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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.
Easy to answer from liberal perspective, no doublethink needed.
LIBERAL IRON ZION MODE ON:
Ethnostate for Jews is tragic necessity in order to survive, not something desirable in itself. Israeli situation is unique in the world. Immigrants in our countries are people who are fleeing mortal danger and desperate conditions, and by their hard work make economy stronger and life better. Do you want the line to go up, don't you?
Palestinians are not like that, Palestinians are hardened blood drenched terrorists, all of them are taught to hate and kill since the earliest age. Palestinians do not want peace, they want to blow up themselves and cut off heads (while your new Latino neighbor dreams about cutting your lawn).
It still seems pretty contradictory to me. In particular this:
and this:
Are the same picture. I suppose you could some "desperate conditions" are economic in nature, but a lot of the immigrants being shipped to Europe were/are from active war zones, with a culture and mentality bit that different from the Palestinian one.
Also when it comes to survival, I'd say the Jews as a coherent group have more years ahead of them then either of the Balts. And it's not even a factual disagreement, liberals usually just shrug at the prospect of any European-descended group being dissolved. It's seems to be a values disagreement, where they only care about one group surviving, despite their pretense of having universalist principles.
Not a problem for an American then?
Who's building all those mosques on Texas, and electing Mamdanis?
Mamdani isn’t exactly a believing Muslim and won on a dsa platform by promising free shit. Hardly a ‘Muslim’ story.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but... are you sure? Being duplicitous isn't disqualifying for communists, and communists and Islamists alike share an interest in the destruction of the nation. Personally, I think it's likely that Mamdani is just keeping his Muslim status on the down-low.
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