Joel Kotkin
National Post, Oct. 30, 2023
“The face of antisemitism comes increasingly not from knuckle-dragging neo-Nazis, but from sophistos often aligned with Palestinian activists. Sixty per cent of German antisemitic messages sent to the Israeli Embassy come from well-educated people.”
For much of the past century, Jews across Britain, North America and Europe tilted decisively to the left. The recent atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel have challenged that trend, with Jewish sensitivities inflamed in light of the growing celebration of terrorism among progressive leftists in the West.
Historically, Jews have been wary of the right — and for good reason. Not only did they fear the fascists, but also the old-school conservative establishment, which generally disdained Jews. The British Home Office used to limit Jewish immigration to the United Kingdom, and the U.S. State Department tried to block reports of the Nazis’ mass murder of Jews from reaching the United States. In most countries, Jews consistently supported mainstream left-wing parties — namely, Labour in Britain, the Socialists in France, the Democrats in America and the Liberals in Canada. Jews even played critical roles in more radical movements on the left, including the communists.
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 U.S. Congress, former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and France’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon. … [To read the full article, click here]
