Blind to the True Threat

The Nazis are coming! The Nazis are coming! The Nazis are coming!

If you thought that was bad, the Nazis are now here. They are in the Trump White House. They are invading the EPA and the Pentagon and ICE. They are on the steps of the Supreme Court. Rush out to the barricades. Fight to the last person. We must resist. We must resist. We must resist.

These days the bien pensant left is fully engaged in the war against Nazis. People who believe themselves to be intellectual sophisticates  have become mindless ranters, indulging their impotent rage, showing what happens when you allow you emotions to run amok. They have entered a time warp and are fighting the last war.

In the meantime, the Democratic Party has been aligning itself with the true heirs to Nazism-- the groups that are hell bent on murdering Jews, on finishing what Hitler started. That is, with radical Islamic terrorists. About that group of neo-Nazis, the American left has little say. It has followed the Obama appeasement policy and will fight to the death to bring more Muslims into America. And it has turned the Democratic Party against Israel. Most American Jews thrilled to the prospect of putting Jeremiah Wright’s protégé in the White House and have not noticed that the Vice Chairman of today’s Democratic National Committee is a Louis Farrakhan protégé.

Of course, it hasn’t registered. Good liberals and progressives have been duped into fighting against a Nazi invasion led by white supremists and Steve Bannon. They know in the core of their being that Bannon, having led a web media company that systematically defended Israel, is really a Nazi.

Let’s not forget feminism. The new feminism has been organizing to fight against the Nazis in the White House. No one much cares but one of its leaders is a Palestinian activist who wants to bring Shariah Law to America. More women in headscarves. Now, that’s a great feminist idea. Let’s emulate the way Saudi Arabia treats women. Another great feminist idea.

Another new feminist leader is a Palestinian terrorist convicted of murdering Jews in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. No one notices. No one cares. American leftists and Jews are mobilized to fight the last war.

I have already written about Linda Sarsour and about Rasmea Odeh, but today I report Alan Dershowitz’s comments on these new feminist leaders.

Speaking of the International Women’s Strike for Peace, Dershowitz remarked on its anti-Semitic manifesto:

It is a tragedy that this women’s movement — which has done so much good in refocusing attention on important women’s issues in the United States; from gender violence, to reproductive rights and equal-pay — has now moved away from its central mission and gone out of its way to single out one foreign nation by calling for the "decolonization of Palestine." Not of Tibet. Not of Kurdistan. Not of Ukraine. Not of Cyprus. Only Palestine.

The platform, which is published on IWS’ website under the headline "Antiracist and Anti-imperialist Feminism" also says, "we want to dismantle all walls, from prison walls to border walls, from Mexico to Palestine." No mention is made of the walls that imprison gays in Iran, dissidents in China, feminists in Gaza or Kurds in Turkey. Only the walls erected by Israel.

Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian activist who was a lead organizer of the post-inauguration Women’s March declared in The Nation that no good feminist could support Israel:

“When you talk about feminism you’re talking about the rights of all women and their families to live in dignity, peace, and security. It’s about giving women access to health care and other basic rights. And Israel is a country that continues to occupy territories in Palestine, has people under siege at checkpoints — we have women who have babies on checkpoints because they’re not able to get to hospitals [in time]. It just doesn’t make any sense for someone to say, ‘Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement?’ There can’t be in feminism. You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There’s just no way around it."

Of course, everyone on the left is burning up over the Nazis in the White House. So they are ignoring what is happening in their own midst:

The real choice to be made now by all those who care about the feminist cause is whether to allow Sarsour and her radical anti-Israel allies to hijack the movement in support of their own bigoted views. The alternative is to maintain feminism’s focus on key issues that pertain to women and to call out countries and movements according to how seriously they violate women’s rights, rather than singling out the one Jewish democracy — Israel.

The feminist movement is being hijacked. So too, Andrew Stein and Douglas Schoen argue in the Wall Street Journal this morning, is the Democratic Party.

They explain how it happened:

President Obama created an atmosphere of outright hostility between the U.S. and Israel. He made a nuclear deal with Iran and refused to veto the United Nations Security Council resolution in December that condemned settlements in the disputed West Bank.

Hillary Clinton might have been an improvement, but her commitment to Israel has long been questioned. As secretary of state, she referred to Israeli settlements as “illegitimate.” In 2015 she had to reassure donors to her presidential campaign that she still supported Israel. Even during Bill Clinton’s administration, pro-Israel Democrats worried that Mrs. Clinton would influence her husband in the wrong direction.

It ought to be well known that the radical European left has long supported the Palestinian cause. You cannot belong to a radical leftist political party or political movement in Europe unless you are willing to do everything in your power to delegitimize the state of Israel.

The great conundrum in all this is simple: why have American Jews continued to support the Democratic Party? Barack Obama stabbed Israel in the back at the UN, as Dershowitz put it, and Jews voted for Hillary Clinton en masse. They continue to support the Democratic Party.

Jewish Americans have accepted the Democratic Party’s turn against Israel. Stein and Schoen explain:

One reason Democrats have continued the move away from Israel is that Jewish voters haven’t exacted a price for it. Exit polls in 2016 found they supported Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Trump, 71% to 23%, in line with their historic levels of Democratic support.

Are Jewish Democrats sufficiently enlightened to turn toward the Republican Party? Stein and Schoen believe that the Trump administration can make the way easier:

There’s still an opportunity here for the GOP. Especially if Mr. Trump delivers on his promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the Jewish vote could start trending Republican. Unless Democrats reaffirm their support for Israel, many lifelong party members—ourselves included—may decide that the time has come to find new political affiliations.

Right now, of course, they are so blinded by their hatred of Nazis and are so involved in fighting against the Vichy government that they are very easy to manipulate.