Israel ♥ liberal bloggers

A group of prominent lefty bloggers (sadly, I was not invited) traveled to Israel last week at the invitation of the Solomon Project, a division of the National Jewish Democratic Council. Apparently pro-Israeli organizations have perceived a certain animosity towards Israel and the Jewish community from the Left, and so this trip was arranged to give some key DFHs an up-close-and-personal look at the actual situation in that country. Among those on the trip were representatives of HuffPo, Daily Kos, Open Left, and MyDD.

The bloggers said Israel was one of the few "wedge" issues in the American progressive community, even if support for the Jewish state on the whole remained strong.

The influence of anti-GOP sentiments was clear on the trip during discussions about Iran.

Nearly all of the Israelis with whom the bloggers met warned about the dangers posed by the Iranian regime. For the American bloggers, the concern expressed by Israelis across the political map stood in marked contrast to the discourse back at home.

In the United States, the bloggers said, the push to raise red flags about Iran has been tainted and even discredited in the eyes of those who see it as one of President Bush's pet issues.

Because Bush was so roundly discredited after leading the country into war in Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist, confronting Iran is going to be a hard sell -- if not an impossible one -- to the American public, the bloggers insisted. They said that learning more about Iran's role in supporting Hamas was important, but were doubtful that it would translate into increased American action.

"A few of the more conservative, right-leaning Israelis we met expressed that George Bush is the best friend Israel ever had, and the news we had to deliver them was that your best friend has left you hanging out to dry with Iran," said David Waldman, a contributing editor at Daily Kos.

Ultimately, the bloggers said, they did not believe that Israel has a problem within the base of the Democratic Party. But, they added, in times of intense conflict -- the 2006 Lebanon War, for example -- raw emotions emerge, especially in the comments left by readers.

To me, the issue is not so much with Israel itself. Certainly Israel has been and continues to be a key strategic ally for the United States in the Middle East. The problem is that the neoconservatives have co-opted Israel into their demented power play over the years, and as a result, there is a perception that the American Left despises Israel. I don't think anything could be farther from the truth. It's not true that "any friend of my enemy is my enemy," and this is a prime example thereof.

I think it's just that we on the Left, by and large, respect the territorial and cultural rights of the Arab community as well as those of the Israelis, and because the Bush crime syndicate has branded all Muslims as Dirty Brown People, Republicans simply cannot be equitable. (See, e.g., Lieberman, Joe.)

It's a good thing that the progressive bloggers went to Israel to see what things are really like there, but I'm not sure there was a problem to begin with. I'm all for protecting Israel, but an illegal war against an Arab nation (and a potential one against a Persian Muslim nation) is not the way to handle the situation. Perhaps the bloggers were able to help the Israelis see that ...

(h/t reader MG)