The DSA Is Morally Wrong

About twenty-five years ago, I went to Austin to attend the Israel Block Party. Sponsored by the local Hillel, it is a festive gathering, featuring Israeli music and food. There were protestors there. In one area, there was a gaga pit. Gaga is an Israeli game for children, sort of similar to a low-velocity game of dodgeball. Its main recognizable feature is a small wall around the play area, serving to contain the ball. But of course, the ball often flies over the fence. It did. The protestors were only a few feet away, so the ball went rolling into their area. A boy, about five years old, went to the edge of the gaga pit and put his hands out to the protestors, in the gesture that translated to “please pass the ball back”. One protester locked eyes with the boy, held an intense stare, and shook her head slowly with a half-smile, an expression that indicated she had been waiting to vent her anger for some time. Her gesture translated to “I will not get your [expletive] ball.” The boy looked hurt and confused.

Her thinking was clearly that Israel is such a manifest evil that it overrides all basic decency. Audacious, line-crossing protest, for her, was not the protestor’s fault but rather the fault of Israel. Of course, a five year old does not know what’s going on in the Middle East. He doesn’t understand what a protest is, or why she refused to pass him the ball. All he receives is anger and aggression. And from my perspective, the moment looked a lot like a situation where the protester wanted to direct rage against a Jew and was grateful that the “Israel Block Party” gave her the opportunity to do so. For her, the ball took a fortunate bounce.

What I took to be her unspoken logic has now become a recurrent talking point on the far left. Speaker after speaker, and article after article, repeat that, while it is unfortunate that violence against Jews happens, the real culprit here is Israel itself. As the Guardian puts it, “Israel’s Actions are Fueling Antisemitism Around the World”. In a poll taken about a year ago, a full 24% of Americans said that violence against Jews was understandable in the context of current events. Here the word is “understandable” . That is a word that provides some plausible deniability, because many of us can say that we “understand” horrible behavior, but it is important to note that more than half of that group, 13%, said that such attacks were “justified”. No ambiguity there. These people are literally saying that if you are angry because of something you saw on your phone, you have their permission to punch the next Jewish child you see, or to scream “Free Palestine” at a visibly Jewish family in a park. Permission here seems very close to encouragement.

After her primary victory in Colorado’s first congressional district, the DSA-backed Melat Kiros was asked what she would do to reassure Jewish residents of that district who are worried about their safety. She responded by directing anger at Israel: “The actions of Israel are putting Jewish people at great danger.” 

Let’s leave aside several aspects of this. First of all, this is a strange kind of victim-blaming that progressives would never apply to any other minority. Second, she is literally imagining mending fences with the Jewish community by offering to go to a synagogue and tell Jews what their relationship to Israel should be. Third, her logic is that Israel causes antisemitism; by this reasoning, one would conclude that European antisemitism began in 1947, when the UN declared a small piece of indigenous Jewish land to be a national home for Jews, just two years after the defeat of Hitler. Fourth, many Jews hear her condone antisemitism and are deeply grateful that Israel is there as a safe place for Jews, because Colorado may not be in a few years.

Let’s leave all those things aside. I think what might be the most disturbing aspect of her comments is the fact that for her, the slippage between rage at Israel and violence against Jews is almost automatic. No thought needs to be present, no real decision is involved. It is, in a word she has also used to describe 9/11, “inevitable”. The terrorist who firebombed peaceful protestors in Boulder had no real choice in the matter, in her view, because anger at Jews is so easily explained by pointing to Netanyahu.

“Run For Their Lives” was a project where demonstrators around the world walked in public, to show solidarity with the hostages taken by Hamas. It is the subject of a documentary that will be released soon. It was always, explicitly, non-political. For two years, I led the walk in Austin. That was the group that was targeted in Boulder. We were mostly Jews, but not entirely. Some non-Jews saw what we were doing, and made a choice to join us, because it was the right thing to do. We walked every Sunday.

This is not an either / or. You can sympathize and deeply care about Palestinian children, and also view Hamas as the primary cause of their suffering. You can hate Netanyahu and still love Israel. You can be deeply grieved by the violence, and still unsure about how to solve it. And you can be a five year old Jewish boy who simply wants his ball back.