Guest opinion column from the writer Zaid Jilani argues that the pathologies of the extremist left undercut broad support for Palestinian human rights.
Protest in a manner that invites/persuades others to join - that’s the message I heard in this piece. The majority of the actions of protesters I see these days makes me want to run in the opposite direction.
I think this is mostly spot on. However, Palestinian leadership has been offered a two-state solution several times & rejected it each time. They want a one-state solution: Palestine without any jews. The "occupation" that they & their western activist allies decry isn't just the West Bank or Gaza — it's Israel istelf. They consider Israel to be an illegitimate, "settler-colonialist" project that can only be remedied by being ended. As long as this remains the position of these groups, their solution to the problem will turn off every normie in America, & they'll never attract more than their fringe supporters. It'd be nice if they grew up & stopped their tendentious sloganeering, but their maximalist demands will always be what prevents them reaching more people.
I really like Zaid, I appreciate him and I agree with him on around 95% of what he writes. But on this issue he and I are miles apart, as are Lee and myself. Doesn't mean I can't learn from reading both and try to gain perspective by doing so. Thanks for bringing him on to write this, Lee.
This story neglects to mention the big money behind Palestinian activism; many of the protesters are paid, and sometimes recruited via Craigslist. Signs are nicely printed in a uniform font, and masks and flags are provided.
It seems likely that protesters are guaranteed legal help, as well - you don’t start shaking the fence at the White House, as Palestinian protesters did last month, without being very sure someone is ready and able to get you out if you are arrested.
Where is the money to finance these protests coming from, and does the source of those funds really care about the Palestinians at all? Or is there some other goal?
Zaid's got the right idea but he's too generous to the fanatical racist Jew hating rampaging protesters. In my opinion, it appears the protest movement has gone way beyond caring about Palestinians. (Hamas doesn't care about Palestinians so why should they?) And it IS a movement that is cheering on bigger ideologies like Marxism, anti-capitalism/colonialism/imperialism, anti-West and now we learn about funding from Communist Worker's groups outside the US. The "Pro Palestinian Protest Movement" is is woefully under-informed about the intricacies of Israel, it's founding and ethos. It's a pernicious movement and has little to do with Palestinians and caters to wannabe revolutionaries. And as it is with these pro-Marxist movements, it always ends with Jews who are responsible for the world's ills. It's really obvious.
The hundreds and hundreds of protests throughout the world by "Pro-Palestinian" people have been, to me, a catastrophe for Palestinians.
I have seen countless videos and attended an actual protest to watch. At no time have I seen remonstrations against Hamas. It is Hamas which immiserates and exploits Palestinians, and which refuses to hold elections.
And don't forget that Hamas siphoned off probably hundreds of millions of $ to build circa 350-400 miles of tunnels underneath Gaza, turning it into essentially a military installation. A war crime in and of itself. And now it has become undisputably clear, that the UN via UNRWA, is up beyond its collective eyeballs in bankrolling and covering up for terrorism and Hamas.
I personally think that if the left of center and right of center could do away with some idealism and hard-lining, much could be done about many issues. No one likes either of these sides very much but there are some issues that could make this a very powerful voting block, maybe extremely powerful. Just a thought.
Great article, lots of respect for Zaid. I do have to wonder tho, if the majority of actual Liberals are invisible bc we’re not being courted by anyone with a PAC / Deep State ghouls / a bunch of social media clout etc. ?
I think the far left crazy people are annoying, and while some have good intentions most of them are idiots repeating gibberish as a show of belonging. They give zero fucks about making anyone’s life better; they have a large hole in themselves they’re trying to fill with misplaced anger and fear. I don’t know if they’re driving people away from issues like justice for Palestine, but they certainly aren’t interested in helping anyone who doesn’t know their secret handshake, or who hasn’t drank enough kool-aid to send away for the secret decoder ring.
On the other side are the suburban neoliberals who loyally consume MSDNC and recite litanies about Trump and Putin and whatever during the Two Minutes Hate. They’d probably drop bombs on civilians themselves if someone let them, as long as Maddow or some other milquetoast fashy-wannabe told them it was ok. Some of them could probably be convinced with reason and information, but first you’d have to deprogram them of the lies about Russian spies supporting a ceasefire like Nancy says…
So where are most of us with functioning brains who want these bullshit wars to stop? Where are the majority of people who want basic justice and human rights for everyone? Why aren’t there enough of us to matter? Why can’t we form a voting block to unfuck our country and government??? Probably we’re being ignored by and silenced by the mainstream bc we’re the only threat to their dominance. And most of us are too poor, sick and sad to do anything about it besides being angry in the comments.
So how do we break on through and make ourselves heard?
Timely and much needed — as we watch a televised US-supported genocide and while the US “elite” and US security state feverishly “fight for democracy”.
