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Why Hamas Sympathizers Love Ms. Rachel
(City Journal) Tal Fortgang - Rachel Griffin-Accurso, known by her stage name "Ms. Rachel," has gained wealth and influence through her low-budget children's show, a favorite of millions. But beyond the confines of her show, Ms. Rachel has emerged as an authoritative voice on every subject that even tangentially relates to children, including Israel's war on Hamas. In an interview she acknowledged that she "didn't know much" about the Middle East before Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. That has not stopped her from using her various platforms to construct a simplistic narrative of the conflict. Her Instagram, with 4 million followers, reads like the product of an anti-Israel activist. After Israel launched its war to defeat the barbarians who had wiped out entire families (including babies pummeled to death in Gaza), Ms. Rachel began her campaign. She informed her followers that Israel is committing "genocide" and accused it of "murder[ing] 4-year-olds!" While she has regularly called on Israel to stop its just war, she has never once called on Hamas to lay down its arms. And now she regularly posts anti-Israel messages unrelated to children's welfare. Ms. Rachel recently became a global ambassador for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) after "fundraising" for them. The PCRF is as much a propaganda arm for the anti-Israel cause as it is a humanitarian outfit. Anti-Israel groups frequently employ children and hospitals to appeal to people's emotions in order to win support for their eliminationist war effort. The anti-Western PR apparatus preys upon our decency. When your enemy both causes suffering and broadcasts it strategically, it can use your compassion against you. The result is the classic coercive formula: ensure that children suffer, document it relentlessly, then insist that this suffering means that their enemy must surrender - "for the children's sake." Our inability to tolerate children's suffering is a civilizational strength that becomes a weakness if we refuse to acknowledge that some actors will take advantage of it. Children's suffering is intolerable - and that is precisely why the terrorists who started this war, use children as shields, and exploit their suffering need to be eliminated. This response requires us to discern good from evil. The writer is a legal policy fellow and advisor to the president at the Manhattan Institute.