POINT OF VIEW BY BARBARA KAY


Jews Without Shame Self-admiring Jews contributing to growth of anti-Semitism


One of the more curious cultural phenomena on the contemporary political landscape is the alliance of the West’s political leſt with a stridently anti-western Islamism, whose most obsessive stakeholders happen also to be passionate Judeophobes. Within that already troubling phenom-


enon is a pernicious subset of “progres- sive” Jews who, forced to choose between their liberalism and commitment to Isra- el’s survival, have chosen to burnish their leſtwing credentials by shilling for extreme anti-Zionism. Wherever one turns, one finds examples


of liberal Jews whose main preoccupation is scolding Israel and exposing the evils of Zionism. Teir disproportionate numbers at the organized forefront of such odious hate-nurturing habitats as Israel Apartheid Week and Queers Against Israel Apartheid have been widely discussed and debated. It is indisputable that wherever lib-


eral Jews congregate in masses – urban enclaves, university campuses, legal and journalistic circles in both the West and in Israel – we find many otherwise intelligent Jews ardently devoting their talents and influence to the de-legitimization of Israel. Teir contempt for their own state is


both obsessive and, in its irrational hys- teria, baffling. One Hebrew University sociologist wrote a (prize-winning!) thesis contending that the fact that Israeli sol- diers do not rape Palestinian women is a racist statement. I call people like this sociologue – highly


educated, holding Israel to a higher stan- dard than their enemies, then interpreting achievement of a higher moral standard as


morally deviant — intellectually corrupt traitors and “useful Judiots.” “Useful Judiots” is a gloss on three


tropes: Judaism, Judas, the archetypal be- trayer, and the “useful idiots” of the Cold War, a term coined by Vladimir Lenin to describe naïve western sympathizers of the Soviet regime. Useful idiots ignored the Soviet Union’s


starving millions, the ruthless party purges and show trials, and of course the ram- pant anti-Semitism that would eventually cost so many Jewish lives. Tey exploited their western freedoms to legitimize a free- doms-denying system. Tese dupes were courted, but not ad-


mired; indeed, they were held in the great- est contempt by their puppet masters. Sound familiar? It should. Our era’s useful


Judiots pretend Israel’s exterminationist en- emies are merely outraged at Israel’s oppres- sion of the Palestinians. Tey wilfully refuse to contemplate the logical outcome of de- fining Israel as an apartheid state: for a true apartheid state has no moral right to exist. Tere is one significant difference be-


tween the Jewish useful idiots of the past and the useful Judiots of the present: Jewish supporters of Soviet communism did not exploit their Jewishness to endorse com- munism; they understood that in choosing communism, they were rejecting Judaism. Our useful Judiots, on the other hand,


want it both ways. Tey travel with those who would eliminate Israel, yet they claim to condemn Israel specifically as Jews who have Israel’s moral interests in mind. Some people call useful Judiots self- hating Jews. Tey are not. Tey are the


opposite: self-admiring Jews who see themselves as speakers of truth to power. Tey regard themselves as inheritors of the prophetic tradition, guardians of Jewish morality and justice-seeking individuals. Useful Judiots are intoxicated with their


Wherever one turns, one finds examples of liberal Jews whose main preoccupation is scolding Israel and exposing the evils of Zionism


own righteousness. Tey consider them- selves not just good Jews, but better Jews than Jews of true conscience, who recog- nize Israel is flawed, like all nations, but defend its existential rights and security. Useful Judiots are also political narcissists and outrageous hypocrites. Tey are worse than the Jewish useful idiots who support- ed Stalin. Tose Jews were at least aware of Soviet anti-Semitism, but as “emancipat- ed” idealists, chose to ignore it. Tey did not intervene to stop Soviet anti-Semitism, but they at least didn’t make it worse with public endorsements. In denying that “apartheid”-style anti-


Zionism is the new anti-Semitism, and in calling attention to their Jewishness as they link arms with profoundly Jew-hating anti-Zionists, useful Judiots sanction and contribute to the growth of anti-Semitism. Tey are riding a crocodile and hoping


to be eaten last. If Israel is vanquished by her enemies, they will be too. Similar to the Soviets’ useful idiots, they too are held in contempt by their Islamist masters. In the end, useful Judiots are in step


with a sick political zeitgeist, which is as menacing today as it was in the 1930s. In choosing the path of least resistance, these Jews without honour have revealed them- selves to be Jews without shame.


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Barbara Kay is a Montreal-based columnist with the National Post.


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