In these days of collapsed conceptions and undermining worldviews, it is especially worth following the Israeli left. Something extraordinary is happening there, on which the word "disillusionment" seems small. One by one, columnists and Internet personalities confess their astonishment at the reaction of the global left to the criminal and barbaric massacre of Hamas.
Revered musicians and comedians identify with Gaza. Artists and artists who once flew to see their latest exhibition in Amsterdam or New York have published petitions accusing Israel of war crimes. Nearly 2,000 sociologists from Western universities signed a communiqué condemning the "genocide" perpetrated by the IDF. On campuses, the atmosphere is so anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish that fumes of violence are felt in the air. Pro-Israel activity, it is reported, is being moved to secret places. In European capitals, rallies in support of Israel have been replaced by pro-Palestinian "rage marches," and young men and women – Germans, French, British, Scandinavians – can be seen in their ranks carrying signs whose content borders on anti-Semitism. And they smile at the camera, just as they smiled at us last summer, when we drank beer with them in London or Berlin. And Greta Thunberg, that one from the climate. Even Greta is already persona non grata.
But we had an alibi
The Israeli left is shocked, not only by the moral collapse, but by the sense of abandonment. One wrote that he was angry at "those I thought were like me and who shared similar values with me," while another spoke of "the sense of betrayal of our leftist brothers in the world." Like a bride waiting for a groom, a son of Satan, who did not appear.
terrorist infrastructure, tunnel shafts and launchers in a civilian environment; IDF attacks over 250 targets of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip // IDF Spokesperson
And this feeling of loneliness is particularly acute, because the rush into the arms of the liberal West was a bit of a contingency plan for the intellectual left. "We thought we could get out of here," one of them candidly confessed, "we'd go live in Europe with liberals who share a secular and humanistic worldview. We discovered that there was nowhere to run. No one is waiting for us in Berlin or Paris."
Indeed, as the Secretary General said, things do not happen in a vacuum. After all, over the past year, many in the thinking wing of the Israeli left have invested considerable resources in fostering an identity that is separate from the rest of Israel. The flood of columns "You are not my brothers" reflected an aversion to "fundamentalist, messianic, violent and fascist" Israeli society. Plans for separation of the "nationalist State of Judea" from the "democratic State of Israel," alongside thoughts of secular autonomy in Tel Aviv. And if that doesn't work, then relocation campaigns, color articles about Israeli communes in Europe and flattering interviews with creators, artists, actors, who simply can't bear what has become of the homeland – and cut abroad.
This separation plan rested on the illusion that the social oxygen balloon was in the West, with "people like us." Humanists and liberals and peace-loving people who have shaken off the burdensome, outdated shackles of nationalism and adopted a pan-European, if not universal, cosmopolitan, global identity. These objects of fantasy became a reference group, an alternative community of belonging. And if we show our "leftist brothers in the world" really, really strongly how much we dislike, disgust, cannot bear, the occupier, racist, messianic and dictatorial Israel, they will embrace us even more. So we made sure to tweet in English, and write in English, and demonstrate in fluent English – even when we were deep in Kaplan and Azrieli. But none of this helped. Like Hamas, they make no distinction between Jews and Jews. We were left without those from here and without those from there.
Blaming the West, as usual
In their desperation, the Israeli left now accuses their Western counterparts of superficiality, and even speaks out against the "progressive trolling" and remembers that in fact the Western left has always flirted with the violent side and forgave its crimes – from Stalin and Mao to the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof gang. This is of course true, but it is a partial explanation, and mostly naïve. In fact, it's progressive on steroids: because instead of accepting responsibility, you get closer, and like good students of Edward Said, blame the West.
Persona non Greta, and friends, photo: from Greta Thunberg's Instagram account
A decent Israeli leftist, especially from the thinking wing, the writer, the creator, must ask himself not only how Western leftists were brainwashed with simplistic progressive babble, but where did intellectuals and opinion leaders around the world get their basic notions about "criminal and violent" Israel? And if they are honest to the end, they will also ask themselves what role the intellectual left in Israel played in the terrible demonization of their country.
Combined IDF forces in raid in northern Gaza // IDF Spokesperson
Is it possible, for example, to consume Haaretz in English without becoming entrenched in the knowledge that Israel maintains a pro-fascist regime and fosters a violent regime of "Jewish supremacy"? Is it possible to attend an international conference of "Israel Studies" (oh, what is made of them) or a congress of social sciences attended by Israeli academics, without learning that Zionism is a colonialist project of "ethnic cleansing" and that Israeli society is a militaristic Sparta steeped in racism? Is it possible to leave international events of left-wing Israeli organizations without understanding that Israel is guilty of war crimes, racial segregation, apartheid, dispossession, deliberate killing, unlawful siege, torture and warmongering? Is it possible to escape an Israeli film festival abroad without getting the impression that Israeli society is rotten to the core, and that IDF soldiers are bloodthirsty young men who abuse helpless Arabs?
Progressive fashions are not to blame for all this. And if intellectuals and students in the West can witness Hamas's sick sadism and still blame Israel, then anti-Israel propaganda around the world has done a really good job in recent years, much of it produced by Blue and White. Because even in this industry, everywhere in the world there is something of our own. Boomerang, anyone?
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