You said it all. Why not boycott ALL the countries doing bad things? Why just this one? And, while they're at it, why not boycott anything made in the US? After all, given the land acknowledgement, they must know what we Americans did to natives, and what we are still doing to them, right? Add to that what our current government is doing to immigrants, and others, and I can't see how we can justify buying US-made goods! What a bunch of hypocrites (and, while I think most are jumping on a bandwagon of the cause de jure, at least a few must be antisemitic, whether they acknowledge it or not).
Oh, I know. Nobody stirs a hair that Morocco has occupied West Sahara for about fifty years, or that Turkey has occupied Northern Cyprus for longer than that. I wonder what's different about Israel? I cannot *imagine*.
US citizens did nothing to the Indians that the Indians did not do back. There were multiple atrocities on both sides. Most of the Indian-created atrocities occurred in a more distant past, but they occurred. The US is now primarily European because there was a war, and the Indians lost. We Europeans owe no one an apology.
A great albeit sobering piece, Lisa. It has taken my breath away since 10/7 to see this singular obsessive fixation on Israel on the left as though it's the source of all the evil in the world, when, as you say, other governments are doing despicable things to people, and we don't hear a peep. And yet, there's a turbo-cancerous anti-Semitic rot rising on the political right, too, that I find every bit as repellent, if not more so. What unnerving days.
It's spectacularly annoying to converse with people who are dumber than dirt but whose self-ID is wrapped up so intensely with a notion of their intellectual superiority. True on both the Israel-Palestine issue and on the trans of course: the most misinformed and incurious are all passionate intensity.
Next time they do a land acknowledgement, maybe ask them what Arab Palestinians would say at their land acknowledgements when they start a meeting: "This land belonged to the Jews until the 700's when our Arab/Muslim ancestors conquered and colonized this region."
In the 2000s, an Australian professor of international law organised a short postgraduate course in international human rights law for lawyers in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. He did so with considerable trepidation because he knew that the course would require the Serbian, Croatian and Bosniak participants to discuss issues and incidents in their respective countries' wars in the 1990s that were very volatile sore points. To his surprise and relief, the students discussed those questions in a civilised, dignified and rational way, without rancour. The professor began to relax. But then, on the last day of the course, someone brought up Israel and the Palestinians. The discussion polarised in the ways we are all familiar with, and everyone was soon on their feet, shaking fists, pointing fingers and calling each other rude names and uttering the usual overheated cliches about "Zionazis", "Islamofascists", etc.
If only they had stuck to a less polarising topic, like youth gender medicine. :-)
And if you read In the Garden of Beasts, or any historical book on the early years leading up to WW2, you will see this- this - is how it began. Small baby steps that don’t seem like a big deal to most. Despicable. And to look away is despicable as well. Thanks for attending and bringing this to people’s attention.
A well told story and a trenchant argument. Please don't ever expect moral or behavioral consistency from the left, a place I find myself occupying frequently. The intolerance for diversity of opinion is probably the most salient characteristic. I got drafted in 1969. When I returned to go to college I was appalled at the embrace of political orthodoxy by my former friends, most of them who had successfully used their various class privileges to avoid the war in Vietnam. I think it was their efforts to rename a downtown street to Ho Chi Minh Trail that was most revealing as to whom they had become. So much of the time I hold my nose and vote left. I wish it were better.
Reading comprehension does not appear to be your strong suit. As for fascism, you have clearly drunk the Koolade. Your boy Trump is the closest thing we've seen to fascism after his puppet master Putin. You might try and develop a more nuanced political view.
“There was no equivalent teaching for any of the authoritarian nations with whom the United States enjoyed alliances of strategic convenience. Nobody taught me in depth about the Saudi experience or Pakistani history, nobody treated debates within Islamic or African civilization as central to Western or American history, nobody asked me to care deeply about peace processes in East Africa or Southeast Asia. There was sometimes interest in those areas, attempts to extend the locus of American concern to Burma or Darfur, but basically those stories were understood to be outside our own, whereas the story of the Jews and the story of Israel were fundamentally *inside*.
“So part of the answer to Gur’s question — why do Westerners freak out in a unique way about Israel policy? — is connected to identification, not hostility, and to the feeling that Israel is part of our zone of identity and responsibility in a way that the Saudi monarchy is not.
“That feeling, it turns out, can be a political liability for the Israeli government. There really is a sense in which Saudi Arabia gets away with more in American discourse than Israel…but an expectation of Saudi Machiavellianism and ruthlessness is built into the American picture of the world, whereas ruthless behavior from Israeli doesn’t yield the same kind of Orientalist excuse….
“But I also don’t think that Israel’s supporters should want to give up on that identification. The 1990s aren’t coming back, Hitler and the Holocaust are receding, American Judaism and American Christianity are both changing. That’s all the more reason not to simply let go of a narrative that has bound the American story and the Jewish experience together.
