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How the Israeli flag became a symbol for white nationalists
Lorber, Ben
http://www.972mag.com/israeli-flag-white-nationalism-symbol/Date Written: 2021-01-22 Publisher: +972 Magazine Year Published: 2021 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX24740 The U.S. white nationalist movement's admiration for the Jewish state's supremacist values fits comfortably with its deep antisemitism. Lorber argues that for right-wing groups in the United States, Israel has become a symbol for a set of values and a worldview that transcends any geopolitical reality and takes on a life of its own. Abstract: - Excerpt: While the Trump presidency is now over, the right-wing movements that helped define his time in office, and that stormed the Capitol — with their culture of conspiracism, grievance politics, xenophobic scapegoating, and vigilante violence — aren’t going away anytime soon. For right-wing groups in the United States, Israel has become a symbol for a set of values, an entire worldview that, while sometimes grounded in concrete support for Israel and its policies, often transcends any geopolitical reality and takes on a life of its own. Indeed, different parts of the U.S. right use the Jewish state as a canvas to project their own fantasies of nationalist chauvinism, Christian redemption, white pride, and antisemitic conspiracism. And none of these roles, in fact, turn out well for Jews, for Palestinians, or for the prospects of a just peace in the Middle East. It is well-known that Israel enjoys firm support not only on the U.S. right but across the mainstream political spectrum, due to strategic geopolitical interests, the profit motives of the military-industrial complex, and other factors. “[Israel] is the best $3 billion investment we make,” remarked then-Senator Joe Biden in 1986, explaining that “if there weren’t an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” The “special relationship” between the United States and Israel is championed by leaders of both countries, alongside odes to supposed shared “Judeo-Christian” values of pioneer-settler exceptionalism, liberty and democracy. For the ascendant forces of right-wing populism in the United States and around the world, however, support for Israel takes on a special intensity. Israel is celebrated as a front-line defender of Western civilization in its crusade against radical Islam. It is viewed as a nation that embodies the strong arm of xenophobic nationalism and militarized masculinity, unapologetically pushing back invading ethno-religious Others, expanding its territory, and protecting its heritage in bold defiance of a chorus of liberal outcry. The Israeli and U.S. right share “a desire,” as Palestinian writer Nada Elia put it, “to establish and maintain a homogeneous society that posits itself as superior, more advanced, more civilized than the ‘others’ who are, unfortunately, within its midst, a ‘demographic threat’ to be contained through border walls and stricter immigration law. Subject Headings |