An Oakland City Council hearing revealed where left-wing views of justice lead, when the council debated a resolution Monday night to call for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Deep blue, out-of-touch cities in the San Francisco Bay Area often like to play United Nations, so that’s hardly news. What created a firestorm on social media is what happened after a line calling Hamas a “terrorist” organization was offered to the resolution.
All hell broke loose. For hours, speaker after speaker condemned the label. (The resolution passed, but without the amendments, which were defeated.)
Watch the video for yourself. It speaks volumes about unfiltered left-wing politics.
WATCH: Last night's #Oakland City Council meeting was disturbing. The council chambers were plagued for hours with support for terrorists, #antisemitism, and denial of the October 7th attacks. The Jewish community in the Bay Area stands strong against hate, and we call on our… pic.twitter.com/9cbHcGFMAw
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) November 28, 2023
“The notion that this was a massacre of Jews is a fabricated narrative. Many of those killed on Oct. 7, including children, were killed by the IDF,” said one woman, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
Another speaker said that condemning Hamas is the product of “old white supremacists.”
Gen Z leftists showed up in force.
A young woman wearing a face mask said that “calling Hamas a terrorist organization is ridiculous, racist, and plays into genocidal propaganda that is flooding our media, and we should be doing everything possible to combat.”
Another young woman, also wearing a mask, said: “I support the right of Palestinians to resist occupation, including through Hamas, the armed wing of the unified Palestinian resistance.”
In a smaller sense, the video certainly brought shame to the city of Oakland. I say that as a native of Oakland.
While the Oakland City Council devotes time to worthless virtue-signaling and giving an extended sounding board to pro-Hamas leftists, the city faces acute problems.
Crime and homelessness are out of control.
An August report from KTVU-TV found that “violent crime is up 12% since last year at this time, and robberies increased 30% year-over-year.”
KTVU, Oakland’s Fox network affiliate, also reported in August that there had been 11,000 reported burglaries to that point this year, a 44% increase from the same time the previous year. Given the general lack of enforcement and punishment for criminals, I’m guessing that the total number of unreported burglaries pushes the number up much higher.
Violent crime had already spiked considerably since 2020’s summer of riots. In Oakland, the trend continues.
While the NFL’s Oakland Raiders left town a few years ago, pirates have now showed up on Oakland’s shorelines. Yes, pirates.
Homeless encampments around the Bay have doubled as miniature pirate coves. Boats and properties in Oakland harbors are frequently raided.
Security in Oakland comes only for those who can afford it. Wealthier neighborhoods are now hiring private security to deal with robberies and break-ins. It’s a true progressive paradise.
But for those who pay attention to its troubles at all, Oakland has become a laughingstock.
That conclusion brings me no joy.
It’s a basic conservative impulse to love where you come from. Unfortunately, while there are still a handful of things I love about Oakland and the Bay Area, what it has become makes me sad and sick.
I loved my Oakland A’s baseball team, which will also soon be gone. I love my family and friends. I love the pleasant weather and natural beauty. I love the Oakland Zoo. But the ethos of the city and the people who run it are contemptible to me.
Oakland is an example of how even the most pristine pieces of real estate can be ruined by ideology and an inversion of justice.
What’s happening there isn’t an isolated incident, though. It’s an indication of what’s to come, given the current ideological trajectory of our institutions.
While many liberals and Democrats have come out against the pro-Hamas speakers at the Oakland City Council meeting, I only ask: “What did you expect?”
The message of the fanatics at the meeting flows perfectly with left-wing notions of social justice.
Individual acts of evil are irrelevant for the “oppressed” fighting “oppressors.” If we are to take their rhetoric about “colonization” and land acknowledgments seriously, it’s hard to see this ethos not leading to violence or at minimum excuses for violence.
Hamas has gladly picked up on this rising ethos, too.
Former Hamas terrorist chief Khaled Mashal said on Saudi television recently that wiping out Israel is entirely justified.
“We are the victims of the occupation. Full stop,” he said, according to The Telegraph of London. “Therefore, nobody should blame us for the things we do. On October 7, October 10, October million. Everything we do is justified.”
Hence, you can see how natural the alliance among Hamas, Islamists, and the far left really is.
Is it any wonder young people are suddenly “discovering” Osama bin Laden’s 2002 message to America on TikTok and finding they agree with it?
I’m sure that more than a few Democrats, especially Jewish Democrats, are horrified by this emerging reality. They should be. But their condemnation of the young, woke pro-Hamas fanatics will fall on deaf ears.
The Left created this monster, and now it’s eating them up. Young leftists took their rhetoric about “systemic racism” and the evils of Western civilization seriously and now they look to destroy it, literally.
Old guard Democrats won’t be able to stave off this rebellion for long.
What’s happened in Oakland won’t stay in Oakland.
Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of the book “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.” Reproduced with permission. Original here.
