Why Does The Left Support The Palestinians Against Israel?

Nightshade · Post by **Nightshade** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:29 am

Why Does The Left Support The Palestinians Against Israel?

I am posting the thoughts of Alexandra von Maltzan here because I believe she presents a powerful argument, apparently culled from a piece by Dennis Prager:

\"Why does the left support the Palestinians against Israel?

The question is rarely asked. It is simply taken for granted that the left -- Europe, the Western news media, the universities, the liberal churches, the arts world -- supports the Palestinians and the larger Arab/Muslim worlds in their war against Israel.

But the question does need to be asked. For it is completely inconsistent with the left's professed values to side with Israel's enemies. Just about every value the left claims to uphold Israel upholds and its enemies do not.

The left speaks about its passion for democracy (\"power to the people\"). Yet it is Israel that is a fully functioning democracy, as opposed to all of its Arab and Muslim enemies. Yasser Arafat [was] precisely the self-aggrandizing, corrupt dictator-type that the left claims to hold in contempt.

The left claims to have particular concern for women's rights. Yet it is Israel that has as highly developed a feminist movement as that of any Western country. It is Israel that conscripted women into its armed forces before almost any Western country. At the same time, the state of women's rights among Israel's Muslim enemies is perhaps the lowest in the world.

The left's greatest current preoccupation is with gay rights. Yet it is Israel that has annual gay pride days, while Egypt and other Arab and Muslim countries arrest homosexuals.

It is Israel that has an independent and highly liberal judiciary. It is Israel that has a leftist press. It is Israel that has been governed more by leftist, even socialist, parties than by rightist ones. Israel's enemies have none of this.

So, why isn't the left out there leading pro-Israel demonstrations?

The answer is as important as it is contemptible.

n general, the left does not care about women, independent judiciaries, minorities, democracy, gays or almost anything else for which it marches. That is why the left opposed America's war in Afghanistan, which liberated women from being treated like animals.

Nearly all the causes the left speaks for are noble-sounding covers for its real agenda -- the overthrowing of Western, especially Judeo-Christian and capitalist, values. Remember the chant at Stanford, \"Hey, hey, ho ho, Western civ has got to go\"? That is what animates the left.

In psychoanalytic terms, it is antagonism to one's father and his values. In a commencement speech he gave this year, the former president of Dartmouth College, James O. Freedman, a man of the left, said that the purpose of a college education is \"to question your father's values.\" Those of us not on the left believe that the purpose of a college education is to discover what is true and what is good.

America embodies all that the left dislikes. It is the most religious of the industrialized democracies (proudly and uniquely Judeo-Christian). It is also the most capitalist. And, what drives the left especially crazy is that with all this religion and capitalism, America is the most powerful force on earth -- economically, militarily and culturally.

Israel is Little America. It, too, is religious (though a secular state like the United States, it is proudly Jewish). It, too, celebrates capitalism. There are no demonstrations in Israel against McDonald's. On the contrary, even before McDonald's opened there, Hebrew replicas like \"McDavid's\" were established.

And Israel, like America, celebrates its national identity, not the \"world\" identity that the left affirms. The left loathes nationalism unless it is anti-Western, like Palestinian or Cuban. America does not jump to attention when world treaties are signed and Israel is the U.N.'s pariah, rendering America and Israel the left's \"axis of evil,\" far more reviled than Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

The question, \"Why does the left support the Palestinians?\" is an extremely important one. At this time in history nothing so illustrates the left's nihilism as does its support of the Palestinians against Israel.\"\"

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From: http://radaractive.blogspot.com/2006/08 ... nians.html

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:53 am

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Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:32 am

That said absolutely nothing.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:44 pm

I'm pretty left in many of my attitudes, and I support neither. If forced to choose, I'll go with Israel, as they're well-armed and supplied by the USA.

Cuda68 · Post by **Cuda68** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:53 pm

When the Ottaman Empire existed. We {the U.S.} and other country's ie.. Germeny, Spain, England and others. Made a deal with the Palestinians where if they help over throw the Ottamen Empire the Middle East would be divided up and the Palestinians could have there own plot of land for a country called Palestine. Well the Palestinians took them up on the offer and kept there part of the bargin, We and the other countrys have yet to live up to what we said, so we kinda owe them. This all took place in the late 1800's.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:13 pm

it's a bit late for that; both cronologically and politically.

by the same reasoning, we should displace EVERYONE on the east coast and return the land to the indians nations that were displaced during the trail of tears.

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 3:35 pm

Disclaimer: This is not my opinion, but what I think the left thinks.

The left is sympathetic to the palestinians because of the idea of \"The Palestinians had their land stolen\"

Everything else is kinda ignored, except the pull for some of 'we're being alternative and against what the republicans want'

CUDA · Post by **CUDA** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:15 pm

Birdseye wrote:The left is sympathetic to the palestinians because of the idea of "The Palestinians had their land stolen"

well thats where the left would be wrong. that land was Isreal's from the begining of recorded time and was recorded in the book of Exodus. it was taken by the Roman's LONG before the "Nation" of Palestine was even a dream.

Birdseye · Post by **Birdseye** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:22 pm

So that's what the debate boils down to. Israel claims historic rights. Palestinians claim recent rights. Fight ensues.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:50 pm

There are a few things people don't understand about the recent history of the Middle East that would change a lot of minds if they were better known:

1) when the Jews moved into the ME in the first half of this century (pre-1948), they weren't taking anyone's land -- they were settling in parts of the desert that were given to them by the British or that they bought. Nobody got displaced by the original modern Jewish settlements.

2) when war broke out in 1948 because the rest of the ME couldn't accept the UN setting up a Jewish state (even though the UN, League of Nations, and European colonial nations set up most of the other countries in that area), the Israelis didn't expel the Palestinians and steal their land. The Palestinians *voluntarily left* at the request of surrounding governments, who wanted to be able to shoot the Jews without worrying about killing their own kind. A lot of other non-Jews stayed in Israel, and their descendants still live there today. Many \"Palestinian refugees\" have cousins who are full Israeli citizens because of this.

3) Israel did take over some other nations' land over the course of several defensive wars (which, by the way, is what generally happens when a nation wins a war.) The Israelis didn't drive out those lands' occupants -- rather, some of them fled and most stayed right where they were. So, again, nobody got their land stolen from them.

4) the Israeli settlements built in the above-mentioned areas (Gaza, the West Bank, etc.) were built in open spaces, not over the top of Palestinian settlements. There were no mass refugee movements due to Israeli settlement in Gaza or the West Bank.

A lot of \"the left\" sides with the Palestinians because they see them as the victim. And, in some senses, they are -- but they're not Israel's victim. They're being victimized by their own leadership and the leadership in surrounding nations, who continue to fill their heads with the idea that they're the rightful owners to all of that land and that the Jews will eventually be expelled. They're victimized by those who continue to use them as pawns -- by those who keep teaching them \"don't bother making anything of your life, just fight against Israel\".

What condition would the Palestinians be in if, instead of trying to fight against \"the occupation\", they used all that money that goes to AK's and suicide vests and spent it creating infrastructure and businesses?