"He/she doth protest too much" can be wielded by an astute observer when someone's overly strong denial suggests they are likely being insincere or concealing something. The saying originated in Shakespeare's Hamlet, wherein Queen Gertrude says, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," about a character in a play who vehemently insists she will never remarry while the audience knows she has already remarried quickly after her first husband's death. The widow does not even realize that her dramatic protestations can be easily read as a Freudian slip.

We are still living in an era of raging rabble-rousers who doth protest too much against Israel, well after the cease fire they claimed to have sought has taken effect. The kaffiyeh-wearing, Free Palestine-chanting brigade, which was fully activated on campus and in town squares during the Israel-Hamas War, did not disappear on Hoshana Rabba 5786. The fierceness of their rhetoric before, during, and after - in the context of numerous world conflicts in which people die - reveals much about their subconscious, and demonstrates that all this mayhem has nothing to do with suffering Palestinians and everything to do with demonization of Israel, methinks. 

Two stories in Bereishis and Noach brilliantly reveal the inner psychology of protesters and can help us diagnose this disturbing phenomenon.

Last week we witnessed the first instance of murder in human history. Brothers Kayin and Hevel each offered a korban to Hashem, but only Hevel's was accepted. Dejected and disgraced, Kayin took out his anger in an act of fratricide:

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר קַ֖יִן אֶל־הֶ֣בֶל אָחִ֑יו וַֽיְהִי֙ בִּהְיוֹתָ֣ם בַּשָּׂדֶ֔ה וַיָּ֥קׇם קַ֛יִן אֶל־הֶ֥בֶל אָחִ֖יו וַיַּהַרְגֵֽהוּ׃

Kayin said to his brother Hevel … and when they were in the field, Kayin set upon his brother Hevel and killed him.

The pasuk famously does not tell us exactly what Kayin said to his brother Hevel! Along comes Rashi to fill in the blank:

נִכְנַס עִמּוֹ בְּדִבְרֵי רִיב וּמַצָּה לְהִתְעוֹלֵל עָלָיו לְהָרְגוֹ

He began an argument, striving and contending with him, to seek a pretext to kill him.

Kayin wanted to kill, but he was reluctant to do so without justification. And so he picked a fight with his brother, and in the context of that fight took Hevel's life. The desire to destroy preceded the argument; the argument was simply the opportunity generated by Kayin to express his malevolence. 

Rav Henoch Leibowitz, in a piercing psychological analysis of this episode, argues that the pretext of the fight was not a conscious decision on Kayin's part. Kayin did not sit around and plot strategy and manufacture some petty squabble with Hevel. And when that רִיב וּמַצָּה did come about, Kayin genuinely believed it was a life-and-death issue and Hevel needed to be punished. Kayin's all-abiding resentment guided him into the situation without any overt planning. Kayin created the circumstances - a duel! - in which it would be socially acceptable to do away with Hevel. 

The growing anti-Israel squad - which tragically includes many Jews - have lived for some time with a simmering resentment for the Jewish State. They have accepted the Big Lie: that Israel, as a colonial, racist, apartheid-rooted Goliath needs to be delegitimized. What a blessing October 7 and its aftermath was for them! The gift of a pretext was bequeathed to them by Hamas. After some initially celebrated the pogrom as an act of righteous resistance, many more latched onto Israel's campaign to root out terrorism and rescue hostages as justification for publicly expressing what they have believed all along. Like Kayin's, this was not a conscious decision on their part; their hearts gravitated toward an opportunity to fight back, and they automatically convinced themselves that Israel was committing genocide when all logic and evidence indicated otherwise. They doth protested without realizing how biased they had become.

The current cessation of this conflict has not produced any comfort or relief for these protesters, for it has robbed them of the pretext they have enjoyed for two years. The leading candidate for the New York City mayoralty has yet to make a statement acknowledging the progress and return of the hostages. Instead, he has doubled down on the genocide slander and threatened once again to arrest Israel's Prime Minister should he step foot in the city. There is only disappointment, not celebration, that this round of the fight is over. And apparently, there are no other countries on earth where innocent people are being persecuted. What to do with all this righteous indignation?

