There appears to be no crime—no matter how heinous, no matter how much outrage it would cause were it committed against anyone else—that can’t be ignored or excused if committed against Jews. That’s the conclusion drawn by JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin about the reaction of left-wing intellectuals and most feminists to the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7.
Tobin is joined on “Top Story” by groundbreaking psychologist and feminist author Phyllis Chesler, to whom the willingness to excuse crimes committed by those seeking to slaughter Jews is unsurprising. She traces the calumnies now routinely thrown at Israel and the Jews back to the 1970s, when the Soviet bloc employed antisemitism as a tactic during the Cold War, such as its “Zionism is racism” initiative at the United Nations.
According to Chesler, the post-Oct. 7 world demonstrates that woke ideology has caused many who supported the #MeToo movement to abandon the principle that “rape must always be condemned.” She says the willingness of some on the left to “bring down Western civilization in the misguided belief that the barbarian violent alternative is better and will preserve human rights, gay rights, women’s rights, is so suicidal. It is so irrational. It is signing on to a death cult.”
Chesler believes that “the whole [LGBT] involvement in marching against Israel has something to do with a desire for approval and acceptance at any cost, and let others pay the price.” It’s also true that “the sight of Jewish blood has always excited Jew-haters,” she adds.
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