During the recent Gaza war, Israel was forced to defend herself from 4,000 rockets and destroy 40 tunnels dug by Hamas terrorists planning to enter Israeli kindergartens and malls from underground hatches. In response to Israel’s self-defense, vicious anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests organized by leftists and Moslems, erupted across Europe and in America, with signs calling for “Jews to the gas chambers.”
Since then, ISIS has stepped up its brutal aggression: beheading, enslaving, raping, crucifying and loving every minute of it. None of these atrocities have ever been done by Israel. Nor would Israel do so. ISIS gleefully announces its intent to annihilate all Christians from its ongoing path, enslave women, burn, loot and round up children for mass beheadings, using the heads of those it murders for sport. It is engaged in real, actual genocide of non-Muslims.
Yet, there are no angry street protests from the “moral” crowd.
Nor have we seen angry protests from Islamic groups who everyday indict America and Israel for some arbitrary, manufactured “civil rights” infraction. They remain invisible, while ISIS kills Moslems and everyone else.
After years of this hypocrisy, it is obvious that the Left exploits the terms moral, human rights, justice, women and children to further its agenda of demonizing those it hates and wants removed and for the purpose of smoothing its own way to power. For them, morality is not an inner value. Rather, it is a political tool.
The Left hates Israel just as it hates America. America is too Christian, and Israel is too Jewish. America and Israel are democracies, whereas the Left feels it should rule over us.
The Left shares in common with Islam a disdain of individuals deciding their own destiny. Be it Shariah compliant Islam or liberal social engineering, so as to erase individuality and liberty, the leaders of both groups expect submission to their authoritarian ideologies. Both want to topple the fabric of American society.
Americans and Israelis are generally successful. The Left hates success for anyone but its own clique. Israel and America are both patriotic countries: nothing riles the left more than a specific identity and patriotism, which are the antithesis of bland Leftist universalism and transnationalism.
The Left sees in America and Israel only sin, never self-defense. It is blind to the justice and kindness endemic to American Judeo-Christian and Israeli society, and it romanticizes evil.
By now it’s clear that current political feminism is no longer about protecting women. If so, they would be first in line criticizing Islam. If worldwide feminists would but alert the world to Islamic mistreatment of women, we would be further along in winning this war. The truth is, most of these celebrity feminists are a privileged set of upper middle class egotists, who’ve become part of the denigrate/hate America parade. Many believe they are superior, “worldlier,” and more sensitive to other cultures than are their countrymen. And they smugly love telling us so.
What began as a legitimate quest for women’s rights has evolved into a hatred for the “patriarchal society” they equate with the American Judeo-Christian outlook. Living in the luxury of America, they blithely condemn the U.S., while romanticizing other societies: they stay abroad in four-star hotels for two weeks and return to America boasting of their solidarity and “oneness with the Third World.” Much of today’s feminism is dedicated, like all the latest liberal “isms,” to the radical transformation of America and demonization of Israel. They come, not to praise, but to bury.
One vocal NY Jewish feminist so identifies with that which is Un-American and un-Israel that she takes the side of Hamas over Israel. This high-living feminist, who rails against corporate America, goes on to blather about “the abundance of sexuality and femininity that lies beneath the burqa.” She certainly wouldn’t be so rhapsodic if the Catholic Church would force head-to-toe covering of women.
For such pampered feminists, it’s no longer about upholding principle, but staying in the good graces of those whose social acceptance they crave: academia, media and leftwing rabble-rousers, who find plenty of “courage” to criticize Israel and America but vanish when it comes to honestly evaluating jihadist Islam.
Bottom line for the Left: once you are perceived as the Un- American, anti-American or Un-Israel you are automatically considered virtuous. Once you are deemed virtuous, the Left overlooks your acts of atrocity, whitewashed as necessary for the “liberation.” Islam has shown itself to be the most Un-American and Un-Israel of systems and is, thus, granted the Left’s biggest Free Pass. It’s not about virtue or morality. It’s about power politics.
Groups on the Left, and career feminists, who see oppression from American or western males only, like to pose as victims of discrimination so they can happily apply victim status – and thus nobility – to themselves forever. Victim status is today’s coveted prize. Thus, we have the obscene phenomenon of “victim” feminists identifying with “victim” Islamists, though it is Islam that victimizes women! Leftists and feminists remain silent in the face of worldwide hate and targeting of Jews by Islam and Moslems. They simply don’t care!
Wealthy leftists, egomaniacal professors, Hollywood and trendy feminists are part of the cheering squad for Muslims, who’ve worked shrewdly and tirelessly – with their oil money and as conquerors of 1/3 of the world’s population – to portray themselves as victims. Leftists hope their public identification with such “victims” will be their ticket to absolution and a protective shield for them against personal attacks from militant Islam or Black Panthers. Much of that absolution and protection is garnered by protesting Israel, while remaining silent regarding jihad.
If Israel would need to defend herself against ISIS, the Left would probably denounce Israel for acting “without enough restraint” and for maiming “innocents.”
Rabbi Aryeh Spero is author of Push Back and president of Caucus for America.
