20231009

The World Must Support Israel’s War Against Terror

This murderous Palestinian assault deserves only one response from the world: outrage, and unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself. US President Joe Biden has rightly pledged to stand with Israel “full stop,” as has the European Union. Even as Israel takes the necessary military actions to protect its citizens, all parties in the region need to work to restore some semblance of stability and avoid a broader conflict.

An Israeli invasion of Gaza to rescue Israeli captives and reassert control over the territory could last months, if not years. For that reason alone, Israel’s old, new and prospective partners in the Arab world do themselves no favors by not condemning the Hamas attack more forcefully. They understandably fear public opinion, which has never embraced the normalization of ties with Israel. Still, there can be no excusing the slaughter of civilians.

Pretending otherwise will only bolster the extremists and their backers in Iran. Countries with influence over Hamas, including Turkey, Qatar and Egypt, must pressure the militants to pull back and release their hostages before the violence escalates dangerously.

Palestinian Authority leaders are being equally shortsighted by blaming Israel for inviting the attack. While dramatic, the cross-border incursion will not lead to the defeat of Israel nor change its policies in the occupied territories. Ordinary Palestinians will pay a heavy price for Hamas’ wanton and unprovoked massacres of innocent Israelis. Meanwhile, the chances of substantive territorial concessions in the West Bank as part of a prospective peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel have shrunk further.

Eventually, Israeli leaders will need to confront their own mistakes: The fact that Hamas could have planned such an assault — involving dozens of fighters, boats, paragliders and drones — over months without Israel’s vaunted intelligence services catching wind represents a massive failure. There is plenty of blame to go around. The Netanyahu government’s attempts to transform the judiciary have needlessly riven Israeli society and distracted the military and security services. Its hard-line policies in Jerusalem and the occupied territories have fueled Palestinian anger and desperation, endangering Israelis far from the settlements.

But all that’s for another time. For now, Israel’s priority must be to destroy the ability of Hamas and its ilk to further threaten the country’s security. Pursuing peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors will be much harder in the near term, which no doubt was one of the militants’ aims. Yet all parties should recognize that, once the fighting is over, such efforts will also be more important than ever — and something all sides in this conflict should still aspire to and pursue. The alternative is only more bloodshed, death and terror.

EK: Oh, well, Jewish-dominated U.S. journalism. The U.S. may benefit from the war eventually despite the inflation. Old pals are being supportive on both sides. Israeli, what did you expect when you took over someone else’s land for free decades ago?

Despite Backlash, Companies Still Benefit From Being Pro-LGBTQ

For companies with pro-LGBTQ policies, it’s no longer a question of whether they’ll face conservative backlash, but when. Target Corp. suffered a misinformation campaign when bigots claimed it was selling “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for trans children. It wasn’t, but that didn’t stop people from destroying Pride displays and harassing workers. An Instagram partnership with influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked such anti-trans furor that Bud Light’s US sales briefly dropped 18%.

Given that 7.2% of US adults identify as LGBTQ, politically timid companies might try to avoid controversy by simply not catering to them. But they’d be missing out on a lot of money. Globally, LGBTQ people hold an estimated $3.9 trillion in purchasing power, according to investment adviser LGBT Capital. A survey by the consulting firm Edelman found that Americans are twice as likely to support pro-LGBTQ brands and 4.5 times as likely to work for them.

Millennials and Gen Z are more likely than older generations to identify as LGBTQ, so companies courting them as customers or employees need to appeal to them. They notice when a company supports LGBTQ rights—and when it doesn’t. When conservatives targeted her with death threats, Mulvaney said, Anheuser-Busch Cos. never reached out to her. (Anheuser-Busch said the privacy and safety of its employees and partners was “our top priority,” but didn’t dispute Mulvaney’s claim.)

Young consumers expect more. When North Face ads featuring drag queen Pattie Gonia prompted Marjorie Taylor Greene and others to call for a boycott, the company didn’t back down. Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s perennial Pride campaign features models of various genders and sexualities.

In the end, an increasingly hostile climate has made the LGBTQ community less forgiving of empty corporate gestures. They want real support. They want health care. According to numerous polls, most Americans, regardless of gender or sexual identity, agree. “This is going to wash out the companies that really aren’t supportive of our community,” DuVally says. “And I don’t think that’s necessarily such a bad thing.”

EK: It’s hard not to appeal to the LGBTQ community. It would only get harder. It’s on. You just don’t want to be another Chick-Fil-A in UK. M and Gen Z are much more likely to engage in socially conscious, value-based consumption, regardless of their gender identity.