my parents were born at the end of the First World War. my father lived through the Second World War in an occupied country before coming to Canada. Here are his words of wisdom to me that still hold true. " In this world you will meet the best of people and the worst of people but most people are banging around in the middle. The colour of their skin does not matter, It does not matter if the are male or female, straight or gay, left or right, rich or poor, educated or not. We can only strive to be better." I hope you understand this.
More than ten years ago I was complaining to a friend about the rise of intolerant ideology (woke) in the mental health system. My friend had been a part of the gay pride movement and present, front and centre. at every gay pride parade since the beginning. He told me that a new movement of younger, angrier people had started taking over. He was no longer welcome. The bridges that had been built were now to be burned. We wondered then where this would go and how much damage would be done. Now we know.
It seems that the loud angry voices dominate again. Pick your tribe and hate the other. I do not like this world we made.
I am an LGBT rights activist from your parents' generation and have been sickened by seeing exactly what you describe. Last year in my home town, San Francisco, where I have attended every Pride march since the Gay Freedom Day in 1973, I saw a young woman putting up stickers all over Castro Street that said "Dykes Hate Zionists!" As I stood in line for a post parade brunch feeling dismayed another young woman came along, saw the sticker and said, NO WE DON'T!" as she scraped it off a pole. We both started scraping. She was a Latina Jew from Mexico. Others joined us. It's sad but we have to keep on struggling for unity in the movement. We shall build back the bridges and we shall overcome!
I think the pattern was set at least as early as 1975 if not earlier, when the UN General Assembly passed the notorious Zionism is Racism resolution, and shortly after leaders of the feminist movement like Betty Friedan were ostracized for their Zionism. We saw it again when a lot of western feminists in the early 2000s opposed the US-led coalition of eight countries that managed to remove the ultra-misogynist Taliban from power. Their arguments were that instead, Afghan women should be "empowered" to defeat fanatics that threw acid in the faces of girls and women who attempted to leave their homes unchaperoned and that it was "Eurocentric" to condemn the Taliban for their violent Islamism.
Another veteran feminist, Phyllis Chesler and two colleagues figured that what was going on was an attempt by those feminists willing tolerate the violent abuse of Afghan women was an attempt to validate their claim on victim status by association with non-white male misogynists who were, somehow, victims of western aggression.
Thank you, Pat, for showing the symmetry between another intolerant, hateful ideology and antizionism. I look forward to reading more from you on this, as always!
Excellent!! May I quote you? This is a perfect response to something someone said to me : Not all anti-Zionists hate Jews. But every one of them stands on the shoulders of people who do.
Anti-Zionism is a movement created and fuelled by anti-Jewish animus.
I empathize with your rage for the harm Mehlman did … and I cannot help but feel a rage in me that he is Jewish. It is small comfort that he did not reference that aspect while living his self-loathing destructive life and I hope when he had his come to Judy moment, it would have been during Yom Kippur. His ugliest days bring to mind Peter Beinart, Mandy Patinkin, Hanna Einbinder, etc. - only they haven’t woken up yet and I fear they never will. Far Left fawning is, I think, far more insidious than the Far Right though they both peddle in sanctimonious double standards. And, I would argue that their influence on civilian life is, in many respects, as toxic with the impact of social media and a heightened celebrity culture and their direct access to their fans. It’s not for me, a straight person, to forgive him, though I can appreciate how some might and others never will; the trauma is deep. My hope is that he spends the rest of his life fighting hard to undo the damage he did. I will never forgive the Nazis and their collaborators, they never sought forgiveness. I can accept a recovered Germany that continues to reckon with its past and stand up for my People. Sending peace and love your way - and immense gratitude.
Great post! As you and I talked about, I have been an activist for racial Civil Rights and LGBTQ Rights since my teens. I'm 73 now. The vicious cruelty shown toward people of color in the USA and towards LGBTQ people had always disgusted me and I put a great deal of energy into combating it and the false information that was used to justify it. I can't see any difference between the mindset of the perpetrators of this nastiness and that of the anti-Zionists. These are people who define themselves as morally superior to others by letting the world know they hate those who don't hate the way they do. To the homophobes, gay people are by definition immoral so hating them means hating evil. To the racists people of color are inferior and as a result immoral and so hating them means hating evil. The anti-Zionists decide that everyone who doesn't hate Israel and conventionally religious Jews is evil. So depressing. And the more so in that they work insanely to take over the movements I spent a life time supporting.
