Why Does the Left Hate Israel?



On Saturday morning, October 7, the Muslim terrorist organization, Hamas, launched a full scale invasion of Israel. Hamas—which resides in the Gaza strip adjacent to Israel—began the assault by firing thousands of rockets into Israeli neighborhoods. Then they blew up portions of the border fence between the two countries, entered Israel, and began going house to house murdering men, women, and children, taking many hostages back to Gaza. As of now, over a thousand Israelis are dead and the number is likely to increase. As Ben Shapiro said, this is the worst day for Jews since the Holocaust.

I won’t go into detail about the horrific attack. I have links below that do that and many of you have probably already read a great deal about this. The purpose of this video is to explore and explain the reaction of Progressive Left in the West. Why does the Left hate Israel?

Make no mistake, they do not attempt to mask their hatred. In America forty rallies unfolded from Anchorage to Atlanta and Washington, D.C., praising Hamas, and cheering on the attack. One rally was put on by the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization that includes six members of Congress. A Leftist group outside the opera house in Sidney, Australia chanted, “Gas the Jews, gas the Jews.”

The most disgusting response came from students at Harvard University. A consortium of 31 groups put out a statement holding Israel “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”.

Jacob Howland, writing in Unherd, says, “Progressive liberals have now given birth to a generation of demonic ideologues who excuse sheer evil….I can only hope that many Harvard faculty are appalled at the little monsters they’ve helped to create.” Howland rightly calls Harvard a national disgrace.

There seem to be no limits on the Left’s hatred of Israel.

But why? Why do they hate Israel, and by proxy, the Jews?

When I started teaching at a secular university in 1984 I immediately started noticing the anti-Semitic hostility. Forty years ago many in the academic community had turned against Israel. Through reading and personal conversations I have come up with three reasons for the irrational, satanic hatred of Israel and the Jews.

First, we have to mention the historic hatred that goes back to the beginning of Israel and the Jews as a nation and people. The hatred has been around four thousand years and western intellectuals have simply joined the chorus. But there is more to this than routine anti-semitism.

Second, the Left hates the Jews because it meets a religious need. The Progressive Left long ago abandoned belief in the God of the Bible, and the Christian culture built by followers of Christ. But everyone is religious. Everyone has a religion. The prophetic voice for the Left is Karl Marx. Marx divided all of history into the oppressed classes, the oppressor classes, and intellectuals like himself fighting for the oppressed.  The Left created a modern melodrama of from Marx’s categories. A melodrama contains three characters. There is Dudley Do-right, the hero. There is Little Nel, the victim tied to the railroad tracks. And there is Snidely Whiplash, the villain who opresses the victim; the one who tied Little Nel to the tracks. In this morality play the Leftists themselves play the hero. Being a hero gives religious meaning to life. The villain can be anyone with influence and power—Christians, capitalists, the military, democratic governments, successful nation states like Israel. The Left is always in search of a victim to save.

This runs opposite to the truth God gives us in the Bible. God labels all men as sinners in need of a Savior. You are not defined by the group you are in. There are no hero groups or victim groups. We are all villains. You stand as an individual before the judgment of Almighty God. Remember the Jewish leaders bragging to John the Baptist that they were sons of Abraham? They said, “We are in the right group!” And John the Baptist said, “God can turn rocks into sons of Abraham.” (Matthew 3:9)

During the last generation the Left has been in constant search for victims—it could be certain ethnic groups; it could be the homeless; it could be street criminals in America’s big cities. A couple of generations ago they decided the Palestinians were innocent victims, and the Left committed itself to saving them. Israel became the villain.

Hating and attacking Israel gives the Left religious meaning and purpose.

A third reason for the hatred of Israel is Satan’s presence in the world. I remember reading the Nuremburg transcripts of the treatment of Ukrainian Jews at Baby Yar, where the Nazis murdered several hundred thousand of them. I remember as I read this saying, “Satan is real. This can only be explained by the literal existence of a demonic being.” How do a group of rich Westerners march around chanting, “Gas the Jews”? Satan is alive and powerful in our midst.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for Israel. May our Lord Jesus Christ take this unspeakable tragedy and somehow use it for His glory.

More: See my video, Why I Love the Jewish People; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkWLeNc5Nww

“The Religious Origin of the Rights Movements”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggE_qI85WA

My transcript, Why I Love the Jewish People: https://www.the401stprophet.com/why-do-people-hate-the-jews-why-i-love-the-jewish-people

Hamas atrocities: https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-the-worst-day-for-jews-since-the-holocaust?utm_campaign=dw_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=housefile&utm_content=member

Harvard is a national disgrace: https://unherd.com/2023/10/harvard-is-a-national-disgrace/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3

A Leftist, “I support the task 100%”: https://unherd.com/thepost/celebration-and-dancing-outside-the-israeli-embassy/