A similar point is to ask why I hear so little about events in Sudan - described by UN agencies as the current worst humanitarian crisis. Not a ‘what about comment’, it is to say for me that Sudan has a better case for concern. I doubt either matter in even national elections where few national governments have much impact on what happens elswhere.
Every day I work with Spanish and French speaking immigrants (I speak both languages) advising them on how to progress their immigration cases in extremely perilous times. I’d like to think I do some good for some incredible people who want nothing more than to make a life for their family and become good Americans.
However, the day the immigration rights movement aligns itself with the anti-Israel movement is the day I cease all work to help immigrants. I just hope that day never happens.
You know what “Fuck Palestine” we have enough problems of our own with out trying to make problems from the other side of the world out problems. If you feel differently you can piss off there. You may find a rational epiphany will find you. And help you sort out your priorities.
I only focus on topics that are of interest to me. But I’ll share a secret with you trying to make Palestine part of every other campaign. Is a zero sum game, for other campaigns. The vast majority I could not give a shit about. However your “pro-pail supporters” are actively pissing off the average Australians. Each time you try to burn down a synagogue or a Jewish preschool. Trash a Jewish Resterant or vandalise a war memorial. More people actively dislike you. Having a bit of Nazi fun in the small hours of the morning will become a risky business.
Hahaha look at me i’m so rational. I can only focus on one topic at a time because that’s all i’m capable of. Fuck palestine we have our own problems.
Ridiculous comment. Imagine if someone were to say we fuck environmental issues because we only care about workers rights. The problem is the old “left” is so scared of the new younger left which they want to mark off as a small minority of radicals because they care about numerous points of conflict and issues in the world where back then you could have been deemed to be part of the left if you slightly thought that bikes were better for the environment than cars and cared about healthcare. And going back to the post, imagine if you were in the rally and were excited about seeing all these cyclists and then see a tiny blip of pro-pali supporters. If you were to now judge that whole rally as a pro-pali rally is that the fault of those radical minority lefties or is it you for not being able to see this large movement for what it is.
You can think you’re a good person just because you support some leftist ideas but if you can’t understand that we should care about all problems then you definitely aren’t rational.
Political movements have become social movements. A person's politics are an entrenched piece of their identity. The combination means excessive conformism as everyone tries to demonstrate to other movement participants that they're Good People and wish to remain in good standing with fellow party members.
I see the same thing happening to the right, at least in the US.
I think at least part of what’s driving it is left-coded causes are now associated with the establishment in many countries. This includes in developing countries where the wealthy send their kids overseas to university and they come back full of Queer and Critical Race Theory etc. The same people who a generation or two ago might have affected the conservative beliefs and values of that era to align themselves with institutional power and respectability, have flipped as they sense traditional conservative (and centrist and liberal views) are low-status. There are personalities who will surf whatever cultural wave presents to be the morality police, holier than thou etc. The homophobic vicar’s wife of 1950 became the rainbow lanyard wearing , transhausen mum of today.
Yes, I agree that this mad tagging on of issues ultimately contributes to the decline of Green parties and of left identity. It’s not fair to blame it on Martin Luther King though. Yascha Mounk traces how intersectionality came out of critical race theory in his book, The Identity Trap. He says it has taken on a life of its own and now activists claim that all forms of identity based oppression must be fought. As you state so well, such dogmatism is not only irrational, it also drives people away.
Thanks, that's sort of what I'm trying to say when I mention King in the piece. I'm not criticising his approach - he achieved a lot - but rather the way modern activists interpret him.
Thanks for this. I think some of the inherent tension you have identified may be explained by the fact that leftist pro-Palestinianism in the developed world is a coalition of convenience, originating in the fusion of pro-Soviet/pan-Arabist ‘anti-Zionism’ and anti-western ideology which has since been conflated with identitarian ‘progressive’ politics, post-colonial guilt and the post-Christian fetishisation of perceived victimhood and powerlessness, into a toxic and frankly contradictory assemblage of disparate grievances now weaponised against a singular, evergreen scapegoat. Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote about this very powerfully in the Free Press last week.
There is no logical or ethical reason why an environmentalist should be “for Palestine” any more than “for Israel”. In fact, there’s all the more reason to look kindly on Israel given its pioneering innovation in freshwater saving technology like drip irrigation and desalination, and the fact it is the only country which ended the 20th century with more trees than it started with.
Your readers may be interested to know it was Emma Lazarus, Jewish-American poet and proto-Zionist advocate who first wrote “until we are all free, we are none of us free” in Epistle to the Hebrews, 1883. She was addressing the immiseration and violent persecution of Jews in the Russian empire and Islamic world, as compared to the relative freedom and prosperity enjoyed by Jews in some parts of America. Of course, Dr King was an avowed anti-antisemite and supporter of Jewish rights too (including the right to an independent and sovereign state in the Jewish homeland).
