JOEL KOTKIN: Why Jews Are Abandoning the Left. Because it hates them and wants them dead and they’ve finally gotten over their denial?
Pretty much.
The Jewish leftist tradition persists, but has been fading for years now. Recent events are likely to accelerate this decline. Many of those expressing support for Hamas’s actions, and opposition to any strong Israeli response, come from the left. In the past few years, we have seen the rise of a wide range of anti-Israel ‘progressive’ politicians, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Squad’ in the US Congress, former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and France’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Increasingly, Jews are being forced to choose between their Jewish roots and their traditionally leftist political orientation. This undermines the stance of Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which remains essentially a subsidiary of the Democratic Party. The ADL’s primary focus, at least before recent events, seemed to be in concert with the Biden administration’s oft-repeated view that the far right is the most pressing threat to the Jewish community.
Such views are delusional as well as dangerous. Of course, the far right remains a threat. Some right-wing parties, like Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), contain elements that minimise fascist atrocities, even as the party postures to win Jewish support. Individual rightists, like the shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, represent a distinct lethal threat.
None of this, however, contradicts the reality that in the US, Europe, Australia, the UK and Canada, the targeting of Jews now comes overwhelmingly from the left and its constituencies. A detailed 2017 survey from the University of Oslo found that in Scandinavia, Germany, Britain and France, most anti-Semitic violence came from Muslims, including recent immigrants. Similarly, a poll of European Jews found the majority of incidents of anti-Semitism came either from Muslims or left-wingers. Barely 13 per cent traced it to right-wingers. Violence against Jews is especially bad in places like the migrant-dominated suburb of Malmo in Sweden. In Paris and London – the last great redoubts of Jewish life in Europe – the danger is less right-wing anti-Semitism than the pernicious new hybrid that joins leftist and Islamist hatred. Meanwhile, virtually all right-wing parties (including the US Republicans and the Canadian and British Conservatives) have been unanimous in supporting Israel.
Other rightist politicians, like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, France’s Marine Le Pen and Britain’s Nigel Farage, have been outspoken supporters of the Jewish State. Meanwhile, the much-disdained Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is widely criticised as fascistic and anti-Semitic. Yet he is far more pro-Israel than the EU bureaucracy, which has opposed Israel’s right to a forceful response to the Hamas attack. . . . The face of anti-Semitism comes increasingly not from knuckle-dragging neo-Nazis, but from sophistos often aligned with Palestinian activists. Sixty per cent of German anti-Semitic messages sent to the Israeli embassy come from well-educated people, according to one study.
Yeah, how about that. The educational establishment, throughout the West, is a toxic industry that spreads hate and ignorance.