In at least one earlier post, I offered comments on that endlessly puzzling theme: what makes Jews liberal. Recent events have raised that question once again in my mind, and I now have three more explanations. As before, I offer these as not exclusive of all others. There is no reason that there has to be one single Liberal-Jew explanation; there can be many, and any number of them can operate together and at once.
After the Turkey’s Hate Flotilla incident, all the dogs of Europe barked, which was to be expected. Obama and his dogs grudgingly resisted joining the Europeans; indeed, they phrased their position in such a way as to make sure the vermin, both Middle Eastern and European knew full well the meaning of their sub-text. Their careful refusal to offer a full condemnation of Israel was meant to be read by the vermin as a full condemnation. Nudge nudge, wink wink, they signalled to the vermin: we just refrain from unambiguous condemnation for the stupid American Jews, but we’re with you brothers! But this was, I suppose, also to be expected.
What continues to shock me, though it probably should not, is the number of liberal Jews who viciously excoriate Israel in this transparent provocation and assault. Think Noam Chomsky foaming at the mouth against Israel on socialist websites. I’m always surprised that he’s not in a straitjacket when I see him interviewed. This kind of logic-twisting, spinning, and hate-spitting is nothing short of mental illness on an epidemic scale and needs some kind of explanation. As I said, many have already been given; most, by others, and a few by myself. Here are three more.
There are two sub-populations among the Jews whose Israel hating and conservative hating have identifiable causes. These are causes that operate among non-Jews also, and sometimes with different targets. Nonetheless, they do operate among the Jews.
The two sub-groups are the very poor and the very rich; each of these groups has its own reason to hate.
There’s a population of failed Jews who are very poor. They generally had origins no worse than many others, but for various reasons, they failed to flourish. They hate Israel and they hate conservatives because they see those two groups or entities as representative of the values and the world-view in which they are failures. They need a way of warding off their self-contempt and the contempt they think they see in the eyes of others; instead of hating themselves, they turn their hate towards others. Which others? The others who succeeded, despite the fact that they faced obstacles equal to or greater than the ones they faced themselves. I’ve always thought that black anti-Semitism has its roots in a similar psychological mechanism.
But, you ask, why should the rich Jews also often attack Israel? People like George Soros. For reasons similar to those which prompt so many rich to become “social justice” enthusiasts. It is very easy for those who do not labour on a daily basis at some task to improve their lives and the lives of their families to preach the gospel of redistribution of wealth. These people grandly despise those who “have” and do not “share” with those who do not. But not everyone who “has”, has as much as they do, has enough so as to not notice the amounts that are “shared.”
Israel is, in many ways, the poster child for free enterprise, for being smart and self-reliant and, consequently, successful. But this poster child is not so successful that it doesn’t have to worry about its next shekel. And it is not secure in the way that rich American Jews are. For these wealthy, the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews is reduced to a conflict between haves and have-nots, despite the fact that the Arabs have exponentially more wealth than little Israel. Which leads me to the element of Israel hatred I’ve mentioned in an earlier post.
Many rich American Jews can quite literally afford to distance themselves from grubby little Israel as they pretend to have become assimilated to the American Protestant liberal left. I’ve got news for you, bubbele, do you really think Jimmy Carter really loves you, even if you piss on Israel?
Which leads me to third cause, one which, again, applies to non-Jews as well, and one which occurs across all levels of success and income.
This is the desire to be morally superior, to be “better” than those people who only think in terms of the welfare of their own. They want to show that they are better than those people who only think of themselves, their families, their families and friends, etc. These are the “humanists,” the “one-world” people, the people who despise all those other people who do not share their love of humanity.
Now, it is clear to me that people motivated by the first two causes are very likely motivated also by the third.
Many of the causes of Israel hatred also work to create America hatred. The main difference betgween America and Israel is that America is, perhaps, large and powerful enough to weather the rage beating upon it from all sides.
But even America may succumb to it when it is weakened and undermined by it own leadership.
Right now, we are seeing a quite horrible irony in political action.
Just as some American Jews hope to curry favour in their Liberal Protestant anti-Semitic environments by abandoning Israel (thinking, like the German Jews of the early 30s that their assimilation would be accepted by their gentile neighbors), Obama is now trying to curry favour in the muslim world by the same expedient. The Jews of Germany famously failed, the American Jews fail, and Obama is failing even as I write.
Obama, America’s first Affirmative Action President, is offering up Israel to its enemies in the hope of receiving something in return. He is getting something in return. The contempt and ridicule of the muslim world.
He may be able to destroy Israel with the help of America’s coalition of anti-Semites and useful Jewish Israel bashing fools, but he may also in the unfolding of his ideology and incompetence shatter America into a poor grotesque caricature of its earlier greatness.
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