Monday, June 18, 2012

The Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism: The Moral Equivalency Canard

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Mike L.

Progressive-left Jewish Zionists are failing the Jewish people.

If the first way in which progressive-left Zionism is failing is in its ostrich-like reluctance to acknowledge, and seriously discuss, the rise of the Jihad throughout the Muslim Middle East, and another way is through their justifying bigotry against their own people, yet another is in the fact that they always play defense.

It needs to be understood, however, that one major reason for these obvious failures of progressive-Zionist politics is due to what we might call the Moral Equivalency Canard. Over at CiF Watch, Adam Levick relates a story of a young Harvard graduate that he met at a Shabbat seder in Jersualem who intends "to organize a group of Israeli Jews to go to Afghanistan and offer local tribes and governments Israeli assistance in fostering their development."

One guest queried her on whether her plan included protection for her group of erstwhile volunteers from U.S. and NATO forces. Another asked if she had thought through the immense security risks for Jews working in a state which is 99% Muslim – one still terrorized by sadistic Taliban terrorism. (There is reported to be literally one Jew left in the country).

Our Shabbat guest turned to us and said something to the effect of “Muslims aren’t especially antisemitic”.

Other than perhaps an eye roll, I maintained my composure and tried to change the subject, asking our friend about her academic background: what expertise did she possess which would prepare her for such an ambitious diplomatic undertaking?

It turns out she studied intercultural relations at Harvard University

Levick wonders just how it is that so many on the western-left refuse to acknowledge Islamist intolerance? This is basically the very same question that we've been asking on Israel Thrives since we first started publishing in 2009. Just why is it that there are so many things relating to the Arab-Israel conflict that are entirely verboten for discussion, including the rise of radical Islam? We have a whole (and incomplete) list of items arranged on the right side of this screen that cannot be broached for discussion among progressives (and I say this as someone who came out of that movement) because they violate Politically Correct views. These include the centuries of Jewish dhimmitude under the savage boot of Islamic imperialism, the recent construction of Palestinian identity, Arab and Palestinian Koranically-based racism as the fundamental source of the conflict, and the ways in which contemporary progressive anti-Zionism serves as a cloak for gross anti-Semitism.

And on and on and on.

Levick offers the following explanation for the problem:

Western guilt: the post-colonial a priori (often arbitrary) determination of guilt and innocence, based on the West’s past (imperial) sins. Previously subjugated peoples seem never to lose their status as the “oppressed”.

Moral vanity: the desire of enlightened Westerners (often burdened with guilt derived from the dynamic above) to be seen as enlightened champions of those assigned as the the oppressed and downtrodden in the world.

And, finally, the focus of our discourse:

Moral equivalence and the rejection of “good and evil”: the faith that most, if not all, conflicts in the world are based on misunderstandings and that all cultures, nations, traditions, religions, are equal. One is no better than any other.

Progressives often tend to believe that the reason for Palestinian-Arab hostility toward Jews in the Middle East is because those Jews behave badly... and not just badly, but badly on the order of Nazi Germany "badly" or Apartheid South Africa "badly." If the Palestinians often teach their children to despise Jews, well, Israeli Jews often teach their children to despise Arabs. If the Palestinians shoot rockets into Israeli civilian areas, then it is also true that the Israelis "collectively punish" perfectly innocent Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Neither side is really "better" than the other and, in fact, the Israeli side, given its alleged strength, is probably worse than the Palestinian side. Progressives generally believe that Israel was born in the sin of "ethnic cleansing" and "the oppression of the indigenous population" and therefore the ongoing hostility against the Jews of the Middle East is a direct result of that behavior and of that "unholy" birth.

This is what I call the Moral Equivalency Canard and it is endemic on the progressive-left. Other examples include the notion that if the Palestinians engage in terrorism, Israel is, itself, a terrorist state. If Jews suffered the Shoah, the Palestinians suffered al-Nakba.

Yet another example of the trend is in the way that well-meaning progressives assume that reports of Arab-Muslim genocidal hostility towards Jews are overblown and therefore pointing out that hostility is actually a form of racism or "Islamophobia." They know that enlightened liberal westerners usually hold no such hatred towards Muslims and therefore assume that Middle Eastern Muslims, as a group, hold no such hatred toward Jews or the West. This is because they tend to believe that people everywhere are just as fair and rational as they compliment themselves as being and, therefore, the extent to which Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East hold the Jews in contempt it is because those Jews richly deserve that contempt.

