We’re not hearing from the usual suspects, and it’s no mystery as to why.

You’ve got to admit, the hundreds of brave Palestinians who publicly protested the Hamas-led regime in the Gaza Strip this week “have a point.” They are “civically engaged,” indignant over the war and its consequences. It’s fair to say that they face “a humanitarian crisis” and “they have every right to be heard.” Indeed, “These folks are asking for a change in course, they’re asking for more pressure to be put on.” At the very least, “They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be as a response to Gaza.”

All these observations apply to the Gazans who poured into the streets, calling on the international community to “get Hamas out of Gaza.” But the Democrats who were so eager to heap praise on anti-Israel protesters have conspicuously withheld a similar admiration for the Gazans who, at greater risk and with more at stake, are calling for an end to their subjugation. They’ve called for “an end to this war,” the release of the remaining hostages, and, most importantly, the overthrow of the “tyrannical rule” under which they languish. You would think they’ve earned an attaboy or two from those in the West who insist on their own sensitivity to human suffering in the region.

We all know why these protests have failed to captivate Israel’s critics. The moral inversion to which Democrats committed themselves during the 2024 campaign is rendered more mortifying by the extent to which anti-Hamas Gazans are knowingly inviting violent reprisals from that illegitimate regime. For all the Hamas-curious crowd’s talk of how Israel is an apartheid state and a repressive regime meting out genocide, Netanyahu’s critics in the West risk nothing by assembling en masse to register their concerns. By contrast, Gazans are putting their lives and their family’s safety on the line. It would be an inspiring sight if Democrats dared to look at it.

At least, that is the expectation. Of course, some participants in the protests have reported seeing “members of the Hamas security forces in civilian clothing breaking up the protest.” But up until recently, spontaneous and organic displays of dissent like these would have been interdicted and broken up long before they achieved the scale of these demonstrations. The internal weakness of what’s left of Hamas in the Gaza Strip is another unseen feature of these protests.

Impressive as these rare demonstrations are, they have not yet achieved the critical mass necessary to threaten the Hamas regime’s stability. That’s not to say they won’t extend their reach, especially if the demonstrators believe the civilized world is with them. It should be the objective of all who seek a just end to the war Hamas started with the 10/7 attacks to exalt in their efforts and promote their cause. That is, if they genuinely care about humanitarian crises, the horrors of war, and the yearning of every human spirit to slough off the shackles of oppression.

We’re not hearing any of that from the usual suspects, and it’s no mystery as to why.