With more than 100,000 persons set to gather at the National Mall today to demonstrate solidarity with Israel, the thing to keep an eye on is the flags. We imagine that the Stars and Stripes and Stars of David will flutter as far as the eye can see. The confluence is no coincidence. That point was in sharp relief over the weekend, where an anti-Israel protester in New York tore down the flag at the corner of Lexington and East 43rd Street — on Veterans Day no less.

That flag was torn down in Midtown Manhattan, not the Middle East. The Hamas-inspired worldview that has taken root on college campuses and city streets is animated by that least American ideology of all, antisemitism. Attacks on Jews are always assaults on the vision of the Founders. It was Washington who prayed that the “Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants.”

The pulling down of the Stars and Stripes in America’s greatest city, and its replacement with the colors of the Palestinian flag, is something to mark. So too is the scene of some of the mob kicking the doors of Grand Central Terminal, with police sheltering inside. It could hardly be clearer that Hamas’s partisans here have set themselves against this country, and this city. Where is the American Suella Braverman? Where is President Biden?

As our Benny Avni reports, the administration is now pointedly pressuring Israel to limit its defensive actions against Hezbollah in the north. On CBS Sunday Morning, the National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, ventured that America “does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire.” He knows that Hamas uses hospitals as headquarters and arsenals. 

As if to drive home the reality that Israel and America are fighting the same fight, Iran has been targeting American assets in the Middle East even as Hamas and Hezbollah — Iranian proxies  — wage war against Israel. Mr. Biden has responded half-heartedly, begging the question of whether he fully grasps the stakes of the battle. If Israel’s cause falters, it is not only the blue and white flags that will fray. So too will the red, white, and blue.