The world is fractured over the Israel-Hamas conflict, reflecting changing attitudes toward the State of Israel, especially in America. Pro-Palestine college protests have not merely opposed civilian casualties in Gaza, but called for eliminating Israel entirely under the mantra “from the river to the sea.” These are essentially calls for genocide against the chief victims of the Nazi Holocaust!
Many far-left students and political opportunists have been conditioned by social justice ideology to view the entire world through an oppressor-oppressed lens. Critical Race Theory (CRT) applies this theory to race, ascribing all disparities in wealth and achievement to racial oppression.
However, the Jewish experience in America doesn’t fit CRT at all: Jews have thrived in the US (as have Asians). Family and community ties are better predictors of positive outcomes than skin color, revealing the deep flaws inherent in CRT. Thus, social justice activists label Jews as “Super White” traitors to the cause of the oppressed, or to deny their racial identity. (They displayed this when Whoopi Goldberg infamously claimed Hitler’s genocide against the Jews was “not about race.”)
The dangers of this race-based CRT ideology are displayed in bold antisemitism by left-leaning college activists. LGBTQ+ advocates are standing with Hamas, chanting “Intifada,” and condemning Israel. Yet these same groups would be persecuted in most Muslim nations, and enjoy relative freedom in Israel. The horrific assaults against Israeli civilians are shrugged off as justified, and Israel’s very right to exist is under attack. Hamas and gays are strange bedfellows indeed….
This incongruous alliance is explained by the neo-Marxist ideology of social justice, which claims that all people are divided into classes of oppressed versus oppressors. Nuances of Jewish history are overcome using oversimplifying comparisons with colonization, apartheid, or even American slavery. It is by virtue of CRT that Jews are now condemned, sandwiched between the experience of US blacks in slavery and the Palestinians in Gaza, the Holocaust eclipsed.
BLM and other proponents of CRT do not openly criticize Jewish people, but neither do they acknowledge Jews as fellow victims of oppression. As with Asians excelling in America, any group that succeeds is attacked as oppressive. This sentiment was foreshadowed long ago by James Baldwin when he wrote, “The Jew profits from his status in America, and he must expect Negroes to distrust him for it.” CRT gives legs to that racist sentiment.
The survival of the State of Israel is linked to social justice ideology and the culture wars raging in America today. The outcomes of both battles hang in the balance, and will determine whether the Judeo-Christian worldview survives.
John Klar is an attorney, author, farmer, and pastor. John strongly advocates for small farms, food choice, homesteaders, and homeschoolers, and believes a robust local food supply is essential for national security and health. John and his wife Jackie live in Brookfield, Vermont, where they raise grass-fed lamb and beef.