Why Does the Left Seemingly Hate Israel?

Contact Your Elected Officials
The Epoch Times

With more than 3,000 rockets having been fired into Israel by Hamas recently, the Democratic Party seems paralyzed over how to respond to the latest Middle East war.

Itโ€™s not just that they fear that โ€œThe Squad,โ€ Black Lives Matter, the shock troops of Antifa, and woke institutions such as academia and the media are now unapologetically anti-Israel. They are also terrified that anti-Israelism is becoming synonymous with rank anti-Semitism. And soon, the Democratic Party will end up as disdained as the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.

The new core of the Democrats, as emblemized by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, has in the past questioned the patriotism of American Jews who support Israel, and occasionally has had to apologize for puerile anti-Semitic rants.

The left in general believes we should judge harshly even the distant past without exemptions. Why then, in venomous, knee-jerk fashion, does it fixate on a nation born from the Holocaust while favoring Israelโ€™s enemies, who were on the side of the Nazis in World War II?

It wasnโ€™t just that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, was a Nazi sympathizer. Egypt, for example, welcomed ex-Nazis for their hatred of Jews and their military expertise, including infamous death camp doctor Aribert Ferdinand Heim and Waffen-SS henchman Otto Skorzeny. The Hamas charter still reads like it is cribbed from Hitlerโ€™s โ€œMein Kampf.โ€

The left claims it champions consensual government and believes the United States must use its soft-power clout to isolate autocracies. But the Palestinian Authority and Hamas refuse to hold free and regularly scheduled elections. If an Israeli strongman ever suspended free elections and ruled through brutality, U.S. aid would be severed within days.

If history and democratic values canโ€™t fully explain the apparent hatred of Israel on the left, perhaps human rights violations do. But here, too, there is another example of radical asymmetry. Arab citizens of Israel enjoy far greater constitutional protections than do Arabs living under either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.

Is the left bothered by the allies of Hamas? After all, most are autocracies such as Iran and North Korea.

We return, then, to other reasons for the woke contempt directed toward Israel.

In part, the Western left always despises the unapologetically successfulโ€”as if they are inevitably beneficiaries of unfair privilege. Underdog Israel was not so hated from 1947 to 1967. Then, it was poorer, more socialist, and in danger of being extinguished by its many neighboring enemies.

But after the victories in the 1967 and 1973 wars, the Israeli military proved unconquerable in the region, no matter how large the numbers, wealth, and armaments of its many enemies.

For the left, Israelโ€™s current strength, confidence, and success mean it cannot be seen as a victim, but only as a victimizer. As its Iron Dome missile defenses knock down the flurry of Hamas rockets, and as its planes take out the military installations that launched those rockets, the left bizarrely believes Israel wins too easily and acts โ€œdisproportionately.โ€

The left also has a strange idea of current โ€œimperialismโ€ and โ€œcolonialism.โ€ The general rule is that Westerners cannot settle in numbers in the non-West. But the reversal is certainly not true. Millions of Middle Easterners are welcomed into Belgium, France, Germany, the UK, and the United States. Yet, Jews have been in what is now Israel since nearly the dawn of civilization. And their 1947 borders only grew after they were attacked and threatened with extinction.

The left claims that its anti-Israelism has had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. But it is almost impossible now to make that distinction, when woke criticism obsesses over democratic Israel and ignores far greater oppressors and oppressed elsewhere.

Why are there no demonstrations in major Western cities damning the Chinese government for putting 1 million Muslim Uyghurs in camps? Why are the worldโ€™s millions of former refugeesโ€”the Volga Germans, the East Prussians, the Cypriot Greeksโ€”long forgotten, and yet the Palestinians alone are deified for being perpetually displaced?

Our formal NATO ally, Turkey, received little global pushback for its treatment of the Kurds, or its frequent intolerance of religious minorities. Why does Israel alone always earn such venom?

Hating democratic Israel while itโ€™s under attack is not just a reflection of the new woke and ethically bankrupt left. It is also a symptom of a deeper pathology in the West, one of moral equivalence, amoral relativism, and self-loathing.

Hating Israel has become the surrogate Western way of hating oneself.

Victor Davis Hanson is a conservative commentator, classicist, and military historian. He is a professor of classics emeritus at California State University, a senior fellow in classics and military history at Stanford University, a fellow of Hillsdale College, and a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness. Hanson has written 16 books, including โ€œThe Western Way of War,โ€ โ€œFields Without Dreams,โ€ and โ€œThe Case for Trump.โ€

By Victor Davis Hanson

Read Original Article on TheEpochTimes.com

Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hansonhttp://victorhanson.com/
Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.

How The Big Beautiful Bill Will Keep Louisiana’s Energy Industry Strong

Renewable or not, our federal govt should not be rigging the deck against any energy sources, especially nuclear power that is both clean and consistent.

On Declaring War, Congress De Facto Amended the Constitution

Congress has de facto amended the Constitution by 55 years of refusing to debate matters of war and peace.

AOC โ€“ Acting On Cue

It is easy to dislike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), also known as Sandy Cortez, because she is fraudulent and not to smart.

LGBTQโ„ข Propaganda Roundup: Tampon Tim Walz Fails the Test

LGBTQโ„ข Propaganda Roundup: Nip/tucking the latest social engineering fisted...

AI is Now an Existential Threat

We now see evidence that artificial intelligence is an existential threat to our future. It is coming to take American jobs!

DOJ Sues LA Over Sanctuary City Policies: 4 Things to Know

DOJ filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles over what it said are โ€œsanctuary cityโ€ policies that shield illegal immigrants from deportation efforts.

Rep. Dusty Johnson Will Run for Governor of South Dakota

U.S. Rep. Dustin Michael โ€œDustyโ€ Johnson has announced that he will run for governor of South Dakota during the general election to that office in 2026.

Moderna to Ask for Clearance for Combination COVID-Influenza Vaccine

Moderna is going to ask regulators to approve its combination vaccine against COVID-19 and influenza, the company said on June 30.

FBI Says Itโ€™s Uncovered โ€˜Largest Health Care Fraudโ€™ in American History

FBI and DOJ said $15 billion in losses was reported in โ€œlargest health care fraudโ€ investigation in U.S. history. Officials charged more than 300 people.

Federal Reserve โ€˜Should Be Ashamedโ€™ for Not Lowering Interest Rates, Trump Says

President Donald Trump said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues โ€œshould be ashamedโ€ for not lowering interest rates.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Lift Sanctions on Syria

President Trump signed an EO on June 30 to lift most sanctions on Syria, giving the Middle-Eastern country an opportunity to develop economically.

Canada-US Trade Talks Will End Until โ€˜Certain Taxesโ€™ Are Dropped, Trump Stresses

Trade discussions between Canada and the United States will end โ€œuntil such time as they drop certain taxes,โ€ U.S. President Trump said in an interview.

Trump Says US to Send Tariff Letters to Trade Partners Before July 9 Deadline

President Donald Trump said Sunday he will soon send letters to trading partners detailing the tariffs to be imposed on their exports to the United States.
spot_img

Related Articles