Posted on 07/26/2006 7:04:08 AM PDT by SJackson
Few facets of today’s politics are more obvious or more startling than the Left’s hatred of Israel. Be it the United Nations, elite universities or The New York Times, the Left unashamedly uses its institutions as forums from which to conduct its relentless campaign of vilification.
What makes the Left’s behavior especially puzzling is that it runs counter to one of its supposedly most cherished principles – concern for oppressed minorities. Its opprobrium of the country sheltering a group that has been persecuted longer, more unjustly and more cruelly than any other thus presents a seemingly irreconcilable contradiction.
To see what’s behind it, we need to begin with the Left’s overall disposition, which is one of entrenched anti-westernism. Making no secret of its contempt for the West’s traditions, values and achievements, the Left is as much offended by the West’s Judeo-Christian religion as it is by its moral code. The Left deems the West’s cultural triumphs no more unique than those of other societies and sees its past as little more than a story of oppression, exploitation and ignominy. And the Left despises free market capitalism – our socio-economic foundation – which it claims to be exploitative, unfair or worse.
The Left does not confine itself to criticism, but also expresses itself in practical action. These efforts take place on two fronts. Internally, it seeks to undermine the West by corroding its values and institutions. Externally, it renders assistance to its enemies which is why, for instance, many on the Left sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Belligerent and armed, the Soviets vowed to consign the West to the abyss of history and large numbers of leftists relished the prospect. Needless to say, the collapse of the Soviet Empire came as a bitter setback.
Then, on 9/11, radical Islamists burst on the scene. Their attacks and subsequent statements left no doubt that their goal was the West’s destruction. Perceiving a unique opportunity, the Left sprang into action and since then has done all it can to undermine our ability to prosecute the war. Impugning the president, attacking our military, calling for the closure of detention centers and outing secret programs are all part and parcel of this effort.
Intent on using Islam as a battering ram against the West, the Left has pressed on with hopeful zeal, for the terrorist attacks in America and Europe revealed just how vulnerable we are. Even more significantly, most Western nations are quite obviously unwilling to defend themselves and they castigate the one country willing to confront the threat head on. The West has shown itself weak and vacillating, and there is indeed much reason for optimism as far as the Left is concerned. The Left’s hopes, however, are being seriously threatened from an unexpected quarter: Israel.
The Islamic movement derives much of its impetus from the belief in the coming of a worldwide caliphate which, most Muslims believe, is ultimately destined to rule this earth. One of the great obstacles on the road to this vision is Western civilization, which will have to be overcome if Islam is ever to reign supreme.
Given the West’s economic and military superiority, conquering it is a task whose magnitude could easily discourage even the most ardent believers. In order to shore up the fighting spirit of their followers and unleash their destructive passions, Islamic ideologues employ a two-pronged strategy. They portray the West not only as a beehive of godless infidels, but also as a decadent, corrupt, depraved and dysfunctional culture. This ensures that many are driven to jihad as much by their outraged moral sensibilities as by a desire to bring about Allah’s kingdom and securing their place in paradise should they die on the way.
But this strategy of vilification has one profound weakness. It is based on lies.
Nothing makes this more obvious than the State of Israel, a flourishing Western-type democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Decent, just and fair, the country’s mode of existence is completely at variance with Islam’s claims about the West’s inherent wickedness. Furthermore, Israel’s success and prosperity accentuate the backwardness, poverty and stagnation of the Islamic regimes themselves.
Israel thus puts the lie in devastating fashion to Islam’s claims about the West while throwing into sharp relief the depth of its own failures. Situated right in their own backyard, the Jewish state continually threatens to expose Islamic ideologues for the demagogues they are in the eyes of the very populations they seek to manipulate.
This in turn poses a grave danger to radical Islam itself, because once it is shown for a fraud in its own hotbed of the Middle East – the place from which it draws much of its impetus and energy – it may as well abandon its aspiration of ever becoming a force that can seriously challenge the West.
This possibility alarms the Left deeply. Having enlisted Islam as its closest ally in the anti-Western crusade, the Left naturally wants it to remain as strong and robust as possible. By undercutting the viability of radical Islam, Israel thus endangers the Left at the point of its ultimate hope and desire – the West’s destruction. Only when we grasp this will we understand the true reasons for the Left’s bitter dislike of the Jewish state. The Left’s virulent attacks on the country that is home to a long-persecuted minority will then no longer seem so bewildering.
One of the Left’s most salient characteristics is that its concern for the causes it outwardly espouses extends only insofar as those causes further leftist objectives, which, in the case of minorities, is the weakening of Western culture through balkanization. The moment a minority happens to benefit the Western cause – as Israel does in this clash of civilizations – the Left not only abandons it, but turns against it with a vengeance.
