This article, originally appearing in the February 7, 2024 edition of the New York Times, was featured on the Greek-language internet site of the Greek newspaper, Kathimerini, on February 13 under the banner of the New York Times|International Edition. The New York Times has maintained a 25-year partnership with Kathimerini, offering to its Greek subscribers over that period a liberal journalistic viewpoint on U.S. domestic and foreign policy issues. Charles Blow, NYT opinion columnist and the author of this particular article is a liberal journalist who entertains an activist approach regarding the progressives’ agenda.

Blow, along with those whom he cites, are naive in their intimations, that although recognizing Hamas to be a terrorist organization (Blow) and that Israel has the right to exist (Messinger; cf. below), the Israel Defense Forces are responsible for the multifaceted humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Such an argument refuses to acknowledge that it is not the IDF that is waging war on Palestinian civilians; the guilty party in this conflict is Hamas, not only guilty of initiating the conflict by cowardly attacking Israeli civilians but also of waging war on its own people by using them and civilian infrastructure as protective umbrellas from which to launch preemptory missile strikes on Israel. The non-combatant Palestinian population and its infrastructure are merely tools used by Hamas, which is indeed a terrorist organization, in its diabolical plan to wipe Israel from the map. Any pressure that is put on Netanyahu to declare a cessation of hostilities on Israel’s side will only provide the opportunity for Hamas to regroup. This is indeed a fight that must end in the elimination of radical Islamic and Palestinian terrorism.

As the title indicates, Blow in his article contends that the close relationship that the African-American and Jewish communities enjoyed based on their strong affiliations with the Democratic Party has become strained because of the support of many African-Americans for the ‘oppressed’ Palestinians.

The article, an apparent condensed version, as it was translated from English into Greek for Kathimerini follows [translated from Greek by LOC]. The full version can be found at https://dnyuz.com/2024/02/07/the-political-perils-of-a-black-jewish-rift-over-the-war-in-gaza/ . (I was not aware that the article had been posted by another internet news site at the time I chose to translate this one.)

Blow’s opinion piece begins below:

Many Jews in the United States are feeling disappointment that many of their black fellow citizens are showing greater sympathy for the Palestinians.

“There’s no alliance more historic, more significant than that between African-Americans and Jews of the U.S.,” Marc Morial, chairman of the National Urban League [translated into Greek as ‘Ethnic League of Blacks’ which by the way dispels the euphemistic organizational nomenclature employed in the U.S.] had said in 2020.

This week, however, Morial told me that the alliance is being ‘tested’ by the divergent views about the Israel-Hamas war. This divergence is even able to influence the vote of the two communities traditionally close to the Democrats.

The relationship between the two communities has a long history and flourished during the movement for the political rights of blacks. However, there also occurred periods of friction. Professor Marc Dollinger finds significant similarities between the present conjuncture and the Six Days War of 1967, in which Israel captured the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Eastern Jerusalem, among other territories, dislocating hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

The following year, just four months before the U.S. elections of 1968, this newspaper, with the title “The Jews are worried about their relations with the blacks” described the specific point of friction between the two communities as “Jewish anger over the anti-Israel stance of black extremists and their accusations of Zionist imperialism and oppression of the Arabs.” Dollinger describes the current tension in the relations between African-Americans and Jews as “a type of second chapter of his book.”

Although the views of U.S. Jews do not necessarily identify with those of the Israelis or with the government of Netanyahu, the comparisons between the ideological disagreements of Jews and blacks of the decade of the 1960s and today’s are legitimate: Many African-Americans disagree with the Israelis’ methods in the war in Gaza, particular emphasis on the blood tax that are the Palestinian civilians.

Many U.S. Jews recognize the right of Israel to fight and they support the American policy in favor of the Israeli war effort. Some feel disappointment that many black fellow citizens show greater sympathy for the Palestinians.

These issues appeared unbridgable, as many on each side of the disagreement feel that they are expressing the absolute truth. Every moderate view threatens to be seen as an indication of weakness.

I believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization with the goal of eliminating Israel, that its attack against Israel on October 7 was hideous, and that all hostages must be freed. At the same time, I believe that the slaughter in Gaza – thousands of civilians dead, thousands of them children – is unjustified and impermissible, even in a time of war. International organizations warn of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, while the International Court of Justice decided last month that Israel ought to take measures to avoid violations of the international treaty against genocide.

Ruth Messinger, former chairperson of a large American Jewish organization, is saddened by the inability of people to analyze complex situations. Messinger says that she supports Israel’s right to existence, but not when the defense of the state concerns the death of residents of Gaza. “This war is detrimental for the future of Israel and will lead to a rise in antisemitism,” says Messinger, who is receiving criticism from her coreligionists because of these views of hers.

Every simplistic approach to the conflict can have catastrophic political consequences for the U.S. domestically. The support of President Biden for Israel’s war in Gaza has alienated some African-American voters. The restriction of U.S. aid would cause the reaction of Jewish voters. Biden, however, also needs the active support of the two communities to be reelected.  Cliff Albright, founder of the fund for the registration of black voters in their electoral rolls [i.e., Black Voters Matter (BVM)], says, “I’m sorry that the tension between the two communities threatens our ability to work together on issues of voting rights.”

Even as many members of the two communities think that Biden hasn’t pressured Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu enough, they must take into account that such pressure will be non-existent in the circumstance of the re-election of Trump to the presidency.