“As long as that binding lasts, though, Israel won’t be treated like a generic non-Western power and its policies will be judged on more intimate terms. And Zionism needs to take those judgments seriously, as an element of friendship and not just a sign of enmity.”
Of course, this standard is also used cynically by anti-Zionists, and their support of heinous violence has been unbounded for decades, but if we are fighting to retain our dignity in the domestic civil arena, we should ask the same of ourselves *and* our close allies, our family of modern democratic nations (so not just Western, but also not autocracies like Saudi Arabia) in the international one.
I agree. There is awful oppression of people around the world. But my tax dollars are funding Israel’s genocide. My tax dollars are funding the bulldozer that push over Palestinian homes. My tax dollars are paying for the bombs to murder children. I don’t think that my dollars are funding other atrocities.
After Oct 7, Israel still retains the moral high ground. It's completely amazing that so many women continue to support the rapists on the Hamas side. Why do women support rapists?
It is interesting that you apparently conclude that I support rape. That is ridiculous conclusion from my comment. Support for the Palestinian people is not the same as support of hamas which I do not support. if you support the IDF does that mean you support rape?
I hate this co-op on your behalf. Are you leaving it? I hope so. How could it possibly be worth it? I'm guessing that a disproportionate number of co-op members are themselves Jewish, virtue-signaling pathetically.
I've always felt the fascism of trans ideology would lead to the fascism of jew hating. They feel so good to fight for a tiny minority in the first instance and calling another tiny minority the bogeyman in the other
One side of the argument has been copping some well deserved stick in this thread. However it is worth remembering that partisans on the other side are also capable of great foolishness.
Applying Occam's Razor, Australia's own contestant at Eurovision is one of our most popular entertainers over the past 24 years and she composed a very good song that she performed with brio at the contest, coming fourth overall. This is sufficient to explain why not many Australians would have voted for contestants from other countries.
You said it all. Why not boycott ALL the countries doing bad things? Why just this one? And, while they're at it, why not boycott anything made in the US? After all, given the land acknowledgement, they must know what we Americans did to natives, and what we are still doing to them, right? Add to that what our current government is doing to immigrants, and others, and I can't see how we can justify buying US-made goods! What a bunch of hypocrites (and, while I think most are jumping on a bandwagon of the cause de jure, at least a few must be antisemitic, whether they acknowledge it or not).
They might sound similar, but you mean "cause du jour", not "cause de jure", but that in no way detracts from your point!
I would have made that mistake, too. Thanks in advance
I stand corrected and a little embarrassed, but you are quite right!
Oh, I know. Nobody stirs a hair that Morocco has occupied West Sahara for about fifty years, or that Turkey has occupied Northern Cyprus for longer than that. I wonder what's different about Israel? I cannot *imagine*.
Such a mystery, what could possibly explain it...
US citizens did nothing to the Indians that the Indians did not do back. There were multiple atrocities on both sides. Most of the Indian-created atrocities occurred in a more distant past, but they occurred. The US is now primarily European because there was a war, and the Indians lost. We Europeans owe no one an apology.
A great albeit sobering piece, Lisa. It has taken my breath away since 10/7 to see this singular obsessive fixation on Israel on the left as though it's the source of all the evil in the world, when, as you say, other governments are doing despicable things to people, and we don't hear a peep. And yet, there's a turbo-cancerous anti-Semitic rot rising on the political right, too, that I find every bit as repellent, if not more so. What unnerving days.
It's spectacularly annoying to converse with people who are dumber than dirt but whose self-ID is wrapped up so intensely with a notion of their intellectual superiority. True on both the Israel-Palestine issue and on the trans of course: the most misinformed and incurious are all passionate intensity.
yep. The social dynamics around this are uncannily similar. Any attempt at nuance is shut down IMMEDIATELY.
Next time they do a land acknowledgement, maybe ask them what Arab Palestinians would say at their land acknowledgements when they start a meeting: "This land belonged to the Jews until the 700's when our Arab/Muslim ancestors conquered and colonized this region."
jokes on them, epipens come from pfizer.
Please be sure to ask them how that boycott is going!!!
In the 2000s, an Australian professor of international law organised a short postgraduate course in international human rights law for lawyers in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. He did so with considerable trepidation because he knew that the course would require the Serbian, Croatian and Bosniak participants to discuss issues and incidents in their respective countries' wars in the 1990s that were very volatile sore points. To his surprise and relief, the students discussed those questions in a civilised, dignified and rational way, without rancour. The professor began to relax. But then, on the last day of the course, someone brought up Israel and the Palestinians. The discussion polarised in the ways we are all familiar with, and everyone was soon on their feet, shaking fists, pointing fingers and calling each other rude names and uttering the usual overheated cliches about "Zionazis", "Islamofascists", etc.