There can be little doubt that the elimination of Israel is what the Left is ultimately after. Statements by many of its spokesmen make this amply clear. Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader and their ilk speak of Israel as a land whose malignant influence can only be checked by severe measures. And the liberal elites throughout the West back that kind of rhetoric with action. In a gesture so twisted as to defy belief, it awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to a terrorist who had devoted his life to Israel’s obliteration.
The United Nations, the Mecca of the international Left, passes resolution after resolution condemning Israel while turning a blind eye to the barbarism of its enemies. Attempting to force terms that would make its survival untenable, the UN tries to box Israel into a position from which it would be unable to defend itself. At the same time, the Left’s media organs put out editorial after editorial castigating Israel.
Few examples better reveal the Left’s duplicity than its stance on Israel, a country whose only offense is that it is a successful practitioner of the Western tradition. A Western outpost in the very heart our enemy’s base, the Jewish state is a crucial battleground in this war of civilizations. And the Left, fully cognizant of its seminal importance, is doing all it can to tear it down.
As the West’s strategic ally, Israel must not be abandoned if we are to emerge victorious from the life-and-death conflict in which we are currently engaged. But there is another, equally important, reason why Israel must survive. An enlightened and decent country, its demise would be a tragic setback not only for Jews but for all who fight on the side of humanity and enlightenment against terror, fanaticism and darkness.
Vasko Kohlmayer defected from Communist Czechoslovakia at the age of 19. He lives in London and can be contacted at vasko_kohlmayer@msn.com.
"What makes the Left’s behavior especially puzzling is that it runs counter to one of its supposedly most cherished principles – concern for oppressed minorities."
What is equally puzzling is the blind support of the majority of Jews in the U.S. for the Democrat Party.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also
2006israelwar or WOT
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They hate Israel because they hate God.
This article does a great job of explaining the political hatred.
The weakness in it is that Israel is pretty much socialistic. You'd think their fellow socialists around the world would revel in their existence.
I've never understood why so many Jewish people align with the socialist left when that left has been the source of the greatest hatred of them. Perhaps it's the wisdom of the Godfather: "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
Hate is such an inferior word in this instance. Despise and Loathe are much more apt.....
Great article,
What's strange is Israel is a pretty leftwing country. I noticed the change in attitude after the 67 war.
I think this guy "gets it."
The Islamists see the lefty's as one thing only:
Useful idiots!!
Yep...explains one anomoly on all this. Where is the Hollyweird left like Barbra Striesand and Steven Spielberg?
The left loves and supports the "Victim" in any conflict.
Conflict resolution 101 for Simpletons equates that,
"The Powerful are ALWAYS the Oppressor and those without and or with less power are ALWAYS the Victim".
Anti-Semitism by the left is not new and it is not surprising. It predates 9-11 as far back as you want to go.
What is surprising is the number of Jews who support the destruction of Israel, either directly ( by calling for the destruction of Israel) or indrectly (by supporting those who call for the destruction of Israel). I have read a lot of explainations on this, but I still cannot understand it.
Guilt? Or perhaps a chance to revel in "victimology"?
Political extremists (both left and right, btw) are inherently anti-liberal. I refer to "liberalism" in the traditional sense, as defining the Western (and now global) consensus of good governance and liberty that emerged in the modern era, and is comprised of a constellation of principles including: market capitalism, rule of law and limits on governmental powers, individualism, freedom of conscious, freedom of association, and so on.
Political extremists are Utopians who believe that the world must be reorganized (or swept aside and rebuilt) on the basis of a few central ideas ("social justice," racial purity, or whatever). Their ideology is the key to this, indeed the key to everything, and must be TOTALLY and universally accepted and applied. So extremists are inherently "totalists," i.e. totalitarians, as opposed to liberals.
By empowering the individual, and free associations of individuals, and embracing compromise and the open competition of aims and ideas, liberalism directly obstructs the totalitarian project.
Somehow, during the course of the 20th Century, if not before, Jews came to be symbolic of liberalism. The Nazis unquestionably saw them this way. Maybe others did before.
IOW the left hates Israel because they hate Jews and Israel is a Jewish state. And they hate Jews because the left is dominated by extremism and extremists hate liberalism, which Jews represent (even if at a subconscious level).
Stockholm Syndrome??
They both have a common goal, world domination, under one authority. Each uses the other for it's own ends. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.........
"What is equally puzzling is the blind support of the majority of Jews in the U.S. for the Democrat Party."
This puzzle I will take to my grave! I am not Jewish, but have wondered about this since high school. My current Jewish friends are not unlike the ones I had in high school(of the Mark Levin style of absolute conservatism). Over the years, I must have asked "why" to 50 Jewish conservatives, and received 50 different responses : )
It only took one post to observe this too. You're dead on, and I don't understand it myself.
God
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