Exactly what Einat Wilf has been writing and lecturing about. I strongly recommend her podcast “We should all be Zionists”, her lecture series on Zionism and Antizionism on Tikvah, and of course her books. Until I read her book I didn’t realize that we were dhimmis and that the Palestinians goal is the eradication of Israel.
Great essay. Your paragraph, "We need to get a message for the post-literate era, I’m incredibly sad to say. (We can address later the underlying problem of political activists who refuse to read or learn complex history. For now, we are in a literal death battle for hearts and minds and we’re losing miserably.)", is spot on.
Yes. It's a serious challenge. We've been bringing a dictionary to a knife fight. I don't like dumbing things down, but I'm afraid we have to. When they go low, we keep going high. Not sure that's working.
Pat, for Palestine to be a place that is free for women, LGBTQ+ people, minorities or anyone else its inhabitants must move from a fundamental belief in Islam to a more relaxed, progressively informed and nuanced belief that we see in many Muslims in western democracies. Given the ME environment today this seems very unlikely in the foreseeable future. So you are right to describe a future Palestine as one of the most un-free places in the planet.
I was walking past a sorry gathering of anti-Israel leftists yelling "Free, Free Palestine!" I stopped and starting chanting with them, "Jew-Free Palestine!" and my friend joined in. After a few repeats, they went silent. "Isn't that what you're saying?" I asked their blank, stunned faces, before heading off. "From the river to the sea!" = "Wipe out Israel!" and "Globalize the Intifada!" = "Kill Jews everywhere!"
"The acronym "GASHI" (Gazan Slaves to Hamas and Iran) should be employed to explain what is the reality on the ground in Gaza and to their supporters all screaming for the destruction of Israel.
Years of hate filled education, disinformation and antisemitic rhetoric leaves a people with deep cognitive scars.
No one ever chants "Free Kurdistan". They are pro American pro Western people who are subjugated by the most vile ally in human history, Turkey. Only free, Democratic, pro Western close American ally Israel is treated in this manner. I don't really care about the evil "progressives" who excuse mass murder as long as it strikes a blow against their own civilization. But those allegedly mainstream center left figures in the US, in Canada, in Europe that crap on Israel and support these murderous barbarians endlessly sicken me enormously.
The non Jewish mainstream center left in the US does support Israel’s right to exist, but in my experience, most do not comprehend that Israel has ALWAYS (until Bibi) been willing to agree to a land for peace deal and that it is the leadership of the non-Israeli Arabs in Gaza & West Bank who have rejected every deal, usually in favor of killing more Jews instead. They do not understand that Israel did not steal their land and they do not understand that there isn’t really an “occupation”. They did/do not know that it is Hamas who dismantled the infrastructure that would have allowed them to farm and have clean water and that it has always been Hamas starving the people and diverting aid. And they definitely do not know that education in both territories teaches children to feel disgust for and hate Jews and that Jews stole their land. This is where Jewish organizations have really failed, IMO, and allowed disinformation and a totally false historical narrative to fill the void. This leads the mainstream left to both sides the conflict and to expect resolutions that Hamas/Iran/etc. will never accept. That Bibi & the Israeli extremists now also reject “2 states” allows even more blame to be shifted.
The point is that this part of the left isn’t particularly anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist. And in the multicultural US, it’s hard for this group to understand why Israel must remain a Jewish ethno-cultural state.
The fringe left arises out of decades of Russian infiltration of American and European peace/social justice movements. This group is so far gone that they can’t see how inconsistent their “Free Palestine” movement is with the claim that they aren’t antisemtic even as they rationalize the monstrous Oct. 7 massacre. And they cannot see how absurd it is that they are yelling “Free Palestine” when ANY government those “displaced” Arabs choose will be repressive and not at all free. This group is equally ignorant of history, but too illiberal to accept that nothing they believe about Israel is factually correct.
On the mainstream
right, they are more likely to have bias against Muslims and more likely not to question Israel’s security actions generally. And among the Christians, evangelical or not, they’re more likely to know that Jews are indigenous to the land and that Judaism came before Mohammed. They are Zionists for sure, but they still believe Jews who don’t accept Jesus are going to hell (which is about as anti-Semitic as it gets).
And on the far fringe-y right, you have your neo-Nazis.
My main point is that this liberal/conservative/left/right polarization really doesn’t belong in a good faith discussion of Israel/“Palestine”/Hamas. Secular/reform and many Conservative Jews tend to be leftist because the left more closely aligns with Jewish values and teachings about education, how to treat newcomers, community over individuals, etc.
Orthodox Jews tend to be more center right and don’t go in for adapting 3000 yr old teachings or traditions to the current times.
It’s a lot easier to have a conversation about Israel/Hamas/“Palestine” without bringing our current American polarized politics into it. Culture war/Kremlin propaganda from the right and colonist/settler BS from the left just shouldn’t be part of the Israel conversation.
Just saying. Apologies if this meandering comment doesn’t seem to get to a point, but make what you will of it. I got distracted and might have lost my own thesis.
Exactly what Einat Wilf has been writing and lecturing about. I strongly recommend her podcast “We should all be Zionists”, her lecture series on Zionism and Antizionism on Tikvah, and of course her books. Until I read her book I didn’t realize that we were dhimmis and that the Palestinians goal is the eradication of Israel.
