Do politics trump moral clarity?
Our progressive mayor was front and center “to condemn the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Ukraine” when she proclaimed “Solidarity with Ukraine Day in Madison” back in April 2022. Madison WI may be home to a sprinkling of Ukrainians but they’re outnumbered by those of Jewish heritage.
Former aldermanic candidate Kim Richman wonders why Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway is all crickets on “the invasion of Israel by the terrorist group Hamas, who raped and killed innocent women, beheaded babies, indiscriminately murdered innocent civilians of all ages in their own homes.” Richman, a Jewish east sider, wrote a letter dated 10-12-23 asking if the mayor would declare a Solidarity with Israel Day.” No response to date. No Israeli Solidarity Day, either.
Our guess is that the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is a) too powerful b) too noisy and/or c) too dangerous. They can be rather (how shall we say?) pushy! (UPDATE to “Blaska Gets Roughed Up:” The Head Groundskeeper has a black & blue bruise the size of Texas on his southern hemisphere from the violence he experienced at their hands. Would share photo but do not want to run afoul of FCC pornography strictures.) The Rafah group, notably, has NOT condemned Hamas terror.
The Werkes proposes this doctoral-level political science dissertation (with apologies to Mark Twain):
Should public officials stay in their own lane and be thought an idiot or speak and remove all doubt?
Cancel culture in reverse!
We need to hear from congressmen like Mark Pocan on foreign affairs (however disappointing his message) but university presidents, for some reason, are being compelled to weigh in on Hamas versus Israel as well. Say the wrong thing, and face your own cancel culture (in many cases, well deserved)! In that, they are being hoisted on their own petard.
Jonah Goldberg observes, “Suddenly the people who’ve spent years saying that “offensive” ideas are “violence,” are taking offense at a backlash against many of the same people when they endorse actual violence.”
Uber-wealthy Jon Huntsman, who once ran for President as a Republican, chastised the president of Ivy League Penn for a response he deemed inadequate. Huntsman said he is closing his alumni checkbook. The president of Harvard was roasted for not denouncing the 34 student groups who signed on to a controversial open letter stating that Israel was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Cornell University president Martha Pollack has issued multiple public statements about the conflict, each one pissing off a new audience.
Now president of the U of Florida, former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse told Fox News: “University administrators who condemn “Halloween costumes and micro-aggressions” have failed to condemn “the most grave, grotesque attacks on Jewish people since the Holocaust,” while they claim “there’s too much complexity to say anything.” (The UW-Madison chancellor’s statement bracingly eschewed moral equivocation.)
→ “Yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization.”
→ “A record of pure, predatory sadism.”
The oracle of Madison
As for the mayor of Madison, Satya Rhodes-Conway was on safer ground commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month. But a shallow dive into her posts reveals Mayor Satya recycles the Democrat(ic) party platform. In her five years in office, Rhodes-Conway weighed in on “Equity” 120 times. Other subjects:
• Championing taxpayer bailout of student debt.
• Demanding divestiture from nuclear weapons.
• For the shooting at the Harmony apartments that killed a 15-year-old girl and injured three 14-year-old boys, she blamed guns — not the breakdown of the family or our schools’ retreat from demanding responsibility and imposing discipline.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Posing for holy pictures seems to depend more on the congregation than the conscience.
13 responses to “Madison mayor condemns invasion of Ukraine but not of Israel”
I’m impressed that she hasn’t (AFAIK) thanked Hamas “for their anger”.
Wait for it!
[…] This post originally appeared at https://davidblaska.com/2023/10/25/madison-mayor-condemns-invasion-of-ukraine-but-not-of-israel/ […]
It looks like nobody cares what the mayor’s position on global politics is today; or any other day..
I’ve been following all this via the Harvard Crimson, which I read and leave comments with regularly. Yesterday, I received an invite to my 60th class reunion, to which I felt compelled to reply to this way:
Alumni Association:
I am sorry, but I will not be attending. I cannot say I would have anyway. But I believe you – and all of Harvard’s leadership – need to know that I have in my mind now cut ALL ties to Harvard. I join many others in absolute horror at the way Harvard failed to respond to the groups that on October 8 were, whether they admit it or not, celebrating and excusing absolute, murderous and unqualified Jew hatred. This is NOT a matter of my calling for speech suppression. They had every right to express the barbaric and demented views they hold. It is the failure of the university to call them on it, which the administration only did in the most tepid and worthless way after being shamed into it.
What IS speech suppression, by the way, is what the Harvard Crimson is now engaged in (and who knows what other opinion outlets the university has), having shut down the vibrant and challenging comments sections to their stories. I do not use invective, I do not dox, etc., but many of my comments on the Crimson site of late have been held for moderation and then disappeared entirely. If any of you have any sway with those future journalistic greats training themselves at the Crimson, you may pass on my remarks and my contempt for them.
