Over recent months I have blogged several times about the rabid anti-semitism found among far leftists in this country.
Now Peter Berkowitz has written an excellent article showing, in full detail, how pervasive it is; how far beyond any anti-semitism on the right it is.
Here is how it begins:
The hatred of Jews has ancient origins. Today the hatred goes by the abstract and antiseptic modern term “antisemitism.” It persists in pockets of the right. But in the United States and throughout the West, antisemitism receives most conspicuous expression among those who back progressive causes while supporting Iran-backed Hamas’ ambitions to destroy Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people. Antisemitism’s recrudescence as a pathology of the left attests not only to the staying power of the hatred of Jews but also to the internal disorder afflicting rights-protecting democracies.
Free and democratic citizens tend to regard the protection of basic rights and fundamental freedoms as sacrosanct. Accordingly, those endowed with the liberal and democratic spirit recoil in horror at Hamas’ mass murder of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Those who respect human rights unequivocally condemn the jihadists’ use of rape as a weapon of war on that calamitous early autumn Sabbath. Those who take seriously the international laws of war decry unreservedly not only Hamas’ butchering, raping, and kidnapping of Israeli civilians but also the jihadists’ transformation of Palestinian civilians into human shields by embedding military forces within and under Gaza’s densely populated urban areas – rendering Hamas an outlaw organization and enemy of civilization.
Yet far from recoiling, condemning, or decrying Hamas, many progressives embrace the jihadists. At elite American universities, among left-leaning organizations in the United States, and on the streets of London, Paris, and Berlin, activists lionize Hamas for its uprising against Israel’s alleged “settler colonialism.” Progressive strongholds in America and Western Europe fete the jihadists as freedom fighters and wield “Zionist” as a slur. And left-wing enthusiasts espouse Hamas’ cause, the eradication of Israel, as a critical first step to attaining global emancipation from alleged forces of oppression – rule of law, capitalism, and meritocracy – they associate with Jews.
How I wish I could tell you where Mr. Berkowitz is mistaken. But I can’t, because he isn’t.
Anti-semitism most certainly resides happily among haters on the right. What is left of the ku klux klan and the nazi party in America, for example, exults in it.
But in terms of numbers, media attention and political power, those ugly remnants are hugely outweighed by the hard left.
That said, I am sure there still are a great many Jews who will find a way to look the other way/ignore this reality.
They will look the other way/ignore, for example, the fact that today’s Democrat Party has no problem accepting members – like alexandria ocasio-cortez, ilhan omar, rashida tlaib, cori bush, ayanna pressley, piramila jayapal, etc. who are fully on board the “find ways of supporting hamas” train.
A political party that tolerates this bunch, it seems to me, is not a political party that Jews who care about being Jewish/care about Israel should be able to support.
So why is it that the crew I named above has yet to be condemned by the national party? By President Joe Biden? By Vice President Kamala Harris (married to a Jew)? By Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (himself Jewish)?
Does the current Democrat leadership value holding onto anti-Semitic votes that much? Or is it that they figure it’s no problem to do so, on the grounds that most Jews will be “Duh Democrats” and unthinkingly continue voting for their party anyway?
I wonder if this will be the year large numbers of Jews break free of that current “Duh Democrat” status. If the anti-Semitism that is tolerated by their political party doesn’t move them, what will?
I’ll end with this exchange, from Katherine Anne Porter’s iconic novel “Ship Of Fools”, which takes place between the Jew, julius lowenthal and the dwarf, Glocken. It is 1931, and the nazis are well on their way to becoming the strongest political party in Germany. Yet, to Glocken’s astonishment, lowenthal is still talking up how wonderful Germany is for Jews:
Glocken : Lowenthal, you are blind; you’re absolutely blind! You can’t see what’s going on in front of your own face.
Lowenthal : What do you mean? Ah, you mean this business about the Jews? You don’t understand us. The German-Jew is something special. We are Germans first and Jews second. We have done so much for Germany; Germany has done so much for us. A little patience, a little good will; it works itself out.
[scoffs endearingly]
Lowenthal : Huh, listen, there are nearly a million Jews in Germany. What are they going to do? Kill all of us?
That’s a little something I wish every Jew in the USA (and elsewhere) would reflect on right now…and never forget.
