The Left wing blogs and Israel
Bookworm on Jul 25 2006 at 9:27 am | Filed under: Anti-Americanism, Anti-Semitism, Anti-war, Blogs and Blogging, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Democrats, Liberal blogs
I started a series of posts aimed at examining what the Left side of the blogosphere had to say about what I think is one of the biggest stories of our day: Israel’s major military initiative against Hezbollah. What I discovered, and why I’ve sort of dried up on checking out those blogs, is that they have absolutely nothing to say on the subject — and Dean Barnett explains why. Barnett starts with a discussion about the Jews’ reliable support for the Democratic party, which has Democratic political leaders careful, in public at least, to support Israel. That’s the “one hand.” The other hand is the Daily Kos community. Barnett explains what this community is, what drives its thinking, and how it has responded to the Israel/Hezbollah War, both on the front page and behind the scenes. I’m going to include a fairly long quotation here, but the article has lots more, and I think it’s well worth reading:
On the other hand, there is the Daily Kos community. As proprietor Markos Moulitsas frequently notes, the Kos community is representative of the “people-powered movement.” They are not led by one person; indeed, they are not led at all.
The miracle of the Kossacks is that they are tens of thousands of like-minded people who have used the site to find one another. Although they differ on many details, they tend to monolithically detest George W. Bush and American conservatives. They also tend to distrust or loathe anything or anyone that winds up in Bush’s literal or metaphorical embrace. Like Joe Lieberman. Or Israel.
THE CONFLAGRATION in Lebanon has provided an example of the people-powered movement’s potential to be a liability for the politicians who have tried to curry favor with it.
Perhaps sensing that this issue could highlight just how far removed the Kos community is from the American mainstream, Moulitsas and his other front-page bloggers have opted to ignore Israel’s war. Combined, the half dozen front-pagers have written exactly one post on the subject. And that post, authored by Moulitsas, simply declared that he wouldn’t write anything further on the subject. So while the most important story of the year develops, the nation’s leading progressive blog has chosen to focus on the Indiana second district House race between Chris Chocola and Joe Donnelly. Nothing wrong with that; it’s their prerogative to blog about whatever they like.
But inside the Kos diaries, it’s been a different story. The conversation in the diaries has been overwhelmingly anti-Israel–and potentially disastrous for the Democratic party.
Barnett then follows up by simply quoting from the diaries, a stomach churning journey into old-fashioned Jew-hatred.
Right now, those Democratic politicians who wish to maintain their reliable Jewish base have only two forms of protection. The first is the fact that a large portion of Jewish voters are probably completely unaware of this sewer swirling at the Democrats’ feet. The second is the double think leaders on the Jewish left are currently using to insulate themselves from the hatred against them welling up on their side of the political spectrum. The most perfect, latest, and loudest example of this comes from Sheldon Drobny, who founded Air America, the Left’s “answer” to Rush [hat tip: American Thinker]:
I came to the conclusion that the hostile comments about Israel on these liberal blogs are not coming from true liberals. Most of the anti-Semitism comes from racism and most of the racism I have experienced has come from the far right, not the left. And history shows that the Christo-fascist policies of the right have been responsible for historical anti-Judaism. It is only lately that the extreme evangelical groups have conveniently aligned with Israel now to validate their biblical beliefs. These extreme evangelicals were the most anti-Jewish because of the Passion Narratives of the New Testament. And for my friends in AIPAC, they should be aware that short-term alliances with people who have endemic hatred of you could be disastrous. The early Zionists found this out when they signed a trade agreement with Germany hoping that Germany would deport the Jews to Palestine.
To those who believe that Palestine historically belonged to either the Jews or the Arabs I say read my previous post. Palestine and Iraq were all part of the Ottoman Empire and were made up countries by decree. After the First World War, the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire gave us artificial countries such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and neither country exists today. Iraq is still a horrible remnant of artificial combinations of disparate ethnic regions. The fact is that the U.N. as did the League of Nations before set up countries by decree without much foresight and washed their hands of the consequences. Had the U.N. been responsible in 1948, they had the power to make a difference in that region. Unfortunately, they did not.
I have no easy solutions for the Israel/Palestine issue but I will say that one must evaluate which of the combatants benefit from the conflict. And I can easily exclude Israel from that group. After Israel signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 it experienced its greatest economic and technological advancement. Whether or not Israel was wise in rejecting the 2000 proposal that was advanced by Arafat at Camp David is subject to historical evaluation. But, Israel has suffered economically since the last intifada and has no benefit to its people by having perpetual war. On the other hand, the militant Arab leaders have a lot to gain by perpetual war with Israel to divert their people’s attention from the harsh treatment of their own citizens. And the armaments industries in the nations comprising the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have lots of reasons to fuel the fires. I suggest seeing the motion picture Lord of War with Nicholas Cage if anyone has any doubts.
