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Notes -
A short introduction to Liberal Zionist rhetoric, and why they usually just keep quiet.
A day ago a very interesting interview between Krystal Ball and Rep. Adam Smith took place. The topic of contention was Israel.
tl;dr: Openly defending Israel as a jewish ethnostate is OK as a democrat.
The interview starts off cordial enough. Adam establishes himself as the typical neo-liberal everyman who can sympathize with the plight of the downtrodden AND the military industrial complex (What a guy!) whilst Krystal fronts the now typical faux radical left 'not everyone in the DSA is insane, actually. At least I'm not' media personality that goes hard on the issues that pull on the heart strings.
Where things go off the rails unexpectedly is around the 11:30 mark. Krystal compliments Adam on his recent strong voting pattern against aid to Israel, specifically the Thomas Massie amendment, and asks him to explain his thought process and change of heart. Adam waffles on a bit about his opposition to the Netanyahu government, a typical Liberal Zionist talking point, but then suddenly veers off the rails:
This is not out of context, this is the argument. Yes, Liberal Zionists are democrats. Yes, they are against the Netanyahu government. Yes, they believe in the concept of Israel as an explicit ethnostate. He believes it is not possible for Palestinians to represent jews in Israel. Two ethnic groups can not coexist. They are definitionally in a zero sum game of survival. That's the establishment democrat Liberal Zionist view for jews in Israel.
Understandably, Krystal catches on to this
Neo NaziZionist talking point that's somehow found its way into her otherwise progressive liberal leftist studio:Adam replies, a little more flustered than before:
Mein Kamerad... Krystal replies:
To which Adam retorts:
Which is the extent of his argumentation that isn't a soft recital of the many permutations of ethno nationalism argued for on the old /r/AltRight, RIP.
Krystal, to her credit as a host, tries to segue this into something else and asks why the US taxpayer should care about a jewish ethno supremacist project in the middle East, which Mike Huckabee would have been happy to answer. But Adam can't really seek refugee in the Scofield Bible so he doubles down on
Neo NazismZionism for jews:Well OK.
To all the Adam Smiths of the world. Why is having an ethnostate good for the jews but not anyone else? Why don't jews benefit from diversity in their western style open democratic society like everyone else? Why doesn't the magic freedom dirt in Israel transform your third worlders into engineers and scientists like it allegedly does everywhere else in the west, who would be just as jewish as anyone else in a few years. How is it possible to represent anything the Democrats have represented the world over and then believe this for Israel in the back of your brain?
Adam arrived to this interview ready to earnestly make the point that ethnonationalism is good for jews. He wanted to say this and he did. And I get it. Because he's not wrong. It's just that he believes it's wrong for everyone else. Most Liberal Zionists must understand that this contradiction is impossible to defend, which is probably why they don't talk about it at all. Hell, I'm starting to believe they can't even conceive of it. The Dual Morality is so strong it probably doesn't even register as a contradiction. But to hear it from the horses mouth is flabbergasting.
I don't understand what causes so many people to abandon what seem like their important principles when it comes to Israel. It is mystifying to me. My perception is that Democrats, especially younger ones, are becoming more consistent on that question which I think is overall a good thing.
I admit I am no scholar on these topics but "liberal Zionism" has always seemed to me like a contradiction in terms. Zionism, as I understand it, is very explicitly an ethno-nationalist movement for the creation, support, and maintenance of a state for people of Jewish ethnicity. Like, the orientation of the state should explicitly privilege people of a particular ethnicity and religion. The very premise of Zionism seems in contradiction with how I understand liberal principles. Regarding, like, equal rights. Religious tolerance. It seems like liberal Zionists primarily want to claim they support liberal principles... except one Special Exception.
I obviously come down on the "liberal" side here. I think ethnostates are bad. I do not find it at all hard to hold this position consistently, including with respect to Israel.
It's because Israel is the ultimate pragmatic hard situation.
Anytime any country wants to kill a bunch of people and steal their stuff the Jews look like an appetizing target.
I don't find ethnostates great, but realistically if the arabs got control of Israel they'd probably end up killing a bunch of the Jews living there and chasing the rest out. Especially now after what has happened. This is what is slowly happening in South Africa.
I think Israel is going to be a ethno-state no matter what, the option is either a Jewish ethnostates or an Arab one. I think this will probably be the case for a lot of countries and places.
I wish there was more America for them to move to. The way to break up these conflicts seems to be having both people move as far away from the context as possible, wait three or four generations and then the only people that cared are dead or too old to fight and their children get to move on.
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