PALESTINIANISM’S ACCELERANT

“PRO-PALESTINIAN” ACTIVISTS ARE SMUG IN THEIR PIETY. SCRATCH THE SURFACE AND THEIR CONCEIT IS DRIVEN BY SOMETHING UGLY.

Do you though? Because you’re part of the reason they are dying.

In my previous two posts (here and here), I wrote about how people (especially the young) flock to the Palestinian cause because it makes them feel meaningful, connected and self-righteous.

Then I explored why so many NGOs, activist groups, churches and politicians welcome these attention-avid activists, signing on to a movement that is violent, misogynistic, homophobic and racist — in other words, fundamentally at odds with their values — and that perpetuates a conflict that harms Palestinians in the name of helping them. (It has to do with leveraging Palestinian suffering to recruit supporters and raise donations.)

I tried to show that the “pro-Palestinian” movement is driven more by the self-interest of the “allies” than by what is good for Palestinians.

What I mostly avoided was the elephant in the room.

I’ve been told by some readers that they shut down as soon as I use the word “antisemitism.” I’ll address the problematic aspects of that attitude in future. In the meantime: antisemitism antisemitism antisemitism.

Because the explanations I offered for the attraction of Palestinianism for the masses, and the benefits it offers organizations around recruitment and fundraising, tell only half the story.

It is not coincidental that these attractants are spectacularly successful in this particular instance.

Notice that the same strategies could be applied to the crisis in Sudan or Syria. Amnesty International could presumably raise money on the backs of dead Sudanese as easily as they do marketing dead Palestinians. Activists could feel as self-righteous standing up for Syrians as they do standing up for Palestinians.

Except, no.

That’s simply not true. All evidence indicates this is precisely false.

Only Palestinians evoke this level of global five-alarm freakouts.

There are 150 times as many people in the world facing catastrophes similar to, or worse than, those facing Gazans. And they evoke not a whisper in the wind compared to the protestpocalypse the Palestinian situation arouses.

And there is only one explanation for that.

It’s because we can blame the Palestinian situation on Jews.

The Syrian civil war, which was caused by the tyrant Bashar al-Assad, killed somewhere around 10 times as many people as the conflict in Gaza. There has been, to my knowledge, not a single protest in my hometown, where you can hardly walk down the street without bumping into some demonstration against Israel or drown in “pro-Palestinian” graffiti, posters and shrieking.

In Sudan, 12 million people are displaced — six times the entire population of Gaza — and 24 million there face acute food insecurity. Famine in Sudan? If you can’t blame the Jews, we don’t give a damn.

There are 305 million people in the world facing immediate humanitarian crises. Two million of them live in Gaza. And they absorb — what? — 90, 95% of the world’s attention?

Why?

Because of Jews. There is simply no other explanation.

There are excuses, of course: It’s the “Holy Land”; It is the focus of the faiths of half the world’s populations; it is a proxy for other ideological conflicts.

Bullshit.

It’s because Jews.

And yet, make this self-evident case and you will receive an avalanche of outraged responses.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of a few you can expect:

· Denial — “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism!”

· Outrage — “How dare you smear critics of Israel with that accusation!”

· Deflection — “The real problem is Israeli policies, not antisemitism.”

· Whataboutism — “What about Islamophobia, racism, colonialism? Why focus on antisemitism?”

· Projection — “You’re the one weaponizing antisemitism for political gain.”

· Inversion — “Zionists are the real racists and supremacists.”

· Dismissal — “That’s just hasbara talking points.”

· Gaslighting — “Jews are always imagining antisemitism where there is none.”

· Exemption — “I can’t be antisemitic, I’m criticizing a state, not a people.”

· Appeal to Authority — “Even Jewish scholars and rabbis say Zionism is illegitimate.”

· Reversal — “Accusing us of antisemitism is itself racist and silencing.”

· Moral Superiority — “We’re the true antiracists; Zionism is oppression.”

· Distraction — “We’re talking about Palestinian suffering, not antisemitism.”

· Ridicule — “So now criticizing a government makes me antisemitic?”