I really appreciate your effort here. I have not been persuaded though. I do agree that the Palestinian protestors need a completely new approach to move the needle in their direction.
I think most Americans and probably most westerners are done with large protests marching through our streets disrupting civil society as they scream outrageous demands.
Adding insult is that many of the protesters are recently arrived from other countries or indoctrinated college students who are filled with idealist views without any nuance to a complicated subject.
They often dismiss any criticism of the damage that Hamas has done to not only Israel but even more importantly to the Palestinians. That issue has to be addressed between the two countries or I doubt there will be no good ending.
I abhor mob mentality and that is what I see here just as we saw with the riots after George Floyd.
Zaid, it sounds as if you are saying to those groups "pretend to be closer to mainstream until we win". I'm not sure how I feel about that. And what is winning to you and all these groups? Do you even all agree? Sounds like, perhaps, not.
A lot of this is sensible political advice, and the idea that "the worst thing for Israel’s government would be for Americans to start to see it as more analogous to the region it lives in than a North American democracy" is a really stellar insight. However, I'm very skeptical of the idea that turning rallies into a "sea of Israeli and Palestinian flags" would be feasible or even desirable. Asking Palestinians to fly the flag of the regime that's repressing them is a humiliating prospect. A much more reasonable ask would be for Palestinians to fly the American flag next to their own.
Turning Palestinian rallies into unity rallies also confuses the messaging. The argument that "an endless occupation only endangers Israel in the long term," while it may be true, is also not a silver bullet. Part of the problem in American politics *is* that the Palestinian issue is seen through the lens of what's best for Israel. (After all, as you say, there are "few political campaigns that have ever succeeded by embracing the opposition’s framework.") Americans need to start thinking of the Palestinian nation as an actor that carries moral weight in itself and whose condition affects U.S. interests directly.
This is way beyond figuring out how to moderate a proPalestian movement that appeals to common sense and common decency as AIPAC has had years to manipulate public opinion and there’s no catching up. Until America stops sending money and weapons, the Europeans grow a backbone and MSM shows the country the extent of the carnage I don’t know how this can be stopped. I watched CBS news last night and there was a 45 second report on Gaza sandwiched in among the Super Bowl hype, Taylor Swift and a weather report. And Biden’s dementia.
I needed to take some time to think about this article. And, you know - I think I’ve decided that it’s poppycock. Yes, SJW campus movements ought to be more focused. Yes, adding 5 more colors to the rainbow flag has ridiculously and unnecessarily diluted the pride flag and its message. Totally agree about being focused. BUT - during the vietnam war, nothing would have happened to end it had the protestors focused on persuading the valium moms - and quite honestly the scolding of the protesters was not much different that the scolding Zain is dishing out. Ditto that protests against the dirty wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The gay rights movement started with a riot, and men in dresses taking to the streets (the HRC only came on board once activists had made the space safe for the pink polo shirt set.) In fact, the HRC actively interfered with AIDS activists and delayed treatments for AIDS because they wanted to go along to get along; it was ACT-up that was willing to be obnoxious and cause enough trouble that something needed to be done.
I’ve been a part of enough protest movements at this point to realize that appealing to soccer moms and appeasing mainstream liberals is pointless until critical mass is achieved. If wine-swilling Karen can look at the endless stream of dead babies in Gaza and state that ‘Israel has to defend itself’ Karen can just fuck off.
The settler-colonial Zionists who emigrated to Palestine never had any intention of living peacefully with the indigenous Palestinians. This is clear from history as well as the well documented quotes from their Zionist leaders. After all, the they were “God’s chosen people,” and Israel was their “promised land.” Why would they share this land with people that were not “chosen?” As a result, the history of Israel has been one of discrimination, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and now genocide. The establishment of a homeland for Jews may have started with good intentions but that experiment in social engineering (with zero input from the Palestinians) has proved to be a disastrous mistake, leading to unending hatred’s wars, and death. Time to admit the obvious.
The only reason that these Zionist extremists have been able to carry out such inhumane and deadly policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians is due to the full financial, political, military, and diplomatic support of the United States. Without that, Israel would long ago have had to make peace with their neighbors and recognize the human rights of Palestinians. So, instead of fecklessly decrying Israeli Zionists we should be demanding an end to all support for Israel on every level. Not one more dime of foreign aid, not one more protective veto in the UN Security Council, not one more bomb or bullet for these murderous fanatics. Israel has lost the right to exist and our US leaders who support this genocide should be tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Either the Israelis learn to live in peace and harmony with Palestinians or they need to emigrate. Let’s ask that US suburban mom how she likes her tax dollars and politicians supporting the bombing of women and children inside the Israeli-controlled Gaza concentration camp for Palestinian refugees forced from their homes in other parts of Palestine.
