IF YOU’RE NOT A ZIONIST, YOU SPIT ON PEACE AND PALESTINIANS

Oh, does that strike you as odd? Read on. Because if you do not support Israel, you are part of the reason Palestinian are dying.

The reason Palestinians are dying.

Pro-Palestinian activists around the world have mobilized their significant resources to ensure that the future of the Palestinian people is one of individual human rights, economic prosperity, peace, social cohesion and a bright future as members in the global family of nations.

Bahahahahahaha. Of course I’m joking. So-called “pro-Palestinian” activists have done nothing of the sort.

The well-being of Palestinians appears to be among the last things “pro-Palestinian” activists care about.

Clearest evidence: If these activists wanted to stop the deaths of Palestinians, they wouldn’t be calling for a ceasefire — they would be demanding Hamas surrender and release the hostages, which would end the war today.

If they cared about Palestinians, they would not be egging on the terrorists to fight to eradicate Israel (“From the river to the sea …”), they would be pressing Palestinians to prepare to coexist and live as neighbors beside Israel, rather than instead of Israel.

If they cared about Palestinians, they would be advocating for Palestinians to inculcate in their children a love of peace and a hope for constructive self-determination, not a curriculum of hatred and self-destruction.

Put simply, the term “pro-Palestinian” (notice how I always put it in scoffquotes? Click to read why!) is an Orwellian inversion. The people who drape themselves in Palestinian flags, who paint their faces in the Palestinian colors like toddlers at a state fair, who occupy North American campuses and declare them no-go zones for Jews are not helping Palestinians. They are harming them. The only thing that will ever bring peace and Palestinian self-determination is a negotiated settlement predicated on the Palestinian people’s willingness to live as peaceful neighbors with Israel.

Everything the world does short of demanding Palestinians put down their weapons does not advance peace and Palestinian self-determination. It pushes it further away. Every celebration of violence, every chant of “Globalize the intifada!” every veneration of “resistance,” every excuse for terrorism pushes the alleged goal of a free Palestine further away.

And, of course, the chant “Free Palestine” is the most Orwellian term of all. An independent Palestine tomorrow would be one of the least free places on earth. The idea of “Palestinian human rights,” which is the mobilizing mission for millions of activists worldwide begins and ends at national self-determination. Actual individual freedoms for Palestinian men, women, religious and ethnic minorities, queer people or any other person in an independent Palestine are not even on the agenda. This is not only because the Palestinians are led by autocrats and terrorists, but because the millions marching worldwide have rewarded those tyrants and mass murderers by excusing and rewarding their atrocities. Of all the chants we hear at “pro-Palestinian” rallies, not one ever calls for democracy, individual rights, women’s equality or (don’t even start) LGBTQ+ rights in a “free” Palestine. (Prove me wrong — please!)

For a few months now, I have been pumping out this these essays/blog posts/rants/sparkling gems/call them whatever. My “angle” is the inexplicably rare perspective of a gay, non-Jewish, left-wing, Canadian Zionist activist. I say “inexplicably rare” because, by my logic, every gay person, every leftist, every activist, every feminist, every reasonable and decent person should be a Zionist.