The Left's Increasing Antisemitism

I’m sorry, but I think it has now been made abundantly clear that antisemitism’s new home is on the left. I say this knowing full well that most Jews tend to be politically liberal — which is on the left side of the political divide. The only Jews that tend to lean conservative are Orthodox Jews.

The irony is that it was the left that had always championed our cause. They were in the forefront of fighting antisemitism. They were the ones clamoring the loudest about defeating Hitler before US entry into the waT. Conservatives tended to want to leave Hitler alone, saying that he knew what he was doing and that his antisemitism was just rhetoric — that he would never actually implement anything drastic.

As I have said many times, that is the way of the left. They see an injustice being done and they react to it immediately. Jews were being rounded up and systematically killed in Nazi occupied Europe. There were massive rallies in the US by the left (which included the Communist party) advocating entry into the war and defeating Hitler. 

It is that same attitude - appropriate in World War II - that has caused the left to support what they are certain is the injustice caused by Israel to Palestinians. Not just during the war in Gaza, but ever since Israel stopped being seen as the victim and were transformed into the victimizer after their amazing military victory in 67. Now, it is the Palestinians that are seen as suffering the injustice of their Zionist ‘occupiers’ whose military strength vastly outmatches anything the Palestinian people can muster in resistance.

The left will always take the side of the underdog regardless of the issues that bring about perceived injustice. They will always vilify a mighty army governing weaker, occupied people who are suffering hardships - no matter the reason. They do not see terrorist attacks as evil; they see them as legitimate forms of resistance. Measures taken by an occupying force are, by definition, seen as evil attempts to put down ‘legitimate’ protests, leaving those wishing to resist no alternative but to do so with violence. Even terrorism – for lack of any other means to achieve their ‘justifiable’ ends.

While it’s true that not all liberal Jews see things this way, the further to the left one goes, the more likely they are to see it that way. Once that line is crossed, Palestinians are viewed as refugees whose fighters are martyring themselves for the sake of freeing their brethren from the ‘slavery’ of Israel’s draconian occupation, and getting ‘their’ land back.

Any Jewish claim to the land -  whether religious or historic -  is dismissed as an ancient fantasy and rejected by the tenets of Islam adhered to by the devout Muslims that make up the vast majority of Palestinians. Espeically in Gaza. The left doesn’t care about that. They see injustice and want to ‘solve’ it by defeating the fascist occupiers of ‘Palestine’.

It is rather well-established that most of Western Europe and Canada reside on the left side of the political divide, at least as far as their leadership is concerned. The same is true of the Democratic party. Once the champions of the Jewish people and Israel, they are increasingly joining calls to condemn Israel. The latest example just happened in Minneapolis, whose current mayor, Jacob Frey — a Jew — is seeking a fourth term. The state’s Democratic party has not endorsed him. Instead, they endorsed Omar Fateh. As noted in Jewish Insider:

Two political activists closely affiliated with Omar Fateh, a far-left Minnesota state senator now running for mayor of Minneapolis, have expressed a range of extreme views on the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, endorsing the violence as a justified act of resistance and accusing Israel of initiating the war in Gaza… Fateh, a 35-year-old democratic socialist, has been a staunch critic of Israel, calling its conduct in Gaza a genocide and pushing for a ceasefire 10 days after Hamas’ attack.

This follows New York Democrats choosing someone just as abhorrent to be their next mayor.

As is well known by now, France, the UK, and Canada have decided that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to give the Palestinians their own state. All three intend to officially recognize the ‘State of Palestine’ at the UN annual meeting in October. They, of course, ‘know’ far better what’s good for Israel than Israelis and their political leaders (on both the right and the left) do. (And I’ve got a bridge to sell you.)

What they fail to understand is that a Palestinian state is a prescription for more massacres like that of October 7^th. But those three countries aren’t worried about a little detail like that because they are placing ‘conditions’ on that recognition. Such as recognizing Israel’s right to exist. The promise by Palestinians to do that will ‘surely prevent’ any further terrorist attack against Israel! (And I have another bridge to sell you.) These leaders are so blinded to reality that they can’t recognize the absurdity of their views. Blinded by the milk of antisemitism they suckled from their mothers’ breast (to paraphrase the late prime minster of Israel Ytzhak Shamir).

Then there is the left-wing entertainment community. One would think that Toronto would be fair and open-minded about the atrocities of October 7^th. But one would be wrong. As noted in a JTA article:

The head of the Toronto International Film Festival says he is still open to screening an Israeli documentary about Oct. 7 that had been yanked over concerns about disruption and, allegedly, about whether the filmmakers had the right to use footage created by Hamas terrorists as they attacked Israel. Cameron Bailey denied that the film had been rejected over censorship and apologized “for any pain this situation has caused.”

That non-apology just about made me throw up. What disgusts me most is that Bailey, in his infinite stupidity, doesn’t even realize how offensive pulling this film from the festival was. A stupidity surely based on his leftist view of Israel as the aggressor.

I do not accept that any of this is really NOT about Israel, that it is really all about Netanyahu. And that it isn’t only the left.

I concede that there are plenty of antisemites on the right. some of them MAGA supporters like Marjorie Taylor Greene. But their numbers are minuscule compared to the antisemites of the left - whose antisemitism is ‘hidden’ by the fig leaf of anti-Zionism.

Netanyahu is an easy target. He has a lot of flaws and gets a lot of blame from his own people (most of it from the left) and from political colleagues he’s double-crossed on the right, left, and center. He is hated by Charedim because he couldn’t pull the trigger on promises to exempt them from the IDF, and by right wing extremists like Ben Gvir and Smotrich because he did not agree to their war goals of resettling Gaza.

But I do not blame Netanyahu for the anti-Israel sentiment of the left. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that Israel would have gone to war in Gaza after October 7^th regardless of who the prime minister was. And that there would have been the same massive civilian casualties at the outset of the war that generated all the pro-Palestinian protests. Bringing the same wrath upon Israel. One can argue about the longevity of the conflict, or the fate of Netanyahu’s strategies and tactics on the hostages. But to say that another prime minister would not have caused anti-Israel protests by the left is to misunderstand the nature of leftist politics.

I was once a liberal. But I have done Teshuva.