Left, Right And Jews

Anybody who has taken the time to read my blog will notice that I often attack leftists, but not the far-right. The reason is because the far-left annoys me much more than the far-right. I’ll try to explain.

Leftist purport to be anti-racist, pro-equality, open-minded, liberal, and progressive. But are they? Not necessarily, but more on that later. Additionally, leftists ignore all of the good things that America has done in the world, and they magnify and harp on the bad. Despite their protestations to the contrary, they seem to hate their country.

The far-right—the neo-Nazis, KKK, etc.—also hate their country, but for different reasons. They hate America because of the freedoms afforded to the citizenry; because black people can vote, and Jews are well-integrated, and lot’s of brown people call America home. The far right has no compunction about letting the rest of us know how they feel—they often shout their hate loud and proud. We know exactly what they stand for.

Left, Right And Jews

The far-right hates Israel because they hate Jews. David Duke and his ilk champion the Palestinian cause because it’s a convenient cudgel to use against Israel—not because Duke really cares about Arabs (who, in the neo-Nazi lexicon, are “mud people”). Thankfully, most Americans are turned off by the histrionics of the racist far-right. You won’t hear far-right thought espoused in any Humanities departments at any universities.

The hard-left also hates Israel. There are many reasons for this: They hate America, and Israel is a close ally. Since the far-left interprets international events through a reductionist knee-jerk anti-American prism, a close ally like Israel will be painted with the same brush. Likewise, all of Israel’s faults are magnified (or invented), and anything good about Israel is ignored. Leftist like to believe they are supporting the underdog, and anybody allied to America can’t possibly be an underdog in their eyes. Leftists also like to support any supposedly “oppressed” people who make a few perfunctory statements about “national liberation” in their communications, and the Palestinians do that. The left loves the idea of supporting brown indigenous people who are struggling against an evil white Western country, and they imagine Israel fits the bill. Finally, unlike far-right thought, you will hear a lot of far-left thought espoused in Humanities departments at any university.

The image of Israe in the minds of leftists is completely flawed. Let’s deconstruct leftist reasons for hating Israel:

*Although not perfect, America is not evil, ergo any country closely allied with America, like Israel, is not necessarily evil.

*Israel is not a bully, and in fact is the underdog. There is no “Israeli-Palestinian” conflict. It’s the “Israeli-Arab” conflict because from day one Israel was attacked by the entire Arab nation. It’s not little Palestinian versus big Israel. Rather, it’s tiny Israel (without the West Bank Israel is ten miles wide along the coast) against the Arab world. Even non-Arab Muslim countries (like Iran and Pakistan) have joined in the “death to Israel” fun and are now vicious enemies of the Jews. Thus, it can be argued that Israel, pitted against the billion-strong Islamic world, is the true underdog.

*Most of the Jews that leftists in America will encounter are Ashkenzi (European) Jews, who are considered to be “white” (although not white enough for the Nazis—and a fair number of Ashkenazi Jews have Mediterranean features). Because of that, leftists imagine that Israelis must be a white European people who are “oppressing” a brown non-European people. Except for ethnic apparel worn by some Arabs and Jews in Israel, the average American would be hard pressed to differentiate between the two. This is partially because over half of Israel’s population is comprised of Jews who fled or were expelled from Middle Eastern lands upon Israel’s creation. Although champions of the Palestinians shed crocodile tears over the 650,000 Palestinian refugees of 1948, created as a reult of a war Arabs started, nobody seems to be aware that there were over 900,000 Jews who fled their homes from 1948 on. Most of them fled to Israel.

Leftist Hypocricy

Here’s where the far-left’s hypocrisy gets really bad. The Left purports to support women’s rights, gay rights, secular society, etc. In Arab/Islamic society, however, women are treated like property; homosexuality is often punishable by death; and civil society is completely infused with Islam.

Meanwhile in Israel, women have equal rights and Israel had a female Prime Minister—Gold Meir. Girls can wear whatever they want—which often times isn’t much—and nobody makes a stink. Gays serve openly in the military. Jerusalem hosted a gay pride parade. And here’s a dirty little secret: There are a lot of gay Palestinians who have fled the Palestinian territories and now reside in Israel. Finally, although Israel is called "The Jewish State," Judaism is both a religion and a culture, and in actuality Israeli society is secular. In light of all this, how can a person on the Left continue to champion the Arabs and despise Israel?

It’s not so much that the Left doesn’t support Israel, but they are Israel’s most dangerous enemies, intellectually speaking. It is common for a leftist to promote the destruction of the state of Israel, sometimes via violence, sometimes not. But peacefully or violently, supporting the destruction of Israel—the last refuge of Hitler’s victims, the safe-haven for oppressed Middle Eastern Jewry—should hardly be a progressive ideal—but apparently it is.

Betrayed!

I grew up in a staunchly liberal democratic household. All of my life I’ve felt myself to be a part of the Left. I grew up listening to the soundtrack Hair for crying out loud! Thus, I feel betrayed by my erstwhile political allies. It is this sense of betrayal that makes me so utterly disgusted with the far-Left.

I’ve long been aware that the David Dukes and KKK were bastards. It was quite a shock when I began to realize that the far-Left were also bastards. What’s worse, whereas the David Dukes are proud to be anti-Semites, Leftists go to bed thinking they’re on the side of anti-racist progress, despite the fact that when it comes to Jews and Israel, they always take positions that are completely inimical to Jewish concerns. This realization was hammered home sometime back in 1994 when I attended an Arab-organized event about the Oslo peace process. I must have asked a question that indicated I was a supporter of Israel, because as I was leaving a group of young Arab men were shouting “Fucking Jew” at me. At the same time a well-known leftist lady was hissing that I was a "racist." Surreal, I know, but I kid you not.

When it comes to Israel the far-left ignores the good and harps on the bad, often inventing the bad in order to make Israel the villain (switch “Jew” for “Israel” in that sentence and it sounds like pure anti-Semitic bigotry). When it comes to Israel they swallow the Arab narrative hook, line, and sinker, instead of examining the conflict objectively. When it comes to Israel they oppose every action Israel takes to defend its citizens from, both military and passive. The message seems to be: We might stop criticizing you if you lay down and die. The hard-left views Zionism and Israel as illegitimate, thus any actions Israel takes to defend itself are considered illegitimate.

To wrap it up, I suppose you could say I have more “respect” for a David Duke right-wing racist than a conniving Leftist. The David Dukes spew their anti-Semitism loud and clear; Leftists wrap their anti-Semitism in a veneer of self-righteous blather about human rights. At least the David Dukes are honest.