The answer: continue protesting Israel even when the IDF retreats, even when the unrelenting military pressure on Hamas succeeded in bringing Hamas to the negotiating table, which was the goal all along. Consider what their forebears did when Noach's years-long campaign to build an ark proved to be necessary:

בְּעֶ֨צֶם הַיּ֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ בָּ֣א נֹ֔חַ וְשֵׁם־וְחָ֥ם וָיֶ֖פֶת בְּנֵי־נֹ֑חַ וְאֵ֣שֶׁת נֹ֗חַ וּשְׁלֹ֧שֶׁת נְשֵֽׁי־בָנָ֛יו אִתָּ֖ם אֶל־הַתֵּבָֽה׃

That same day Noach and Noach’s sons, Shem, Cham, and Yaphes, went into the ark, with Noach’s wife and the three wives of his sons

The rain has begun falling. Crazy Noach has been vindicated. All logic dictates that the rest of the generation would acquiesce, or even beg to board the ark. But Rashi cites the Midrash that:

לִמֶּדְךָ הַכָּתוּב שֶׁהָיוּ בְנֵי דוֹרוֹ אוֹמְרִים אִלּוּ אָנוּ רוֹאִים אוֹתוֹ נִכְנָס לַתֵּבָה, אָנוּ שׁוֹבְרִין אוֹתָהּ וְהוֹרְגִין אוֹתוֹ, אָמַר הַקָּבָּ"ה אֲנִי מַכְנִיסוֹ לְעֵינֵי כֻלָּם וְנִרְאֶה דְבַר מִי יָקוּם

Scripture teaches you that the people of his generation said: “If we see him enter the Ark we will smash it up and kill him”. The Holy One, blessed be He, thereupon said, ‘‘I will let him enter before the eyes of everyone and we shall see whose word prevails” (Bereishis Rabbah 32:8).

So here's the scene: The storm is brewing, Noach and family are entering the teivah, and there are hundreds of people waving signs that say "Long Live Hamas: וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס" or "Noach Discriminates Against Non-Kosher Animals!" or "Quoth The Raven: Nevermore!" But they doth protested too much. They didn't want Noach to board the ark because deep down inside they knew he was right, and that they would perish due to their evil ways. To allow Noach to complete his mission would undermine their corrupt belief system, and that simply could not be allowed to happen. Noach's vindication caused too much cognitive dissonance for them to handle, and so they amassed in protest. But in front of the whole world's eyes, Noach and family entered the teivah, בְּעֶ֨צֶם הַיּ֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙.

Israel cannot claim complete victory over Hamas, but can certainly celebrate a partial victory, with all living hostages returned and the enemy substantially weakened on many fronts. More of Hamas' depravity and cruelty is being revealed every day, as the hostages recover their strength and begin sitting for interviews. The world watches as Hamas exacts revenge on Palestinians for defying its tyranny. None of this will sway the Ceasefire Now crowd, because they are not Palestinian supporters but Israel haters. Within their progressive, sophisticated worldview, they cannot accept the notion that there should be an ancestral homeland for the Jewish people which however secular is still rooted in Jewish faith. And in that resistance, they align themselves with evil Haman, who bristled at the Jewish people's stubborn adherence to its legacy by doth protesting (Esther 3:8):

יֶשְׁנ֣וֹ עַם־אֶחָ֗ד מְפֻזָּ֤ר וּמְפֹרָד֙ בֵּ֣ין הָֽעַמִּ֔ים בְּכֹ֖ל מְדִינ֣וֹת מַלְכוּתֶ֑ךָ וְדָתֵיהֶ֞ם שֹׁנ֣וֹת מִכׇּל־עָ֗ם וְאֶת־דָּתֵ֤י הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ אֵינָ֣ם עֹשִׂ֔ים

There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws (doth) are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws (doth).