves, and when we resist they call us terrorists. We, too, dream of a world where our people may live freely on decolonized land.” —Black Lives Matter Grassroots

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” —Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine

For the Record

“This attack, this massacre, this horrific assault on Israel, was funded by Iran. Hamas and Hezbollah are Iranian proxies. They work for Iran. They work under the direction of Iran. They are funded by Iran. … These attacks were planned, were signed off on by the Iranian government. And in the last two and a half years, Joe Biden and this White House are responsible for $50 billion flowing to Iran.” —Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)

“We have only started striking Hamas. What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

“Hamas turned Gaza into a launching pad for more attacks against Israel. This experience is proof that ‘land for peace’ does not work. Radical Islamic supremacists are not interested in peace with Israel or even a piece of Israel.” —Gary Bauer

“There is an ideological successor to the Nazis. Just as the primary aim of Nazism was to kill every Jew in Europe, the primary aim of tens of millions of radical Muslims is to kill the seven million Jews in Israel and eradicate the one Jewish state.” —Dennis Prager

“The Nazis tried to hide their war crimes. Hamas is livestreaming theirs.” —Bari Weiss

“I keep hearing that this situation is ‘complicated’ but it doesn’t seem very complicated to me. If you massacre civilians at a music festival, you are the bad guy. There is no world where good guys do something like that. Pretty simple equation, really.” —Matt Walsh

“The Palestinians must be counted among the worst nationalists the world has ever known: They have repeatedly rejected opportunities to obtain a nation-state because they hate Israel’s legitimate national aspirations more than they love their own.” —Rich Lowry

Dumb & Dumber

“Climate change is an existential threat. It actually threatens and is capable of wiping out all human life on earth over time. I mean, I don’t know how more existential you can get than that.” —National Security Council spokesman John Kirby

“I can’t say that [the Steele dossier has] been discredited, it just hasn’t been proven.” —former Washington Post editor Marty Baron

Political Futures

“Every trip to the supermarket and gas station reminds voters of what inflation has done, yet the pain doesn’t vanish just because professional economists say the forecast is brightening. … Americans gave Biden a loan, in effect, both in 2020 and 2022. Now the payments are coming due — and those interest rates are up. After three years, Bidenomics means Bidenflation to most voters.” —Daniel McCarthy

“America is living in an era of fragmentation, and something has gone terribly wrong in our society on our way to that era. We celebrate vulgarity, lies, and anger, and more often than not prop up the people who perpetuate it. How did this happen? … It’s hard to say, but the best foot forward should begin by no longer rewarding people with our votes who are more interested in entertaining on social media than in governing.” —Salena Zito

Upright

“We must fight tooth and nail to preserve this nation. Not for ourselves, but for future generations of Americans who are depending on us to get it right today.” —Senator Tim Scott (R-SC)