I *think* I know what you mean by “conventionally religious Jew” - someone who looks Jewish in the way they dress, basically … I don’t much care for that description the way that it comes across to me, and would be interested to hear a bit more about what you mean - and am not sure if you’re Jewish(I’m thinking not)but you don’t have to be a conventionally religious, or indeed religious at all, Jew, to be hated for being Jewish
I don't know why you would think I wasn't Jewish! I have said I am many times on this site. I am Jewish, like a disproportionate number of activists for social justice have always been. Sorry that you took my comment as disparaging religious Jews who, as is also typical, support Israel. My intention was to distinguish between the majority of Jews who practice Judaism and those who claim to do so but oppose the existence of Israel, like the members of the JVP. Currently such Jews may feel safe from antisemitism because they condemn Zionism. I completely agree with you that ultimately all Jews are hated and persecuted for being Jewish. But the anti Zionist movement focuses their hatred on Jews who support Israel either because of their religious beliefs or simply because we know right from wrong.
Really powerfull paralell between the marriage equality fights and whats happening now with anti-Zionism. The Mehlman example is especially striking -- someone literally building their career on harming their own comunity, which feels like it maps onto certain Jewish anti-Zionists today. Your observation about people making issues central to their identity when they have zero personal stake or knowledge is spot-on. I dunno if the rapid reversal we saw with homophobia can happen with antisemitism though, since one involves acepting people's private lives while the other involves complex geopolitical stuff that people think they need to have opinions about. Still, the idea that movements can be fueled by hatred even when participants think theyre acting morally is a critical insight.
Sounds like hate looking for an outlet. When it was taboo to be antisemitic, the vitriol was concentrated on the gay community. Once homophobia became unacceptable, (thank god and everyone who fought against it), what are the Candace Owen's of the world to do?
Eve Garrard, lecturer in Philosophy emeritus, University of Manchester published an essay at Fathom Journal in 2013 titled "The Pleasures of Antisemitism" which she updated in early 2024 under the title "Eat their skulls". Jews have long been favoured scapegoats of Christians, Muslims, the far right and the far left. Candace Owens is fairly notorious for her homophobia, probably for the same reason she's antisemitic: like Mel Gibson, Owens is a very reactionary Catholic.
Sono d'accordo su praticamente tutto quanto esposto,vorrei solo sottolineare,che, bisogna concentrare lo "sforzo" sull'antisionismo ( le differenze fra i due sono create artatamente per confondere ed intorbidire).
Soprattutto la sinistra ( a cui appartengo) ,è stata bersagliera da una propaganda dell'ex Unione Sovietica ( ci sono prove scritte del KGB di Andropov) di assimilare il SIONISMO al CAPITALISMO " sfruttatore" e colonialista. Nonostante l'Unione Sovietica avesse riconosciuto ,subito appena costituito nel '48 lo stato di Israele, dopo lo spostamento dello stesso dalla parte dell'occidente ,nell'ambito della guerra fredda e dei due "blocchi" , l'unione Sovietica ha inventato una " lotta palestinese" anticapitalista ,che, non aveva alcun seguito tra gli arabi / palestinesi, i quali non hanno mai seguito alcun partito LAICO di stampo occidentale ( anche se vi erano singoli esponenti palestinesi addestrati in URSS ,ma, ribadisco SENZA SEGUITO tra la popolazione locale) l'unica solidarietà, in una cultura tribale,é quella religiosa / islamica.
La propaganda è stata così efficace ( io stesso ricordo da adolescente, convegni supportati dalla sinistra comunista/ socialista ,con esponenti dei " non allineati" per la pace ed,immancabilmente ,qualche palestinese , in rappresentanza di chi? ).
Pertanto i progressisti sono stati da tempo sopraffatti da una propaganda massiccia ,che ha messo in discussione il SIONISMO , tanto EFFICACE , che, esponenti progressisti in buona fede non ritengono di essere antisemiti ,ma, antisionisti.
E' questa la matassa da sbrogliare ,per fare chiarezza ,e, compete alle persone di sinistra/ liberal progressista .
I read a Substack article today on a page called The Progressive Jew. I have never been more horrified by a self hating Jew spewing all the anti-Zionist talking points and trying to justify it all by saying he was raised as a Jewish Zionist until he found out the "real" history of Zionism. Reading the comments section was even worse. Most were telling him he didn't hate Israel enough. Most were non Jews but there were even more anti Zionist crackpot Jews in there than I thought possible.