So my conclusion is that the bloggers who violently hate Israel and see it in black and white terms are not really liberals. They may even be anti-Semites, but they are not representative of the liberal community that was so active in achieving racial and ethnic equality. It is a contradiction for a true liberal to be an anti-Semite. Furthermore, I would not put it past the right wing to flood the liberal blogs with hateful criticisms of Israel to advance a perception that liberals are anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. And I see Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over this.
If you wade through this convoluted argument, you discover that Drobny simply can’t believe that the Left, which has always been anti-Semitic and anti-Israel (witness, for example, the National Socialist Movement, aka the Nazis; the Russian Communists; and Hugh Chavez, who is probably not Rove’s puppet), is actually — gasp! — anti-Israel. And since this historical truism can’t be true, it must be Rove’s fault (or it’s fluoride in the water — one or the other). As Charles Thompson, of Little Green Footballs, said to Dennis Prager when discussing Drobny’s bizarre conclusion, this is serious “cognitive dissonance.” Thinking about it, Thompson is being kind. It’s delusional thinking, pure and simple, and in another age would have landed Drobny in an asylum, walking around with the other crazy Napoleon and Elvis wannabees.
UPDATE: Dennis Prager is speaking to Sheldon Drobny even as we speak. Drobny, aside from suffering from severe verbal diarrhea, is woefully ill-informed. His statements about Evangelical Christians rely solely on canards and have nothing to do with reality. It’s amazing that someone so narrow-minded and unaware of the reality of the world — as opposed to his imaginary world construct — can have carved himself such a prominent niche.
Talking to Technorati: Anti-Semitism, Anti-Israel, Liberal blogs, Sheldon Drobny, Daily Kos, Democrats
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Trying to conflate criticism of Israeli foreign policy with historical anti-semitism (anti-semitism being the national pastime at one point or the other of EVERY RACE - including my own black American race) is just silly. You cannot take the posts of a bunch of e-morons and say “this is the left” or “this is the right”.
Nor can you use the tired old “National Socialist Party was leeeeeebrulllll!!!!” argument because ’socialist’ was part of the name. They were not conservative or liberal as we know it. They were a bunch of totalitarian fascists. Period. They were not a bunch of Jerry Brown voting democrats nor were they right wing republicans watching Ollie North on Fox every night. They were like nothing that exists today, and using todays standards to try to pigeon hole them is so pathetic it is beyond words. That is like saying that Saddam Hussein was definitely a conservative because he was protected by the Elite Republican Guard. How stupid.
People have a hard enough time trying to sort through the complexities of the many conflicts in the Middle East without you adding such inanities to the mix. Yes! There are anti-semites who are enjoying seeing Israel endure rocket attacks. They are loving the criticism of Israel’s response too. And there are people who are happy to see as many muslims die as possible. But who CARES what they think. This is a conflict for REASONABLE people on both sides to work out. Just because the nuts are out there does NOT mean they get to decide how the world works out its problems. Unless you invite them to do so.
It seems as though the American Jewish voter is infected with the same whatever-it-is that infects Black American voters: they routinely support democrat candidates for absolutely no discernible historical reason. Democrats talk a good game, but as a matter of history they have done absolutely nothing to actually earn or deserve Black support, indeed; have generally been on the wrong side of history - yet get 90% of that support anyway. No idea why.
Jewish support seems governed by the same dynamic. There isn’t a reason in the world for a thoughtful Jewish voter to be much more than repelled by most liberal positions, and most liberals, as witness the Kos Crap. Yet they are so reliable with their support that they are as taken for granted as Black voters are. George W. Bush is demonstrably the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House - but American Jewish voters won’t vote for him any more than American Black voters will.
I don’t understand it. If someone somewhere does, I’ve yet to hear from them. Maybe they vote democrat because Grandpa did, and they just don’t want to have to think about it.
(By they bye, this is a personal thing. I am generally opposed to the term “African-American” for the simple reason that I have several friends who genuinely are, in fact, “African-American” - two from Egypt; one from what used to be Rhodesia; two from South Africa. None are black, which means that the only genuine Africans of whom I have personal knowledge happen not to be black. One of them, born in South Africa (and Jewish), blessed with a sense of humor, occasionally wonders how welcome he’d be at any meeting of “African-Americans” chaired by, say Jesse Jackson. Since I wonder that too, I decline to use the term.)
I am not sure whether you are responding to my post or not. Your musings were so far off of what my post addressed.
I don’t address myself as an African American. Nor did I in my post. I could care less how other black Americans choose to identify themselves. No one gets up in arms when someone says they are Italian-American or Greek-American. But somehow it is offensive for some black person to do the hyphenation thing. Whatever. You white people get your panties in a twist about the darnedest things (wink). Knock yourself out with your racial outrage at us black people and our stupid hyphenations. Believe me, some grad student will come up with an even dumber politically correct term for black people in the next 5 or 10 years. So get your blood pressure meds ready.