Thus:

Address Hamas’ concerns, liberate them from the shackles of Israeli tyranny and, according to the theory my friend and so many in the Western left would subscribe to, they will transcend their animosity. There will be peace in our time.

This is the failure of the leftist intellectual establishment which my Shabbat interlocutor seems to share: the habit of mind which, a mere 66 years after the grotesque consequences of moral abdication in the face of an indescribable evil, rejects the very notion of immutable (indeed insatiable) Islamist Jew hatred.

What the progressive-left "narrative" fails to take into account, however, is history.

The Jews of the Middle East got their collective asses kicked by the Arabs from the 7th century until early in the 20th when they freed themselves from dhimmitude, in part through the Zionist movement. Century upon century throughout the Middle East, and throughout the entirety of the Muslim world, Jews were second and third class citizens living under conditions that often made the history of Jim Crow in the United States look like the very height of liberal enlightenment.

In some places and times it was better, and in some places and times it was worse, but we were always a "kept" and inferior people subject to draconian laws reflecting that status. To the extent that Arab-Muslims despise Jews it is not because of Jewish autonomy and self-defense on historically Jewish land. Jewish autonomy seriously irritates a precondition of Muslim anti-Jewish racism, but it is not its cause.  Zionism, as anyone who knows anything about the history of that movement can tell you, is not the cause of genocidal anti-Jewish racism, but a response to genocidal anti-Jewish racism.

As long as progressive-Zionists continue to blame Israel for its own persecution at the hands of our former masters, the more they will undermine the security and well-being of our brothers and sisters in Israel. As long as progressive-Zionists continue to blame conservative Jews or the Likud or the "settlers" or Yisrael Beiteinu (and that bad boy, Avigdor Lieberman) for Obama's ruination of the peace process, then the Palestinians, the Arabs, and their western-left allies will be more than happy to agree with that assessment, thus encouraging more violence against us.

It's time for fresh thinking on an old problem, and while that fresh thinking may not come from the conservative Jewish right, it definitely is not coming from the dhimmitudenous Jewish left.

That much is certain.

10 comments:

  1. Excellent essay, Mike. Keep fighting the good fight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, good sir.

      CiF Watch remains essential reading for those of us who care about Israel and the well-being of the Jewish people.

      Delete
  2. You might have included a quote like:

    On either side... when you teach children to hate (and it does happen in Israel as well), they will grow up to hate.

    This is what we too often hear, as if it is on the same level.

    As I indicated in another comment, if it were only individuals preaching the hatred, it might be less insidious, but it is also coming from states and non-state entities, and Israel gets blamed for causing it all to occur.

    It is fine to blame Israel for its behavior. Why blame Israel for the behavior of people who are opposed to its very existence, whether for religious or political purposes?

    The wrongful behavior is excused. This is where we see humanitarian racism. Aggressors are not be accountable for their conduct. Except for Israel, no other international crimes matter. Israel is an instrument of Western hegemony, and that determines propriety.

    Since no other state is held to the same standard, this double standard practiced against the Jewish collective constitutes antisemitism, period!

    Overall, to deny the religious aspects that are at play here is to deny the obvious. This does not even touch on the other hatred expressed by "anti-Zionists" on the left and right. The 1972 Munich terrorists and their neo-Nazi helper about says it all about how deeply ingrained Jew hatred is in this world, much to its sufferance because of what is lost.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. School,

      this reads like the kernel of an essay.

      Delete
  3. And speaking of hate, the MB candidate gets elected in Egypt and what happens immediately next? Israel is attacked from Egypt's side and a civilian is killed.

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    Replies
    1. Barry Rubin:

      Where is the U.S. government in all of this? Insisting that the Egyptian military turn power over to a civilian government, which until last week would have been a Brotherhood government. Washington is merely a distant observer, and one continuing to insist on Muslim Brotherhood moderation despite that group’s extremist history and actions. The policy choice taken by Obama is to issue statements supporting democracy and to view the Brotherhood as a force that can be co-opted and moderated. The mass media generally follows this lead in setting the narrative.

      A different president would understand that the Islamists are the enemy of America, and would support the military in trying to limit their power. This distinction matters, big time. It helps determine not only the fate of U.S. interests, but also the future of 80 million Egyptians, Israel’s security, and the likelihood of further upheavals and wars in the Middle East.


