There could not be a more instructive article for my fellow Jews who are on the Left. Per the Times, one Jewish person (age 31) said he was active in J Street in college. J Street is a left-wing Jewish organization which, in this writer's opinion, does not seem to favor the existence of Israel. Says the Times of this individual: "He was shocked by how quickly friends mobilized for the Palestinian cause while failing to condemn the attack (that slaughtered over 1400 people)." And this: good people he never considered antisemitic suddenly seemed "supportive of Jewish genocide."
The article states that, in parts of the "far left" "significant air-time has been given to the view that Israel is a colonizing force and therefore violence against it is justified." And we are told: "Some have adopted the Hamas position that all Israelis are legitimate targets by virtue of being on land where Palestinians lived before Israeli statehood in 1948." (The article also refers to Hamas "militants" rather than "terrorists," as much of the D-MSM also does. But that's a topic for another day.)
Allow me to pause here for a few comments. The article does not explain how modern day Israel came about; how the United Nations voted to partition the land of the British Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The article does not mention that Jews have always lived on that land, for thousands of years, notwithstanding the fact that foreign conquerors often expelled large numbers of the Jewish people. The implication is that all the land was Palestinian land, and the Jewish state only came about because of the Holocaust. Never mind the Balfour Declaration of 1917, contained in a letter by UK Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild. It was the British who controlled the land after the defeat of the of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. And the Ottomans controlled the land before WWI for nearly 400 years.
The 1917 Balfour Declaration says, in pertinent part: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people..." Do not be misled by the name "Palestine," often considered a derivative of Philistine. Yasser Arafat popularized the term "Palestinian" as a way to refer to the Arabs of Palestine. Of course, Jews have long known the area as Israel, and Judea and Samaria. Jews lived throughout the area known as "Mandatory Palestine," during the period of British control following the end of WWI up until the founding of modern day Israel in 1948.
The Times article goes on: "But as a minority group that is by and large white, American Jews...have also struggled to find their place in the new hierarchy of identity politics, where racial categories have become short-hand for the oppressed and the oppressor."
Allow me a further comment. Could there be a better example of the evil of "identity politics" than that expressed in the above paragraph? Jews are white, therefore they must be oppressors, and therefore they must be dealt with by violence. This focus on one's "identity," whether racial, ethnic or religious, ignores the most important characteristic of all - good values and morals. Where is the morality of those who celebrate the deaths of innocent civilians, even little babies.
The article goes on to quote a young 22 year old Jewish graduate of NYU, who describes himself as a "socialist, progressive leftist." Said this young man: "The Palestinian people have exhausted all other options except for violence." While not explicitly supporting Hamas, he does say "I do support violence as an answer to settler colonialism against oppressed people."
My comment. I would guarantee that this young man knows absolutely nothing about the history of the Middle East. What he does know is the left-wing propaganda that his professors drilled into him. Here is a question I would ask him: Imagine, with all your left-wing and pro-Palestinian beliefs, that you found yourself in one of the border towns of Israel adjacent to Gaza. Maybe visiting a grandparent. As Hamas terrorists come into their home and start spraying bullets, what are your final thoughts? Are you thinking: "I'm so glad that my grandparents and I are about to be slaughtered?" Are you wondering why they did not ask you if you sided with them before murdering you?
You see, young man, you are no different from me - a conservative, pro-Israel Zionist. No different because we are both Jews, which makes us worthy of being murdered. Said one "progressive" Rabbi who often criticizes the Israeli government: Antisemitism is so "embedded" in society, that "people cannot even see it." And she said this telling comment: "Our human ask is that people give a damn when we die." Well, Rabbi, as we have seen with the pro-Palestinian rallies on our college campuses, and in cities throughout our country and throughout the world, many do NOT give a damn when Jews die. How many gave a damn during the Holocaust? And in case anyone needed a reminder, Jew haters in Sydney, Australia were heard shouting "gas the Jews."
My final comments. I honestly do not know if any of these left-wing Jews understand that their party has become a leftist party. It is not a liberal party. It adheres to leftist ideas of identity politics, with one's identity telling us everything we need to know about someone. It adheres to the idea of "intersectionality," as if every cause of the Left has equal merit. But worst of all, it has removed one's ability to think, to reason, and to see right from wrong. Many young Jews (as the man in the first paragraph) are now struggling with people they considered to be friends, but who have come out strongly for the Palestinians, with no condemnation of the atrocities committed by Hamas.
If you know me, I would always try to explain to people why they are wrong, why they have lost their humanity if they refuse to condemn even the murder of babies. But if they persisted in their evil beliefs, they would never be friends with me again.
CORRECTION. The article does in fact say Israel's "right to exist is sacrosanct for many Jews, who see it as an ancestral homeland where Jewish people have lived for milleniums." But when it says that Israel was "created" for the Jews, who then displaced millions of Palestinians, that is far from being the full story.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously do not know the history. The Palestians were NOT displaced. The British offered a 2 state solution and Israel accepted. The Palestinians rejected and instead listened to their Arab brethren (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon) who told them not to agree and leave so that the Jews could be destroyed. They chose
Deletewar over peace and they lost.
Of course I know that, anonymous. It was the UN which voted for the partition of the British Mandate into 2 states. The Brits were done with it and turned Mandatory Palestine over to the UN. From what I've read, most fled because the Arab countries told them to, and they didn't want to be caught in the middle of a war. However, some were apparently displayed by the new Jewish state. The world and the D-MSM ignore the fact that about 800,000 Jews were displaced from the surrounding Arab countries. And it is absurd to still call them "refugees." UNRWA should be disbanded. There will be no peace with Hamas in existence, and there will be no productive civil society and government in Gaza with Hamas in existence. Hamas must go!
ReplyDelete