Last week, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “When Jewish people hear chants like ‘from the river to the sea,’ a founding slogan of Hamas … we are alarmed.” There is no excuse for Schumer to turn the phrase into such a dog whistle.

The “river to the sea” phrase has long been employed by various groups in calls for either equality or exclusivity of control and presence by Zionists and/or Palestinians between river and sea. It is in the Israeli Likud manifesto of 1977: “Between the sea and the Jordan there will be only Israeli sovereignty.”

Forty years later, Hamas, founded in 1987, adopted the phrase in their 2017 General Principles and Policies: “Palestine, which extends from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west … is the home of the Palestinian people.”

That Likud’s following of the “river to the sea” banner for almost 50 years does not provoke equal opportunity anxiety in Schumer speaks volumes.

George Hudes

Manoa

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