Protest in a manner that invites/persuades others to join - that’s the message I heard in this piece. The majority of the actions of protesters I see these days makes me want to run in the opposite direction.
I think this is mostly spot on. However, Palestinian leadership has been offered a two-state solution several times & rejected it each time. They want a one-state solution: Palestine without any jews. The "occupation" that they & their western activist allies decry isn't just the West Bank or Gaza — it's Israel istelf. They consider Israel to be an illegitimate, "settler-colonialist" project that can only be remedied by being ended. As long as this remains the position of these groups, their solution to the problem will turn off every normie in America, & they'll never attract more than their fringe supporters. It'd be nice if they grew up & stopped their tendentious sloganeering, but their maximalist demands will always be what prevents them reaching more people.
I really like Zaid, I appreciate him and I agree with him on around 95% of what he writes. But on this issue he and I are miles apart, as are Lee and myself. Doesn't mean I can't learn from reading both and try to gain perspective by doing so. Thanks for bringing him on to write this, Lee.
This story neglects to mention the big money behind Palestinian activism; many of the protesters are paid, and sometimes recruited via Craigslist. Signs are nicely printed in a uniform font, and masks and flags are provided.
It seems likely that protesters are guaranteed legal help, as well - you don’t start shaking the fence at the White House, as Palestinian protesters did last month, without being very sure someone is ready and able to get you out if you are arrested.
Where is the money to finance these protests coming from, and does the source of those funds really care about the Palestinians at all? Or is there some other goal?
Zaid's got the right idea but he's too generous to the fanatical racist Jew hating rampaging protesters. In my opinion, it appears the protest movement has gone way beyond caring about Palestinians. (Hamas doesn't care about Palestinians so why should they?) And it IS a movement that is cheering on bigger ideologies like Marxism, anti-capitalism/colonialism/imperialism, anti-West and now we learn about funding from Communist Worker's groups outside the US. The "Pro Palestinian Protest Movement" is is woefully under-informed about the intricacies of Israel, it's founding and ethos. It's a pernicious movement and has little to do with Palestinians and caters to wannabe revolutionaries. And as it is with these pro-Marxist movements, it always ends with Jews who are responsible for the world's ills. It's really obvious.
The hundreds and hundreds of protests throughout the world by "Pro-Palestinian" people have been, to me, a catastrophe for Palestinians.
I have seen countless videos and attended an actual protest to watch. At no time have I seen remonstrations against Hamas. It is Hamas which immiserates and exploits Palestinians, and which refuses to hold elections.
And don't forget that Hamas siphoned off probably hundreds of millions of $ to build circa 350-400 miles of tunnels underneath Gaza, turning it into essentially a military installation. A war crime in and of itself. And now it has become undisputably clear, that the UN via UNRWA, is up beyond its collective eyeballs in bankrolling and covering up for terrorism and Hamas.
Correct me if I am wrong, I thought Israel has not been occupying the Gaza Strip militarily for a number of years now.
I personally think that if the left of center and right of center could do away with some idealism and hard-lining, much could be done about many issues. No one likes either of these sides very much but there are some issues that could make this a very powerful voting block, maybe extremely powerful. Just a thought.
Great article, lots of respect for Zaid. I do have to wonder tho, if the majority of actual Liberals are invisible bc we’re not being courted by anyone with a PAC / Deep State ghouls / a bunch of social media clout etc. ?
I think the far left crazy people are annoying, and while some have good intentions most of them are idiots repeating gibberish as a show of belonging. They give zero fucks about making anyone’s life better; they have a large hole in themselves they’re trying to fill with misplaced anger and fear. I don’t know if they’re driving people away from issues like justice for Palestine, but they certainly aren’t interested in helping anyone who doesn’t know their secret handshake, or who hasn’t drank enough kool-aid to send away for the secret decoder ring.
On the other side are the suburban neoliberals who loyally consume MSDNC and recite litanies about Trump and Putin and whatever during the Two Minutes Hate. They’d probably drop bombs on civilians themselves if someone let them, as long as Maddow or some other milquetoast fashy-wannabe told them it was ok. Some of them could probably be convinced with reason and information, but first you’d have to deprogram them of the lies about Russian spies supporting a ceasefire like Nancy says…
So where are most of us with functioning brains who want these bullshit wars to stop? Where are the majority of people who want basic justice and human rights for everyone? Why aren’t there enough of us to matter? Why can’t we form a voting block to unfuck our country and government??? Probably we’re being ignored by and silenced by the mainstream bc we’re the only threat to their dominance. And most of us are too poor, sick and sad to do anything about it besides being angry in the comments.
So how do we break on through and make ourselves heard?
Thank you, Lee and Zaid.
Timely and much needed — as we watch a televised US-supported genocide and while the US “elite” and US security state feverishly “fight for democracy”.
