Thursday, July 24, 2025
Project Esther
As the genocide in Gaza intensifies and Zionist settlers murder American citizens with impunity and the Israeli state attacks Syria and Lebanon with impunity, you might think the good citizens of America would wonder why. But you would be wrong. Ezra Klein makes an attempt to intervene, explaining the contradiction between a settler/colonialist/ethno-state with expanionist ambitions ie.. Zionism, and the liberal ideals that many American Jews value such as the right to self-determination, secularist governance, etc...
Unfortunately, Ezra doesn't go so far as to to call the Zionist state of Israel genocidal, but he hints that it is a conclusion difficult to avoid. Already the Lobby has Mamdani parsing language like "global infitada" and American Zionists, especially the Christian types, will do everything they can to make sure everyone knows he has "Islamist" leanings. Not to mention socialist. I just hope he finds a way to lean into this particular criticism rather than the typical backing away. The photos of wealthy real estate developers handing his opponents big checks makes this the perfect opportunity to clarify who stands for what.
This brings us to Project Esther, a paper put out by the now-ascendent Heritage Foundation. The paper outlines a strategy to not just marginalize but destroy the cause of Palestinian liberation from Israeli occupiers and oppressors. They were the inspired thinkers behind this program to smear any and all with the label of anti-semitic, a program which has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams (or so I would imagine). Get a few Jewish students on various campuses to claim they "feel threatened" when pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionist voices are raised. Get a few rabid Republican Zionists to do their own threatening; taking away funding, suing, creating bad publicity, etc.. Get politicians on both sides of the aisle to equate anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. Keep talking about the defenseless Israelis in their dangerous neighborhood. Yada yada.
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Here's a re-hash of something I wrote to a mutual friend following some mid-east dialogue. I hope to express a core feature of my ruminations over the recent Israel / Gaza / Palestine strife, leading to my position on this issue:
ReplyDeleteThe core feature animating my concern about Israel / Gaza is not the conflict in itself or even the east v west struggle, but the oppressor / oppressed narratives perpetuated by the "Free Palestine" identitarian left (henceforth I. L.). - A feature of which is a lack of any concern or capacity for class analysis or political reality. But rather that white straight able-bodied males are at the top of the oppressor spectrum and a trans handicapped brown skinned person of color is thus necessarily at the bottom. This is at the core of D.E.I. initiatives which has proven to be ruinous within progressive orgs and universities, and now as we've seen even more ruinous at the polls.
I heard the first ruminations (seeding my skepticism) of I.L. coming out in the general assemblies of Occupy with the mic being given over to local impoverished, marginalized and native voices ("centering" them and asked to "speak their truth") who in attempting to express what was wrong in the world, literally espoused conspiratorial gibberish or blatant misunderstandings about causations or about economic or institutional situations.
As well, I don't believe that I.L. people waving Free Palestine signs have considered "free from what?"... just from bombs? A question that I, and I think you, would easily answer: "Free from capitalist constructs". My take is that they are not anti-war - which I understand in your heart of hearts is where you come from. But they are anti-oppressor. Springing from university to non-profit wells, it is astounding that they have no systemic critiques, perhaps not even basic understandings ... just swimming in capitalist realism. And have total misreadings (along with their Dem cohorts) of the political economy and the greater mass sentiments of the electorate.
Images such as I pasted (two lesbian protesters holding a "Gays for Gaza" sign) are an example of what give me great pause, and precisely frame what is a great deal of moral confusion of the identitarian left.
That leads me to the sad part and where I stridently assert that the Identitarian Left (esp expressed via Free Palestine I.L.) is morally confused. The I.L. are people self-sworn to protect the oppressed, acting and speaking in ways that have proven to drive their fellow citizens rightward, which actually makes the marginalized and oppressed people (in the USA and elsewhere) less safe. And is enabling the erosion of the few tools available to protect all people from oppression. It is the fundamentalists who will kill you!
So now ... shifting gears and stepping back from that (fiddling while Rome burns) topic ... my eco-soc cynicism lens does not see any actions scaling and changing things fast enough to avert loss of many more species or retaining earthly stasis, etc., etc. ... sigh.