The Common Denominator between Left and Far Right in the United States Is Hatred for Israel

A multiplicity of anti-Semitic expressions and incidents should raise red flags among those who, until now, preferred to ignore them, especially when they clearly bear racist motifs from the previous century.

Black Lives Matter was one of the most effective, justified slogans in the anti-racist protests in the United States even before the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.* But what was, in the beginning, nothing more than a slogan, turned into an organized movement with political implications which moved beyond the realm of discrimination of African Americans. Black Lives Matter has styled itself as a leftist party which stands in opposition to everything, and at least some of its activists seem to interpret the name to mean that only the lives of Black people are important.

Black Lives Matter also has anti-Semitic overtones, including slander regarding Jewish support of slavery. We began to hear many of the expressions of anti-Semitism belatedly, which set off alarms among liberal American Jews who had preferred, earlier, to ignore them or at least to hold back. Last week the Jewish American writer and journalist, Mitch Albom, wrote an article in which he attacked well-known, Black basketball and football players for their scathing anti-Semitic comments which included quotes from Hitler and from the leader of the Nation of Islam’s, Louis Farrakhan, who referred to the Jews as “satanic” and “termites.”

Albom’s ire was directed not only at the anti-Semitic players but also at the American media and various sports institutions, including Jewish institutions, who did not bother to condemn the slander and other anti-Semitic comments. Albom ended the article like this: “Anti-Semitism doesn’t cause the same fury as other prejudices. There is rarely as loud or sustained an outcry when a synagogue is attacked or a Jewish person is killed for his faith. Or the entire Jewish population is slandered.”

A shadow of anti-Semitism also hovered over the resignation of Bari Weiss, the Opinions column editor of The New York Times, who is Jewish. Although the official reason was that she published articles which did not fit the current, left-wing, politically correct outlook of the paper (a month ago another editor of the editorial page was fired for the same “sin”), but Weiss was also accused of “writing too much about the Jews.” (Weiss did write about anti-Semitism but also wrote about discrimination against other groups.)**

There has always been anti-Semitism in America. Sometimes it was even part of the establishment (until a few decades ago there existed the “numerus clausus,” a method which discriminated against the acceptance of Jewish students to American medical schools) although not to the extent that it was seen in Europe or Arab countries. But according to a recent report of the Anti-Defamation League, the wave of anti-Semitic violence that washed over the United States in 2019 was the worst since the organization began keeping records 40 years ago.

And there is a reason: Alongside the familiar phenomenon of hatred of the Jews from the far right – neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, other similar organizations and even individuals – there is an even more widespread, dangerous trend of left-wing anti-Semitism which has an organized political agenda drawing from common anti-Semitic themes, including the falsehoods about Jewish control of big money, communications and politics, using the language of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The goal is to try to delegitimize the state of Israel in much the same spirit as the pro-Palestinian propaganda of organizations such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and the “progressive” members of Congress who identify with them.

The common denominator between the far left and the far right is their hatred of Israel. These trends are widespread in American universities with the support of left-leaning professors, which has led to a situation where it is dangerous to express pro-Israeli opinions on campus. In one of its recent editions, the weekly British journal, The Economist, warned (not in connection to any Jewish topic) that “in American universities there is a dangerous, widening anti-liberal trend which defines people and groups specifically by their racial groups—a trend which is likely to penetrate peoples’ daily lives…and it is trying to take control by means of threats and silencing of differing opinions.”** White people, capitalism and liberal democracy are bad, and of course Israelis are bad also. And the Palestinians are the victims. Their conclusion is that the state of Israel and the Zionist vision are the unripe fruit which must be uprooted.

Recently, Peter Beinart, the Jewish journalist and lecturer, joined the choir. He has recently criticized Israel harshly, although he still defines himself as a Zionist. Maybe now he is questioning his identity. In a long, manipulative article on the first page of The New York Times, he rejected the right of the Jewish people to self-definition, in other words, the essence of the existence of the state of Israel, and, with the stroke of a pen, dismissed the dangers which Israel faces from her enemies. On the other hand, he ignored Israel’s enormous achievements in the 72 years it has existed, as if to say that there is no more need for Israel and that maybe there never was any justification for the country’s establishment. All of this was a tendentious invalidation of Israel’s history and of the right of the Jewish people, vis-a-vis other people, to a life of freedom.

Jewish history is well versed in the phenomenon of “convert” Jews who have gone over to the enemy side, and this clearly also happens with Zionist “converts,” whose number Beinart has joined. He received an immediate response from veteran diplomat Dennis Ross, who is not a right winger. In an article which he wrote with David Makovsky, Ross dismantled Beinart’s shameful falsehoods. In logical language, Ross exposes Beinart as a person who is participating in a process that is likely to lead to the destruction of Israel and the Jews who live there. Let’s hope that Ross’ response won’t be the only one.

*Editor’s note: Police officers have been arrested and charged with murder in the death of George Floyd but have not yet been convicted of those charges.

**Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, this quoted remark could not be independently verified.