STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

AS A GAY, AGNOSTIC, PROGRESSIVE ZIONIST, I’M FINE MARCHING WITH EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS. HAVE YOU SEEN WHO’S ON THE OTHER SIDE?

The spiritual leader of today’s progressive movement.

The dictum that politics makes strange bedfellows has probably never been more true than in our current era.

As a gay, agnostic, progressive Canadian, and a Zionist, I know something about strange bedfellows.

To be clear: there is nothing odd about being a progressive and a Zionist. If there is one through-line in everything I write here, it is that Zionism is inherently progressive and anti-Zionism is inherently hostile to absolutely everything progressive people claim for support.

As Dorothy Parker (may have) said of heterosexuality, progressive anti-Zionism is not normal, it is just common.

I would take this a step further and say that a progressive who is anti-Zionist is beyond abnormal. They betray everything we ostensibly believe in: equality for all people, nonviolence, multicultural coexistence, antiracism, gay rights, feminism, etc. etc.

I can hardly deny, though, that I now find myself on the same side of street rallies with people I used to find myself across from when I was protesting, for example, religious homophobia.

A few years back, in my role as a writer for a Jewish newspaper, I was at an Israeli government tourism event in suburban Vancouver encouraging evangelicals to visit the Holy Land. At the end of the presentation, one adventure-seeking young woman approached the presenter and asked if she would be able to visit the city of Sodom.

I had always heard that the people of Sodom were notoriously inhospitable, plus Vegas is a lot closer and cheaper. I considered meeting her halfway and inviting her to my place. “We’re having pot roast tonight.”

I was reminded of all this after my post this week about the Canadian election. One reader commented that Conservative support for Israel is based on evangelical theology that sees Israel as a prereq for the Second Coming. (I raise this for illustrative purposes only. I do not mean to single this person out or criticize them. This is a dominant perspective.)

The fact that evangelical and other conservative Christians make up a significant portion of the non-Jewish pro-Israel community in North America is a point of some obsession for progressive critics of Israel (and a cause of some awkwardness among many Jews I know).

I used to share a bit of unease. I got over it.

To Jews and my fellow allies, I say: In a world rampant with antismeitism, we are hardly in a position to apply litmus tests to people who want to be on our side.

But that is secondary to the message I slap back at Israel’s enemies, who accuse me of cavorting with many of the people who have been at the forefront of opposing reproductive choice, and who are anti-gay, anti-trans or who hold other ideas we may disagree with.

If we are going to accuse the other side of idea cooties, well, this is one the anti-Zionists aren’t going to win.

Both sides have their religious fundamentalists. We have generally peace-abiding fundies who advocate for their ideas through the conventional modes of social activism and electoral organizing. The anti-Zionists are in cahoots with extremists who are building nukes to erase Israel from the map and who immolate live humans, rape, behead, kidnap and mass murder to advance their agenda.

On my side are some people who question the orthodoxy of LGBTQ+ culture and the role of women in Western societies. On the other side are ayatollahs and imams who force women to hide themselves lest their very existence provoke menfolk who lack the ability to control their impulses, and execute queer people.

By the very standards and measures these people use to condemn me for marching with evangelical Christians, they are guilty of making common cause with the virture vigilantes and end-time engineers of Iran, and with Hamas and Hezbollah, the oppressors of Palestinians and the perpetrators of October 7.

Christians whose approaches to a whole number of social issues contradict my own are part of a large and diverse coalition of people worldwide who support Jewish self-determination, which is, at heart, a movement for a democratic, pluralist, inclusive democracy with equality for all.

But Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah — even the “moderate” Palestinian Authority, which still operates a “pay-for-slay” program that encourages its people to blow themselves up in crowds of Jews — are the absolute heart and core of the Palestinian movement.

The misinformation majors and street activist keffiyeh cosplayers are ancillary to a movement that is, at its core and mission, violent, misogynistic, homophobic, intolerant, xenophobia, racist and antithetical to everything progressives claim to advance.

And these people have the audacity to criticize me for befriending Pentecostals and Baptists? Some of my friends may speak in tongues now and then, but their friends ululate and scream Allahu Akbar while cutting off the heads of babies. So let’s get some perspective on damning by association.

After all my decades of standing against religious intolerance, yes, I have had a few pangs of anxiety when I find myself among pro-Israel activists who may think that my marriage should be annulled or that I am going to a hell I don’t believe exists.

But I will tell you this: without a single exception, I have been treated with respect, warmth and kindness by every evangelical and conservative Christian I have encountered in my many years as a pro-Israel person.

From my erstwhile “friends” in the progressive movement, I have received hostility, personal attacks, dismissiveness, harassment, abuse, intimidation and death threats.

This observation does not prove that my side is empirically right and their side demonstrably wrong. But it sure as hell gives you a clear contrast of the kinds of people who are engaged on either side of this discussion, and it puts the lie to progressive claims to language like inclusion, coexistence and tolerance.

Whatever reservations I may once have had about marching with the same people I used to march against (or, more accurately, who used to march against me), such accusations now fill me with outrage at the gobsmacking hypocrisy of my onetime allies.

I used to have some nagging doubts about some of the people on “my side.” Yet I have not seen any indication that “pro-Palestinian” activists in Canada or anywhere else lose a moment of sleep over the despicable individuals, groups, ideologies and atrocities that are at the very core of their “pro-Palestinian” activism.

Given the choice between my allies and theirs, my conscience is clear. In fact, I am proud to march with those who demonstrate genuine humanity toward Jewish people and Israel — no matter what their motivation or impetus. Of course, as we saw on October 7 and since, many of Israel’s enemies in North America are also proud to stand with the full spectrum of their big tent. These include those who perpetrated the rape of living and dead humans, who burned families alive, who kidnapped and have held Jews in underground bunkers for a year and a half, who represent the nadir of human depravity.

If we are going to be judged by the respective qualities of our strange bedfellows, I am completely comfortable with that.