Over the past 2-3 weeks, I’ve been shocked by the hatred aimed at Israel. I’ve always known that antisemitism existed, but this was new, widespread, illogical in context (no sympathy in light of the Hamas attacks?), and from circles not historically seen as antisemitic.

I think I know why the young uberprogressives hate Israel. It’s based on several distorted convictions that they hold. 1. They believe that all conflict should be viewed through the lens of CLASS, here oppressed vs oppressor. 2. They believe that group identity, once formed, can’t be changed.

Re class: in the shadows of Auschwitz, the West largely saw Jews/Israel as an oppressed & persecuted minority. Uberprogressives have abandoned that perspective. Now Israel is the oppressor, because there is no history in their minds.

In a culture war—and make no mistake, this is part of the culture war—there is no room for nuance, for parsing out the complicated story of Jews in the Middle East. So it’s all about class—when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail—and Israel is the oppressor, and those poor Palestinians are the oppressed.

Re identity: Israel committed the greatest sin an oppressed group can commit. They prospered so that they no longer needed to be seen as oppressed.

This is a deadly sin in the minds of today’s uberprogressive social justice types because their commitment to social justice is NOT about the objects of their activism. Their commitment is their sacrament, a way to mark their identity as “good people”. They can’t feel good about being advocates for people who are prosperous & free.

(Much of SJW activism isn’t about changing the world. It’s about self-as-artistic-statement. It’s about identity construction. It’s performative and egocentric.)

Here another distorted core conviction comes into play, namely Manichaeism, the belief that people and organizations are completely good or completely bad. This kind of thinking prompts in people a desperate desire to be seen (and to see themselves) as “good people”.

In those circles, what’s the fastest & surest way to identify as one of the good people? By competing to demonstrate hatred for the bad people, of course.