Thread by @HenMazzig

I read Ezra Klein’s interview with Mahmoud Khalil, so you don’t have to.

Here are the most outrageous moments.

Buckle up 🧵

Khalil talks about how Palestinians in Syria have no property rights, even after generations. That’s blatant discrimination.

But Klein doesn’t pause to reflect on what that means.

No curiosity about how other Arab states treat Palestinians. He just moves along. >>

Khalil, who often describes himself as a Palestinian refugee, mentions one grandparent living in modern day Israel: his grandmother lived in Tiveria for 30 years before 1948.

So she must have lived through the Tiveria pogrom, in 1938, when Arab terrorists lit Jewish homes and synagogues on fire and stabbed the people inside, including a baby, to death.

Somehow, the Arab-initiated violence that preceded his family’s departure from Tiveria was never part of the narrative Khalil was taught. He says he was raised to believe that “Palestine was taken from us, was stolen from us.”

I am not saying Palestinians have no connection to the land; in fact I am a loud advocate for peace and their right to live in this land. But as Jew whose family lived in Iraq and Tunisia for centuries, only to be violently kicked out with all of their property stripped from them, I always find the asymmetry in these conversations jarring.

Palestinian identity is inherently tied to Arab identity, the same Arabs who forced my family out of their land. But this is often forgotten in this narrative. >>

Khalil states that October 7th was inevitable, parroting Hamas’s rationale for the rape and slaughter of Jews as a means to avoid Israel’s normalization with Saudi Arabia.

Khalil's statement directly aligns with Yayha Sinwar’s message to top Hamas officials, uncovered in May, that an “extraordinary act” would be necessary to stop normalization. Sinwar conveyed this message mere days before the October 7th massacre, rape, and abduction of innocent Israeli civilians.

Despicable acts of terrorism are being normalized as an appropriate— even inevitable— political tactic in the pages of the New York Times, with no pushback. >>

“Having lived in the Middle East most of my life, unfortunately, the only Jew you hear about is the one who’s trying to kill you.”

Here’s my question:

What happened to the 50,000 Jews of Syria and Lebanon, where Khalil grew up? Where are they now? Did they try to kill you? >>

Klein gently asks about a Columbia protester who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” The protest group first apologized, then took the apology back.

Khalil doesn’t condemn the statement. He plays the victim, saying his movement is being “demonized.”

Then comes this gem: Khalil wants to “liberate my oppressor from their hate and from their fear.”

A good first step would be calling out genocidal calls in your own camp. Literally. >>

Klein tries again: Is there antisemitism at Columbia?

Khalil’s answer? “Manufactured hysteria.”

Meanwhile, Jews were beaten, harassed, pushed out of classrooms and clubs. Professors openly discriminated against them.

The idea that Jews fake antisemitism is one of the oldest tropes there is.

Klein doesn’t challenge it. In fact, he joins in: “Nobody there ended up as unsafe as you did.”

Why is the goalpost for what qualifies as hate against Jews always moving, while other minority groups are encouraged to call out microaggressions of any scale and scope? >>

“It’s actually to make you uncomfortable”

Mahmoud Khalil fan and NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani said in an interview that he sees the call to “globalize the intifada” at anti-Israel rallies as “a desperate call for equality and equal rights.” Later on he decided to change his tone and say he doesn’t like to use this term.

But Khalil confirmed here what Jews have been saying all along: The purpose of the chant is to make people who support Israel's right to exist (i.e.. most Jews) feel uncomfortable.

And if you think Khalil actually has a handle on the difference between discomfort and danger, check out what he says about the intifada >>>

“I don’t want to sanitize history…the second intifada involved violent acts, but overwhelmingly, they were peaceful.”

I survived a suicide bombing during the second intifada. The baby and grandmother who were near me didn’t.

Do not ask me to accept Khalil’s definitions of peace, violence, or safety. >>

This wasn’t an interview.

It was a whitewash of terror, antisemitism, hate, and historical revisionism. It was published in the New York Times, without journalistic scrutiny or any pushback.

And that should concern everyone.