If only they had stuck to a less polarising topic, like youth gender medicine. :-)
And if you read In the Garden of Beasts, or any historical book on the early years leading up to WW2, you will see this- this - is how it began. Small baby steps that don’t seem like a big deal to most. Despicable. And to look away is despicable as well. Thanks for attending and bringing this to people’s attention.
Thank you for this reporting. You have officially depressed me.
A well told story and a trenchant argument. Please don't ever expect moral or behavioral consistency from the left, a place I find myself occupying frequently. The intolerance for diversity of opinion is probably the most salient characteristic. I got drafted in 1969. When I returned to go to college I was appalled at the embrace of political orthodoxy by my former friends, most of them who had successfully used their various class privileges to avoid the war in Vietnam. I think it was their efforts to rename a downtown street to Ho Chi Minh Trail that was most revealing as to whom they had become. So much of the time I hold my nose and vote left. I wish it were better.
So you knowingly support a bunch of fascists? Why is that? I switched from D to R after Obama's destruction of home ownership by small players.
Reading comprehension does not appear to be your strong suit. As for fascism, you have clearly drunk the Koolade. Your boy Trump is the closest thing we've seen to fascism after his puppet master Putin. You might try and develop a more nuanced political view.
I swear, the smaller the stakes, the bigger the drama. There are probably sessions of Congress that are less emotional than that meeting.
“Why only focus on Israel?” has a satisfying feel to it, but I think Ross Douthat explains it well here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/israel-us-public-opinion.html
“There was no equivalent teaching for any of the authoritarian nations with whom the United States enjoyed alliances of strategic convenience. Nobody taught me in depth about the Saudi experience or Pakistani history, nobody treated debates within Islamic or African civilization as central to Western or American history, nobody asked me to care deeply about peace processes in East Africa or Southeast Asia. There was sometimes interest in those areas, attempts to extend the locus of American concern to Burma or Darfur, but basically those stories were understood to be outside our own, whereas the story of the Jews and the story of Israel were fundamentally *inside*.
“So part of the answer to Gur’s question — why do Westerners freak out in a unique way about Israel policy? — is connected to identification, not hostility, and to the feeling that Israel is part of our zone of identity and responsibility in a way that the Saudi monarchy is not.
“That feeling, it turns out, can be a political liability for the Israeli government. There really is a sense in which Saudi Arabia gets away with more in American discourse than Israel…but an expectation of Saudi Machiavellianism and ruthlessness is built into the American picture of the world, whereas ruthless behavior from Israeli doesn’t yield the same kind of Orientalist excuse….
“But I also don’t think that Israel’s supporters should want to give up on that identification. The 1990s aren’t coming back, Hitler and the Holocaust are receding, American Judaism and American Christianity are both changing. That’s all the more reason not to simply let go of a narrative that has bound the American story and the Jewish experience together.
“As long as that binding lasts, though, Israel won’t be treated like a generic non-Western power and its policies will be judged on more intimate terms. And Zionism needs to take those judgments seriously, as an element of friendship and not just a sign of enmity.”
Of course, this standard is also used cynically by anti-Zionists, and their support of heinous violence has been unbounded for decades, but if we are fighting to retain our dignity in the domestic civil arena, we should ask the same of ourselves *and* our close allies, our family of modern democratic nations (so not just Western, but also not autocracies like Saudi Arabia) in the international one.
I agree. There is awful oppression of people around the world. But my tax dollars are funding Israel’s genocide. My tax dollars are funding the bulldozer that push over Palestinian homes. My tax dollars are paying for the bombs to murder children. I don’t think that my dollars are funding other atrocities.
After Oct 7, Israel still retains the moral high ground. It's completely amazing that so many women continue to support the rapists on the Hamas side. Why do women support rapists?
It is interesting that you apparently conclude that I support rape. That is ridiculous conclusion from my comment. Support for the Palestinian people is not the same as support of hamas which I do not support. if you support the IDF does that mean you support rape?
I hate this co-op on your behalf. Are you leaving it? I hope so. How could it possibly be worth it? I'm guessing that a disproportionate number of co-op members are themselves Jewish, virtue-signaling pathetically.
Is there a repost in substack? This is exactly why the vote is so devastating and significant.
I've always felt the fascism of trans ideology would lead to the fascism of jew hating. They feel so good to fight for a tiny minority in the first instance and calling another tiny minority the bogeyman in the other
One side of the argument has been copping some well deserved stick in this thread. However it is worth remembering that partisans on the other side are also capable of great foolishness.
https://www.aussievision.net/post/senator-tries-to-torch-sbs-over-israel-eurovision-vote-and-gets-facts-completely-wrong
Applying Occam's Razor, Australia's own contestant at Eurovision is one of our most popular entertainers over the past 24 years and she composed a very good song that she performed with brio at the contest, coming fourth overall. This is sufficient to explain why not many Australians would have voted for contestants from other countries.
This is why I find the left completely unacceptable. The pecksniffianism creates a stench of sanctimony which is false.