“I am sorry, but I will not be attending.”
You’re in Fine Company; to wit:
Gee, I’ve Turned My Harvard Diploma To The Wall And Lowered It To Floor Level; What’s Next?
The Gotch
Hamas invasion of Israel – Unequivocally condemned.
How many have to die – children, women and men – before the slaughter of Palestinians is condemned?
There are no white hats here. There is only a sea of hostility filled by the blood of many innocent people.
Astounding that you think the “slaughter” of Palestinians goes un-condemned. In fact, from the UN on down, anything Israel does to defend itself against Hamas terrorism is condemned worldwide over and over as “slaughter.” “How many have to die” you ask? Ask Hamas. The blood of ALL of its own people is as much on their hands as the Jewish blood they spilled on October 7.
Thank you Jon. The question was directed at David, based on previous comments he made.
No one has condemned the slaughter here.
Merriam-Webster on slaughter:
: to kill in a bloody or violent manner : SLAY
: to kill in large numbers : MASSACRE
with a body count of 4:1 and increasing, what’s happening in Palestine is a slaughter, with the potential to become a massacre.
If cooler heads do not prevail, the situation runs the risk of becoming WWIII. Anyone here want that?
First, your body count of 4:1 is based on what, reports from the Hamas Ministry of Health (or is it Truth)? Please. But you deflect from the issue of responsibility. Hamas is committed to the slaughter of Jews, everywhere, not merely in Israel. Israel is committed to its own safety. It has been said and is clearly true, that if Hamas in Gaza disarmed totally, Gazans would live in peace, whereas if Israel disarmed totally, every Jew in Israel would die. Your implied equivalency of Oct 7 and Israel’s response (your simple 4:1 math) is not morally neutral it is morally neutered. You reall should rethink it.
Thank you Jon.
Do you condone the slaughter of Palestinians, or however you would like to rephrase this question?
Would you be OK with WWIII starting because of what’s happening there?
You mention responsibility. To begin to answer what is a very complex question, I offer a quote:
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he …. told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Care to take a guess who made this statement?
Hint – he’s the current Prime minister of Israel.
2nd quote:
“You know Hamas, if you look at the history, you’ll find out that Hamas was encouraged and really started by Israel because they wanted Hamas to counteract Yasser Arafat… (Rep. Ron Paul, 2011)
Interested in learning more? Here’s a link to a Jan 24,2009 WSJ article (paywalled), How Israel helped spawn Hamas:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847
Re: the number of dead Palestinians that you derisively discount. The number came from Haaretz, a Jewish newspaper, who considers the report, from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, to be reasonable, the number is now >7000.
Re: slaughter, here’s a quote from a Netanyahu aligned former Minister of Defense:
“Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there. They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists,”
Would you concur?
Trick question – What should we do if Hamas or Hezbollah attacks one of our ships?
Now that you’ve got your answer firmly in mind, read this article from the US Naval Institute:
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/june/spy-ship-left-out-cold
I don’t know where your idea of Gazans living in peace comes from. In the 70 years of their existence, life in Gaza has been a hell-hole.
For clarity, I repeat myself – I condemn the slaughter of civilians, whoever is doing it. A cease-fire needs to be immediately established. A large Peace force needs to be put into place. And as Biden said, (probably the first time I have agreed with any statement he’s made) a 2-state solution needs to be put into place.
I fail to get your point. What is it, that Israelis have played a divide and conquer game with the murderous Palestinian factions, or that they have said nasty things in the process? Okay. So what?
As to Haaretz accepting Hamas’ numbers, if they do, am I supposed to credit that because they are Israelis or Jews? Be careful of the assumptions you are making there. I do not trust the numbers at all.
But you miss the main point I’ve made, which is that ALL the deaths of Jews and Gazans are ENTIRELY the moral responsibility of Hamas. So, the greater the numbers, the greater the evil on the part of Hamas. Everyone knows, or should, that Israel does more than any other army to avoid civilian casualties, whereas Hamas tries to maximize BOTH Israeli and Gazan civilian deaths.
Finally, on the double standard aspect of this. How many daily news reports stressing the civilian deaths caused by Ukrainian forces have you seen? I’ve never seen one. Let alone dwelling on the number of children killed (which of course plays into a historical antisemitic trope of a particularly vile sort). Civilians die in modern warfare in massive numbers. Bur Hamas and its followers love death. So, the tragedy of that escapes them.
Thank you Jon. I think we’ve gone as far as we can go here.