I agree that Democrats take the votes of ethnic and cultural blocs such as blacks and jews for granted. And the Democratic Leadership is currently a useless, puss-filled pimple on the Ass of America right now. I don’t know why people don’t take a second look at the GOP. I am a liberal. I support liberal causes. I am a vile, evil leftist who believes in a secular state. I dont necessarily believe in higher taxes, I believe in using tax money in a different ways than the average Republican does. Thus, I would not vote Republican (I might for a Republican moderate, like Lincoln Chafee or Rudy Guliani). Thus, my lack of interest in the GOP or George W. Bush is not because I am a dumb black lemming. It is because I have firm beliefs that don’t jibe with Mr. Bush or the GOP’s beliefs. I don’t know, but I suspect that many blacks and jews have the same processes that determine their political affiliations.
I can say one thing that should give you the warm fuzzies: An overwhelming majority of black people are NOT like me - most, like my mother are very socially conservative. They LIKE what Bush stands for on gay marraige, prayer in schools, etc. He IS making small gains because he is on the same page as most black Christians. We are talking 1 or 2% every couple of years, but Rome was not won in a day. (What am I doing offering encouragement to a conservative?!?!?! LOL)
Lisa - only reason I did that was because when I addressed the issue and made the comparison between the Black and Jewish voter blocs, I didn’t use the hyphenate term. Every time I don’t somebody wants to know why. There’s why.
The point was the first two paragraphs; the last was that - off the point, yes - explanation.
Oh and another thing: I know many conservatives who vote like grandpa and great-grandpa too. Maybe this is because they don’t want to have to think, but I suspect it is because grandpa and great-grandpa passed on their values to them.
Cheers.
Could Sheldon Drobny be Dagon’s daddy?
Nor can you use the tired old “National Socialist Party was leeeeeebrulllll!!!!” argument because ’socialist’ was part of the name. They were not conservative or liberal as we know it.
That’s right, they were socialist, not liberal or conservative. As in national socialist, rather than trans-national progressivism socialist. Instead of bypassing nationalities, Nazism got stuck on one nationality, the Aryan nationality.
is just silly. You cannot take the posts of a bunch of e-morons and say “this is the left” or “this is the right”.
Ya you can. Just change the metaphysics. Most people see it as a political spectrum of left v right, the Infant Reds on the Left and the Ultra Violent on the RIght. I see it as a circle. Go far enough Left, and you’ll hit all the extremists, one in a row. That’s why they are extreme, they occupy a shared angular circumference of a circular. Whether in radians or degrees, a small portion, but it is there. And now matter where you start out from on the circle, if you go far enough left or far enough right, you’ll hit the SAME group of people.
Just because the nuts are out there does NOT mean they get to decide how the world works out its problems.
Their ability to kill is all the invitation they need. They don’t need any invitation from people like us.
I think Jews vote Democrat because… Jews don’t know who they are and what they want to become. A clear eyed vision of who they are and what they want, would have allowed Israel to end the conflict in the MidEast. But, they didn’t, and it is not because of a physical weakness or a weakness in the Arabs, no it is because of a weakness in the Israeli character. For whatever reasons, it has prevented a clear understanding of themselves. Jews look in the mirror, and do not know what looks out at them. They are split, and a house divided cannot stand.
Setting aside the Jewish question, I do believe it is likely and plausible that the Daily Kos people are exercising “discipline”. The discipline of a group of people that are bonded by fear and hate, that is, but still discipline.
I’ve said before that the Democrat philosophy is for emotions to control you, rather than you controlling emotions. It seems the differences are more fine than it would otherwise appear. When hate and fear are in control, something very much similar to discipline comes into existence. You can emulate the behavior of a rational and enlightened person, using emulated rhetoric about freedom, liberty, and tolerance. However, because the emulation is run off of fear and hatred, it is not the real thing. The real thing is a matter of inner will and inner desire, controlled by the soul and personality. Thus the person exercises his tools to achieve what that person desires. This is the real deal because it allows a person to see things as they truly are, rather than what fear and hate wishes them to be. By seeing the reality, you can solve the problems. Fear and hatred has never solved most problems, including the greater things such as war and peace.
They act quited unified there at Daily Kos. Their criticisms are a mirror of their rotted soul, not of the Republican party.
“As Charles Thompson, …said … when discussing Drobny’s bizarre conclusion, this is serious “cognitive dissonance.” … Thompson is being kind. It’s delusional thinking, pure and simple, and in another age would have landed Drobny in an asylum,…
UPDATE: Dennis Prager is speaking to Sheldon Drobny even as we speak… It’s amazing that someone so narrow-minded and unaware of the reality of the world — as opposed to his imaginary world construct — can have carved himself such a prominent niche.”
All I can add to the discussion is that the correlation between Drobny’s views and ‘logic’ are perfectly reflected in his audiences presumptions.
That also ‘explains’ his ability to “carve himself such a prominent niche”.
You gotta love the jews,They could kill the Pope,say it was an accident,and most people would nod their heads and claim he was having lunch with a terrorist and deserved what he got, what a messed up world.
I think the bots are getting politer. What do you think, Book?