Most civilized people watched in horror as Hamas launched its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, leading to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. This was not a military operation, but an act of pure terror. Women, children, the elderly, and infants were killed, mutilated, raped, beheaded, burned alive, and kidnapped.

Per CBS News, Israeli emergency responders, people with years of experience in recovering bodies, broke down in tears as they recounted what they witnessed in the aftermath of the attack at one kibbutz.

“ Residents were murdered wherever the Hamas gunmen found them … we see blood spread out in homes. We’ve found bodies of people who have been butchered. The depravity of it is haunting,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Maj. Libby Weiss said.

At another location, IDF soldiers discovered approximately 40 dead babies , “some decapitated — highlighting the brutality of the invading forces.”

To me, what is just as abhorrent as the attack against Israel is the outbreak of antisemitism across the West by the political Left. Students across the country, from Harvard to Stanford, protested, penned open letters, and wrote opinion pieces in their beloved school papers defending Hamas and blaming Israel for the terrorist attack launched by Hamas.

At Harvard , more than two dozen student organizations declared in a statement that Israel, not Hamas, was "entirely responsible" for the violence carried out against Israel. The statement declared, "We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." Their statement also attacked the "apartheid regime" in Israel that has forced Palestinians into "colonial retaliation" and called on action to protect them.

Perhaps the members of these organizations should have thought through the consequences of their actions, since people are now calling for the students to be named publicly. Billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman and several other business leaders have urged Harvard University to release the names of the students whose organizations signed the letter. They want them blacklisted from jobs.

In California, Stanford University is also under fire for refusing to denounce the banners celebrating the bombardments.

Sadly, it isn’t just students siding with terrorists. Students whose age, lack of worldly experience, and ability to be influenced, can almost be forgiven. But the adults in academia, both administrators and educators, who have jumped on the bandwagon have no excuse.

A diversity and inclusion director at Cornell University, for example, made several disturbing social media posts dismissing Hamas’s slaughter of innocent civilians as a justified “resistance.” Derron Borders, of the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, said, “When you hear about Israel this morning and the resistance being launched by Palestinians, remember against all odds Palestinians are fighting for life, dignity, and freedom — alongside others doing the same — against settle colonization, imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy … which the United States is the model.”

Likewise, Mohammad Jehad Ahmad, who teaches at Gotham Tech High School in New York City, changed his Facebook cover photo to an image of a person paragliding with a Palestinian flag attached to the parachute with "I stand with Palestine" written beneath, an image also shared by the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter.

Ahmad also wrote, “It goes without saying, from the river to the sea,” which alludes to the elimination of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state that covers the whole area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

We have also seen mass protests in cities such as New York , Sydney, and Paris in support of Hamas, with many protesters openly calling for the elimination of Israel.

Even in Congress, Democratic members of the “Squad” have refused to denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization appropriately, instead railing against Israel for defending its people and demanding a “ceasefire” in the region.

What is driving this wave of antisemitism? Is it simply youthful ignorance and the desire to take a contrarian position? Remember the “no blood for oil” chants that dominated college campuses in 1990, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, and America prepared to enter the fray?

Is it a legitimate hate of Israel? I fail to remember any “pro-Russia” rallies in New York or social media posts from politicians, athletes, or celebrities, as the Russian army moved into Ukraine.

Is it that the West has failed to integrate its massive wave of immigrants, who do not support the Judeo-Christian values on which the West was founded? After all, we didn’t see pro-Hamas protests in countries such as Poland or Hungry, both of which have strict immigration policies.

Regardless of the motivation, we must resist the urge to ban this speech and curtail the rights of these people to express their stupidity. Sunlight is still the best disinfectant, and the best way to expose and eventually defeat both ignorance and hatred is to let people expose themselves as the bigots they are.

Jim Nelles is a supply chain consultant based in Chicago. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.