I’ve said it many times here, and bears repeating again today: when it comes to prejudice, intolerance and hatred, the left in this country takes a back seat to no one.
And these days, hatred of Israel and of Jews is a vivid example…as detailed by this excellent editorial commentary by the Washington Free Beacon editorial staff.
Here are key excerpts – and please pay special attention to the last paragraph, which I have put in bold print:
A Mostly Violent Protest Movement
The indictments brought in the Eastern District of Michigan last week against eight 20-somethings deeply involved in anti-Israel protests at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus pull back the curtain on what that movement is really about.
They threw noxious chemicals through the windows of victims’ homes, taped demand letters to their doors, defaced the Jewish Federation of Detroit on the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, and spray-painted private homes with messages like “Intifada” and “Free Palestine.”
The alleged criminality on display in Ann Arbor is hardly an isolated incident. At UCLA, so-called protesters set up a “Jew Exclusion Zone” barring Zionists from a portion of the campus. At Columbia, pampered rich kids stormed and occupied a university building and held two janitors hostage. At Harvard, a pair of graduate students accosted a fellow student walking across campus.
The Weather Underground didn’t end U.S. imperialism. The SLA didn’t spark an uprising against capitalism. We are still living through the backlash to BLM and the George Floyd protests.
How will the “pro-Palestine” movement fare? The leading candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, had one of the alleged thugs on his payroll and not a whole lot to say about the indictment except that he blames the Trump DOJ for selective prosecution. One of the Democratic Party’s nominees for University of Michigan regent is a Dearborn attorney, Amir Makled, who has represented anti-Israel protesters on campus and is more or less a proxy for the alleged criminals. The party chose Makled in favor of Jordan Acker, the pro-Israel regent whose law firm, home, and car were vandalized by the Michigan eight.
If the “pro-Palestine” movement goes the way of the Weather Underground, the SLA, and BLM, it will be in spite of the Democratic Party, which is aiding and abetting its intimidation and infiltration of one of the crown jewels of the public university system.
Get the picture? I thought so.
Please do read the entire commentary (here is the link again) and see just how ugly and how pervasive this is. And which political party is leading the charge.
Personally, I have never affiliated with either political party in my life.* The closest I came was when, as a college freshman, I was harangued (in a very friendly way) to join the school’s Democrat club. That ended my history of formal affiliation. And I can assure you there are Republicans who make my skin crawl.
But these days? As a Jew, as a supporter of Israel and as a supporter of the United States political system (with all its warts), it is the current incarnation of the Democrat Party that makes my skin crawl.
Yes, there are a number of rational, moderate Democrats out there. But they have become a minority – and, from the way things are moving, a clearly disdained minority – among the hard left crowd that currently runs things in their party.
I wonder how long some of them will be able to hold their noses and stay.
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*When I co-wrote “The Hopelessly Partisan Guide To American Politics” in 2007, I agreed to be portrayed as Republican, so I would be a clear counterpart to my co-author, Barry Sinrod, who was a hardline Democrat. Since it was political humor book, not serious, it was OK with me to “be a Republican this year”, as our publisher suggested. But I was never actually a member of the party.