· False Distinction — “Anti-Zionism is political critique, antisemitism is prejudice — totally separate.”

· Minimization — “Maybe some extremists cross the line, but that’s not what we’re doing.”

· Victimhood — “We’re the ones being silenced by bogus antisemitism claims.”

· Conflation — “Criticism of Israel = free speech. Calling it antisemitism = censorship.”

· Counter-Accusation — “Zionists exploit antisemitism to shut down debate.”

Now imagine if a person pointed out what is self-evidently anti-Black racism or anti-trans bigotry or misogynistic ideas only to be greeted with any, let alone all, of these assaults.

It is unthinkable. No progressive or antiracist person would ever respond to any other group in this sort of fashion. Only Jews.

Progressive, antiracist people, in any similar scenario involving any other group, hold as a sacred commitment self-examination and reparation in response to even the potential presence of racism.

The antagonistic, belligerent, outraged rejoinders when it comes to Jews and antisemitism is such an unmitigated betrayal of these core values — such an atrocious defiling of everything they claim to cherish in their approach to every group except Jews — that it is incontrovertible proof of the crime.

In other words: Even if the original accusation of antisemitism was totally bogus — even if it was, as the perpetrators so often assert, an example of devious Jews manipulatively smearing innocent people with false allegations of bigotry — the response itself is confirmation of the charge.

Even if the perpetrators had not demonstrated unequivocal antisemitism before, their reactions to being called out on antisemitism betray the progressive, antiracist response to allegations of bigotry toward any other group.

That is undeniable proof of antisemitism.

To sum up these last three posts and then make a gobsmacking observation …

“Pro-Palestinian” activists have their own selfish reasons for jumping on this bandwagon — feeling special, connecting to something larger and meaningful, being “pro-Palestinian” is cool.

For most of these social justice LARPers, Palestinians and their well-being rank somewhere below an I look awesome in a keffiyeh selfie.

Social justice agencies, human rights groups, politicians, and activist movements join the “pro-Palestinian” parade because it is in their own pecuniary and political self-interests — even though their actions help perpetuate the conflict and harm the very people they claim to support. Their incendiary, divisive activism exacerbates conflict, which begets more bloody images, which beget more donations, which beget more activism and so forth.

But while there are selfish reasons for all of these, something else accounts for the outrageous success of the strategy. It is an accelerant almost as old as time and as fresh as the spray-paint on the latest hate graffiti.

There is only one thing that has ever worked such wonders, united so many disparate interests and inspired such fire-breathing indignation.

Jews.

We can keep ignoring this truth. Most progressives seem determined to do just that.

But if we want to actually free Palestine, we need to recognize that there are a vast number of gatekeepers, groups and individuals in whose interest it is to keep Palestinians downtrodden and victimized. From the Arab and Islamic tyrants for whom Palestine is a priceless distraction for their own oppressed masses, to the NGOs whose fundraising departments score big with urgent appeals on Palestine, to basement-dwelling justice activist cosplayers whose entire identities are wrapped up in Palestinian destitution, a complex “pro-Palestinian” network exists not to resolve the Palestinian situation but to perpetuate it. And all of these self-interested motives — each of which prevents rather than resolves the Palestinian crisis — is founded on and/or strengthened by antisemitism.

Stepping back for a quick moment: it is worth noting that Israel has no conceivable motivation for perpetuating Palestinian misery. Israelis would much rather live next to a happy, peaceable, contented people. That is in their self-interest. Ending the conflict and seeing Palestinians thriving and successful would make life for Israelis infinitely better.

Considering the various vested interests in the Israeli-Palestinian scenario, each with their particular agendas, Israelis may be the only ones who actually seek an end we might call (without scoff quotes) pro-Palestinian.

Then there are the Palestinians themselves.

In a bizarro, counterintuitive reality in which everyone who calls themselves “pro-Palestinian” is acting in ways that advance their own selfish interests rather than those of Palestinians, there is one conspicuous exception.

Of all the players in this sordid, tragic mess, Palestinians may be the only people who are not acting in their own self-interest.

I’ll explain that in my next post.

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