As is by now abundantly clear from the pro-Hamas rallies we have seen all over, the left loves jihadis, and this love is longstanding. Today’s global crisis, however, is bringing a new clarity to what exactly the left has been supporting, and it isn’t really “diversity” and “inclusion,” much less “tolerance” or “peace.” Vogue cover model Ahed Tamimi is a chilling case in point.
Back in October 2018, Vogue Arabia, the Dubai-based Arab edition of the venerable fashion magazine, published a piece ostensibly written by Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenager who was seventeen years old at the time: “Occupied Childhood: Ahed Tamimi Pens a Heartfelt Letter About Life in and After Prison.” The editor’s note was worshipful: “In a heartfelt letter, 17-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi tells the story of her arrest and eight months in an Israeli prison – and the struggles she faces as a symbol of resistance."
Tamimi herself, or her ghostwriter, sounded a plaintive note about how wonderful her life would be if it weren’t for those terrible Israelis: “I want to be a regular 17-year-old. I like clothes, I like makeup.” Accompanying the article is a stylishly black-and-white glamor shot of Tamimi, her hair blowing in the wind; she is a bit too chunky to be a classic model, but hey, these are the days of “body positivity.” The poor victim continued, “I get up in the morning, check my Instagram, have breakfast, and walk in the hills around the village. Sometimes I go to Ramallah with friends to go bowling, eat ice cream, and go to restaurants – but I am not a normal teenager. Both my parents have been in jail, as have I, and now my eldest brother, Waed, is imprisoned too.”
Tamimi doesn’t mention it, but her father was convicted in 2012 of exhorting young people to throw stones at Israeli troops. Her brother was convicted in August 2018, two months before his sister became a Vogue heroine, of actually throwing stones at Israeli troops. Ahed doesn’t mention the most famous member of her family, her aunt Ahlam Tamimi, who helped murder sixteen Israeli civilians at the Sbarro pizza parlor in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001. Ahlam received multiple life sentences from an Israeli court for her role in that massacre, but was freed in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange for an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. She then went to Jordan, where she became a media personality and a national hero. Jordan has refused all extradition requests from the United States, where she is on the FBI Most Wanted list because Americans were among those killed in her attack.
In Vogue, however, Ahed Tamimi did her best to portray herself as just a regular teenage girl, albeit one who happened to be the victim of a cruel military machine: “If I were permitted to be a regular teenager living in a normal country, I would play sports. I wanted to become a football player but I don’t play here because there is no time. Instead, I have been involved in demonstrations and confrontations with the Israeli army since I was a child. Many criticize that, but why not criticize the army who places itself in front of children? Under the occupation, everything is a crime. People should not accuse us; it is the occupation that is wrong.”
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There isn’t actually any occupation, but Ahed Tamimi’s ardor for the cause remains undimmed. Five years after her Vogue glamor shot, she published this message in Hebrew and Arabic on her Instagram page: “Our message to the settlers: (We) are waiting for you in all the cities of the West Bank, from Hebron to Jenin. We will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke. We will drink your blood and eat your skull. Come on, we're waiting for you."
This is the kind of person the left celebrates, and why not? Lenin said it: “You have to break eggs in order to make an omelet,” and Islamic jihadis in Gaza and all over the world couldn’t agree more. It is now undeniable that the left is not, contrary to its own claims, the party of love, tolerance, inclusion, and all that, but of drinking blood and eating skulls. The question is not why Vogue Arabia ever featured a bloodthirsty savage such as Ahed Tamimi, but why the other editions of Vogue haven’t lionized her as well. They’ll get around to it in due time.
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