      The Obama administration is not opposed to radical Islam which is why it is friendly with the Muslim Brotherhood, despite its historical connection to Nazi Germany.

      The so-called "Arab Spring" was the rise of the fascist strain within Islam, yet moronic liberal Jews gush about "democracy."

      Delete
    2. (Video) Yousef al Qaradawi, prominent Islamic scholar, official "spiritual leader" of the Muslim Brotherhood, calls for the killing of the Jews, praises Hitler:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HStliOnVl6Q

      (Video) Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Leaders, at Rally in 2011, Calling for Killing of the Jews (quoting, and as per commanded in, official texts of Islam):

      http://newstime.co.nz/muslim-brotherhood-want-kill-jews-quoting-bukhari.html

      Also:

      (Twitter Tweets) Hamas-linked CAIR's Dawud Walid: Jews have incurred Allah's wrath, Muhammad was "correct" to massacre Jews
      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/06/hamas-linked-cairs-dawud-walid-jews-have-incurred-allahs-wrath-muhammad-was-correct-to-massacre-jews.html

      ----

      An Explanatory Memorandum On the General Strategic Goal for the Group In North America, 5/22/1991, by Mohamed Akram, a.k.a. Mohamed Adlouni, for the Shura Council of the Muslim Brotherhood

      http://www.investigativeproject.org/document/id/20
      Direct link to document:
      http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/20.pdf

      Excerpt:

      "4- Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America:
      The process of settlement is a 'Civilization-JihadistProcess' with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

      Notes:

      The Ikhwan: the Arabic name of the Muslim Brotherhood

      CAIR = Muslim Brotherhood front-group
      ICNA = Muslim Brotherhood front-group
      ISNA = Muslim Brotherhood front-group
      MSA = Muslim Brotherhood front-group
      MAS = Muslim Brotherhood front-group
      ...

      Hamas is an official arm of the Muslim Brotherhood -- Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood in "The Gaza Strip"

      Delete
    3. Islam - A Primer:

      Raymond Ibrahim: The Muslim Perspective
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-MXrGjujjo

      ----

      A talk on the Western collusion with the Islamic supremacist political movement and about, involved with that, the resurgence of Western genocidal anti-Jewish bigotry (a talk by actually truly "moderate" Muslim (non-orthodox Muslim; non-Sharia-adherent Muslim; "'cultural' Muslim") Tarek Fatah):

      "Islamism"-an Amazing talk by Tarek Fatah!
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzD-s3GsO7A

      ----

      Islamic Persecution of Religious Minorities in Doctrine and History:

      Faith Under Fire: Clare Lopez - Islamic Persecution of Religious Minorities in Doctrine and History
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSHUhzAyZCc

      Delete
  4. Continuous commentary on the non-essential. Not seeing the forest for the trees. Not even seeing the trees for the leaves. Not even seeing the leaves for the veins. This is done even here; This is done even by those on this forum.

    Stop doing that.

    Comprehend what's essential. Do what's proper to do. Do what will end the Western war on Israel.

    Tell the true factual currently-approximately-90-year history of the situation. It is precisely these facts that the huge lies that are causing the Western war against Israel are denying and "replacing", and it is precisely the communicating of these facts that will counter and dispel those lies that are causing the Western war against Israel.

    O The British Mandate of Palestine included what is now Jordan.
    O There were more Jewish refugees from Muslim states than there were Arab refugees from Israel.
    O All of those refugees -- Jewish and Arab -- were caused by a self-declaredly intendedly genocidal "Jihad" attack on Israel by Muslim Arab states in 1948.
    O Jordan occupied Judea (Yehouda) and Sameria (Shomron) from 1949 to 1967; Jordan renamed Judea and Sameria to the name "The West Bank" -- referring to Judea and Sameria as "the west bank" of the Jordan river; Egypt occupied what is now called "The Gaza Strip" from 1949 until 1967; During that time, no effort was made to establish any 'Palestinian' Arab state in what had then come to be called "The West Bank" (Judea and Sameria) and what had then come to be called "The Gaza Strip"; From 1964 -- the time of the creation of the PLO -- until 1968, the PLO Charter explicitly stated that what had then come to be called "The West Bank" (Judea and Sameria) and what had then come to be called "The Gaza Strip" were not part of what the PLO Charter called the "Zionist" "occupation" of "Palestine".
    O The founder of the 'Palestinian movement', and preceptor of Yasser Arafat, and originator of Fatah, and co-ordinator of the 1948 Muslim Arab attack on Israel by the armies of several Arab states as the head of the Arab Higher Committee, Haj Amin al-Husseini, resided in Germany from 1941 to 1945, and was an adjoined official of the Nazi regime of Germany, and was a co-architect of the Nazi 'Final Solution'; and planned, with Adolf Hitler, to commit a 'Final Solution' against all of the Jewish people in the Middle East.

