American Intifada: Israel, the Gaza War and the New Antisemitism

Why are progressives so hostile to Israel?

Listen to commentators and a pattern quickly emerges: the more liberal the speaker, the more likely they are to attack Israel. Worse, many liberals say things about Israel that are patently false. After the October 7 Hamas attack, Barack Obama said that Israel had “unclean hands” because of the “unbearable occupation”. The trouble was, there was no occupation. Israel had withdrawn from Gaza almost twenty years before.

With his acclaimed wit, historian Uri Kaufman answers the riddle by examining the phenomenon through the distorting lens of race. Simply put, Israelis are perceived as a white group of privilege, while Palestinians are perceived as people of color. For progressives, fighting for people of color is the core value that crowds out all other considerations, no matter the facts. It all results in a strange upside-down world where liberals attack Israelis who share their values, while embracing Palestinians who reject them.