American Jews voted overwhelmingly for the two most anti-Israel presidents in recent times, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and against the most pro-Israel president ever, Donald Trump.
“Jews are among the most consistently liberal and Democratic [Party] groups in the U.S. population. Seven-in-10 Jewish adults identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, and half describe their political views as liberal.
This concept in Judaism was hijacked and adopted in the United States because of American Jews’ struggle for equality and acceptance in U.S. society. Taking the position that they were fighting for everyone’s equality and inclusion made their quest seem less self-serving.
When I was growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, Jews were, to a degree, isolated and segregated in the United States. Jews weren’t admitted to mainstream country clubs, golf clubs, swim clubs, and yacht clubs. Many house sales had the proviso that a resale had to be to Christians (see the book and film “Gentleman’s Agreement”). I remember signs in public places saying “Restricted to Christians.” Jews had to build their own country clubs and other clubs, in some cases divided according to origin, with clubs of German Jews separated from clubs of Eastern European Jews.
In the aftermath of World War II and the blossoming of U.S. prosperity, Jews increasingly assimilated to post-Christian secularism. My own family history illustrates this: My grandfather was orthodox, my father reformed, and I’m nonobservant. American Jews’ religion increasingly became American liberalism. Politically, this meant adherence to the Democratic Party, which, in spite of its history of supporting slavery and racial segregation, portrayed itself as a champion of equality and justice, with the Republican Party portrayed as a plutocratic supporter of the wealthy and big business.
Apparently, Jews didn’t notice that, under Democrat governance, African Americans had regressed, their two-parent family units destroyed, their businesses undermined, their increasing dependence on government handouts, and their suffering from ever-increasing violent crime in black communities and widespread addiction to harmful drugs. Nor have they noticed that the Democratic Party has transitioned from its classical liberal phase, which gave Jews equal opportunity, to progressive “wokism,” which excludes Jews as privileged oppressors.
U.S. Jewish communal organizations mostly reflected this highly liberal orientation, widening their concern beyond the Jewish community to all “marginalized and underserved” communities. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), charged with protecting the Jewish community, moved to the left. The ADL went so far as to define racism as the oppression of people of color by white people, apparently forgetting that the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews because they were alleged to be members of an inferior race. (Although, after much withering criticism, recent ADL positions have been more reflective of its mandate.) Israel was sidelined in the concerns of most Jewish communal organizations (with the notable exception of the Zionists of America).
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the State of Israel benefited from some tolerance as Jewish victims of aggression, first Nazi, then Arab (not mentioning the longtime Christian efforts of expulsion and pogrom). Jewish victims, and Israel, which barely survived the invasion of the Arab armies, were somewhat acceptable to the world.
But when Israel started to win wars, they lost the sympathy of the world. No one wants to see strong, powerful Jews. The Soviet Union and the Arabs joined up to form the red-green (leftist-Islamist) alliance of genocidal anti-Semitism, focused on the destruction of the only Jewish state. Progressives and other fellow travelers of the communists spewed out endless Marxist mal-information about Israel.
They go on to say, “We commit to grappling together with apartheid, Zionism, and the state of Israel—with what these realities have meant for Jews, and with the harm they have caused for Palestinians.”
Further, they say, “We are committed to ending the cycles of violence that affect us and that we have perpetuated.”
“Cycles of violence” is how If Not Now refers to the 100-year Arab war against the Jews of Israel.
Leftist Jews who support Israel are now outcasts from leftist communities, organizations, and events. While Palestinian, Hamas, and ISIS flags are welcomed at civil rights, feminist, gay, and trans meetings and rallies, Israeli flags are banned. Progressive Zionists have been excommunicated from progressive movements for the heresy of believing that the Jewish People have a right to have a state and govern themselves in their ancient homeland. The new woke religion of progressive Jews denies them their history, identity, independence, and autonomy.
Progressive Jews can gain acceptance in progressive movements only by denouncing Israel as a colonial oppressor who has unjustly dispossessed innocent, “indigenous” Palestinians, has held them in an “open-air prison,” imposed racist apartheid on them, and is engaged in genocide of the Palestinians. And many progressive Jews have done so.
Jews have a long tradition of study, traditionally religious study, and their orientation has led to success in the secular academic world. Many Jews have gone to a university; many have undertaken advanced degrees, become university professors, made important discoveries, and been rewarded with many prizes, including Nobel prizes.
While, in the distant past, the number of Jews in universities was restricted because of quotas limiting their admission, today, Jews, like white people and Asians, are artificially limited access because of racial priorities on the part of university administrations. So the number of Jews at elite universities has fallen precipitously.
Those Jews who do enter universities today are subject to a tsunami of jihadi genocidal anti-Semitism by Middle Eastern and Muslim student groups, by progressive Marxist anti-imperialists, and by progressive Jewish turncoats. At my own university, Jewish pro-Zionist students were blocked from student offices and threatened with violence by student officers. Jewish professors were targeted for cancellation by the same student groups. The student newspaper, funded by obligatory student funds, published many anti-Israel screeds, but refused to publish any pro-Zionist article or any defense of Israel.
Jewish students are faced with the choice of being attacked rhetorically and physically, betraying the Jewish people, or hiding and staying silent. Many Jews have stopped wearing symbols of Judaism, lest it make them a target of kinetic hate.
It isn’t that progressives exclusively dislike Israel. Because they favor “post-national” states defined by multiculturalism—where “diversity is our strength,” in the words of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau—they really don’t like any Western country, including Canada, the United States, the UK, etc., all of which are tarred with the brush of imperialism and colonialism. (No mention is ever made of the many other imperialisms and colonialisms, such as Persian, Muslim, Mongolian, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Iranian.) That’s why they encourage the destruction of Western society and culture: the statues that represent its heroes, the books that record its cultural achievements, and even its artworks and music—all under the label of decolonization.
Whatever bad thing is being done to Israel today, it’s coming to all once-Western countries next.
