The Israeli-Hamas war has come to Rhode Island.  

With three events here hitting national news. 

A Providence councilman got canned from his State House job after tweets blaming Israel.

The Providence City Council called for a cease-fire in Gaza. 

And 20 Jewish students at Brown were arrested for a pro-Palestinian sit-in.  

They all have one thing in common besides calling Israel the bad guy.

They were AWOL after the Oct. 7 Hamas slaughter.

Murdered Jews? Babies as hostages? Who cares. But once Israel responded – time for righteous protest.

First, let’s talk about Gov. Dan McKee firing Providence City Councilman Miguel Sanchez from his day-job in constituent services after pro-Palestinian tweets.

Sanchez seems an impressive guy, the city’s first Mexican-American councilman, caring about marginalized communities.

But Miguel, I went through your tweets, and timewise, they put you in the hall of shame of those who on Oct. 7 itself, hours after the most bloodthirsty slaughter of Jews in 75 years, blamed Israel.

Posting this: “We must demand the respect of all human rights, especially the Palestinian people who faced atrocities for decades and at the same time condemn all attacks on civilians.”

You paired that with a statement by a Texas congressional candidate basically saying the murdered Jews brought it on themselves.

And no, it doesn’t count to add a bland condemnation of all “attacks on civilians” as an afterthought. Not when you ironically accuse Israel of “atrocities” on the very day 1,400 butchered Jewish bodies lie on the ground.

And sir, you still have a tweet up claiming that Israel bombed Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people. The U.S. government has debunked that. The false claim was so inflammatory it made targets of U.S. service people in the region. It’s not OK to still have that up on your feed.

On Nov. 3, Providence made national headlines again when the City Council called for a cease-fire. Its statement strived to sound evenhanded – saying they care about lives on both sides and all that.

But if Providence’s council feels it should speak on foreign affairs – where was the resolution after Oct. 7 decrying the butchering of Jews? Nor in this resolution did they call for a return of the hostages. That’s a disgrace.

The mentality is clear. A Hamas pogrom wasn’t worth condemning – but Israel fighting back? Good heavens. Time for the council to demand a cease-fire.

Finally, let’s get to the protesters arrested at Brown.

Why, you may ask, would Jewish students stage a campus sit-in accusing Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, which they did, while ignoring Oct. 7?

Of course, many Jews are simply against Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but in this case, I see two other things going on.

More Patinkin: I’ve seen the faces of Gazan Palestinians. They haven’t been forgotten

First, there’s an old tale about the proud Jew and the ghetto Jew in 1900 about to be executed during a pogrom and told to put on blindfolds. The proud Jew throws his blindfold down and says he’ll face his killers. The ghetto Jew tells him, “Put it on, don’t make trouble.”

I see a modern version of that mentality on campus, with Jewish students desperate to curry favor with their majority pro-Palestinian peers.

Which brings up the second reason for the sit-in – it’s generational. Students in 2023 have bought into the cult of seeing the world in terms of oppressor and oppressed, with Israel deemed the ultimate fascist state.

Why? The hate-Israel crowd, including the arrested Jewish Brown students, use three main labels.

Apartheid. Genocide. Ethnic cleansing.

I’m not sure what they’re teaching at Brown these days, but it’s not history.

Apartheid? Of Israel’s 9 million population, 2 million are Arabs with full citizenship, 10 sitting in Parliament, one on the Supreme Court and countless doctors and professionals.

More Patinkin: His niece murdered, her son shielded beneath her body: A family’s final moments in Israel

Genocide? It’s terrible that thousands have been killed in Gaza. But genocide is hundreds of thousands recently killed in Syria, Yemen and Libya by Arab dictators and militias. Not a peep about that. But when 9,000 or so are tragically killed in Gaza in a war Hamas started – now that’s genocide.

As for ethnic cleansing – there were hundreds of thousands of Palestinians when Israel was created in 1948. Now there are 7 million. Doesn’t sound like ethnic cleansing to me, but I’ll tell you what is. That same year, there were 800,000 Jews in countries like Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan and Lebanon. Now – virtually none. They were either murdered or driven out.

I guess none of that is worth condemning.

Just as Oct. 7 wasn’t worth condemning soon afterward by Brown student groups, Miguel Sanchez and the Providence City Council.

But now that Israel has responded? And Jews have fought back?

How dare they.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com