When White Supremacists Find Common Ground With the Most Leftist of Progressives
How can academics, intellectuals and activists find any truth when only one narrative is permitted? [Written in ’22. Published October ‘23]
For all their vaunted interrogations and intersections there are very strict rules about what is permitted and sanctioned for discussion
In 2020 I decided to spend time studying the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The history, the toll on Israelis and Palestinians — to be able to hold my own in discussions where Israel was unreservedly maligned and ‘none of it was anti-semitic’. I wanted to feel comfortable and knowledgeable in my perspectives and opinions about the conflict. As a proud Jew I did not know enough to easily express opinions, but I was extremely uncomfortable with the apparent anti-semitism fueled by the Left. I learned enough to answer my questions.
Now in 2022 I find that when I say something defending Israel, or try to present facts or perspectives I am dismissively told I am sadly uninformed. That was just a month ago from a nice Jewish woman — urban progressive LGBT+ person. I was taken aback, again. I’m now familiar with this conceit … I was obviously less progressive than thou.
This has happened in numbers of social situations with people who are friends. Who know me and my background but are completely dismissive and then feel justified in ignoring me and “my ignorance” and “bias” when it comes to anti-semitism, Israel and Zionism. It’s getting scarier and scarier as BDS and others continue to assail Israel, from ignorance, ideology and performative ‘progressiveness.’
We know that unknowingness about Jews and Israel is widespread. Then there are the ilk of Charlottesville out loud in their shouts that “Jews will not replace us”. This is currently fueling a rash of violence against Jews in all places from white supremacists.
The worst — in my life — are the self anointed progressives who have bought into the actual uneducated and misinformed and deliberately disingenuous anti-semitic narrative that Israel is so wrong it does not deserve to survive as a Jewish democratic state. It must be replaced.
Few who fall in with the Progressive narratives of suffering and righteousness actually realize that when the Squad says From the River to The Sea they actually mean Israel - which lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea - should not exist. This is what the Palestinian plan is. They will sometimes disguise this intent by saying, we just want to ….. and set out reasonable sounding goals … which are akin to Trojan horses. E.G. The right of return is set up as a reasonable negotiable stance. I’d ask you to explore 1) the origin of this proposition and 2) the numbers game it hides. The original concept did not include several generations of ‘returnees’, who now number more than 7 million.
This is where the ideologues masquerading as academics and righteous left activists are heading. For earnest progressives there is a strong desire to side with the “right” side. Having not done their own research they will (eventually) discover they are on the wrong side of history. These leaders/not-leaders are the ideologues rallying others to take up the banner for the ‘freedom fighters’ and the ‘oppressed’ the Palestinian new darlings of the wrongly Left. They have hitched one story onto another and can with straight faces compare South African apartheid to life in Israel.
There is only withering dismissiveness when asked questions that could possibly put forth the concept that there is more than one side to the story. These are the ones fueling anti-semitism and anti-Israel intellectual violence which rides easily along with white supremacists perspectives.
The BDS movement on esteemed college campuses, including at UC Berkeley, doesn’t draw swastikas. BDS aligns itself with ‘freedom movements’. Thus making it appealing to and an ‘appropriate’ player in the progressive ‘righting the wrongs of oppressed peoples everywhere.’ Presenting the plight of Palestinians and their ‘freedom fighters’ as the wrongfully dispossessed and subjugated. BDS never mentions China’s policies and actions on Uyghurs. BDS never considers the plight of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingyas. BDS portrays Palestinian suffering as akin to the US treatment of Native Americans. It is an appealing analogy and yet it is false and deceptive. And it is fueling anti-semitism so that now hate crimes against Jews have reached levels that are the highest in four decades.
