The incoherence of liberal Jews’ denunciations of Iran

In a magnificent article at Mideast Outpost, Free Republic, and (maybe the link will work for you) Chronwatch, Ruth King exposes the fraudulent position of liberal Jewish leaders who have been decrying the world’s indifference to the Iranian threat to Israel. If I may interject my own terminology here, Mrs. King has discovered the liberal Jews’ “unprincipled exception” to their own liberalism. As she points out, they are liberal down the line, they push the “peace” process, they push Israeli surrender, they push the idea that Arabs are “moderates” who want peace. But then, with regard to one issue that especially alarms them, they suddenly react with utmost passion against the very same liberal premises that they elsewhere promote. They denounce the world in ringing tones for its acceptance of Johnny, the president of Iran, notwithstanding the fact that they have been pushing the acceptance of other Muslim Jew-haters when it comes to the “peace” process. The only difference between Johnny and, say, Hamas is that Johnny with his nuclear threats has gone “too far,” he is seen as threatening in a way that the other Muslim radical leaders are not. But in reality there is no principle that distinguishes Johnny from the other Muslim extremists, since all of them seek the destruction of Israel. The liberal Jews want to continue pushing their suicidal liberalism, while making one unprincipled exception to their suicidal liberalism in the case of Iran. So they can’t be taken seriously. If they wanted to take a real (not a rhetorical and self-indulgent) stand against the world’s legitimization of the exterminationist anti-Semite Johnny, they would have to renounce their own legitimization of exterminationist anti-Semites. But this they will not do, because it would require that they give up their support for the “peace” process.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 01, 2007 10:42 PM | Send