Lies after lies, horror after horror….
I really appreciate your effort here. I have not been persuaded though. I do agree that the Palestinian protestors need a completely new approach to move the needle in their direction.
I think most Americans and probably most westerners are done with large protests marching through our streets disrupting civil society as they scream outrageous demands.
Adding insult is that many of the protesters are recently arrived from other countries or indoctrinated college students who are filled with idealist views without any nuance to a complicated subject.
They often dismiss any criticism of the damage that Hamas has done to not only Israel but even more importantly to the Palestinians. That issue has to be addressed between the two countries or I doubt there will be no good ending.
I abhor mob mentality and that is what I see here just as we saw with the riots after George Floyd.
Zaid, it sounds as if you are saying to those groups "pretend to be closer to mainstream until we win". I'm not sure how I feel about that. And what is winning to you and all these groups? Do you even all agree? Sounds like, perhaps, not.
A lot of this is sensible political advice, and the idea that "the worst thing for Israel’s government would be for Americans to start to see it as more analogous to the region it lives in than a North American democracy" is a really stellar insight. However, I'm very skeptical of the idea that turning rallies into a "sea of Israeli and Palestinian flags" would be feasible or even desirable. Asking Palestinians to fly the flag of the regime that's repressing them is a humiliating prospect. A much more reasonable ask would be for Palestinians to fly the American flag next to their own.
Turning Palestinian rallies into unity rallies also confuses the messaging. The argument that "an endless occupation only endangers Israel in the long term," while it may be true, is also not a silver bullet. Part of the problem in American politics *is* that the Palestinian issue is seen through the lens of what's best for Israel. (After all, as you say, there are "few political campaigns that have ever succeeded by embracing the opposition’s framework.") Americans need to start thinking of the Palestinian nation as an actor that carries moral weight in itself and whose condition affects U.S. interests directly.
This is way beyond figuring out how to moderate a proPalestian movement that appeals to common sense and common decency as AIPAC has had years to manipulate public opinion and there’s no catching up. Until America stops sending money and weapons, the Europeans grow a backbone and MSM shows the country the extent of the carnage I don’t know how this can be stopped. I watched CBS news last night and there was a 45 second report on Gaza sandwiched in among the Super Bowl hype, Taylor Swift and a weather report. And Biden’s dementia.
I needed to take some time to think about this article. And, you know - I think I’ve decided that it’s poppycock. Yes, SJW campus movements ought to be more focused. Yes, adding 5 more colors to the rainbow flag has ridiculously and unnecessarily diluted the pride flag and its message. Totally agree about being focused. BUT - during the vietnam war, nothing would have happened to end it had the protestors focused on persuading the valium moms - and quite honestly the scolding of the protesters was not much different that the scolding Zain is dishing out. Ditto that protests against the dirty wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The gay rights movement started with a riot, and men in dresses taking to the streets (the HRC only came on board once activists had made the space safe for the pink polo shirt set.) In fact, the HRC actively interfered with AIDS activists and delayed treatments for AIDS because they wanted to go along to get along; it was ACT-up that was willing to be obnoxious and cause enough trouble that something needed to be done.
I’ve been a part of enough protest movements at this point to realize that appealing to soccer moms and appeasing mainstream liberals is pointless until critical mass is achieved. If wine-swilling Karen can look at the endless stream of dead babies in Gaza and state that ‘Israel has to defend itself’ Karen can just fuck off.
The settler-colonial Zionists who emigrated to Palestine never had any intention of living peacefully with the indigenous Palestinians. This is clear from history as well as the well documented quotes from their Zionist leaders. After all, the they were “God’s chosen people,” and Israel was their “promised land.” Why would they share this land with people that were not “chosen?” As a result, the history of Israel has been one of discrimination, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and now genocide. The establishment of a homeland for Jews may have started with good intentions but that experiment in social engineering (with zero input from the Palestinians) has proved to be a disastrous mistake, leading to unending hatred’s wars, and death. Time to admit the obvious.
The only reason that these Zionist extremists have been able to carry out such inhumane and deadly policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians is due to the full financial, political, military, and diplomatic support of the United States. Without that, Israel would long ago have had to make peace with their neighbors and recognize the human rights of Palestinians. So, instead of fecklessly decrying Israeli Zionists we should be demanding an end to all support for Israel on every level. Not one more dime of foreign aid, not one more protective veto in the UN Security Council, not one more bomb or bullet for these murderous fanatics. Israel has lost the right to exist and our US leaders who support this genocide should be tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Either the Israelis learn to live in peace and harmony with Palestinians or they need to emigrate. Let’s ask that US suburban mom how she likes her tax dollars and politicians supporting the bombing of women and children inside the Israeli-controlled Gaza concentration camp for Palestinian refugees forced from their homes in other parts of Palestine.