Ugh yes thank you. Stateside it really took off during the Women's March & BLM, to the point where they had major speakers & leaders that were vocally antisemitic, and Linda Sarsour praised Sharia law. I have a few friends that I've drifted away from because they became so obsessed with Palestine, it was all they talked about, the language they used. Palestinaholics I call them. And shaming people who were voting for Harris or getting mad if other people urged them to do so. Jill Stein the Green Party candidate was endorsed by David Duke a former KKK leader. With friends like these...
I share your annoyance at these single issue folks, especially wrt local gvernments. You, though, and many others, let that annoyance drive you from a succedsful governing party, losing the important policies you favor. It seems to me that you gave the activist's naturally inconsequential and purely performative rhetoric catastrophic consequences.
If it was just meaningless noise then I agree with you. But we've seen a major uptick in antisemitic incidents across Europe and I think the Palestine activism is creating the conditions for that to happen. At that point it becomes a moral duty to oppose it, even if it means losing my lovely bike lanes.
In Australia, yes I know we are a long way away from most of you. Palestine Activists were making common cause with a grab for political power by Aboriginal Activists. For a whole lot of sound reasons the referendum was defeated. Having the Palestine Actives on board as Progressive Bro. Did not at all help their cause.
in an effort to antagonise even more of the population. They even vandalised The Australian War Memorial in Canberra not just once but three times.
In a similar scenario in England, I have constantly voted Green for decades, and at last, we FINALLY elected a Green MP. But she is constantly in the news for LGBT issues and for leading parades to free Palestine. Those might be good causes, but they are not my causes, and they distract from the important environmental issues. I won't be voting Green in the next election.
Support for Palestine, or opposition to Israel’s overreaction right now, isn’t a far left cause in Europe. It isn’t a left wing cause. It isn’t a centrist cause. It’s largely the whole population except the far right. Or that portion of the far right that’s pro Zionist.
That said, Palestinian activism is a mess of purity tests and performative flag waving.
A similar point is to ask why I hear so little about events in Sudan - described by UN agencies as the current worst humanitarian crisis. Not a ‘what about comment’, it is to say for me that Sudan has a better case for concern. I doubt either matter in even national elections where few national governments have much impact on what happens elswhere.
Great piece
Every day I work with Spanish and French speaking immigrants (I speak both languages) advising them on how to progress their immigration cases in extremely perilous times. I’d like to think I do some good for some incredible people who want nothing more than to make a life for their family and become good Americans.
However, the day the immigration rights movement aligns itself with the anti-Israel movement is the day I cease all work to help immigrants. I just hope that day never happens.
You know what “Fuck Palestine” we have enough problems of our own with out trying to make problems from the other side of the world out problems. If you feel differently you can piss off there. You may find a rational epiphany will find you. And help you sort out your priorities.
I only focus on topics that are of interest to me. But I’ll share a secret with you trying to make Palestine part of every other campaign. Is a zero sum game, for other campaigns. The vast majority I could not give a shit about. However your “pro-pail supporters” are actively pissing off the average Australians. Each time you try to burn down a synagogue or a Jewish preschool. Trash a Jewish Resterant or vandalise a war memorial. More people actively dislike you. Having a bit of Nazi fun in the small hours of the morning will become a risky business.
Hahaha look at me i’m so rational. I can only focus on one topic at a time because that’s all i’m capable of. Fuck palestine we have our own problems.
Ridiculous comment. Imagine if someone were to say we fuck environmental issues because we only care about workers rights. The problem is the old “left” is so scared of the new younger left which they want to mark off as a small minority of radicals because they care about numerous points of conflict and issues in the world where back then you could have been deemed to be part of the left if you slightly thought that bikes were better for the environment than cars and cared about healthcare. And going back to the post, imagine if you were in the rally and were excited about seeing all these cyclists and then see a tiny blip of pro-pali supporters. If you were to now judge that whole rally as a pro-pali rally is that the fault of those radical minority lefties or is it you for not being able to see this large movement for what it is.
You can think you’re a good person just because you support some leftist ideas but if you can’t understand that we should care about all problems then you definitely aren’t rational.
Political movements have become social movements. A person's politics are an entrenched piece of their identity. The combination means excessive conformism as everyone tries to demonstrate to other movement participants that they're Good People and wish to remain in good standing with fellow party members.
I see the same thing happening to the right, at least in the US.
It’s the Omnicause.
I think at least part of what’s driving it is left-coded causes are now associated with the establishment in many countries. This includes in developing countries where the wealthy send their kids overseas to university and they come back full of Queer and Critical Race Theory etc. The same people who a generation or two ago might have affected the conservative beliefs and values of that era to align themselves with institutional power and respectability, have flipped as they sense traditional conservative (and centrist and liberal views) are low-status. There are personalities who will surf whatever cultural wave presents to be the morality police, holier than thou etc. The homophobic vicar’s wife of 1950 became the rainbow lanyard wearing , transhausen mum of today.
