That Far Gone
From fringe to core, American progressivism burns with the fever of antisemitism
Over the weekend, America was treated to a frank and contemptuous demonstration of the “anti-Zionist” Left’s true agenda. To its genocidal river-to-sea chants was added that old standard from the Leftie Songbook, “Death to America!”
So now, we know precisely where we stand with these keffiyeh-wearing creeps. And now, there’s no reason to cut them an inch of slack.
What’s happening on the streets of our cities, on university campuses, in much of the media, and here online, is nothing more than fascist nihilism: a toxic amalgam of antisemitism and leftist narratives of American evil. The vocabulary of postmodern progressivism gives it an ideological gloss, but it’s not really an ideology. Nor is it really about “Palestine.” The protest tactics employed by the Hamas huggers—maximum obnoxiousness intended to provoke a violent response—shows that they care nothing for Gaza or the Palestinians. No, what we’re witnessing is the expression of an atavistic desire to burn it all down. Dostoevsky, whose prophetic vision of revolutionary insanity gave us The Devils, would have recognized these rats for who and what they are.
It speaks well of Americans that we tolerate the presence on the soil of our country foreigners who obstruct traffic and revile police officers while calling for the destruction of both Israel and the Land of E Pluribus Unum. You wouldn’t last long in any Arab country, or in Iran, if you appeared in the street waving the Stars and Stripes while shouting “Death to Palestine!” That‘s the difference between America and those countries—and that’s why one of the worst political ideas of all time is “Palestine.” The last thing this world needs is one more dictatorial terrorist state whose founding principle is genocidal slaughter.
But while the overt, murderous hatred of the antisemitic Left is bad, at least it’s honest. More despicable is the attitude of those who may be called antisemitic-adjacent progressives: people who claim that they have nothing against the Jews. They’re merely critical of the Zionism and the of the Israeli government. If the Jews would simply heed the admonitions of the “world community,” all would be well.
These people demand to be taken at their word when they protest that they’re not antisemites—and when they aren’t, they become indignant. But why should they be taken at their word? Do these respectable people, professedly not antisemitic, pause even for five minutes in their condemnations of Israel to repudiate the hymn of hate sounding at their left elbow? No, they do not. The difference between them and the keffiyeh-wearing goons in the street is no more than rhetorical: They may not yell “Death to Israel” or wave the flag of Hamas, but the abolition of the Jewish state is what they desire. That’s what it means to be an anti-Zionist. When the Iranian ayatollahs rant about the “Zionist entity” they’re correctly characterizing the object of their hatred. Zionism is Israel and Israel is Zionism. If you hate one, you hate both.
And an occasional timeout for some pro forma tut-tutting over the bestial atrocities perpetrated by Hamas doesn’t let you off the hook.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, would angrily deny that she’s an antisemite. Yet she runs around claiming that Israel may be committing genocide in Gaza, which is an obvious lie. Somewhere in the murky depths of her subconscious Warren must know it’s a lie—but hatred of Israel blinds her to that fact.
Indeed, fake narratives of Jewish evil are nothing new in antisemitic circles, and the various blood libels are constantly being updated. A few hundred years ago, it was alleged that the Jews kidnapped and killed Christian children to procure blood for their religious rites. The modern edition of that one is the allegation that the Jews of Israel murder Palestinians to procure organs for transplant.
The modern blood libel and other charges against Israel—genocide, war crimes, carpet bombing, etc.—that are blatantly untrue can be taken as prima facie evidence of antisemitism. If you tell me that Israel is an “apartheid state,” I’m not going to assume that you’re just an anti-Zionist who has nothing against Jews. No, I’m going to assume that you say it because you hate Jews and need reasons to justify your hatred.
It will be noticed that progressive anti-Zionists also buy into the postmodern narrative of American evil. They don’t much like the country in which they live. In their telling, the American founding was a horror, shot through with imperialism, colonialism, racism, and patriarchy—evils that persist to this day. The sight of the Stars and Stripes makes them “uncomfortable”; they revile the national anthem as a racist hymn of hate. And, of course, America supports Israel. Well, why wouldn’t one settler-colonialist, white supremacist country support another settler-colonialist, white supremacist country?
In short, those jerks who made you miss your plane by blockading the airport are just the shock troops of the movement, as the Sturmabteilungen was the spearhead of National Socialism. Behind them are many Americans—millions perhaps—of the type who shop at Real Foods, sport a vintage OBAMA 2008 bumper sticker on their Prius, have a SCIENCE IS REAL sign on their front lawn—and believe everything that you saw on the signs those Hamas-hugging jerks were waving. Postmodern progressivism in this country is that far gone.
Well said.
Time that we speak up against the cancer in our midst.
“The last thing this world needs is one more dictatorial terrorist state whose founding principle is genocidal slaughter.”
Bingo!
I saw the typical adjacent type in the Whole Foods parking lot with the standard “Free Palestine” sticker on her Prius, and I thought “free to do what?” March in Pride parades? Reach Net Zero? Etc. I doubt it.
Your statement quoted above sums it up. “Free” to rampage and kill at will and to impose Islam and usher in a new dark age — that's what.