I’m on the Facebook group, Humboldt Progressives. This not the same as Humboldt Progressive Democrats. Both groups are for people living in Humboldt County CA who identify as Progressive, The former group has 1.1k members, while the later only has 410. I’ve been a member of the former for about a year. The later I was a member until I was kicked out several months ago because I am an unabashed Zionist.
So, it looks like I’ve done it again. I posted this recent article about Congress person Rashida Tlaib‘s nonsensical litmus test that a Progressive cannot support Israel and still be a Progressive. Three people raised objections, all of which agreed with Tlaib.
To these idiots Israel is a colonialist, apartheid, theocracy which is committing systematic genocide on the “indigenous “Palestinian” population.” A pack of pure lies, largely made up by the KGB. Israel is not apartheid (Arabs serve in government, in the IDF, as Doctors, as lawyers, etc. If Israel was apartheid they could not). Israel is not a colony – Jews have lived in the area for 4000 +/- years. There is a huge Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem that has been used for 2500 years. Israel is not committing “genocide” (the Arab birth rate has tripled, and the Arab population has quadrupled since 1948). Israel is not a “theocracy,” despite it’s identity as the Jewish State, is not governed by Rabbis but by essentially democrats. On the other hand, LBGTQ persons are routinely thrown from the tops of buildings in Gaza. Women are 3rd class citizens, having few if any rights in PA governed areas. Meanwhile the Govts of Syria and Lebanon have murdered 1,000s of “Palestinians,” barred them from any of the professions etc., yet it is Israel that is accused of wrongdoing. That’s antisemitism. That is not a Progressive value.
Rashida did come up with a label for those of us who are Progressives and support Israel: “PEP” – “progressive except for Palestine.” I like it! I’ll proudly wear that label. Except I believe that supporting Israel IS a Progressive value. After all, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel respects the rights of women, of LGBTQ people, all Israelis (whether Jewish, Moslem, Christian, Pagan or whatever), enjoy freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to vote in fact all of the rights outlined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The same cannot be said of hardly any Islamic country or in Gaza or in the PA controlled areas of Samaria/Judea (aka “the West bank”).
Is there a label for the glaringly anti-Semitic views of these so called “Progressives.?” Not yet. But I would propose “PEJ” – “progressive except for Jews.”