We live in such scary times. I hope they will be happy being on the last train to Auschwitz.
my parents were born at the end of the First World War. my father lived through the Second World War in an occupied country before coming to Canada. Here are his words of wisdom to me that still hold true. " In this world you will meet the best of people and the worst of people but most people are banging around in the middle. The colour of their skin does not matter, It does not matter if the are male or female, straight or gay, left or right, rich or poor, educated or not. We can only strive to be better." I hope you understand this.
More than ten years ago I was complaining to a friend about the rise of intolerant ideology (woke) in the mental health system. My friend had been a part of the gay pride movement and present, front and centre. at every gay pride parade since the beginning. He told me that a new movement of younger, angrier people had started taking over. He was no longer welcome. The bridges that had been built were now to be burned. We wondered then where this would go and how much damage would be done. Now we know.
It seems that the loud angry voices dominate again. Pick your tribe and hate the other. I do not like this world we made.
I am an LGBT rights activist from your parents' generation and have been sickened by seeing exactly what you describe. Last year in my home town, San Francisco, where I have attended every Pride march since the Gay Freedom Day in 1973, I saw a young woman putting up stickers all over Castro Street that said "Dykes Hate Zionists!" As I stood in line for a post parade brunch feeling dismayed another young woman came along, saw the sticker and said, NO WE DON'T!" as she scraped it off a pole. We both started scraping. She was a Latina Jew from Mexico. Others joined us. It's sad but we have to keep on struggling for unity in the movement. We shall build back the bridges and we shall overcome!
I think the pattern was set at least as early as 1975 if not earlier, when the UN General Assembly passed the notorious Zionism is Racism resolution, and shortly after leaders of the feminist movement like Betty Friedan were ostracized for their Zionism. We saw it again when a lot of western feminists in the early 2000s opposed the US-led coalition of eight countries that managed to remove the ultra-misogynist Taliban from power. Their arguments were that instead, Afghan women should be "empowered" to defeat fanatics that threw acid in the faces of girls and women who attempted to leave their homes unchaperoned and that it was "Eurocentric" to condemn the Taliban for their violent Islamism.
Another veteran feminist, Phyllis Chesler and two colleagues figured that what was going on was an attempt by those feminists willing tolerate the violent abuse of Afghan women was an attempt to validate their claim on victim status by association with non-white male misogynists who were, somehow, victims of western aggression.
Thank you, Pat, for showing the symmetry between another intolerant, hateful ideology and antizionism. I look forward to reading more from you on this, as always!
Excellent!! May I quote you? This is a perfect response to something someone said to me : Not all anti-Zionists hate Jews. But every one of them stands on the shoulders of people who do.
Anti-Zionism is a movement created and fuelled by anti-Jewish animus.
I empathize with your rage for the harm Mehlman did … and I cannot help but feel a rage in me that he is Jewish. It is small comfort that he did not reference that aspect while living his self-loathing destructive life and I hope when he had his come to Judy moment, it would have been during Yom Kippur. His ugliest days bring to mind Peter Beinart, Mandy Patinkin, Hanna Einbinder, etc. - only they haven’t woken up yet and I fear they never will. Far Left fawning is, I think, far more insidious than the Far Right though they both peddle in sanctimonious double standards. And, I would argue that their influence on civilian life is, in many respects, as toxic with the impact of social media and a heightened celebrity culture and their direct access to their fans. It’s not for me, a straight person, to forgive him, though I can appreciate how some might and others never will; the trauma is deep. My hope is that he spends the rest of his life fighting hard to undo the damage he did. I will never forgive the Nazis and their collaborators, they never sought forgiveness. I can accept a recovered Germany that continues to reckon with its past and stand up for my People. Sending peace and love your way - and immense gratitude.
Thank you again for your courageous writing. Much appreciated.
Great post! As you and I talked about, I have been an activist for racial Civil Rights and LGBTQ Rights since my teens. I'm 73 now. The vicious cruelty shown toward people of color in the USA and towards LGBTQ people had always disgusted me and I put a great deal of energy into combating it and the false information that was used to justify it. I can't see any difference between the mindset of the perpetrators of this nastiness and that of the anti-Zionists. These are people who define themselves as morally superior to others by letting the world know they hate those who don't hate the way they do. To the homophobes, gay people are by definition immoral so hating them means hating evil. To the racists people of color are inferior and as a result immoral and so hating them means hating evil. The anti-Zionists decide that everyone who doesn't hate Israel and conventionally religious Jews is evil. So depressing. And the more so in that they work insanely to take over the movements I spent a life time supporting.
