I have long felt ideologically homeless.
The right hates me because I am a progressive Jew, the left hates me because I am a straight white male Jew.
This is an oversimplification of course, but there is truth in the broad strokes, or at least, that’s how it feels to me.
Never have I felt the weight of this ideological limbo more than in the Post-October 7th world. I support Israel, not because I hate Palestinians or love Netanyahu, but because I remember growing up with stories about how the entire Arab world has been trying to wipe Israel and all the Jews in it off the map since long before I was born.
Hearing about kids on college campuses accusing Israel of genocide, when I know that actual genocide of Jews has been the Palestinian political platform time and time again, that it is the platform of the Palestinian-elected Hamas right now and has never remotely been the platform of Israel, I am so unspeakably offended that I am filled with rage, to say nothing of when they accuse Jews of being Nazis, given the horrors visited upon the Jewish people by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
I think most of these protesting kids are naïve, imagining they are, as per college student dictum, aligning with an oppressed people against an oppressor, rather than recognizing that Jews are a massively small minority compared to Arabs in the Middle East, or compared to virtually any ethnic group anywhere, really; that all of Israel’s “imperialist land grabs” are defensive and a direct response to the previous owners of that land trying to commit the genocide they are supposedly victims of, just as is happening in Gaza today. Also, the idea that you can be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic is a nice one, but it should be clear that in America at least, the two can blur into one in a heartbeat, with catastrophic consequences for American Jews.
So who can I share my rage with? Not the right wing pro-authoritarians who have turned a blind eye to Netanyahu’s corruption and have been indifferent to Israeli restrictions of Palestinians in the West Bank. Not the left wing democratic socialists who seem to be validating the use of terms like genocide and colonialist in regard to Israel, despite their inaccuracy and the clear effect of normalizing American antisemitism.
Can I find a safe space among other Jews? Which ones? With none on the political spectrum truly accepting us, we have spread all across it. Who do I commiserate with? Not the rich Republican Jews who think Strong on protecting Israel = Strong on protecting American Jews, in the face of all evidence to the contrary as antisemitic hate crimes go up and up, who support leaders like Trump and DeSantis as they treat Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community in exactly the dehumanizing way Jews have been treated throughout history.
Not the “Jews for Palestine,” who seem to be self-hating, or at the very least, naïve to the fact that for every inch you give to Hamas they will reward you by taking a pound of flesh later on down the line.
Not the Orthodox Jews, who would reject me for driving on Saturdays and enjoying the occasional shrimp cocktail, to say nothing of taking a gentile wife.
As for the Jews who allegedly pull the levers in Hollywood? They don’t seem to have paid me much mind so far. As I said. Ideologically homeless.
I consider myself progressive as an emergent property of my belief in what is right and what is logical as a member of a humanistic, civilized community, not out of any desire to be aligned with a particular team. There is something comforting about being able to anger both sides with my opinions, but something very isolating about it as well. While I feel most at home on the left side of the political spectrum, I know that the instant I publicly suggest a white person has been a victim of racism or a man of sexism, or that Israel’s actions are justified, I will be immediately cast out.
This won’t stop me from expressing my political opinions of course, but it does give me more pause than it should. People like to talk about having “honest” discussions about politics or race or other hot button issues, but I’m not sure such a thing is possible anymore.
I think I am fortunate enough to have friends who know my heart, and would not condemn me for having a political opinion they disagree with (within reason), but I wonder how many others are so fortunate, anywhere along the political spectrum. I wonder how many people wish to share more nuanced political views but just don’t see any benefit to it in their particular polarized community.
I don’t know if there’s any answer to this problem or even
if there should be. Just thought I’d do my part to try to start an honest
conversation about it.