She is superb.
I know - I try to read/hear everything she’s done!
Great essay. Your paragraph, "We need to get a message for the post-literate era, I’m incredibly sad to say. (We can address later the underlying problem of political activists who refuse to read or learn complex history. For now, we are in a literal death battle for hearts and minds and we’re losing miserably.)", is spot on.
Indeed, our messaging is insufficient.
Yes. It's a serious challenge. We've been bringing a dictionary to a knife fight. I don't like dumbing things down, but I'm afraid we have to. When they go low, we keep going high. Not sure that's working.
Pat, I always appreciate your posts. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Rauvan! (Try and stop me!)
Thank you for reminding me that there are sane moral people out there. I need reminding…
We all do, Betty. Thank YOU!
Pat, for Palestine to be a place that is free for women, LGBTQ+ people, minorities or anyone else its inhabitants must move from a fundamental belief in Islam to a more relaxed, progressively informed and nuanced belief that we see in many Muslims in western democracies. Given the ME environment today this seems very unlikely in the foreseeable future. So you are right to describe a future Palestine as one of the most un-free places in the planet.
I was walking past a sorry gathering of anti-Israel leftists yelling "Free, Free Palestine!" I stopped and starting chanting with them, "Jew-Free Palestine!" and my friend joined in. After a few repeats, they went silent. "Isn't that what you're saying?" I asked their blank, stunned faces, before heading off. "From the river to the sea!" = "Wipe out Israel!" and "Globalize the Intifada!" = "Kill Jews everywhere!"
Your stuff is dead-on. Thank you for it.
Thanks Michael. Good for you for making it plain to them.
"The acronym "GASHI" (Gazan Slaves to Hamas and Iran) should be employed to explain what is the reality on the ground in Gaza and to their supporters all screaming for the destruction of Israel.
Years of hate filled education, disinformation and antisemitic rhetoric leaves a people with deep cognitive scars.
This essay I think could have been summed up in one word. Yes.
It’s like the debate about what is porn, you know it when you see it.
No one ever chants "Free Kurdistan". They are pro American pro Western people who are subjugated by the most vile ally in human history, Turkey. Only free, Democratic, pro Western close American ally Israel is treated in this manner. I don't really care about the evil "progressives" who excuse mass murder as long as it strikes a blow against their own civilization. But those allegedly mainstream center left figures in the US, in Canada, in Europe that crap on Israel and support these murderous barbarians endlessly sicken me enormously.
The non Jewish mainstream center left in the US does support Israel’s right to exist, but in my experience, most do not comprehend that Israel has ALWAYS (until Bibi) been willing to agree to a land for peace deal and that it is the leadership of the non-Israeli Arabs in Gaza & West Bank who have rejected every deal, usually in favor of killing more Jews instead. They do not understand that Israel did not steal their land and they do not understand that there isn’t really an “occupation”. They did/do not know that it is Hamas who dismantled the infrastructure that would have allowed them to farm and have clean water and that it has always been Hamas starving the people and diverting aid. And they definitely do not know that education in both territories teaches children to feel disgust for and hate Jews and that Jews stole their land. This is where Jewish organizations have really failed, IMO, and allowed disinformation and a totally false historical narrative to fill the void. This leads the mainstream left to both sides the conflict and to expect resolutions that Hamas/Iran/etc. will never accept. That Bibi & the Israeli extremists now also reject “2 states” allows even more blame to be shifted.
The point is that this part of the left isn’t particularly anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist. And in the multicultural US, it’s hard for this group to understand why Israel must remain a Jewish ethno-cultural state.
The fringe left arises out of decades of Russian infiltration of American and European peace/social justice movements. This group is so far gone that they can’t see how inconsistent their “Free Palestine” movement is with the claim that they aren’t antisemtic even as they rationalize the monstrous Oct. 7 massacre. And they cannot see how absurd it is that they are yelling “Free Palestine” when ANY government those “displaced” Arabs choose will be repressive and not at all free. This group is equally ignorant of history, but too illiberal to accept that nothing they believe about Israel is factually correct.
On the mainstream
right, they are more likely to have bias against Muslims and more likely not to question Israel’s security actions generally. And among the Christians, evangelical or not, they’re more likely to know that Jews are indigenous to the land and that Judaism came before Mohammed. They are Zionists for sure, but they still believe Jews who don’t accept Jesus are going to hell (which is about as anti-Semitic as it gets).
And on the far fringe-y right, you have your neo-Nazis.
My main point is that this liberal/conservative/left/right polarization really doesn’t belong in a good faith discussion of Israel/“Palestine”/Hamas. Secular/reform and many Conservative Jews tend to be leftist because the left more closely aligns with Jewish values and teachings about education, how to treat newcomers, community over individuals, etc.
Orthodox Jews tend to be more center right and don’t go in for adapting 3000 yr old teachings or traditions to the current times.
It’s a lot easier to have a conversation about Israel/Hamas/“Palestine” without bringing our current American polarized politics into it. Culture war/Kremlin propaganda from the right and colonist/settler BS from the left just shouldn’t be part of the Israel conversation.
Just saying. Apologies if this meandering comment doesn’t seem to get to a point, but make what you will of it. I got distracted and might have lost my own thesis.