A note to an old college friend

Michael Lumish

So, you support Sanders.

Do you understand that Sanders is not considered a friend of either the Jewish people or the state of Israel... by, y'know, most Jews. I am very familiar with the ongoing discussion among Jews who care about the Jewish people and Sanders is not well-liked.

He is hostile toward Israel and even brought antisemitic anti-Zionist, Linda Sarsour, into his campaign as a representative.

As for "far right talking points" I am liberal.

I marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I support Gay rights and a woman's right to choose an abortion.

I support a tax code that favors the middle-class and the poor.

You write:

<"There's been mostly white people at every Bernie rally I've ever been to.">

What's your point? Of course, there has mainly been "white" people at Bernie rallies. This does not negate the fact of anti-white racism as a central feature of progressive-left politics.

This is not a "right-wing" perspective.

It is simply a matter of acknowledging the obvious.

You write:

<"For hardcore Zionists it seems that anyone critical of the Israeli government's policies and actions towards the Palestinians is, BOOM, automatically, an anti-Semite...">

How do you distinguish a "hardcore Zionist" from a Jew who supports Jewish self-determination and self-defense on historically Jewish land?

Do you think that Jews who support the well-being of our brothers and sisters in Israel are "hardcore Zionists"?

Is any Japanese person who believes in Japanese self-determination and self-defense on Japanese land a "hardcore Japanese nationalist"?

How about the French?

From there you launch into a diatribe that is something akin to the "blood libel" wherein you discuss how brutal and murderous "Zionists" are.

<"1,492 civilians brutally killed during protective edge or the teams of Israeli snipers shooting thousands of unarmed protesters at the wall in Gaza, killing hundreds including paramedics and journalists.">

You know nothing of the conflict.

I remember you as a good guy, but you know zero about the Long Arab War Against the Jews in the Middle East and seem to think that Israeli Jews are something akin to evil.

This is, by the way, a very sort-of nineteenth-century imperial outlook which sees "people of color" as merely innocent victims who have no agency in the world.

This is a perfect example of how "progressives" -- who are not liberal, btw -- treat those of non-European descent as children.

I find it racist, as hell, frankly.

The fact of the matter, of course, is that the Jews of the Middle East lived under the boot of Arab and Muslim imperial rule for thirteen long centuries.

We were not allowed to ride horses, only donkeys.

We were not allowed to marry Muslim women or build housing in higher geographical locations than Muslims.

Cursing "the prophet" meant death.

In some places, we were not even allowed to go out in the rain lest our filth washed into the streets and contaminated our neighbors.

And we had to pay protection money, the jizya, in order to live in our own communities.

Furthermore, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are not "critical" of Israeli policies. They are antisemitic anti-Zionists who want Israel eliminated as the national homeland of the Jewish people. They are not working for social justice but against it.

These people are not liberals. They are something much more akin to fascists and they are all very protective of political Islam which targets Jews for death.

I know that you mean well, and I do not mean to give you a hard time, but I do not think that you are very well educated on this subject.