    Present audio and video recordings of the racist genocide-inciting, and genocide-plan-describing, words (mostly in Arabic, to Arab audiences), and racist mass-murderous actions, and deceitful stagings (Pallywood), of Fatah-PLO (now called the Palestinian Authority).

    Join with non-Jewish people who aware of the reality of the situation, people such as Kasim Hafeez, and, with them, communicate the reality of Israeli society and the reality of the situation that Israel is in.

    Kasim Hafeez's web site: http://www.theisraelcampaign.org
    Kasim Hafeez's blog: http://www.theisraelcampaign.org/blog.html ("I support Israel, because no other state is vilified that way it is, no other state has the lies passed as fact about it as Israel does, ...")
    A recent brief interview with Kasim Hafeez in Israel: "Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSP2_EsDmyc ("I've always said that, with Israel advocacy, we're not getting the truth out there..." "It's very sad. It really is. Because a lot of this hatred and intolerance comes from ignorance. People do not know the facts...")

    ReplyDelete
  5. "It's time for fresh thinking on an old problem"

    How about this novel idea:

    Communicate the facts that will dispel the lies that are causing, and that are the main part of, the racist war against Israel.*

    (...The communicating of facts such as what people such as Kasim Hafeez are urging Jewish people to do.)

    Kasim Hafeez's web site: http://www.theisraelcampaign.org

    Kasim Hafeez's blog: http://www.theisraelcampaign.org/blog.html ("I support Israel, because no other state is vilified that way it is, no other state has the lies passed as fact about it as Israel does, ...")

    A recent brief interview with Kasim Hafeez in Israel: "Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSP2_EsDmyc ("I've always said that, with Israel advocacy, we're not getting the truth out there..." "It's very sad. It really is. Because a lot of this hatred and intolerance comes from ignorance. People do not know the facts...")

    Note: * Facts such as:

    O The British Mandate of Palestine included what is now Jordan.
    O There were more Jewish refugees from Muslim states than there were Arab refugees from Israel.
    O All of those refugees -- Jewish and Arab -- were caused by a self-declaredly intendedly genocidal "Jihad" attack on Israel by Muslim Arab states in 1948.
    O Jordan occupied Judea (Yehouda) and Sameria (Shomron) from 1949 to 1967; Jordan renamed Judea and Sameria to the name "The West Bank" -- referring to Judea and Sameria as "the west bank" of the Jordan river; Egypt occupied what is now called "The Gaza Strip" from 1949 until 1967; During that time, no effort was made to establish any 'Palestinian' Arab state in what had then come to be called "The West Bank" (Judea and Sameria) and what had then come to be called "The Gaza Strip"; From 1964 -- the time of the creation of the PLO -- until 1968, the PLO Charter explicitly stated that what had then come to be called "The West Bank" (Judea and Sameria) and what had then come to be called "The Gaza Strip" were not part of what the PLO Charter called the "Zionist" "occupation" of "Palestine".
    O The founder of the 'Palestinian movement', and preceptor of Yasser Arafat, and originator of Fatah, and co-ordinator of the 1948 Muslim Arab attack on Israel by the armies of several Arab states as the head of the Arab Higher Committee, Haj Amin al-Husseini, resided in Germany from 1941 to 1945, and was an adjoined official of the Nazi regime of Germany, and was a co-architect of the Nazi 'Final Solution'; and planned, with Adolf Hitler, to commit a 'Final Solution' against all of the Jewish people in the Middle East.

    And presentation of:

    O Audio and video recordings of the racist genocide-inciting, and genocide-plan-describing, words (mostly in Arabic, to Arab audiences), and racist mass-murderous actions, and deceitful stagings (Pallywood), of Fatah-PLO (now called the Palestinian Authority)

    ReplyDelete