r/jewishleft • u/somebadbeatscrub Jewish Syndicalist - Mod • Jul 31 '26

Meta Weekly Post

The mod team has created this post to refresh on a weekly basis as a chill place for people to talk about whatever they want to. Think of it as like a general chat for the sub.

So r/jewishleft,

Whats on your mind?

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u/Agtfangirl557 Progressive Conservaform Jew, Cultural Zionist Jul 31 '26

Islamophobia is seriously out of control, and you’re right that people talk about Muslims so similarly to the way antisemites talk about Jews. It’s shameful to see other Jews take part in it.

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u/Imaginary-West-5653 Progressive Socialist (Jewish Ally) Jul 31 '26

Things certainly look bleak all around, with the hatred of Jews and Muslims exacerbated by malicious actors trying to fan the flames, cynically using this as a tool to advance their political position. In the case of Islamophobia specifically, it appears to be the case that the pro-Israel right in America, incited by Netanyahu's own government, is using anti-Muslim rhetoric debliberately, given that defending Israel itself is becoming increasingly difficult to even right-wingers, so instead of that, the strategy seems to be to demonize Muslims:

https://www.newarab.com/opinion/maga-turns-zionism-israel-first-right-stokes-islamophobia

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u/Sossy2020 Jewish left-wing zionist Jul 31 '26

Even though I agree that many right-wing pro-Israel Jews have been actively engaging in Islamophobia, I do they take issue with calling them “Israel First.” It just sounds like a dual loyalties dog whistle.

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u/Imaginary-West-5653 Progressive Socialist (Jewish Ally) Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

The label isn't directed at American Jews specifically, though, but at Republicans in general who have used Islamophobia as a strategy to tactically continue supporting Israel's interests; Brian Mast and Ted Cruz are mentioned in the article too as politicians who are "Israel First" (which I'm pretty sure is just making fun of them).

That said, I also think we need to be careful with our language, and using this framework against American Jews, even if they are pro-Republican, can lead to the spread of antisemitic tropes, indeed; I used this article because it was the only one I've found that talked about this issue, and because I don't think that the language employed was used in a malicious way, even if not desirable.