WHY I WON’T LEAVE THE LEFT

Antisemites. Anti-Zionists. Radical extremists. These are the ones who need to leave — not me.

Kookoo clock strikes 12.

This week, I slammed you with a three-parter (here, here and here) about how the “progressive” approach to Palestine betrays every leftist value and undermines everything else we claim to believe about women’s equality, queer rights, human dignity, nonviolence, democracy and on and on.

Given what I’ve been saying and writing for, well, ever, a lot of people ask me, Why are you still marching with these people?

The answer is obvious. Or should be. I’m an actual progressive. The anti-Israel haters aren’t. They need to leave the left, not me.

That’s the short answer. But there’s more (of course).

For a range of reasons I will write about some time, standing with Israel and the Jewish people is an important part of who I am. In times of peace, that’s not a big deal. Now that attacking Israel and Jews is (again) the world’s favourite pastime, it kind of elbows a lot of other stuff that is important to me out of the way. That’s why these posts have eaten up all my spare time.

But leaving the left isn’t really an option for me. To those friends (and others) who seem really intent on pointing out the hypocrisy of me including myself among the same cadre that hates Israel (and Jews), let me explain …

In addition to lumping me in with the antisemites and Israel-haters, critics insist that, by calling myself a progressive, a leftist, a liberal, whatever (I honestly think putting people in super-specific boxes is silly and impossible, so I’m actually not much concerned with the nuances between these terms) I am tarred with their brush.

If you are a progressive, you must support Defund the Police, the most extreme DEI overreach and every caricature of the left. Well, no. Just like being a Republican doesn’t mean you support David Duke or the forced-birthers or the Jewish Space Laser crowd.

You might say “But on Friday, you basically claimed all Palestinianists make common cause with Hamas and the ayatollahs and FGM.” 

I did. But here’s the difference: I condemn the extremists in my movement.

Yes, but … the anti-Israel crowd have basically taken over the left. This is not a fringe element within the progressive movement.

Yes and no. What we have on the left is a range of factors and characters, including antisemitism, the madness of crowds, caving to intimidation and threats, widespread ignorance, pressure to conform, a thirst for the Last Great Cause, and a lot more.

The illiberal zealots who have made this the left’s cause celebre are a core group of radical extremists, some of whom are intelligent and informed, others of whom are ignorant, brainwashed and/or ideologically blinkered. The second circle of hell that surrounds the progressive movement’s nut of nuts are followers who will drink whatever Kool-Aid the most persuasive Jim Jones tells them to. Going concentrically out from here are: Those who judge people not on the content of their character but on a sliding scale of skin tone. People who just love screaming and wrecking stuff. Social zeroes who think camping on the quad is activism. Those with FOMO for spitting on people and those who have traded velvet corsets at Renaissance Fayres for keffiyehs at demos outside synagogues.

Then there are two circles of half-hearted fellow travellers: The go-along-to-get-along crowd, the ones who are afraid of being cancelled or not invited to the book-burning if they don’t share the hate-Israel memes. And the fear-for-my-future cowards, who are genuinely afraid for their physical safety if they go against the thugs they hang out with or who know they will never become president of Students for Avocado Toast if they don’t get on board with the Yay October 7 festivities.

Some of these are irredeemable. But politics is a pendulum and some people mellow and realize the error of their ways. Let’s start by calling in before we throw ourselves into calling out.

If you think the fact that this sort of people coexist with me in the progressive movement is reason enough for me to depart, try chatting up the attendees at a Trump rally and tell me who you’d rather try to coach back to sanity. It’s a tough call.

You know which progressives we don’t hear from much these days? Decent, intelligent, peaceable, reasonable actual progressive people who know there is precious little value in arguing with a bunch of indecent, violence-supporting, unreasonable hoodlums. A lot of these people, I suspect, are hoping the war in Gaza ends and things settle down and the inmates go back to the asylum. Courageous? No. Understandable? If you are a non-Jew with a choice to remain silent and wait this out, well, it won’t be your proudest moment, but it’s probably better than being spat on, ratio-ed, cancelled, alienated and accused of genocide.

Is the fact that these folks are staying quiet a proud moment for the left? Nope. But we all have bills to pay and dinners to cook. Confronting antisemitic goons, while always the right thing to do, is not an appetizing way to spend a Saturday afternoon. When things cool down, these people will help us bring the left back from the brink.

But back to me being a progressive and staying put. You think I should leave the left? How would I even do that?

I believe rich people should be taxed more and disadvantaged people helped more. The planet should be cleaned up and the corporations that made the messes should be the ones to pay for it. I think rich countries should help poorer countries — not by skimming their most promising citizens and making them our citizens, but by partnering in economic and social development projects that help them become more sustainable and successful. Canada should welcome more new Canadians — especially those fleeing persecution and economic adversity, not only millionaires (though we can welcome some of them too). I think recognizing and respecting the names, pronouns and self-described identities of other people is the least that non-assholes can do. Whether a woman has an abortion is none of my business — but making sure the government, in my name, doesn’t prevent her from doing so is. I think businesses that can’t afford to pay employees a living wage can’t afford to be in business. Healthcare and housing are human rights. I can’t think of any reason why a civilian needs an automatic or semiautomatic weapon and I wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep if police went into people’s dressers and under their beds to confiscate them. In times of economic challenge, governments should go into debt to fund supports for people. I believe in equity hiring. Money cannot reverse the pain of past injustices toward groups of people — but it can ameliorate the systemic intergenerational disadvantages those injustices have created today. Plus, it sends an important message about our society’s commitment to even symbolically accounting for past errors. We should be transitioning more aggressively from fossil fuels. Guaranteed annual incomes are a good idea. I think governments should do more, not less.

See why I don’t “leave the left”? I can’t. (Besides, do you really want me in your movement?)

What I can do is fight so that the left doesn’t get further damaged by the nutjobs who have highjacked the bus to progress and held a gun to the driver’s head demanding it reroute to Crazytown.

Which brings me to my friends’ questions. You seem to think it is my ideological or moral duty to leave the left, instead of fighting for the values it represents. But you would say that, wouldn’t you? Because you (presumably) want fewer people fighting for these values. So is your priority allying with Jews and Israel? Or are you are using the subterfuge of fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism as a wedge to weaken the progressive movement? If the former, good on you. If the latter, well, that’s not many steps up from the circles of hell folks I characterized earlier.

If you and I agree on peace and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians — or at least a more reasoned approach to Israel and a less, let’s say, genocidal approach to the Jewish people — why wouldn’t you want as many voices as possible across the political spectrum to advance these issues?

To attack people we agree with on a crucial issue like this because they belong to a different political party or movement than we do seems wildly counterproductive. Are we trying to advance the things we care about, after all, or are we trying to win one for our side?

Why turn Israel and fighting antisemitism into a partisan battle? That’s what the haters are doing.

Fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism should be central to people no matter where we are on the spectrum. If haters emerge on the left or the right, we should unite across differences to fight them and chase them from any mainstream movement — not for the sake of that movement narrowly but for the sake of human decency and our society more broadly.

In my tiny way, I’m doing that on the left. Maybe give me a hand instead of @ing me.