The Israeli Left is Dead (Or, at least, Dying)

Mike L.

(Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill)

I wrote a piece some time ago in which I put forth the proposition that the western Left killed the Israeli Left. Of course, the reasons for the demise of the Israeli Left are not singular, but it makes considerable sense that Israelis know who their friends are and who their friends are not. So long as the western progressive movement accepts anti-Semitic anti-Zionists as part of their larger coalition and so long as they tell the Jewish people, who remain under siege in the Middle East, that their persecution is their own fault, and that their efforts to end that persecution represent the "oppression" of their persecutors, then it makes sense that Israelis would abandon the progressive-left.

Which they have.

Over at the Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick is discussing:

Israel’s return to its Zionist roots is the greatest cultural event of the past decade. It is also an event that occurred under the radar screen of the rest of the world. No one outside the country seems to have noticed at all.

The outside world’s failure to take note of Israel’s cultural shift owes to its failure to recognize the significance of the failure of the peace process with the Palestinians on the one hand and the failure of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza on the other hand.

Caroline is claiming that Israelis have come to their senses and have thrown the progressive-left, along with their anti-Zionist buddies, into the dust-bin of history. This seems to be the case.

Caroline ticks off some of the reasons why the Left has died in Israel.

The failure of Oslo and the realization that they have no partner with which to come to a negotiated conclusion of hostilities. The Durban Conference of 2001, in which the UN gave full-throated expression to anti-Jewish racism. The aftermath of the Gaza withdrawal, a moment that traumatized Israeli society and that saw thousands of Palestinian rockets. The refusal of much of the international community, particularly on the Left, to even acknowledge that Israel had ended the occupation there. And, of course, the infamous Goldstone Report which progressives used as a cudgel to beat up on their favorite whipping boy.

She concludes:

From Obama to J Street to the EU, international actors interested in forcing Israel to make more concessions to the Palestinians cannot understand why their attempts continue to fail. How is it possible that despite their best efforts, Netanyahu remains in power and the Left can’t get any traction with the public? For the answer, they need to look no farther than Mosh Ben-Ari, his dreadlocks, and his rendition of Psalm 121. Israel’s adolescent rebellion is over.

One of the more egregious aspects of the western progressive-left, particularly the diaspora Jewish Left, is in their self-righteous and arrogant insistence that they know what is best for the Israelis and that they must save Israel from itself.

The fact of the matter, of course, is that they do not know what is best for Israel and the Israeli public knows that they do not.

And for that I am particularly grateful.