Meme Justice: The Story of Israel’s Dank Meme Stash
The potentially serious repercussions of a not-so-serious idea
This definitely isn’t your dad’s Zionism; this is “Israel’s Dank Meme Stash”, a two-month old Facebook page whose meteoric rise (you can take that adjective at face value) has placed it firmly in the center (that one too) of a new frontier of American Zionism (that’s for real though). But before we can talk about “Israel’s Dank Meme Stash” (let’s go with IDMS from now on) and what lessons can be gleaned from its quick journey to (relative) prominence, we have to talk about the dilemmas of contemporary Israel advocacy that IDMS, maybe purposefully (and maybe not), attempts to resolve.
It all starts with those damned millennials, a generation which, in addition to being somehow too optimistic about changing the world and simultaneously too lazy, are also the most anti-Israel (or least pro-Israel) American generation since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. It’s a generation that is overwhelmingly liberal and that, on college campuses more than anywhere, is hinting at a radical kind of anti-Israel activism that is both frightening and confusing while being simultaneously oddly successful. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the most prominent anti-Israel student group on American college campuses, has gained ground over the past decade, and has become increasingly organized nationally.
So how has the old guard of the pro-Israel community responded? Well, it sort of hasn’t. As in most situations where new ideas are needed, the new ideas aren’t coming from the same people as the old ones. Instead, its a whole personnel overhaul; the millennials have taken over — or have started to at least. And that’s where IDMS comes in.
It all started this past August. Tony, a senior journalism and media studies major at a large public university in Southern California, was at a conference in Boston. He made an offhanded joke to his friend Hannah, a junior political science major at a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts who was attending a different conference at the time, also in Boston. The two had known each other for a while, interacting a number of times along the annual Israel advocacy circuit. Tony lamented the shameful lack of a “dank memes stash” servicing the pro-Israel community, a reference to the wildly popular “Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash”, a Facebook group that, as of this writing, has a stunning 452,329 members. A week later he showed Hannah IDMS.
“I just remember thinking ‘Holy shit, he actually made it,’” Hannah told me when I spoke with the two of them over the phone. She was on the project almost immediately, contributing several of her own memes within the first week of operation. “It got big pretty quick,” she said. And thus, as Tony put it, “history was made.”
Take a look at this meme, posted on September 22nd, which received a cool 76 likes:
This one hits all the bases: a) the positive association of Jon Stewart, a Jewish and American icon for many who were sufficiently conscious during Stewart’s 16 year run as host of the Daily Show (1999–2015, AKA the millennial sweet spot), b) relatable lingo (see: “fam”. Also, please forgive the fact that it remains impossible to critically evaluate memes without sounding over 40 years old), and of course, c) the liberal slant that millennials need. That liberal slant is where the genius (purposeful or not) of IDMS is most apparent. Because while the left-leaning nature of the page is no secret, its manifestation is rarely heavy handed and frequently subtle, nearly to the point of ambiguity. This meme, posted just two days before the previous one, helps illustrate a thematic consistency of that leftward lean:
Just like with the Jon Stewart meme, the liberal spin here isn’t necessarily a promotion of liberal attitudes about the conflict; instead, a sharp repudiation of the far-right streak of the pro-Israel community has an even better effect.
But when I ask Tony and Hannah about these two memes, they admit that, while they’re both progressive (and as Tony says, “incorrectly pro-Israel”), that doesn’t mean that only the right side of the conflict catches IDMS’s flak. “We like to call people out on both the left and the right,” says Hannah. And Tony adds that the creation of a meme usually reflects, “things that we’ve thought of before that we’ve been too scared to say.”
Look at this meme, posted on October 31st:
In sharp contrast to the repudiation of the right, this meme provides a repudiation of the left. Therein lies the crux of IDMS’s political leanings; no one is safe. And this is the sly way in which IDMS — consciously or subconsciously (you be the judge) — uses its unique platform to publicize the oft-maligned and rarely advertised principle of political centrism, the moderate ideology that just about never wins in public discourse, especially when it comes to the Middle East.
IDMS has a weirdly powerful potential; it can sneak that political centrism into its content in a sly and sometimes powerful way. But, as its founders will admit, it remains, to put it frankly, very niche. Check out this meme:
How many people will relate to this? The intended audience is a very slim one; the pro-Israel community, and even more specifically, those college students traveling the same conference circuit, occupying the same fellowships, hosting the same speakers. Nonetheless, Tony remains positive about the potential of IDMS as a recruitment tool. “It’s both an inside joke thing, but also, if someone who isn’t involved in Israel advocacy actually looks at it and laughs at it, it means that they can relate with it at least a little bit,” he says.
So what does IDMS mean for the future of Israel advocacy? Is it a harbinger of a new brand of leaders, progressive, diverse, and, possibly even funny? Is it an inside joke, simply meant for consumption by the slim population already involved in Israel advocacy? Am I reading way too far into it?
“Everything we do satisfies us,” says Tony. In general, both the creators seem comfortable saying that much of what IDMS does is uncensored and minimally manufactured. Maybe that’s the whole point. Maybe the critical, high-minded analysis I want so badly to put on IDMS is the very chokehold that it seeks to escape: the imposition of political meaning. Because sometimes things don’t really intend to subvert or promote or advertise, they simply exist.
