Dr. Frank's What's-it

Speaking of Gary Farber, he's

Speaking of Gary Farber, he's "back," with a vengeance. Lots of great posts over the last few days.

He has some excellent comments on "one way the "hard left" has a large thread of evil running through it." (This is by way of reflecting on this New Republic article by Karen Alexander on Bay Area campus anti-Semitism.)

As for the article itself, it's a good re-cap and well worth reading in its entirety, though nothing in it will be news to newsblog readers. I'm glad someone is still paying attention to this issue-- it's the sort of thing that often gets dropped by the national media.

ProPalestinian activism certainly isn't confined to SFSU and UC Berkeley. But on most campuses the protesters--while often hyperbolic--have been careful to avoid explicit anti-Semitism and threats of violence.... But in the Bay Area anti-Israel activism has a far more militant and far less liberal flavor. That's not because UC Berkeley and SFSU have unusually large or radical Arab populations; it's because they are home to a deep wellspring of free-floating, hard-left authoritarianism. And unfortunately... today's left-wing authoritarians have set their sights on Israel.

Despite Kevin Deenihan's caveats, this characterization of the "hard left" among student associations in the Bay Area rings true. It squares with my experience at UC Berkeley many years ago, anyway. (Deenihan definitely has a point that the close association between groups like the ISO and RCP and the SJP is nothing new, but rather go back a long way.) As Karen Alexander points out, there's a fair amount of irony here: while most Jewish students at places like Berkeley, in keeping with the prevailing political views of the general population, tend to lean left by any ordinary measure, even moderate, liberal positions and attitudes are regularly redefined as "right wing" anathema by the "activist elite." She quotes Laurie Zoloth, the director of the Jewish Studies program at SFSU:

The Jewish students here are absolutely people who stand in the peace camp. These are students who have steadfastly called for a two-state solution and tried desperately to work with the pro-Palestinian groups.... But at San Francisco State to say that I believe in a two-state solution and the right of Israel to exist becomes a right-wing position.

I remember arriving at UC Berkeley in the early-to-mid '80s believing myself to be a typical moderately liberal Californian student, only to realize that this category had been all but defined out of existence. Admitting to being a registered Democrat, or a Catholic, or simply taking a course in the Classics department ("Western Civilization is the most racist, right-wing civilization of them all" according to my dorm room-mate's deep-thinking girlfriend) was enough to brand you as a "right-winger." It sounds crazy because it was crazy, and there is every indication that it may still be that crazy, if not moreso. Even back then, hostility to Israel and Jews, a romantic enthusiasm for political violence, hatred of America, and affection for various and sundry Third World thugocracies were important elements of the rigid aggregate of doctrinaire positions you had to endorse en masse in order to be "one of us." "The Left" lost me, and most of the smart people I knew, within a couple of weeks.

I don't know if the Bay Area is in fact worse with regard to thinly-veiled campus anti-Semitism or "hard-left authoritarianism" than similar university environs on the east coast. But I haven't heard about any eastern seaboard "death to the Jews" demonstrations.

Posted by Dr. Frank at June 16, 2002 11:59 AM | TrackBack