I doubt that there is any national or religious group that produces the percentage of people who aid those who wish to hurt, let alone kill, that group as do Jews.
When one observes Jews who defend those whose raison d’etre is the annihilation of the one Jewish country on Earth, you have to ask: Why are there no others like them? Were there blacks who defended slavery? Were there Armenians who defended the Turkish mass murder of fellow Armenians during World War I?
It is true that every nation has produced people who work against their nation — particularly during time of war. Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian leader who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of Norway, is perhaps the best known: The very name “Quisling” is widely used as a synonym for traitor. But even Quisling identified more with fellow Norwegians than Israel-hating Jews identify with fellow Jews.
It turns out that the Jews who side with those who wish to eradicate the one Jewish state and slaughter as many Jews as possible are truly unique.
It is this uniqueness that makes these Jews difficult to explain. Nevertheless, it is important to at least attempt to do so.
Here are two explanations.
1. Psychological Explanations
As a result of the Holocaust, virtually every Jew — whether or not they had family members who were murdered by the Nazis and their non-German collaborators — suffers from a form of PTSD. Few non-Jews know this, and even fewer can identify with this condition. So, let me explain.
Between 1941 and 1945, one of the most civilized nations in the world — the nation that gave the world the greatest music ever written; the greatest single national source of great scientists; the nation that produced Protestant Christianity, the mother of modern liberal democracies, the primary source (along with the Hebrew Bible) of the American experiment in freedom and of the anti-slavery movement — murdered two out of every three Jews in Europe. Jewish women, babies and elderly Jews were slated for death just as much as were young men. Jews were not merely persecuted or enslaved; they were targeted for death in the largest and most systematic genocide in recorded history. And with very few exceptions, the world’s nations did nothing to help the Jews of Europe. Even those who managed to flee were, in too many cases, denied safe harbor in other countries, a fact that continues to underlie the need for one Jewish state in the world.
Inevitably, this has had a profound impact on the Jewish psyche. Virtually every Jew since 1945 has, consciously or subconsciously, feared another Holocaust. In fact, long before the Holocaust, at the Passover Seder Jews recited (and still do): “In every generation they arise to annihilate us.” Note that the words are not “to persecute us” or “to enslave us” but “to annihilate us.” Jew-hatred has always been unique in that it is an annihilationist hatred.
Given this reality, some Jews have always sought to assimilate wherever and whenever possible. Some changed their names, some baptized their children (as Karl Marx’s Jewish parents did), and some simply chose not to raise their children as Jews.
Today, there are Jews who choose to identify with the Jews’ enemies. More than a few young Jews on college campuses, for example, undoubtedly believe — consciously or not — that they will be more secure if they align themselves with the Jews’ enemies. To those who seek to annihilate Israel and its Jews, there is no one as valuable as a Jew who sides with them — and many young Jews know, or at least sense, this. By aligning themselves with today’s Nazis — and lest you think that is too strong a term, vis-a-vis the Jews there is no difference between the Nazis and the Iranian regime, Hezbollah and Hamas — they go from being hated by Israel-haters to being loved by them (for now).
2. Ideological Explanations
Not all Jews side with the would-be exterminators of the Jewish people for psychological reasons. Many Jews who are in the pro-Palestinian, Israel-hating camp are there for ideological reasons: They are leftists (not liberals, who generally remain what they have always been: pro-Israel). And leftism is one of the two primary sources of Israel-hatred and Jew-hatred today. The other is fundamentalist Islam.
This is true around the world. The most anti-Israel leaders outside of the Muslim world are leftists.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, described by The New York Times as “Colombia’s first leftist president,” has severed his country’s relations with Israel and not only used the “genocide” libel against Israel but accused Israel of engaging in “the extermination of an entire people.” (As I have noted for decades, truth is a liberal and conservative value; but it is not, and has never been, a left-wing value.)
The leftist president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, severed his country’s relations with Israel less than three weeks after Oct. 7. Bolivia perfectly illustrates the universal left-wing hatred of Israel: Bolivia’s previous left-wing president, Evo Morales, severed Bolivia’s relations with Israel in 2009; and Morales’ conservative successor, Jeanine Anez, restored relations with Israel in 2020.
Meanwhile, the most pro-Israel leader in the world today is the conservative president of Argentina, Javier Milei.
Most American Jews are liberal, but many are leftist, and they embrace the anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian/pro-Hamas line. (At this time, “pro-Palestinian” means “pro-Hamas” just as, during World War II, “pro-German” meant “pro-Nazi.”) For many Jews who abandon belief in the Torah, leftism fills the religious hole created by that abandonment. This is equally true for many non-Jews, but there is a major difference: Christians who abandon Christian faith do not still call themselves Christian, nor does anyone else; but Jews who abandon Jewish faith often continue to call themselves Jews (especially when attacking Israel), and so do others.
Psychopathology and left-wing ideology are the two primary explanations for why Jews such as those in groups like “Jewish Voice for Peace” and “IfNotNow” willingly serve as useful idiots for those who wish to exterminate the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Including them.
This column was originally posted on Townhall.com.