There is a certain niche genre of short story you can find online that is told from the perspective of humans interacting with alien species for the first time. One of my favorite of these stories, and I wish I could remember where it came from, is the story of human colonies in space coming under attack by a hostile race. Now, almost every civilized race in this story is loosely governed by a galactic federation of some sort, and the leaders of the human race ask the federation if there are any rules of warfare before they engage their enemy. 

The leaders of the federation laughed because they had never heard of such a thing. The human leaders clarified that there were no established rules of war, the federation said "No," and the humans went on their way. As you might be able to guess, the invading force was decimated in ways that horrified the galactic federation.

The narrator of the story closes with the realization that the humans were not concerned about other races. They were concerned because they knew what they as a race were capable of. That humanity, unrestrained from morals, ethics, or a general code of conduct can commit atrocities that would deeply disturb the very soul of an outside observer. We, as a society, operate at our best with order and morality. We are at our worst when we throw them out on a whim and give in to baser, crueler instincts.

We have two World Wars where the worst of humanity was witnessed. The birth of modern chemical warfare in World War I - which was subsequently banned by global consensus afterward - and the horrors of both the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking leading up to and during World War II. Millions of people died due to the cruelty and hate that festered in Germany and Japan, and the result was behavior that not only shows an absence of God but an absence of humanity itself.

Fast forward to the modern era, and we see similar behavior now.

Hamas is living proof that when your hate trumps everything else, morality is sacrificed to satisfy that hate. Hamas fighters committed atrocities that we still cannot wrap our heads around. Children were beheaded. Babies were baked in ovens. Women were raped, mutilated, and more. Families were, quite literally, torn apart. This isn't conjecture. It isn't propaganda. This is backed by evidence from both the U.S. and Israeli governments. Reporters across the globe have verified that they have seen the horrific images. 

However, Hamas and its apologists abroad and at home in our own media outlets would have you believe that Israel is the villain here. Our universities have allowed anti-Israel hate to ferment and become full-blown antisemitism. Colleges are shutting down classes now because of antisemitism and threats against Jewish students - but there is no evidence our universities have learned anything from what they've allowed to happen here.

There are people among us who support the atrocities committed by Hamas. And by "among us," I don't mean our fellow Americans. I mean among us, as conservatives. 

It is incredibly frustrating, to the point of mental and emotional exhaustion, to have to fight these particular battles on our own side. When a terror organization commits some of the worst atrocities of the modern era on civilians, and proudly says they'll do it again, to have to turn around and see people who are supposed to be on your side cheering them on isn't just disappointing, it's disheartening. I've been inundated with comments publicly and privately. I know many other conservatives who have faced the same. They claim to be conservatives, but they are so filled with hate that it's impossible to believe they have a conservative bone in their body.

We have elements of our own movement who have embraced anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and have made straight-up antisemitic statements, and yet we don't push back harder against them. Hell, sometimes we elect them. In doing so, the conservative movement loses credibility on the issue of supporting our country's closest ally in the Middle East.

The Jews have been a historically persecuted group since long before there was an Israel to support. They were forced out of their ancestral homeland by the Romans. They were attacked and forced to flee their homes by invading tribes. They were finally given their ancestral homeland only for the world to turn around and accuse them of stealing it from the Palestinians, a group that has far less an ancestral claim to the land than the Jews do.

Israel exists in the modern era despite the modern world's revulsion of them. America, despite its current leadership, has historically stood by them. But while the Left treats Israel as persona non grata, the Right should be embracing it. But we are besieged on our own side by people who hate Israel and the Jews and who repeat the violent and lie-ridden propaganda of Iran and Hamas. We have a moral obligation to support our ally, but we lose the moral high ground when we platform people who join the Left and Hamas in their anti-Jewish propaganda.