Two reasons the “I can’t be a Zionist because I’m a liberal” meme is false

[DanTex]

58. I oppose Israeli policy towards Palestinians and am also critical of Hamas.

Last edited Tue Aug 26, 2014, 12:30 PM - Edit history (2)

One thing is, for all the "anti-Israel" bias talk, the fact of the matter is, most Americans, even liberals, can't help but see the conflict more easily from the side of the Israelis than the Palestinians. Israel is a western-style Democracy, Israelis are similar to Americans in a lot of ways. I've met many Israelis, and zero Palestinians.

Mondoweiss, which I still know little about, seems to be written mostly by American and possibly Israeli Jews. The articles that get posted in this forum seem to be mostly Israelis and Americans arguing with each other (not Israelis versus Americans, but Israelis/Americans who support Israeli policy towards Palestinians versus Israelis/Americans that oppose it).

Americans are mostly Christian, with much closer ties to Judaism than to Islam. In fact, being an Arab Muslim, what most Palestinians are, is probably the most looked-down upon group in America at large. In the US media, there are far more Jewish voices than Muslim ones. There are also far more Israelis than Palestinians that make appearances, even on MSNBC -- a point made recently by a Palestinian woman who was then dropped as an MSNBC correspondent.

So the entire debate takes place with a background that heavily disfavors the Palestinian point of view.

Are there circumstances where a liberal could be in favor of military action? Sure. I think most liberals think, for example, that there should have been intervention to prevent the Rwandan Genocide.