This week’s vote in the House of Representatives on a resolution supporting the State of Israel was both necessary and educational. Its passage by an overwhelming 412-9 margin administered a sharp rebuke to members of Congress in the habit of flirting with antisemitism. And it compelled the worst offenders, all Democrats, to inscribe their bigotry and hate in the official record by voting nay.
I was amused to note that Rep. Pramila Jayapal, whose slanderous charge that Israel is a “racist state” touched off the uproar, voted in favor of the resolution. Making her publicly humiliate herself with a display of hypocrisy was condign punishment. For of course, she’s still a Jew hater who would applaud the bloody destruction of the Jewish state. We can be confident that weeks or months from now, Jayapal will commit some new outrage. She is, after all, the chair of the House Progressive Caucus—and in America, antisemitism in the name of antiracism is progressive dogma
The House Democrats who voted for the resolution did so perforce. Jayapal had been too candid for comfort, calling attention to the party’s increasingly hostile attitude toward Israel. As with so much that’s wrong with American politics today, this hostility is the bequest of Barack Obama, who entered office in 2009 determined to shrug off the burden, as he saw it, of America’s Israel connection. In this he failed, but his party imbibed Obama’s distrust and dislike of Israel.
Democrat/progressive antisemitism is the poisonous fruit of postmodern theories of antiracism, imperialism and colonialism. In this alternate reality, Israeli Jews are agents of white supremacy and Israel is a colonialist “settler state,” the product of Western imperialism, tyrannizing over “people of color,” i.e. the Palestinian Arabs. People who espouse this view are not shy about it: In their telling, Israel is a racist, fascist state that practices “apartheid” on the old South African model.
One need not be a committed Zionist to see that all this is a tissue of lies. Reasonable people may disagree as to the granular details of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It seems evident to me, for instance, that the Palestinians have some legitimate grievances. But it’s also evident to me that the actual practitioners of apartheid are the Palestinians, who reject the idea of peaceful coexistence with the Jews. On the other side, in Israel proper, the Arab population, two million strong, faces no official discrimination and enjoys full civil rights.
As for the claim that Israeli Jews are “white settlers,” this too is nonsense. It’s true that the founders of the Jewish state were Ashkenazi—Jews of European origin. But today, about 30% of Israeli Jews are of African and Asian origin, either as immigrants or by parentage. These geographical categories encompass such countries as Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, etc. Many of these countries reacted to the foundation of Israel by expelling their own Jewish populations, confiscating their property in the process.
People like Ilhan Omar often excuse their racism by claiming that they don’t hate Jews per se; merely, they oppose Zionism. But that claim breaks down under logical analysis. To oppose Zionism is to place the Jews, alone among the peoples of the earth, in a special category. They are, to use the term favored by Stalin & Co. “rootless cosmopolitans”: people with no national identity and no homeland. The Jewish claim on Judaism’s ancient homeland is contemptuously dismissed. Why this should be so is not explained. Certainly, Omar and her comrades have no problem with Palestinian Arab nationalism, though the Arabs are relative newcomers to Palestine, having conquered that land in the seventh century A.D.
Nor is it readily explicable why “anti-Zionism” should manifest itself as antisemitism in America, for example on college campuses. There, Jewish faculty and students are under siege, made to bear the responsibility for the supposed crimes of Israel. In short, hatred of Israel brings down hatred on the heads of Jews: anti-Zionism = antisemitism.
So while the House resolution in support of Israel is certainly welcome, there’s every reason to doubt that the hearts of Democrats were really in it. Rep. Jayapal embarrassed them by saying the quiet part out loud; their vote was a ploy to make the scandal of her blatant antisemitism go away. But progressivism’s strident antisemitism hasn’t gone away, and it’s well reflected in the foreign policy of the Biden administration, which cozies up to the odious Iranian mullahs while deliberately alienating Israel.
Actions speak louder than words—even words embodied in a congressional resolution.
This was a great piece Thomas. Needed to be said. It’s atrocious the progressive cause’s antisemitism which has certainly hijacked biden’s middle east policy. It’s disgraceful. Amazing how far America has waded into hysterical postmodern theory