This is an attempt to dig into the political-economic psyches of our friends on the left. I use Swedish activist Greta Thunberg as a case in point. She seems to be representative of all too many economic illiterates.
This young woman started out as a “watermelon,” green on the outside but red on the inside. All environmental problems are due to private property, profits and capitalism. Socialism is the only way (not the best way, the only way) to protect our precious earthly home.
This thinking comes despite the fact that Western countries have a far cleaner environment than those that practice economic dirigisme. It comes despite the fact that the so-called “greens” blamed the free enterprise system for global cooling in the 1970s. Then, when the planet heated up in the 1990s, the motif was that private enterprise was responsible for global warming, and the state was responsible for the solution.
However, earlier in the present century, change occurred once again. For the first time, global temperatures became a threat to our very existence as a species (not that we deserve preservation; one of her confreres was hoping for a virus that would wipe most of us out right before COVID struck).
It seems that no matter what the environmental problem, the cause is free enterprise. And the solution is more government control over the economy. This also concerns dirty air, species extinction (not ours, for these latter-day Malthusians), loss of trees, etc.
When next we heard from this world-class publicist, it was off to the races against Israel. She was instrumental in organizing a flotilla that would bring much-needed food and medicine to the supposedly unjustly suffering Palestinian Arabs in Gaza.
No mention of why they were suffering. No mention of the terrorist organization they elected to run the Strip in which they live. No mention of the invasion and slaughter of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, across the border on Oct. 7, 2023. No mention of the Hamas and Palestinian Arab kidnappers of 251 others (and the 83 who did not survive included a mother and her two little sons, one of them not even a year old).
No mention of Middle Eastern history at all, recent or otherwise.
Why is the left so bitterly opposed to Israel? There are plenty of reasons why this should not be the case.
Yes, many Jews may look “white” to most people (of course, a great many do not). But most Israelis come from North Africa and other countries in the Mideast—Morocco, Yemen, Iraq. Of course, insofar as the right-wing fever swamp fringes are concerned, they are not even counted as belonging in the white category; “they will not replace us” is their motto. So, they are in effect non-white, and for all intents and purposes should be beloved of the left.
It cannot be denied that, considering this perspective, the underdog deserves special appreciation.
Well, Israel has a population of nearly 10 million people and is surrounded by 23 Arab countries hosting roughly 1 billion people. The governments of all of them—at least until the 2020 Abraham Accords—hated Zionism and Zionists with a purple passion. This country occupies far less than 1% of the entire land mass of the Middle East; yet, as some of its regional neighbors purport, it should be kicked out. Or rather, eliminated.
It is the “Little Satan,” according to Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other terror groups that target civilians. And it works with its ally, the “Big Satan,” aka the United States.
They point their fingers at the joint war against Iran as an example. Yes, the same Iran that happens to be launching missiles right now at fellow Arab states. Where is all the protesting against that?
And still, the left sees Israelis as colonizers. (That’s very bad, in case you haven’t been paying attention.) And so it goes, they deserve to be targeted by terror regimes and related outfits. (Aren’t they bad?)
The Jews have been in the Holy Land for some 3,500 years. The Arabs only arrived a few scant centuries ago. The Al-Aqsa mosque lies above the Jewish Second Temple, which is perched on top of the Jewish First Temple. So the natives, beloved of the left, are the Jews; the interlopers are the Arabs.
It could have gone the other way, but it didn’t. The order is the order. History is history.
But maybe not according to Greta Thunberg.
