The New York Times is not a fan of either Christmas or Chanukah. Nevertheless, a front page article in the December 7 edition, is quite instructive. The headline of the article is "A Divide Over Israel Frays American Families." The discussion, not surprisingly, centers around Jewish American families. And, while they have interviewed a number of young people, the focus is mostly on one family.
The parents (boomers) moved from Madison, Wisconsin to Israel. The divide over Israel between the parents and their daughter seemed to begin when the daughter became a grad student at UC Berkeley. Big surprise. At Berkeley, the daughter found her attitudes about Israel being challenged by "classmates and friends." One friend pulled away from her over her ties to Israel. Another criticized her for not being "vocally pro-Palestine," saying that she was on "the wrong side of history."
As this Berkeley grad student started reading materials by black feminist authors, it motivated her to think about "questions around power, privilege and whiteness." Ultimately, she became pro-Palestinian. And she reached this conclusion: "I don't think the state of Israel should ever have been established. It's based on this idea of Jewish supremacy. And I'm not on board with that." Clearly, she is on board with Arab Muslim supremacy. I can't imagine a better example of the evil that has been taught and perpetrated by schools, universities, administrators, professors and college presidents (witness the 3 presidents of the most "elite" universities telling Congress that speech calling for the genocide of Jews might be within school policy - depending on the context). That evil being taught is DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).
When her father asked this Berkeley grad student why she did not condemn Hamas' brutal attacks on her social media, the reply was quite telling. She wanted to know why her father did not "emphasize the historical context - the occupation and Palestinian displacement - that shaped the current war." There's that word again - context. As noted in Part I of Year End Reflections, the context is the fact that Israel exists. That, in turn, apparently justifies the atrocities committed by Hamas.
The article cites a poll by what is described as the "Democratic pollster GBAO Strategies." The poll was just taken this November, of American Jews. It found that 82% of those age 36 or older were in favor of Biden's support for Israel. But only 53% of those age 18 to 35 supported Biden on his approach to Israel.
The authors of the article made this interesting admission: "Most of the people interviewed for this article did not identify as Orthodox, a small segment of the American Jewish population who tend to have a stronger attachment to Israel than others do." A shame that they did not interview any people from Chabad, an orthodox segment which also happens to be the fastest growing segment within Judaism. They would gotten a much different take, as Chabad is very strongly pro-Israel.
Heather MacDonald had a very important Op-Ed in the December 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal. It is titled "DEI Drives Campus Antisemitism." MacDonald: "The real issue on campuses isn't antisemitism but the anti-Western ethos that has colonized large swaths of the curriculum." And, given the belief that "the West is built on white supremacism and oppression...Israel is cast as the Western settler-colonialist oppressor par excellence." I would categorize these ideas as just another form of Marxism. The oppressed working class proletariat (dark skinned) vs the bourgeoisie (whites).
But here is the interesting thing. With the ideas of DEI and intersectionality, MacDonald mentioned a discussion given at Cornell by a professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies. The title of the lecture was "The Intersectionality of Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Racism." MacDonald then tells us that the usual suspects at that intersection are "white supremacists, former Trump administration officials, evangelical Christians and white opponents of mass immigration from Muslim countries." In other words, right wing "deplorables."
MacDonald: "None of these supposed oppressors play a significant role in pro-Hamas campus protests. The actual protesters - Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists, Queers for Palestine, socialist groups and proponents of the anti-Israel boycott, divest and sanctions movement - went unmentioned in the lecture" at Cornell.
Starting in 2010 and going through 2016, I wrote a six part post called "Are We At War With Islam." If one looks around the Muslim world it is immediately obvious that Islamic rule of a country is contrary to Western notions of freedom and liberty. And in this country, it is the Left that holds the same anti-Western views. Views that lead them to be anti-American and anti-Israel. Which is why you will see these leftwing groups marching with Palestinians in support of Hamas. But none of these groups, Queers for Palestine for example, would actually want to live in a Palestinian controlled state. There is one gay pride parade every year in the Middle East, and it is in Tel Aviv, Israel. Good luck being openly gay in the Arab countries or Gaza.
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