Yes, I agree that this mad tagging on of issues ultimately contributes to the decline of Green parties and of left identity. It’s not fair to blame it on Martin Luther King though. Yascha Mounk traces how intersectionality came out of critical race theory in his book, The Identity Trap. He says it has taken on a life of its own and now activists claim that all forms of identity based oppression must be fought. As you state so well, such dogmatism is not only irrational, it also drives people away.
Thanks, that's sort of what I'm trying to say when I mention King in the piece. I'm not criticising his approach - he achieved a lot - but rather the way modern activists interpret him.
Thanks for this. I think some of the inherent tension you have identified may be explained by the fact that leftist pro-Palestinianism in the developed world is a coalition of convenience, originating in the fusion of pro-Soviet/pan-Arabist ‘anti-Zionism’ and anti-western ideology which has since been conflated with identitarian ‘progressive’ politics, post-colonial guilt and the post-Christian fetishisation of perceived victimhood and powerlessness, into a toxic and frankly contradictory assemblage of disparate grievances now weaponised against a singular, evergreen scapegoat. Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote about this very powerfully in the Free Press last week.
There is no logical or ethical reason why an environmentalist should be “for Palestine” any more than “for Israel”. In fact, there’s all the more reason to look kindly on Israel given its pioneering innovation in freshwater saving technology like drip irrigation and desalination, and the fact it is the only country which ended the 20th century with more trees than it started with.
Your readers may be interested to know it was Emma Lazarus, Jewish-American poet and proto-Zionist advocate who first wrote “until we are all free, we are none of us free” in Epistle to the Hebrews, 1883. She was addressing the immiseration and violent persecution of Jews in the Russian empire and Islamic world, as compared to the relative freedom and prosperity enjoyed by Jews in some parts of America. Of course, Dr King was an avowed anti-antisemite and supporter of Jewish rights too (including the right to an independent and sovereign state in the Jewish homeland).
Ugh yes thank you. Stateside it really took off during the Women's March & BLM, to the point where they had major speakers & leaders that were vocally antisemitic, and Linda Sarsour praised Sharia law. I have a few friends that I've drifted away from because they became so obsessed with Palestine, it was all they talked about, the language they used. Palestinaholics I call them. And shaming people who were voting for Harris or getting mad if other people urged them to do so. Jill Stein the Green Party candidate was endorsed by David Duke a former KKK leader. With friends like these...
I share your annoyance at these single issue folks, especially wrt local gvernments. You, though, and many others, let that annoyance drive you from a succedsful governing party, losing the important policies you favor. It seems to me that you gave the activist's naturally inconsequential and purely performative rhetoric catastrophic consequences.
If it was just meaningless noise then I agree with you. But we've seen a major uptick in antisemitic incidents across Europe and I think the Palestine activism is creating the conditions for that to happen. At that point it becomes a moral duty to oppose it, even if it means losing my lovely bike lanes.
You only had bad choices. But did you really pick the best of the lot? We make this mistake in the US all too often.
In Australia, yes I know we are a long way away from most of you. Palestine Activists were making common cause with a grab for political power by Aboriginal Activists. For a whole lot of sound reasons the referendum was defeated. Having the Palestine Actives on board as Progressive Bro. Did not at all help their cause.
in an effort to antagonise even more of the population. They even vandalised The Australian War Memorial in Canberra not just once but three times.
You know what “Fuck Palestine”
In a similar scenario in England, I have constantly voted Green for decades, and at last, we FINALLY elected a Green MP. But she is constantly in the news for LGBT issues and for leading parades to free Palestine. Those might be good causes, but they are not my causes, and they distract from the important environmental issues. I won't be voting Green in the next election.
This is so bad, I can’t begin to explain how bad this take is
Support for Palestine, or opposition to Israel’s overreaction right now, isn’t a far left cause in Europe. It isn’t a left wing cause. It isn’t a centrist cause. It’s largely the whole population except the far right. Or that portion of the far right that’s pro Zionist.
That said, Palestinian activism is a mess of purity tests and performative flag waving.
Your definition of far right might be off, it’s mainstream
I doubt it, try reading the latest polls on this.
https://yougov.co.uk/international/articles/52279-net-favourability-towards-israel-reaches-new-lows-in-key-western-european-countries
Excellent post, and I agree. Although not with the bicycle stuff! You guys are the menaces! :O)
Not menaces if they have decent cycle lanes and a regard for others safety.
The idiots jumping traffic lights though aren’t cyclists they’re ignorant fools heading for the cemetery!