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Why does the left support the Palestinians?
TownHall.com ^ | Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | by Dennis Prager

Posted on 06/25/2002 10:16:34 PM PDT by JohnHuang2

Why does the left support the Palestinians against Israel?

The question is rarely asked. It is simply taken for granted that the left -- Europe, the Western news media, the universities, the liberal churches, the arts world -- supports the Palestinians and the larger Arab/Muslim worlds in their war against Israel.

But the question does need to be asked. For it is completely inconsistent with the left's professed values to side with Israel's enemies. Just about every value the left claims to uphold Israel upholds and its enemies do not.

The left speaks about its passion for democracy ("power to the people"). Yet it is Israel that is a fully functioning democracy, as opposed to all of its Arab and Muslim enemies. Yasser Arafat is precisely the self-aggrandizing, corrupt dictator-type that the left claims to hold in contempt.

The left claims to have particular concern for women's rights. Yet it is Israel that has as highly developed a feminist movement as that of any Western country. It is Israel that conscripted women into its armed forces before almost any Western country. At the same time, the state of women's rights among Israel's Muslim enemies is perhaps the lowest in the world.

The left's greatest current preoccupation is with gay rights. Yet it is Israel that has annual gay pride days, while Egypt and other Arab and Muslim countries arrest homosexuals.

It is Israel that has an independent and highly liberal judiciary. It is Israel that has a leftist press. It is Israel that has been governed more by leftist, even socialist, parties than by rightist ones. Israel's enemies have none of this.

So, why isn't the left out there leading pro-Israel demonstrations?

The answer is as important as it is contemptible.

In general, the left does not care about women, independent judiciaries, minorities, democracy, gays or almost anything else for which it marches. That is why the left opposed America's war in Afghanistan, which liberated women from being treated like animals.

Nearly all the causes the left speaks for are noble-sounding covers for its real agenda -- the overthrowing of Western, especially Judeo-Christian and capitalist, values. Remember the chant at Stanford, "Hey, hey, ho ho, Western civ has got to go"? That is what animates the left.

In psychoanalytic terms, it is antagonism to one's father and his values. In a commencement speech he gave this year, the former president of Dartmouth College, James O. Freedman, a man of the left, said that the purpose of a college education is "to question your father's values." Those of us not on the left believe that the purpose of a college education is to discover what is true and what is good.

America embodies all that the left dislikes. It is the most religious of the industrialized democracies (proudly and uniquely Judeo-Christian). It is also the most capitalist. And, what drives the left especially crazy is that with all this religion and capitalism, America is the most powerful force on earth -- economically, militarily and culturally.

Israel is Little America. It, too, is religious (though a secular state like the United States, it is proudly Jewish). It, too, celebrates capitalism. There are no demonstrations in Israel against McDonald's. On the contrary, even before McDonald's opened there, Hebrew replicas like "McDavid's" were established.

And Israel, like America, celebrates its national identity, not the "world" identity that the left affirms. The left loathes nationalism unless it is anti-Western, like Palestinian or Cuban. America does not jump to attention when world treaties are signed and Israel is the U.N.'s pariah, rendering America and Israel the left's "axis of evil," far more reviled than Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

The question, "Why does the left support the Palestinians?" is an extremely important one. At this time in history nothing so illustrates the left's nihilism as does its support of the Palestinians against Israel.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
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Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Quote of the Day by RooRoobird14

1 posted on 06/25/2002 10:16:34 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2
bump
2 posted on 06/25/2002 10:17:34 PM PDT by timestax
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To: JohnHuang2
just want you to know, it is late and i need to get to sleep due to my work day starting at 5am. But my dear, i am so glad that you have posted something of this nature as i have often wondered the same thing. I will print and learn from you. heheh thanks.
3 posted on 06/25/2002 10:20:28 PM PDT by GUIDO
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To: timestax
BTT
4 posted on 06/25/2002 10:21:54 PM PDT by lainde
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To: GUIDO
You're more than welcome, my friend. Good night.
5 posted on 06/25/2002 10:22:14 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: GUIDO
btw, Dennis Prager, the author, is one of the most clear-thinking on this issue.
6 posted on 06/25/2002 10:23:48 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2
Some analysts/talking heads say it's the victimhood status of the Palis that they sympathize with. I agree, even if it means killing Jews, liberals love victims.
7 posted on 06/25/2002 10:24:40 PM PDT by Brett66
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To: JohnHuang2
BUMP THIS>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>> >
8 posted on 06/25/2002 10:31:14 PM PDT by GUIDO
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To: JohnHuang2
BUMP THIS>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>> >
9 posted on 06/25/2002 10:31:26 PM PDT by GUIDO
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To: JohnHuang2
Why does the left support the Palestinians?

I assumed everyone knew the answer to this one. It's because the Palestinians are the epitome of the "professional victim", and of couse the professional victim class is mother's milk to the socialist demagog. It's where they get their power.

The US has it's own group of Palestinians up and coming - just you wait and see.

10 posted on 06/25/2002 10:34:25 PM PDT by The Duke
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To: JohnHuang2
BTTT
11 posted on 06/25/2002 10:42:04 PM PDT by snowtigger
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Win the game and your complete registration fees are covered for FRiva Las Vegas.


12 posted on 06/25/2002 10:42:25 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
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To: JohnHuang2
Excellent article, John. Thanks.
13 posted on 06/25/2002 10:48:17 PM PDT by Prince Caspian
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To: Prince Caspian
Most welcome.
14 posted on 06/25/2002 10:49:07 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2
The Soviet Union supported Palestinians too
15 posted on 06/25/2002 11:02:00 PM PDT by eclectic
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To: timestax
Because hating Jews will always take priority over all other considerations... read the Bible.
16 posted on 06/25/2002 11:09:46 PM PDT by Kay Soze
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To: JohnHuang2
I had always wondered why the liberals could support nations that had a state sponsored and required relgious participation, stoned homosexuals to death, reduced women to slave status.

You dont think that maybe Liberals use those issuse to garner support for something else do you?

17 posted on 06/25/2002 11:19:07 PM PDT by Kay Soze
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To: JohnHuang2
There's another reason why the Left's support of the Palestinians is so puzzling. The so-called "Palestinians" are the only so-called "oppressed minority" to count among their native heroes a man who actually assassinated an American presidential candidate-- one who happened to be an icon of the Left, Bobby Kennedy.

I've often found it hard to fathom that the Left could be so blindly enthusiastic about the tribe of Sirhan Sirhan. But, that's the Left for you: illogical, easily herded, and with short memories.
18 posted on 06/25/2002 11:20:40 PM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast
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To: JohnHuang2
The real question is: Why do Jews support the left.
19 posted on 06/26/2002 1:28:39 AM PDT by mindprism.com
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To: mindprism.com
The real question is: Why do Jews support the left.

Excellent question but one I've never understood. I put that question right up there with why does the Black community (I refuse to call them hyphenated Americans!) support the left? The left has kept them in 20th. century slavery - "Give us your vote and we'll take care of you". If that isn't right off the plantation, I don't know what is.

20 posted on 06/26/2002 4:00:54 AM PDT by Elkiejg
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