People waving Palestinian flags during Pride parades are further examples of Wu's claim that we are seeing an uncontrolled spiral to the left that has turned progressivism into the worst version of itself.

The progressives who turned on Israel after the most brutal attack on Jews since the Holocaust have been hypocrites. Believe all raped women -- unless they are Jews? Support people who threw grenades at teens at a music festival, burned families alive, beheaded people, and kidnapped about 250 mostly civilians, including babies and the elderly, and have kept them in captivity for nearly a year?

The Jewish people have long been allies to many groups, so it has been frightening to see the lack of sympathy for Jews facing genocidal terrorists so intent on killing them that they are willing to make their own Palestinian people suffer endlessly to achieve that goal. Lies about Israel's creation have been spread for decades, and fanatic hatred of Israel has indeed turned many progressives into "the worst version of" themselves. In the face of this onslaught of antisemitism, can progressives turn around and help Jews in their darkest hour?

Brianna Wu was so brave to write this piece knowing full well that she could face far more bullying now. She should know that there are people who appreciate her courage and are on her side here.

By framing Jews as allies, as "friends [who] stood with" the left on a range of social issues, Brianna Wu is othering Jewish progressives. We are not "allies" to the progressive movement; we have always been part and parcel of it. And many of us have been calling for a free Palestine since before Wu was born.

As complicated as the history of Israel and the Palestinian territories is, there is no question that the project of creating a Jewish state involved the displacement and flight of some 750,000 people from their homes, and that those remaining have been subject to ongoing violence, repression, and dispossession.

I don't support the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre any more than Wu does, but for anyone to use it as justification for the retaliation that has ensued in Gaza is to embrace ongoing slaughter and starvation as blithely as Wu accuses progressives of embracing the violence of that day.