From The Free Press:
When I saw a viral video of Taryn Thomas speaking at an October 7, 2025, vigil at Stanford, I knew she was unique. That’s because only two years before, she was a part of the pro-Palestine movement on her campus.After Hamas’s attack on Israel, Thomas took part in the first encampments that appeared on campuses across the country and fully submitted to the groupthink that Hamas was a legitimate resistance group. She marched with people who wouldn’t dare associate with Zionists, and accepted an invitation to see the Nova exhibit in Los Angeles only so she could report back to her friends about the “Zionist propaganda.”But that’s not what happened. Thomas says seeing evidence of the Nova festival and what truly happened on October 7 opened her eyes. In the months that followed, she took a trip to Israel, listened to the firsthand experiences of Israelis and Palestinians, and made friends from the Jewish community on her campus.Those experiences gave Thomas the fortitude to do something truly courageous: risk her friendships, face her misconceptions, and change her mind.This is our conversation about how a well-meaning, highly educated young person can fall into a destructive movement and what it took to find her way out.I’ve covered the anti-Israel movement on college campuses since October 7, and this is one of the most moving interviews I’ve ever done.I was able to ask Thomas the questions that have been on my mind since October 7 yet could never have answered, because most members of the anti-Israel movement refused to speak to me. We speak about how the anti-Israel cause has captured so many young people, what the Jewish community fails to understand about the movement, and how we might win the information war online.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Greta probably feared this exact transformation, which is why she refused the Israeli invitation to watch the October 7th massacres
Good on Taryn Thomas for her courage in admitting how wrong she was
Exsoldier762 says
Greta is not nearly smart enough or self aware enough to think about what that means.
Andrew Blackadder says
She is NOT an African American but she is a Black American however would the other woman call herself as a European American or as a White American…
Why do so many University educated young Americans use the word.. LIKE.. so many times out of context.
dumbledoresarmy says
I saw this… very heartening.
Those of us who pray.. let’s pray for more eyes to be opened.
After all.. if ‘Son of Hamas’ could give up everything.. seek and recognise the truth.. risk his life.. then… surely some of the young people of the western world can wake up, too.
gravenimage says
+1
Susan Silverman says
How can someone be in 4th year at such a (formerly) prestigious university be so incapable of expressing herself and ignorant about world geography and history? Shameful!!
gravenimage says
Yes–this was pretty depressing. Still, her transformation on this issue is heartening.
gravenimage says
Video: Confessions of a Former Pro-Hamas Activist
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Well, good for Taryn Thomas. Her speaking out is very brave. But her description of the pressure to remain ignorant and isolated in their leftist bubble is very depressing.