Let’s leave aside Harris’ oft-demonstrated anti-Muslim bias and ignorant misrepresentation of Islamic concepts, and focus instead on what he says about Israel. Everyone defending Harris has taken the time to read the entire original article posted on his website, right?

So can we assume that you also agree with this (emphasis added)?

I don’t think Israel should exist as a Jewish state. I think it is obscene, irrational and unjustifiable to have a state organized around a religion. So I don’t celebrate the idea that there’s a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. I certainly don’t support any Jewish claims to real estate based on the Bible. [Note: Read this paragraph again.]

And this?

Needless to say, in defending its territory as a Jewish state, the Israeli government and Israelis themselves have had to do terrible things. They have, as they are now, fought wars against the Palestinians that have caused massive losses of innocent life. More civilians have been killed in Gaza in the last few weeks than militants. That’s not a surprise because Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Occupying it, fighting wars in it, is guaranteed to get woman and children and other noncombatants killed. And there’s probably little question over the course of fighting multiple wars that the Israelis have done things that amount to war crimes. They have been brutalized by this process—that is, made brutal by it. But that is largely the due to the character of their enemies. [Note: I was not giving Israel a pass to commit war crimes. I was making a point about the realities of living under the continuous threat of terrorism and of fighting multiple wars in a confined space.]

Harris also fails to make any distinction between innocent Palestinian civilians and members of terrorist groups such as Hamas:

The Palestinians built tunnels through which they could carry out terror attacks and kidnap Israelis.

If someone spoke about Israelis in the same manner there would be much vociferous protest and cries of antisemitism, but when it’s Palestinians? Crickets—the moral outrage suddenly disappears.

I’ll just leave it at that for now.