Liberal Jews must stop appeasing the socialist radicals who hate them
The old saying goes that an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.When it comes to progressive Jews and the DSA, the well-fed crocodiles are just about ready for dessert.I’ve been watching this strategy of inclusion of hateful actors by Jewish groups and politicians play out since I came to the US almost 20 years ago from Israel.As someone who always believed in freedom, peace and equality, I imagined I’d find a home on the American left.Imagine my confusion when I learned that in many circles, being a liberal in good standing meant denouncing the only democracy in the Middle East, staying quiet in the face of racism and violence directed at my community from other minority groups, and all but a pledge to agree that, sure, synagogues are being fire-bombed and Jews threatened every day, but don’t let the statistics confuse you — it’s only real antisemitism if it comes from the MAGA-hat region.I have yet to encounter a club where turning my back to the truth was worth the price of admission.So my confusion turned to rage over the years as I saw fellow Jews align themselves with people who openly and proudly spread hateful propaganda and support violence against the Jewish community.Many cloaked these partnerships in the language of “allyship,” patting themselves on the back for being open-minded enough to have conversations with those who disagree with them.But at what point do you close the flaps of the “big tent” of Jewish thought to those who are trying to destroy it from within?Brad Lander, who less than a year ago still considered himself a Zionist, was happy to trade in his dignity for Instagram likes, embracing the lie of a genocide in Gaza, and posing happily in campaign ads alongside Darializa Avila Chevalier, who chose to celebrate the massacre of Oct.7 in Times Square as Israeli mothers were still frantically searching for their missing and murdered children, among them several Americans and New Yorkers.
...