"Progressive Except for Palestine"

One of the more annoying habits common to members of the anti-Israel movement is their moral posturing; an example of which is the term "PEP", which translates into English as 'Progressive Except for Palestine'. It's applied to anyone who does not share their views at the pitch and volume they favor, eleven on a scale of ten.

The underlying assumption, of course, is that there is only one acceptable Progressive position on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and they conveniently happen to hold it. The rather unsubtle implication is that the rest of the Progressive movement is a churning heap of reactionary neanderthals in sore need of enlightenment, to bring us more in line with their views on the subject. Which, coincidentally, is The Most Important Political Issue™ of recorded history, characterized by barbarism on a scale humanity has never seen. The Sack of Rome? Peanuts, and probably a Zionist conspiracy avant la lettre to boot.

Well, how about No?

I would imagine that Progressive values include honesty. That, unfortunately, is not something commonly in evidence in said movement. If you want to argue the destruction of the state of Israel, fine. That is, obviously, a morally abhorrent goal, but it's a free country, and people can hold whatever vacuous or cruel views they please. The problem is, of course, that they never admit - except by accident - that this, the end of the Jewish state, is indeed the goal. Call them what they are, anti-Israel, and watch the hackles rise and the outraged sputtering begin. It is, after all, only about the poor Palestinians, groaning under the uniquely heavy Israeli yoke, and their inalienable rights.

Except that it's not. Leaving aside the fact that there could have been a Palestinian state since 1947, had it not been for that awkward lost war, I'd warrant that the people who really sincerely care about their rights in the Western movement concerned with them are in a minority, vastly outnumbered by, to give the baby a name, people who happen to hate Jews. If it were otherwise, they'd expend some time on, say, the intolerable conditions in refugee camps in Lebanon, or even on the continued existence of these camps. But they don't, because there is no injustice worth debating unless it can be blamed on the Jews.

This is the real problem the overwhelming majority of Americans have with those people who think the Evils of Zionism™ are something you can chat about at a cocktail party. As a people, we are not actually all ignorant mouth-breathers. Some, yes, but overall, we have functioning bullshit detectors.

But the real point is this: there will always be hateful or dishonest people in any political movement. Human nature, I suppose. That's no excuse, however, for the anti-Israel movement, which is riddled with both, and seems completely unconcerned with what to the rest of us, Progressive or otherwise, is glaringly obvious.

This is the reason - not hasbara, of which there is far less than some claim, or anti-Arab racism, or a nefarious conspiracy of the Zionist media, or anything else - why people who throw around the term PEP are shunned by the mainstream Progressive movement and the American People at large. Because there is too much hate, a very old one that many of us recognize. No massaging of polls or any number of flash mobs in Grand Central will change that.

The losers in this game, of course, are as always and ever the Palestinians themselves. They have rights and deserve their own state. They are, however, ill-served by condescending whackadoodles who see a conspiracy under every rock, think anti-Semitism isn't that much of a problem, alienate the mainstream of American society, and are kept at significantly more than arm's length by the only force that might be of use to them, the Progressive Movement itself.