Book Review: October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds

Book Review: October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds

In the two years since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and its operatives, there has been no shortage of misreporting by the mainstream media (as also seen here, here, here, here, and here), misrepresentations and appeasements by political figures (as also seen here, here, here and here), and outrageous campus conduct, veering at times into the unlawful (as also seen here, here, here, here, and here), with many more examples found here.

In the face of that frantic posturing, October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds “dissect(s) the reverberating impact of the Gaza War” with over a dozen contributors covering substantial intellectual terrain ranging from the sourcing of casualty figures in Gaza to internal Israeli politics. In the book’s introduction, co-editor Romirowsky cites academics who alternatively celebrate, excuse, or deny Hamas’s violence in the name of decolonization, with the “Islamic-leftist alliance” using the cause of “Palestine” as the centerpiece of its anti-Westernism. While only one section of the book is explicitly dedicated to the campus, the ahistorical perspective and obsessive focus of much of the intellectual class is a thread running throughout. As the introduction describes: “Not only does this book belong in the classroom, it is the classroom which has shaped its contents.”

Focusing on two chapters to illustrate the book’s strengths – detailed marshalling of facts and compelling analysis – we turn to the section on “The Campus and the Land of Make-Believe.” The first chapter in this section, “Higher Education Responds to October 7,” provides specifics on campus incidents and attitudes, a helpful demonstration of the mainstreaming of views whose purveyors claim to be merely pro-peace but which are, in effect, pro-Hamas. Reflecting on the campus response in the immediate aftermath of October 7th, author KC Johnson cites various student group statements condemning Israel while Israeli citizens and communities were still under attack, writing, “it remains remarkable that the worst killing of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust led to a wave of protests against Israel.”

Johnson’s chapter also compiles examples of mass-signed faculty statements, in which the signatories suggested they were providing neutral “context,” but which were often grounded in “decolonization” theory. He separately notes even more appalling examples of the ongoing escalation of violent sentiments by some students and faculty, including, at its most extreme, gleefully or dismissively aiming this hostility towards those murdered, maimed, and even taken hostage on October 7. The failures of university presidents and blatant discriminatory and harassing incidents of Jews and Israelis on campus are also detailed. Among the examples cited is a student leader, on camera and during a disciplinary meeting, unashamedly announcing, “Zionists don’t deserve to live. … Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

The catalog of actions presented by Johnson offers an explanation for how the campus dynamic appeared to provide no room for even-handed, fact-based discussions on the history of the conflict. The chapter concludes, quoting former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, that the failure to confront antisemitism “can’t be separated from the broader issues of political diversity … and identity politics.”

Another chapter in this section, “The Political Economy of Antisemitism and Israel Hatred in Twenty-First-Century America,” examines the funding of propaganda based on the centrality of the cause of Palestine as a “practical and philosophical pivot for all other movements.” Describing the ideological underpinnings as an expansive version of “intersectionality”, the authors write, “Anti-colonialism, anti-nationalism, anti-Enlightenment, climate activism, human rights, and anti-rationalism are all unified and even subsumed by antisemitism.”

Authors Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky (also a co-editor) identify the forces (almost overwhelming in their reach) egging on anti-Western revolutionary impulses. Among the many players, these “donors” include the U.S. government. The chapter explains the evolving articulation of the anti-Western ideology aimed at American students: “Israel and Jews as the supreme examples of ‘settler-colonialism’ and ‘white privilege’ are routine features of ‘antiracist pedagogy,’ particularly since the emphasis on transgenderism has faltered under scrutiny.” This is a fascinating, albeit petrifying, chapter identifying the financial suppliers pushing this ideology, their goals, and the breadth of their influence.

The book’s conclusion, “Taking Stock,” is powerful as a self-contained essay. Co-editor Robinson Divine compellingly summarizes the book’s themes, even while introducing new details and analysis. Describing the “magical thinking” in academia, as faculty and students proclaimed Hamas’s savagery the “pathway to liberation,” her chapter notes the missed opportunity:

“That not one leader of what are considered the best universities and colleges across the globe demanded students gain more knowledge about the origins and evolution of the Middle East Conflict is telling. No one even dared ask student protesters to interrogate whether their demands were consistent with an accurate reading of history or politics – regional or global – or whether their appeals to ‘globalize the intifada’ were likely to bring on more war or more peace for the very people their protests were intended to serve.”

Allowing this to go unexplored, she continues, with the ongoing perspective of the “Palestinians as part of the ‘wretched of the earth,’” resulted in “the rapists, kidnappers, and mutilators were transubstantiated by activist-scholars into icons of liberation to encourage the people across the globe to see these atrocities as models for emancipatory impulses. Not even Frantz Fanon imagined a violence of this magnitude, laying the foundation for genuine post-colonial freedom.”

Standing alone or as a post-October-7th companion to the remarkable 2019 “Word Crimes” (a previous collection of articles also co-edited by Robinson Devine and Romirowsky, along with Miriam Elman), October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds is a further and much needed analysis of the linguistic war for the truth in an environment flooded with open hostility to the west, belligerent advocacy dressed up as facts and which is willfully dismissive of historical and contemporary accuracy.

Amanda Stulman is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at the Legal Insurrection Foundation

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