I *think* I know what you mean by “conventionally religious Jew” - someone who looks Jewish in the way they dress, basically … I don’t much care for that description the way that it comes across to me, and would be interested to hear a bit more about what you mean - and am not sure if you’re Jewish(I’m thinking not)but you don’t have to be a conventionally religious, or indeed religious at all, Jew, to be hated for being Jewish
I don't know why you would think I wasn't Jewish! I have said I am many times on this site. I am Jewish, like a disproportionate number of activists for social justice have always been. Sorry that you took my comment as disparaging religious Jews who, as is also typical, support Israel. My intention was to distinguish between the majority of Jews who practice Judaism and those who claim to do so but oppose the existence of Israel, like the members of the JVP. Currently such Jews may feel safe from antisemitism because they condemn Zionism. I completely agree with you that ultimately all Jews are hated and persecuted for being Jewish. But the anti Zionist movement focuses their hatred on Jews who support Israel either because of their religious beliefs or simply because we know right from wrong.
Really powerfull paralell between the marriage equality fights and whats happening now with anti-Zionism. The Mehlman example is especially striking -- someone literally building their career on harming their own comunity, which feels like it maps onto certain Jewish anti-Zionists today. Your observation about people making issues central to their identity when they have zero personal stake or knowledge is spot-on. I dunno if the rapid reversal we saw with homophobia can happen with antisemitism though, since one involves acepting people's private lives while the other involves complex geopolitical stuff that people think they need to have opinions about. Still, the idea that movements can be fueled by hatred even when participants think theyre acting morally is a critical insight.
Sounds like hate looking for an outlet. When it was taboo to be antisemitic, the vitriol was concentrated on the gay community. Once homophobia became unacceptable, (thank god and everyone who fought against it), what are the Candace Owen's of the world to do?
Eve Garrard, lecturer in Philosophy emeritus, University of Manchester published an essay at Fathom Journal in 2013 titled "The Pleasures of Antisemitism" which she updated in early 2024 under the title "Eat their skulls". Jews have long been favoured scapegoats of Christians, Muslims, the far right and the far left. Candace Owens is fairly notorious for her homophobia, probably for the same reason she's antisemitic: like Mel Gibson, Owens is a very reactionary Catholic.
Could you share links to Eve Gerrard's essays?
https://fathomjournal.org/eat-their-skulls-the-pleasures-of-antisemitism-updated-after-7-october/
Sono d'accordo su praticamente tutto quanto esposto,vorrei solo sottolineare,che, bisogna concentrare lo "sforzo" sull'antisionismo ( le differenze fra i due sono create artatamente per confondere ed intorbidire).
Soprattutto la sinistra ( a cui appartengo) ,è stata bersagliera da una propaganda dell'ex Unione Sovietica ( ci sono prove scritte del KGB di Andropov) di assimilare il SIONISMO al CAPITALISMO " sfruttatore" e colonialista. Nonostante l'Unione Sovietica avesse riconosciuto ,subito appena costituito nel '48 lo stato di Israele, dopo lo spostamento dello stesso dalla parte dell'occidente ,nell'ambito della guerra fredda e dei due "blocchi" , l'unione Sovietica ha inventato una " lotta palestinese" anticapitalista ,che, non aveva alcun seguito tra gli arabi / palestinesi, i quali non hanno mai seguito alcun partito LAICO di stampo occidentale ( anche se vi erano singoli esponenti palestinesi addestrati in URSS ,ma, ribadisco SENZA SEGUITO tra la popolazione locale) l'unica solidarietà, in una cultura tribale,é quella religiosa / islamica.
La propaganda è stata così efficace ( io stesso ricordo da adolescente, convegni supportati dalla sinistra comunista/ socialista ,con esponenti dei " non allineati" per la pace ed,immancabilmente ,qualche palestinese , in rappresentanza di chi? ).
Pertanto i progressisti sono stati da tempo sopraffatti da una propaganda massiccia ,che ha messo in discussione il SIONISMO , tanto EFFICACE , che, esponenti progressisti in buona fede non ritengono di essere antisemiti ,ma, antisionisti.
E' questa la matassa da sbrogliare ,per fare chiarezza ,e, compete alle persone di sinistra/ liberal progressista .
Cordialità
Vincenzo Bertozzi
E vero. Grazie
I read a Substack article today on a page called The Progressive Jew. I have never been more horrified by a self hating Jew spewing all the anti-Zionist talking points and trying to justify it all by saying he was raised as a Jewish Zionist until he found out the "real" history of Zionism. Reading the comments section was even worse. Most were telling him he didn't hate Israel enough. Most were non Jews but there were even more anti Zionist crackpot Jews in there than I thought possible.
We live in such scary times. I hope they will be happy being on the last train to Auschwitz.